Surya Prakash Jayanti

Collating some of my thoughts on retail and supply chain in general in the form of a question and answer. 1. The challenges in supply chain space in the recent years particularly in Multi Brand Retail where business model completely revolve around effective Supply Chain Solutions. Demand volatility is the biggest challenge. Demand for essential items grew so much that manufacturers were not able keep up with the demand. Demand is going like viral videos, something becomes famous all of a sudden and retailers are under pressure to supply it fastest to the doors of the consumers.  Upstream supply fluctuations, economic downturns, natural disasters, ever changing customer demands will continue to be challenges in multi brand retail.   2. How technology is transforming the Supply chain Canvass during these years of Digital Transformation. Block chain is bringing more transparency to responsible sourcing.  The challenge is every body from manufacturer to consumer need to...

Though it looks like an error message, read it carefully, very interesting thought. "System is ignoring key variable in the equation". This is from the movie WIRED , a Canadian film about laying faster cables between NYC and Kansas City to make Wall street transactions few milliseconds fast. In that movie, one of the character explains about the Wall street system and its variables.  The lemon farmer grows lemons in his farm. He sells it to distributor, then distributor sells to retail stores or manufacturing industry. Then Wal-street bets on companies dealing with this trade. So if you see companies bets on companies and no body cares about the farmer not listed on share market. That is the key variable missing in the system.  Who built this system ? humans like you and me. how did they ignore critical variable in this equation ? We all know all the variables in the equation are not having same value. Value proposition for different variable is dependent on so many factors. ...

Whenever I finish a book within two weeks thats really a good book. "Never Split the difference - Chriss Voss" is such a great book. It gives great perspective into handling difficult situations.  Here are some quotes from that book, I really enjoyed reading this book. Always ask open ended questions  Separate person and emotion from the problem. Don't get wrapped up on other side position.  What they are asking vs why they are asking. Work cooperatively to generate win win option. Establish mutually agreed measures Humans have two brains, the first one influences the second. To make an omelette you have to break egg, first brain is the egg. Animal mind: fast, instinctive, emotional Rational brain: slow, deliberate and logical. BATNA: Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement. Listening is the best negotiation. Human psychology has two aspects, presenting behavior and underlying motivation. There are 3 kinds of "yes", counterfeit,  confirmation,  commitment. If y...

We saw lot of new years and then there is 2020. Nothing is normal in 2020, it's a thriller movie. As we always say, what you can not measure you can never manage. Let's do the base line comparison against last year. Here is what I have done in 2019  http://jnsuryaprakash.blogspot.com/2019/12/2019-in-review.html Legend: → indicates continued just like last year ↑ upward trend when compared to last year ↓ indicates downward trend when compared to last year ⇪ Indicates new this year Year 2020 in review: (6 downs, 5 keep ups)  → More than 600 miles ran during this year 2020 (Avg 12 miles per week) .  It is equivalent to the distance between Bentonville, AR to Chicago, IL. ↓ More than 20 hours volunteering ↓NO blood donations this year. ↓Read more than 2 books this year. Refer to  ↑More than 44 blogs written refer  http://jnsuryaprakash.blogspot.com/ ↓ Technical presentations →Lost more than 100 UNO, caroms, Colossal crash and chess games with my ...

 47% of Americans are not living in their present / not paying attention to what they are doing, I believe this might have jumped up in year 2020.  People are significantly un-happy when they are NOT paying attention. A wandering mind is un-happy life. We are recently finding huge increase in cases of Attention deficit disorder. Nations are suffering from physical deficit and attention deficit. 76% of middle aged Americans report moderate to high level of loneliness in this world. Mind you, we are living in the most connected world ever existed. Anxiety and loneliness causing more mortality. Negative self-talk and depression is on the rise. In the last 3 years there is 33% increase in depression. Loss of meaning and purpose in life is taking a toll on health. There is connection between psychological well being and healthy life. Four pillars of healthy mind Awareness - resist distraction. Meta awareness is knowing what your mind is doing. Necessary for real transformation to o...

Few things  that sounded interesting from the Inclusive leader training I attended recently. Science has learned more about human brain in the last 10 years than in the entire human history. Leading well isn't easy in 2020. Culture fit is about shared enthusiasm about company's mission and values,  Shared enjoyment activities, Sense of comfort with co-workers Culture add means being inclusive about changes. Focus on outcome, each of the team members should feel valued and f eel empowered to contribute Discretionary effort has 3 things. There are minimum requirements, Have to do, want to do things. Want to do is where miracles happen. Inclusion means they can come to work and show their full self without fear of judgement and doubt. Unconscious bias is the enemy of inclusiveness Learning part of the brain is improved with exposure to vulnerable things Self- awareness is the key Dunning-Kruger effect, the less we know , the less we are self-aware and confident. All humans h...

Stoic philosophy founded by person named Zeon in 3rd century at Athens. Being stoic means being calm and without any emotion. You don't show feelings and you accept what is happening. It's about life and maximizing positive emotions. It doesn't mean being humorless or passion less. It's philosophy of personal ethics as well. Stoicism teaches development of self-control. Let's look at few beliefs and strategies of Stoicism. If you are unhappy its your fault Everything is temporary we are social beings with social duty Freedom and happiness depend on one principle, somethings are in your control and somethings are not. Few strategies to follow for Stoicism: Live simply, have nothing you can not loose Accept what can not be changed. Few main components in the Stoic philosophy as per my understanding are  Logic: A way to determine if your perception of the world is correct or not. Physics: A structure to understand both active and passive world. Ethics: How to live ones...