It’s been a tough week… I won’t go into it all here, but sharing the below as my Friday Thought.
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Bal’s Friday Thought…
Author: Bal Bansal
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New Normal…
Just been reading a post… by someone else, titled, ‘what if the new normal is better’.
It’s going to, though… right? – what is the new normal?!
Most of us have had to adapt our ways of working. And, let’s be honest – has it really been that bad? – No. Exactly. We can do it. Yes, there’s times we need to be with other people – but then there’s times when a video call will just work – imagine the CO2 emissions you’re saving.
Our habits overall have changed – and for the better. Valuing our time. Because… we are on borrowed time. Use it wisely. Once it’s gone… it’s gone. And we got to be sensible, but more importantly… be efficient with our time.
So what is the new normal?
Being Innovative.
Thinking Differently.
Solving Problems.
The ‘new normal’ will be different. Will be better.
Companies (most of…) have had to adapt. And we have to also. Take schooling for example… more online teaching/courses… but taking advantage of being able to educated online. Yes…it’s not new… but when the need has come, it’s pushed people to use and and many have realised it’s actually quite good.
You’ve also got Personal Trainers explaining how to exercise at home. Do we really need the gym?
For me… I’ve started walking more. Even downloaded the Map My Walk app – and now having ‘friendly’ competition with friends…
And it’s working wonders! Burning calories. Having fun. Feeling fitter.
Why didn’t I do this before?
Because we needed something to happen for us to appreciate life.
The ‘New Normal’.
It’s definitely different.
Definitely better.
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Bal’s Friday Thought…
Was speaking to a friend this evening… she’s not enjoying her job, lots going on and I said to her, we gotta follow our passions – we’re not here for long. Time is limited.
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In-Store or To Your Door!
Times have changed. I’m not going to talk about how this pandemic has changed our shopping habits – how we have been ‘forced’ to shop online – as shops are closed… but I did want to talk about how companies have adapted. Quickly. And some who have not.
The latest phrase I saw was… In-Store or To Your Door! – which I thought was great. Simple. Catchy and more importantly a very simple approach to how you can get your goods.
But as a company, how quick can you move?
Very quick. All depends on you. Are you ready to change? Are you ready to adapt?
Heinz to Home. Heinz being able to deliver to your home what you want from their product range. Yes there’s limits and restrictions but the key thing is – you can still get your baked beans…. essentials are important, right?
There’s a few companies who have upped their online presence and upped their game to sell online. But then there’s a few who haven’t.
Take Primark for example. £650m a month to zero. Their business model is all in-store. Nothing online. They don’t offer you an opportunity to purchase anything online.
Now – this was tweeted earlier in the week.
Primark has it’s own website. They have all the clothes listed with information etc… How hard is it to built a payment mechanism so people can add garments to a ‘trolley’, ‘checkout’ and then ‘pay’…?
Ok… Primark don’t want to do that. What’s stopping me?
Well, Bal… you don’t have the Primark website!
No. But www. primarkonline.store is available to buy. I can ‘ask’ to copy the images. And if I could get an agreement to buy bulk clothes from Primark, in a matter of no time…. I could be selling Primark clothes online!
Yes… question could be, do people want to buy clothes online if they’re not going out… everything is on lockdown. Maybe… it could be people need more homewear… lounge wear… nightwear… etc…
The point is…. make your business model reflect the conditions. Put in place what you can, to ensure it’ll be in store…. or ensure, you can get it to their door!
I’m not offering any services to set organisations and/or businesses up to function online… but am offering a service where I can advise you, point you in the right direction to set it up yourself (because I’ll be honest – it’s really easy!) and I can guide you.. on how to adapt. The key thing is – where’s your customer… and how can you get your product to them.
Goes back to the basics of Lean Thinking (if you don’t know about Lean Thinking – you should go google it and research it!) – it’s all about the timeline from when a customer orders to the moment they receive the goods and you get the money.
That should be the shortest amount of time possible.
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Bal’s Friday Thought…
How crazy are you? Ok… let me re-phrase, how much self-believe do you have? – I’ll be honest, there’s times when I have little self-belief…. but then I re-programme myself and think differently. Not easy for sure… but there’ll be situations, occurrences, times… in your life that should enable you to believe you can do anything in life.
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Enter the Portal…
These truly are testing times! Though, what is good to see, is how everyone is trying to stay connected.
I did share in a previous blog post on how you can stay in touch with friends and family – the technology that is available via your mobile phone, tablets (iPads etc..) and computers. But recently, I was asked, what do you do if you don’t want to use your mobile phone or if you want a bigger screen?
Well… then you can either purchase the Portal by Facebook, or Echo Show by Amazon – both are what we call a ‘Smart Display’.
Now – whilst I could go through all the features of both – there is some simple things you need to know first – before making a decision.
Are your friends and family on Facebook? Do they use WhatsApp? Are you on Facebook and WhatsApp? Do you use Facebook Messenger?
If you answered Yes to the above – head over and get yourself the Portal by Facebook. If No – then the Amazon Echo Show is for you.
Now – I’m going to be honest, the Portal is great for video calling, staying in touch – and you can even use ‘Alexa’ commands with the Portal. If your primary goal is to stay in touch, have excellent video calling capabilities and use either Facebook or Whatsapp – this will be great for you.
Yes – you can use a tablet. Yes, you can get this all on an iPad (or something equivalent) but where the Portal is better is in sound and quality. Also there’s some additional features like the camera will follow you and stay focused on you, you don’t need to be holding the phone/tablet to your face as the Portal (not only looks nice) but sits nicely on any worktop, cabinet, table, surface at home.
Now – if you’re worried, oh… the camera will always be watching me… then guess what, you can always turn the camera off
Now… if you don’t use Facebook or WhatsApp or are just worried about Facebook collecting more information and data about you… (but being honest… everyone, everywhere is collecting data about you), then you can look at the Amazon Echo Show. It’s like the Echo… but with a display.
For video calling – the Show uses Skype. So you’ll have to make sure the person you’re calling has skype installed. From personally experience – and talking to friends (not on skype)… it’s not the best video calling platform out there – but it is an option.
So…. want a specific display for video calling, with better sound and video than your phone or tablet…. I would seriously think about the Portal.
Already got a display and want something you can plug into it? … then you can get a Portal that plugs into your TV!
The little device plugs into your TV… and makes the whole TV the display for you to see (and talk to) family and friends.
Again… privacy concerns are addressed…
A few options – to stay connected, stay safe and keep talking.
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Bal’s Friday Thought…
So, Firstly… Happy Good Friday! Hope you have a lovely Easter under the current circumstances.
Last week, I had a message – regarding my Friday Thought. I was asked if there was something going on, or if there was something I’m planning… As my recent Friday thoughts have had a similar theme.
I’ll be honest – Yes and No. No… there is nothing I’m planning. Yes… there is always something (when I say something, Ideas) that are always going on in my mind. I’ll be honest, I write them all down, and only execute on some of them. However, I’ll save that for another blog post…. For today, remember… Passion – Pleasure – Perfection.
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Low Tech for Lock Down…
During this pandemic… we have some time on our hands. We might be thinking how to make our homes smart…. getting that latest gadget and setting it up…. or even understanding what we do and what technology can be introduced to make it better!
But do we always need the latest technology? – as this is a tech blog, I should really say yes.
But in reality… you can use low tech for the current lock down.
What do you mean by low tech Bal?
Technology that isn’t complicated. We can have simple tech. Or even old tech…. just get back to basics and start to think about how things really work and if there could be improvements…
Above is slight humor but we could write more, draw more… or use some low tech with new tech?
Using a mirror with tik tok videos? (If you’re not on tik tok…maybe now is the time?!)
We all have low tech items… the question is, can we use them with new tech or even use them on their own to understand the fundamentals and basics.
But why look at low tech, Bal?
Because – we could make a leap over current tech.
You know how Steve Jobs was annoyed with his cd player? – the cd kept jumping… which led him to think about the solid state disk… which then led him to the mp3 player… iPod.
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Bal’s Friday Thought…
What is your passion? Do you know what your purpose is?
Sometimes, it can be difficult to figure it out…
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Houseparty!!!
The other day, I was asked – “Bal, what do you use for video conferencing?”
Well, I use Cisco WebEx (preferred) and then for my football training (in current circumstances) I use Zoom. I have used Skype but not a fan of it, and there’s plenty more I know exist.
For fun… with the family, I use Houseparty!
Houseparty is a video calling app – but you can do more, like play games and have some fun.
You can ‘wave’ at friends, message them and more besides the obvious video call.
Houseparty has grown in both value and audience size in recent weeks – especially with this lockdown going on, across most of the World… for example, there were 130,000 downloads in early Feb compared to 2,000,000 in mid-March!
However…. recently, there were a number of ‘rumours’ about the app was hacking into other apps, money being transferred from bank accounts, Spotify playlists going missing, etc…
Then all of a sudden, everyone started to delete the app!
The owner of video chat and game app Houseparty is offering a $1m (£810,750) reward for evidence the company was the victim of a commercial smear campaign.
Sad to see fake news and such a smear campaign spread so quickly and also for many people to believe it so quickly – but today, everyone is worried about scams, phishing etc… security is paramount!
But… before you start believing everyone else, look at some of the facts first – is there an official statement from the company?
If you’re Netflix or Spotify has been hacked, how can that be if there is no link between Houseparty and those apps? And if the company are putting up a reward (sizeable) for someone to come forward and show the evidence…. (and no one has to date….) then that could mean a) they’ve not encountered anything or b) it’s all not real.
Either way, stay safe… stay at home… and have more virtual coffee mornings, like me… using the video calling feature on WhatsApp.