Making Babus Walk the Talk on Ease of Doing Business. Via Reality TV!

NPR's Planet Money has a great episode based on the findings of Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto whose work led to the World Bank's annual Ease of Doing Business Ranking  of countries.

Samples of de Soto's practical approach:

- he actually set up a company to find out how long it takes and costs to get various approvals; and

- he got the President of Peru to listen to complaints from business folk on live TV. Who (On Air!) issues diktats to the concerned departments to resolve the matter within a stipulated time. And, best of all, a reporter visits the department by deadline day to follow up - again, with camera in tow!

Quick Links: Matt Mullenweg (Founder of Word Press) with Tim Ferris

A 2-hour conversation that is so easy to consume!

I especially liked Matt's description of

1) How the process of learning music at a young age helped in his programming career that came much later.

He talks about how the person who is practicing new notes which sound awful to someone who might be listening casual  is pushing himself/herself more than someone who sings/plays what might sound good to them (and hence limit expanding their horizons)

2) Hiring based on actual assignments - rather than based on interviews. He in fact insists on text chatting with the interviewee - which is how most work related communications happen (at least in the tech world) -  so as to not let the person's in person / video interviewing "skills" do not prejudice him.

Related link: Matt's HBR article

Quick Link: Economists' Tips on Fund Raising for Non-Profits

Yet another awesome Freakonimics Radio episode:

In this podcast you’ll hear the economist John List give us the gospel of fundraising — what works, what doesn’t, and why. List and economist Uri Gneezy write about the science of charitable giving in their book The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life.

List gives us a lot of ideas about how to successfully raise money — like using good old-fashioned guilt, for instance. Or that attaching a lottery or raffle to your fund-raising effort is a good idea. But our favorite way that List says you can raise more money: get an attractive person, preferably a woman, to do the asking for you.

Quick Link: Sharing Economy Startups versus Regulators

From Times of India article titled "New age taxis violate laws: Bangalore cabbies" dated Nov 12, 2014 titled:

The Bangalore Tourist Taxi Owners Association (BTTOA), Adarsh Autorickshaw Drivers' Union and Karnataka Maxi Cab Owners Association are meeting the city transport commissioner on Wednesday to discuss certain practices of the new operators which they allege go against the law.

"Some cab operators are using state and all-India permit vehicles to ply point-to-point taxis. That's against the Motor Vehicles Act 1988. Also, the Karnataka government has set a standard fare of Rs 19.50 per kilometre for radio taxis, but Ola, Uber and TaxiForSure are offering rock bottom fares, subsidizing customers with the tonnes of funding they have received," said L Radhakrishna Holla, general secretary of BTTOA that runs 45,000 cabs.  

But Raghunandhan G, co-founder of TaxiForSure, countered, saying Rs 19.50 per km was only a ceiling, and an all-India permit did not restrict point-to-point city services.

This Freakonomics Radio episode on the ongoing battle between the peer-to-peer marketplace enabling startups in the US - like Airbnb, Uber and Lyft - and the regulators provides some pointers as to how the issue might pan out here as well.

Quick Link: Scaling a Service-based Business

Interesting episode at Smart Passive Income where Pat Flynn and Josh Shipp analyse a real life small business (a laundry service) and provide on some new approaches for scaling it.

I especially like Josh's note on Gathering Intelligence from Existing Customers by asking the following questions:

1. What is something you need ongoing support for?
   The answer will provide ideas for creating Recurring Revenue opportunities
2. What is the #1 challenge in your biz, life? (True solutions)
3. What product or service do you wish we offered? (“Here’s what I’d pay for”)
   
4. How would you describe us to someone you care about in ONE sentence? (Clear brand)

Quick Link: Maria Popova of BrainPickings.org with Tim Ferriss

Thanks to this engaging interview, I came across this wonderful article on BrainPickings rounding up Roman philosopher Seneca's views on time.

Interestingly, in her interview, Popova says she pretty much hates Facebook, but keeps it live because some of her readers - I suspect, reading between the lines, to be mainly from South Asia - like to engage via that platform.

Extracts from the "Seneca on Time" article (emphasis mine):

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing. So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it… Life is long if you know how to use it.” - Seneca

...Seneca cautions that we fail to treat time as a valuable resource, even though it is arguably our most precious and least renewable one: “People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.”

...Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future. The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. You are arranging what lies in Fortune’s control, and abandoning what lies in yours. What are you looking at? To what goal are you straining? The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately

Quick Link: Peter Thiel with James Altucher

James Altucher has a super interesting chat with the Paypal founder here.

Quick Link: Scott Adams with James Altucher

James Altucher has a nice conversation with the creator of Dilbert. Listen/Download from here.

Quick Link: Ramit Sethi with Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss has a two part fun interview with Ramit Sethi. Part 1 is downloadable from here, Part 2 from here.

Quick Link: Generation Gap Opportunity!

The Generation Gap in India is now down to just eight years and the older sister in the family can't relate to the younger sibling, said Management Guru Jagdish Sheth while highlighting the related opportunities for entrepreneurs thrown up by this phenomenon and other post-election scenarios.

Click Here to view a recording - by D.Murali - of this portion and the rest of Prof.Sheth's talk at the TiE Chennai organized event on June 18, 2014.