Author: Bal Bansal

Today’s Friday Thought, is from a friend of mine. She’s shared this with me, and I think it’s great to think about what it really means… especially on a cloudy day.

And we carry straight on.. straight through March with lots still happening!! With lockdown rules easing, Covid cases coming down.. it’s important to ensure we stay safe – but also, for our mental health, we get some fresh air, and go on nice walks (where possible!).

Ok… my top 2 from this week!!

1. Cost of Electric Car Charing! Now whilst we’re all being told, electric is the future (even though I think Hydrogen will play a big part)… the cost of ‘charging our cars’ can be expensive!

So… when we’re all driving electric cars, we won’t need petrol stations, we’ll need charge stations. And like petrol stations, they all charge differently.

There’s some cheaper ones and you guessed it, there’s some expensive ones. Below is a table showing the cost of charging a new iX3 at various charge stations. One thing to point out, it’s cheapest to charge at home…. but you will need, to charge at a charge station if you’re out and about!

2. Delivery Robots – they’ve have gained major traction over the last year with more and more people looking for contactless deliveries due to Covid-19. Postmates X is the robotics spinoff of the popular delivery startup acquired by Uber in 2020 and recently became its own company known as Serve Robotics. With nearly 50% of restaurant deliveries in the U.S. being located within walking distance, their technology negates the need for a car, making deliveries more accessible.

It will be interesting to see how many restaurants and local retailers turn to robots to deliver their products. So many have pivoted because of the pandemic. Many restaurants have complained about delivery services, so maybe robots could be a solution…

So there you go… my top 2 stories from this week. I will continue to share more new tech (though the robot delivery has been happening for a while… and is now taking off!), but ones that impact you, and could be coming to you soon.

If you need more information, or are a business that needs some innovative solutions – reach out to me! Happy to talk, understand and collaborate.

What a rocketing start into March! – It’ll be good to reflect on these stories at the end of the year and think – wow… what a year!

And so it continues, a lot happening in the news, especially about the Royals and not the Royals (as they are now)… but for me, I’m going to focus on the Top 2 stories in my opinion that matter.

1. SpaceX Lands! – Now, if you’re not up to speed, Elon Mush (yes, the Tesla guy) is working on a number of other projects. One is SpaceX. This is where, him and his team are building rockets that can go into space (the Moon…Mars, etc..) and then come back and land safely! A bit like an aeroplane does – but Elon wants this same principle for Space Travel.

Now, as you can imagine, it’s not an easy task. To design, build and launch a rocket that can go into space… then come back and land safely! However, Serial Number 10 (SN10) touched down in Boca Chica, Texas – in contrast to its predecessors SN8 and SN9, which crashed into the ground. Unfortunately, it then blew up.

I know. Sad. However – the good thing is a) it landed!!! (unlike SN8 and SN9) and b) it’s progress!!! – Which means, SpaceX can learn, and go again and you know… it’s only a matter of time they get it right… (and we’ll be on the moon before you know it).

2. Amazon Fresh finally landed in the UK… in Ealing!

That’s right – Amazon now have a physical store in the UK!! And yes, people were queuing up to use it. You’re probably wondering how it works? – well… all you do is… walk up to the barrier, flash your phone so the store knows its you and you’re coming in… then you go in… get what you want, and then simply walk out and you get billed for what you took! – they know what you took because they have hundred’s of camera’s everywhere!!!

Now… Amazon say they don’t record any faces or personal info as such… (so no face recognition). They’ll track you and your phone as you walk around, tracking what you’re picking up and also what you’re putting down, so you get billed for the bits you walk out with.

Will this be the new norm?

Who knows… some folk like the interaction with shopkeepers etc… some just want to walk in, get what they want and walk out. Let’s be honest – we’re all busy these days.

So there you go… my top two from the week. Personally, I don’t think it’ll be long before we pop into an Amazon store, pick up a few last minute essentials before we go to the Moon for a short break.

Had a great conversation with a young person today… we spoke about Growth.

Is Spring finally here? Weather has been wonderful this weekend… and with more and more people being vaccinated, the warmer weather slowly arriving… are things looking up?

Here’s my top two stories from the week gone!

1. Fresh and hot of the press – There’ll be a £5bn fund to help the High Street recover form Covid. That’s right – £18,000 per firm, to help shops and pubs reopen. Whilst I think this is good for pubs… and the hospitality sector in general, I was hoping that most shops would have adapted for the ‘digital age’ – and have an online presence. With their ‘shops’, use them as ‘experience centres’, information and knowledge is power – use their High Street presence to educate. Let’s be honest, how many of us go to Curry’s, look around – then order online! I believe there is a space for both – the High Street and Internet Shopping.

2. If you’re on Twitter… I hope you’re following me (@balbansal) – but the story here is about paid content and becoming a ‘Super Follower’! We have various subscriptions, we pay for more things monthly than we ever have before. So why not pay on Twitter for exclusive content and information from particular folk we follow! There’s other platforms that do something similar (though the intentions were ‘decent’ the other platform has somewhat ventured into 18+ type of content). The method is similar. You get some ‘free’ stuff. But want more… subscribe/pay and you get exclusives.

So here’s a question – a) would you pay to have exclusive content from me? (I won’t be offended if you said no – would like to know why)… and b) If you are a small business, with a high street presence, think how you can increase the customer experience… don’t look for the sale (that’ll come)… look at the experience.