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As India Builds (Part 8)

Posted on Wednesday, May 9th

In the front portico, several cousins assembled around Wall Street banker Ronti’s Blackberry and marveled. As I joined them, eyes darted to me. “You probably have one of these?” “Sure, I have a Treo,” I replied, my eyes glazing over the Blackberry, to focus on the marble staircase on which, at four, I fell and

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Tasteful Design = Premium Pricing

Posted on Tuesday, May 8th

By Dominique Trempont, Guest Author When I met Daniel Borel and Pierluigi Zappacosta, twenty years ago, they had just founded Logitech and had come out with their first product: a well designed computer mouse. I thought that they were embarking on a difficult business: who will buy another mouse once it comes bundled with every

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Teaching Design in Business

Posted on Monday, May 7th

By Dominique Trempont, Guest Author I have always been attracted by well designed products, well thought through customer experience in service and great user experience in software. I wonder why so many organizations do not take more cues from superbly well designed offerings. In an economy where design is king and drives brand differentiation and

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As India Builds (Part 6)

Posted on Monday, May 7th

The face of Calcutta is degenerating fast. Droves of glittering shopping malls welcome young Calcuttans – since among other things India is also importing Retail Therapy. A new credit card industry booms. The expanding middle class rejoices in the sudden Western availability of product after product after product. Satya Paul saris and Giorgio Armani jackets

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As India Builds (Part 5)

Posted on Friday, May 4th

Until a few decades ago, most Bengali homes housed joint families. Our homestead on Elgin Road comfortably housed some 15 family members and another 15 servants. Sunday dinners crammed twenty around a table littered with round-puffy-golden luchis, rich-red goat curry, and an opulent choice of Sandesh and Rasogolla desserts. The children eating as fast as

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As India Builds (Part 4)

Posted on Thursday, May 3rd

Such is the destiny of developing nations. The same routine runs from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. It runs in Mexico, in China. It runs in Brazil, and in Romania. Darjeeling, the erstwhile Queen of the Himalayas, once enchanted with pine-lined walks strung from house to house. Today, it flashes neon signs to welcome tourists. In the

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As India Builds (Part 3)

Posted on Wednesday, May 2nd

The past always recedes. Sensible people do not let that be bothersome. The old steps aside for the new and so it should. Yet, looking out the car window driving through India these days, I am stricken by the pace and brutality of this transition. Chowringhee, Calcutta’s once impressive Paris-esque boulevard, is now layered in

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As India Builds (Part 2)

Posted on Tuesday, May 1st

My family is old Calcutta. We had rice paddy fields that greened as monsoon washed over them. Heavy-limbed mango orchards bearing the juiciest and most fragrant varietals. Homesteads. A home nestled in my grandfather’s legendary rose garden in the now traumatized Bengal-Bihar border. Our relatives’ houses dotted Calcutta. These old houses in the alleys of

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