How can blockchains help Pharma supply chains ..

We are all concerned of being supplied with spurious drugs. It is often difficult to identify which drugs are spurious and duplicate and which are original. From the place of manufacture, to the point of consumption,the supply chains often get manipulated by having spurious or substandard supplies of raw materials or chemicals. This is an issue in the pharma supply chains observed globally.

It is said that annually about 60 million drugs are returned and it is difficult for pharma companies to check whether these are spurious or original drugs.

There are two types of problems with the global pharma supply chains. In the developing world, the problem is of delivering sub standard drugs or falsified products that have one molecule but actually is another product. About 1 in10 medications fall in this category. 

In the developed world, while it is not possible to commit forgery or supply sub standard drugs, the actual issue is theft. It is said that on an average developed countries lose about $ 1 billion of medicines. 

Referring to HBR of May '20, Why Big Pharma is betting on Blockchain, (click here) the author Alison MacCauley says that deploying Blockchains across the pharma supply chain can ease things to a great extent. Besides ensuring availability, blockchains can eliminate fraudulent transactions in the supply chain.

Block chains have advantages - 

• data privacy - the data privacy is ensured as the data is not shared, only supply chain partners get to see the data
• data integrity - maintained through complex mathematical computations, which makes it difficult or almost impossible to commit frauds
  
• data ownership -  large amounts of data is not owned by any single central entity, instead it is jointly owned by all the members in the chain.
• data verification - 
•     cheaper, easier and faster verification even with competing partners, 
•     ensure integrity of returned drugs before being resold to dealers, 
•     ensure compliance with expiry dates
• data sharing - 
• to enable identify, locate and remove expired, damaged and fraudulent products fro the market,  
• where supplies are low ensure redistribution and replenishment
• ensure supply chain agility by ensuring inventory availability,streamlining operations, avoiding fraudulent products entering market and so on.

Blockchain is an Industry 4.0 technology. Making  pharma supply chains agile, self-sufficient and efficient using Industry 4.0 technology is the best thing that can happen to the medical fraternity.

George

 

Can Artificial Intelligence accelerate the software testing phase ?

Software development, conventionally called Systems Analysis and Design in technical schools usually follows the waterfall approach. In the early nineties, I was teaching SAD in a Government Engineering College in Goa to Post Graduate students. As time passed by more practical models of software development have emerged. This link explains some of the most popular software development models (click here). In general, software utilization process follows the three phases of software development, testing, deployment and maintenance. Each phase is very detailed and time consuming.

Digital Transformation is hitting the world by storm and organizations are transforming to the digital model at great speed. Companies these days are able to overcome competition and gain customer satisfaction based on the speed at which they are able to roll out new features and changes.

There is general talk on whether the new technology of Artificial Intelligence can help accelerate the process. While going through the article in Harvard Business Review of Feb '21 (click here), this issue was discussed in great detail. Some of the points are being highlighted here.

Since digital transformation is the key to remaining competitive, maximizing the productivity of the expensive and scarcely available software developers is very important. Usual situation is that software projects are delayed and developers and testers work overtime to ensure it is released before the competition. With more and more organizations taking to Digital Transformation and the trained quality human resources are not developing at a similar pace, is putting a strain on the system. It is a question of doing more with less, and it is the right situation for Artificial Intelligence to step in. 

Developed codes pass through a basic process called unit testing which is time consuming, employing scarce resources. Advanced testing checking for integration, performance, functionality and security issues. The software testing globally is a $12 billion industry and much is presently being outsourced. leading to challenges of coordination and collaboration between the different stakeholders.

Software development is very creative and may not be a ready candidate for AI automation for the time being, but testing can be automated by developing suitable algorithms that can write and execute tests much faster than their human components. 

First of all, when it involves testing millions of lines of code, AI algorithms will surpass the human component any day, as it does not have issues of intellectual tiredness, errors creeping in and so on. Also under machine learning situations, these automated AI software solutions can get richer and more efficient and effective in detecting errors with each passing day and project.

Secondly, software and update releases come out more frequently leading to quicker customer feedback and faster error and conflict resolution. The software developers do not have to deal with unplanned work, are more satisfied with work and hence organizations find it easy to retain talent. 

Thirdly software developers work with challenging creative projects that are able to utilize employee talents more creatively and attend to important unplanned work in the process of deployment.

In future we will find AI based automation taking over the software development, testing, deployment and maintenance functions more effectively than their human counterparts, leading to automating writing application software and releasing revisions more frequently. Open AI's massive language model GPT-3, is presently being used to translate natural human language into web page designs leading to finally automation of the coding tasks.

George

How is China able to catch up with US in AI research and output ?

The whole world is fully aware of the potential of Artificial Intelligence and every scientifically advanced country is working hard to establish itself as a front runner in developing AI technologies. US traditionally has been the country that has been leading the world with almost 2000+ AI companies researching, experimenting and developing AI products for the world. Click here for a good introduction to the field of Artificial Intelligence from IBM.

Of late, China has overtaken US in AI research producing about 54% more papers at around 37,343 compared to the US with approximately 24,000 papers in 2017. (click here) The way China is developing in the global field as regards Artificial Intelligence is really astonishing for the world. 

China which was a non scientific entity especially in the Computer Science Engineering area about twenty five years ago, in just twenty years has developed fast and is presently the world leader in the number of publications and patents in the area by a good margin of 20% over the former leading country US.

How did this happen ? Click here (same as highlighted above) for an interesting Harvard Business Review article that describes how China has brought about this change. 

Catch up cycles happen when latecomers because of modern technology, favourable government policies and market environments are able to catch up with incumbents. 

China has caught up with the US especially in AI technology and applications. Three reasons are cited for this change. These reasons are a combination of demographic, scientific reasons and nature of the AI field besides favourable policy decisions of the Chinese government in promoting cutting edge AI research in Chinese companies. The far sighted vision of the Chinese political leadership cannot be discounted.

Firstly AI technology is not protected and is available largely in public domain as many researchers are working and publishing their results. This has enabled fast percolation of technology across applications and fast adoption.The Open Science nature of AI has helped in the fast spread of knowledge. 

Secondly data and Computer Science knowledge, talent and innovation in the AI field has got more impact on growth than patents that capture knowledge to pockets of usage. The conventional pharma industry by holding patents can give companies the edge over newcomers and competitors and kills innovation.

In the weak AI area, one makes an AI product puts it in public domain or use to generate data. This data is captured and using machine learning algorithms is analysed leading to refined product usage through data. The cycle continues. Sharing of the AI product to the public as early as possible is thus necessary for the early success of the product.

Thirdly China's large population and markets gives the AI companies the unique opportunity to handle large amounts of data and assemble huge databases. For example, Didi, the equivalent of the car hailing app Uber in China, on a daily basis handles 70TB (70,000 gigabytes) of data, with 9 billion routes being planned daily and almost 1000 car requests happening every second. The volume of data generated is so vast, the machine learning algorithm can learn by itself to take improved decisions after every cycle.

In the near future we can expect Chinese AI products and offerings overtake US, catapulting China to the numero uno status in the field. The Communist dictatorial leadership in China and it's wholly whimsical ways in dealing with dissent, competition and openness is already a matter of concern for the global scientific community. Hope China will come out open and public in it's AI policy for the whole world to be sure that AI is not being used in undesired ways for world domination in future.

George.

How effective are Digital Transformation exercises in global organisations ?

Harvard Business Review Analytics Services survey Rethinking Digital Transformation 2020 sponsored by RedHat was carried out globally on 700 plus senior executives.

The major findings from the survey were very impressive and interesting.

• 84% of these executives agreed that a combination of the right culture, revised business processes and new technology were responsible for bringing in a right digital transformation experience, 
• 70% opined that over the past two years Digital Transformation has become more important to business success, 
• 63 % said that cultural challenges were the greatest impediment to Digital Transformation, 
• 20% recognised Digital Transformation as effective in their organisations. 

The low figure of 20% is a clear reminder that even though Digital Transformation has great potential to bring in changes in organisations, it's success rates are quite low.

Key business goals of the organisation undertaking Digital Transformation were 

• revenue growth
• operational efficiency improvement
• customer retention
  

From the study we find that the key to Digital Transformation success is the fundamental organisational change brought about by 

• reimagined corporate cultures 
• business process modernisation and 
• technology upgrades
  

The 5 steps as outlines by the survey authors (from Red Fox) are as follows

1. clearly define and communicate underlying business goals
2. redouble efforts to achieve cultural change
3. develop KPIs to track cultural change
4. address business process changes and
5. identify high impact technology investments

The high impact technology areas that were identified from the survey are as follows 

• 63% - Collaborative Platforms to promote multi channel communication in organisations
• 61% - Business Process Automation
• 57% - Cloud Analytics
• 51% - Digital Automation Systems
• 50% - Artificial Intelligence technology (likely to take top spot by 2021)

Click here for the  Harvard Business Review Analytics Services survey Rethinking  Digital Transformation 2020 done on almost 700+ executives from the industry carrying out digital transformation in their respective organisations. 

George Easaw

What do Space-for-Space models mean for humanity ?

What do the Space-for-Earth and Space-for-Space business models mean ?

The activities of the different space organisations across the world have been focusing on reaching space and conquering the planets. Of all global space faring nations US, Russia, China, India, UK, Japan, Germany and France have made initial strides with US and Russia having made maximum progress. 

We have through the international collaboration on International Space Station done experiments on how humans could fare in space for long periods of time. Any flight above 100 kms of earth's surface is a space flight. We have not been able to take more than 13 people together out of the earth's orbits at a single point of time. 

About 568 people from 41 countries have been to space as of November '20. A total of 12 people have walked on the surface of the moon. (click here). Space travel has always enthralled humans and of the total of 105 billion people who have lived on planet earth till date (click here), only about 568 people have been into space, a mere 0.0000000054 .. Valeri Polyakov of Russia (picture on the left) has stayed longest in space for 437 days, app 1.2 years.

We have tried to grow vegetables, carry out 3D machining and have attempted to make alloys and carry out metallurgical exercises to arrive at superior products for humanity back on earth. We call it the Space for Earth business model.

Space for Space business model is even more interesting. It proposes means and ways to carry out space activities like manufacturing growing plants etc from space or outer planets. If humanity is able to conquer this realm, the possibilities to humanity is limitless. We can exploit the resources from different planets, satellites, asteroids etc for the benefit of humanity like planning human settlements outside earth, exploiting energy resources for these activities and so on.

The domain is still on the drawing board and in the imagination of people. The efforts of SpaceX, Elon Musk's space initiative and Made in Space Inc collaborating with NASA and working on NASA funded projects is sure to bring developments in this area. 

Recently I happened to go through an exciting article in the digital version of Harvard Business Review of Feb '21 (click here) which was mentioning of the dawning commercial space age and the maturing of the Space-for-earth business models to the space-for-space business models.

As per the above HBR article, the three areas where governments of the world could concentrate are as follows, I have added the fourth point.

• Allow Private Initiative - Allow private enterprise to take up the challenge and explore ingenious ways to exploit the space from earth and space from space initiatives
• Flexible Governmental regulations and policies - If governments try to implements its regulations tooth and nail, it is sure to dampen some of the private enterprise and spirit of inquiry. Instead there should be a judicious application of the government regulations
• International Collaboration - Moving across boundaries and forgetting geopolitical tensions got us the International Space Station. Similarly space faring nations should get together and work for expanding human forays into space beyond the solar system.  
• Creating More Awareness - Creating better awareness back on earth to the 'Space for Earth' and 'Space for Space' initiative can bring more innovation to the forefront and help with great experiments and journeys to the far reaches of the Universe.
  

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is opening up the space from earth and space from space initiatives including manufacturing to the private sector with a big push. Already Mahindra, Tata and Reliance besides small private players are already helping ISRO explore the deeper confines of space for India. 

With governmental and private initiatives, let us hope in the near future humans will be able to explore deep space and exploit its resources of energy and materials for the betterment of humanity and for establishing human settlements outside earth.

George.. (picture courtesy wikipedia)

Digitisation and Design Thinking

What is the difference between digitisation and digital transformation? Digitalisation is about applying technology into the existing business. Digital transformation means doing things in a new, digital way. It leads to an entirely new market, as well as new customer and business realities. - www.netguru.com

While going through an article in Medium.com by Robosoft tech of March '19, listing the changes happening in society because of digitization and the challenges of Design Thinking (click here), the promise Design Tyhinking holds for the future in brilliant.

All digitisation interventions of late have resulted in development of society, improvement of productivity and better value realisation from products and processes. We see 

• product companies becoming service companies, like IBM.
• Product companies transitioning to product and service companies, eg. Mercedes and Audi besides selling products also hire their vehicles for longer duration
  
• Service cos becoming product companies, eg. Amazon selling Echo, Kindle e-reader etc
• Digitisation has increased the customer expectations from business, customers demand more features, comfort, safety, security etc
• By flattening the competitive landscape, Digitisation has made barriers of entry low, eg. Amazon.in also competes with Sapna and Higginbothams in India.. 
• Businesses face challenges not just from within the sector but also from across the sector, eg,  Hilton faces competition from not just Sheraton, but from Airbnb, Tesla faces challenge not from other EV manufacturers like Tata, but from the IT giant Apple.
• Any organisation interpreting the customer data finding hidden patterns, drawing insights are able to exploit the data more beneficially than organisations that do not carry out data analytics

are the changes happening in modern society.

How to carry out Design Thinking in the new digitized environments ?

As different from other designing processes, Design Thinking basically is 

• human centered 
• an iterative design process
• helps simplify the customer journey
• adds customer value across business and functions

To better exploit Design Thinking, organisations need to 

• avoid short-term thinking and concentrate on the bigger picture
• manage the different touch points to make it more customer responsive
• build a design culture in the organisation as Design Thinking is not just a product based activity, it is a process based activity too
• Iterate many times over - don't be set on perfection, iterate many times starting with a Minimum Viable Product or Process and then improving upon it based on the customer feedback and data
  

Design Thinking offers humanity better and better options and convenience. For example if we take banking, 

• the old banking needed customers to go to the bank and stand in queues to withdraw and deposit cash or carry other transactions etc.
  
• the Teller mechanism reduced the customer's difficulty 
• Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) simplified much of these transactions
• Internet banking got popular and was carried out through our desktop machines from office or home 
• Mobile banking now that enables banking on the move from anywhere.

The main focus in all these tectonic shifts have been on the customer with numerous iterations that have happened with technology playing the disruptive and value adding role. 

We have explained in the above writing how Design Thinking can be applied for digitization, ie localised digital experience sharing. But can Design Thinking also be applied for the wholesome Digital Transformation experience across  ecosystems ? Indeed it can be, but the experience and effort can be large, engaging and time consuming with potentially rich dividends to be reaped. Banks across the country are going through such a Design Thinking exercise of Digital Transformation of whole ecosystems.

George.

Ransomware attacks .. How to prevent ..

At times we find  our computer systems do not open or respond to our commands. We are subject to Denial of Service attacks, also called ransomware. It is so called because the software will lock our system and only when ransom is exchanged , will our systems be open. The ransom passes through the secretive bitcoin system.

It so happened to me in Goa Engineering College, during the early 2000. I was setting up the college elearning website, half way through the classes, many sessions completed. Suddenly one fine morning when I came to the dept I found I could not login to the system I was exited out and could not run the lab nor the class from the machine. Luckily that time I had just one or two subjects on the computer and hence could afford to reformat the machine  and reload the Linux OS and run the system. There was a delay of a week. 

While going through an Oct 2016 HBR article by Mohammed Ali on the same topic, (click here), the data was very disturbing. Every year ransom ware attacks in US cost upwards of $ 1 billion and app 4000 ransomware attacks happen daily in US alone, asking for ransom and payment happens through the Darkweb through bitcoins.

A global survey revealed that about 43% of middle level managers and 25% of senior and C level managers were subjected to ransomware strikes in US in 2016. Neatly written fraudulent emails make the executive click on some unsuspected links causing the ransomware to reside in the host computer increasing its vulnerability to attacks later on. Ransomware spreads through not updated un-patched applications.

1. Proper awareness creation and training sessions will help. 

2.Deploy updated anti-virus software. 

3. Avoid human errors by asking executives to be cautious while working with data. 

4. Always store a duplicate of the data.

5. In case of an attack, shut down the system and inform the authorities of the breach.

6. Assess the damage and copy from backup.

With increasing use of systems from WFH , the risk of ransomware attacks are going to increase in the coming years. We need to be well prepared for the

George.

Design Thinking and Innovation ..

Many of us have the impression that Design Thinking is a totally different approach to solving modern day problems and is different from our many different approaches to innovation that has happened in the past.

Click here to go through a 2008 seminal article by Tim Brown in HBR explaining the deeper facets of Design Thinking.

According to the author, Design Thinking is another aspect of Innovation, which stresses more on the human aspect of Innovation, helping solve human related problems with a good understanding of human interactions, feelings, empathy, emotions. It is different from any other innovation exercise that may look at improved value creation, higher productivity, efficiency etc more than the human aspect.

What should be a Design Thinker's personality profile  ?

Tim Brown mentions in his article that a Design Thinker should have mainly the follower character traits

Empathy - the design thinker should be a person who empathises with the customer, understands his pain points, the challenges, view the world from many different perspectives, ie, customer, supplier, manufacturer etc. He has the ability to look at the problem at the minute level and generate insights that can foster innovation

Integrative Thinking - design thinkers not only look at the analytical aspects but have wholesome thinking that helps to understand the problem better or expose solutions hitherto invisible to an untrained naked eye

Optimism - extreme optimism exhibited by the design thinkers go on the thought that there is at least one optimised better solution than the present one that is under practice

Experimentation - incremental advancements do not generate radical solutions, it is wholesome, repetitive engagements and brushes with reality and practice that can generate optimised solutions

Collaboration - it is interdisciplinary collaboration with people from different disciplines, practitioners etc that can help advance design thinking in different dimensions

All DT projects go through three phases

• Inspiration
• Ideation and 
• Implementation 

How can we make Design Thinking part of our Innovation thinking in the organisation ? Tim Brown brings in lot of practical ideas into the cycle to help faster achieve the goals.

• Start at the beginning - let design thinkers do the initial exploration for you on the projects and ideas to work on
  
• Take human centred approach - can bring human insights that were never explored or attempted
  
• Try early and often - try prototypes as early as the first week of execution, try quite often , collect feedback and improvise
  
• Seek outside help - engage with customers and other stakeholders to develop a deep insight
  
• Blend big and small projects - to help keep the motivation going, get small business units take lead in small projects while enterprise wide top leadership can lead large projects that span across departments and functions
  
• Budget to the pace of innovation - be able to easily tweak the innovating cycle to match the budgeting process, to guide through the implementation
  
• Find talent from multiple sources - hiring from interdisciplinary programs from design, biological sciences, mathematics , Physics etc can help bring the much needed diversity of thinking in the DT process
  
• Plan for the practical cycle - practical cycles of implementation in the industry is 15 - 18 months, when employees keep moving in and out. Planning the development and implementation cycle within this time period can see many projects go from initiation to fruition
  

Design Thinking is really an innovation process that brings the creative, inventive, ingenious mindset of humans to the fore to arrive at effective customer oriented solutions.

George.

Elements of Design Thinking process and a case of deployment ..

Design Thinking basically focuses on people. The people focus of the Design Thinking process makes it very practical and relevant in common daily situations.

Click here to read an article, a blog from www.accenture.com, on Why people are at the centre of the Design Thinking process. 

We know the Design Thinking Process has mainly 5 processes or steps and they are Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test.

Design Thinking Process has mainly 5 elements, these elements exhibit the different features of the process as also its importance. 

They are -

1. Human centered -the DT process is very focused on empathy, people centred and understands the needs and desires of humans and suitably designs the product or process

2. Creative and playful - the DT process is carried out as an interesting creative playful activity that fosters creativity of the participants. The playful creative environment ensures the outcomes are equally creative and enjoyable for the end customers

3. Iterative - DT process does not stop after one iteration, the solution is challenged again and again until we are able to come up with an improved value added solution to the problem.

4. Collaborative - people with diverse perspectives work multi disciplinary teams that look at problems from different directions, helping understand it better,  together creating a superior solution

5. Prototype driven - collecting feedback is a great tool to help improve the process or to improve the prototype. The term prototype signifies that the process iterates to come up wit improved value added solutions

Click here to know about Design Thinking in more depth from Career Foundry ..

 -------------------------------------------

Defining a practical example of Design Thinking exercise in www.amazon.in

The great E-retailing company Amazon is known for it's extreme attention to customer service. Here we are carrying out a Design Thinking exercise trying to find out why Amazon customers experience delay in getting their shipments across the country. Sometimes the delay extends to weeks altogether in the city, not to forget about the towns and villages. 

First let us prepare a brief initial execution plan which lists the issues, challenges, constraints etc in the DT exercise.

1. Empathise

Some of the problems faced by Amazon pantry customers

• delay, often running to weeks ..
• some Amazon deliveries take longer delivery time
• broken / multiple deliveries for a single order
• delivery people disturbing office / class attendees by calling at delivery time
• lot of Amazon related packaging material at home every month
  

2. Define

A better understanding of the customer problem

• how can we deliver products quickly 
• how can we deliver products for a customer in a single delivery without delivery splitting
• how can we reduce packing size and still ensure safety of product
  

3. Ideate

 Collect as many practical ideas to find a solution to the problem defined above (in red)

• have supply coordinators across various important cities and towns of India to coordinate supplies from suppliers and ensure single, faster delivery
• have Amazon local dealer network to coordinate deliveries to customers in their network area. These dealers to improve their profitability are free to deal with Amazon products and other products too
• Amazon could move from a pure click model to a click and brick model where customers could place orders via the website and collect goods at their nearest Amazon physical store at the customer's convenience.
• Amazon could coordinate with the India Post network across the country, almost 1,55,015 post offices (90% in rural areas), offering good commission to the Postal dept (60%) and postmen (40%). This is an opportunity for extra income for the postal dept and postmen too. The postal dept should be ready to change with the times.
• have a reliable network of volunteers / assistants across the country (preference to mom and pop store owners), improving the employment scenario across the country to coordinate deliveries to end customers.
• have a logistics network collaboration with the state transport departments in each state to ensure goods are transported across the state fast, cheap and reliably
• 
  

4. Prototype 

Deploy the plans or actions fast and watch results, get feedback and improve

• Employ more people to coordinate and move items from Amazon warehouse to customer premises in the shortest time by providing logistics, fast, safe, cheap transportation 
• build warehouses and Customer Service centres across the country
• ensure safe and fast return logistics
  

5. Test

 See the success or failure of actions to assess future developments and/or deployments

• Test the idea in the field and get customer feedback
• are customers excited and happy ?
• enquire whether any more problems exist
• are the proposed solutions cost effective or expensive 
• are proposed solutions customer focused (highest priority) or employee focused ?
  

George..

 

Creativity and a Learning Mindset ..

Is there a limit to how creative and effective one can be ? I believe there is no limit. It is all in the brain. If 96 year old Prof. Goodfellow of the University of Texas could jointly share the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019 for developing the Lithium ion battery, it is ample proof that age is not block for our creativity. 

Hardwork and creativity are different. Hardwork does not in most case make use of creative thinking, it rarely throws out creative ideas, rather it could be repetitive ideas that are perfected. Creativity on the other hand, is churning out new thoughts and ideas that could help improve our life and living conditions in society.

What we need besides a creative mind is a growth mindset. Most of us have a fixed mindset which dictates our thoughts and actions. We have set a limit to our capability and creativity and never try to go beyond it. This fixed mindset, more often, limits our growth avenues.

While going through the paper Unlocking your team's creativity, HBR, Jan '19 by Rebecca Shambaugh (click here) , the author speaks that a leader should try to have members in his team who are not only qualified and talented at the task, but also possesses the creative expression of talent and innovative thinking.

As per Teresa Amabile, HBR, Oct '98, (click here), creativity has three components

1. expertise
2. creative thinking skills
3. motivation

A Growth Mindset, according to it's proponent Dr. Carol Dweck, is an underlying belief that we can improve our lives by our own effort. Setbacks in life are normal for them and they accept these setbacks as opportunities to look back, take the learning from it and grow. No setback can weaken them, instead, failures give them opportunities to observe, learn and grow. These people learn from their mistakes and help people grow. 

Increasing mindfulness is also an important trait one needs to develop over time. Taking a long walk in the morning to free the mind, taking time consciously off from digital distractions and so on. This can be achieved by practicing occasional meditation sessions that helps one to improve working memory to increase cognitive flexibility as well as brainstorming ability.

Engaging in a simple breathing exercise in the middle of your work to oxygenate your brain can really increase creativity of mind. New and fresh thoughts flood your mind resulting in more effective brainstorming sessions. 

All our group activity boils down to the fact that while it is easy to engage in personal innovation, it is not that easy to engage in group innovation. Group Innovation is what can drive a team together forward, to achieve common team goals.

George..

Developing the next best antiviral drugs ..

Remdesivir is the only anti-viral drug with US FDA approval we know that has been developed and was partially successful in our war against the Covid 19 virus from May 2020. It is because Remedesivir was developed specifically for other viruses but not for Covid 19 virus. But we have tried at least 10 more more drugs in vaccine form ever since starting Dec 2020, the efficacy of which is still debatable..

After Edward Jenner in 1796 in UK developed and administered the first successful vaccine against smallpox, humanity has benefited a lot from vaccines for 224 years .

As of Jan 23 2021, two drugs  are authorized and recommended to prevent COVID-19 in US. ​​​​Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna. Phase 3 clinical trials are happening for AstraZeneca, Janssen and Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine​s.

In India, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, known as Covishield, or the domestic product, Covaxin, developed by the pharmaceutical company Bharat Biotech are available..

In UAE, Chinese Sinopharm, US' Pfizer and Russian Sputnik are available. EU has Comirnaty developed by BioNTech and Pfizer ..

All these vaccines are of 2 doses to be administered 2 - 3 weeks apart to improve efficacy .. Only 1 dose will give 50% efficacy while 2 doses can give almost 95% efficacy.

Vaccine efficacy is the percentage reduction of disease in a vaccinated group of people compared to an unvaccinated group, using the most favorable conditions. This info on Covid 19 vaccine administration across the world useful as of 23 Jan 2021.

Drug research has seen drugs coming out fast, in a matter of 10 months, but we do not yet know how effective they are going to be in the long run. How can we be better prepared for drugs next time a similar pandemic strikes humanity ?

This HBR article (click here) tells us that to really protect humanity, we need to develop drugs soon enough. We have had bad experiences starting from the Spanish flu in 1920s to the lastest Ebola and Sars Cov1.

For this we need to 

1. identify the primary medical threats facing humanity

2. focus on developing small molecule anti-viral drugs and 

3. make societal commitment to this type of research

which will make humanity better prepared for the next great viral pandemic that may hit humanity. 

George.

An optimistic outlook on Climate Change, post Covid ..

Climate Change is a phenomenon all of are well informed and are aware of the damage and risks it can cause to the flora and fauna of the world. Our industrial growth from the start of the Industrial revolution of 1700s to the present day has benefitted humanity in umpteen ways, helping raise the standards of living, health, etc of humans, at the same time it has caused untold hardships to the many flora and fauna inhabiting planet earth. Humans by now have excellent control on the resources of the world and how to harness it for the betterment of humanity, but it has also brought us to the brink of disaster given the high frequency of extreme climatic events that have been happening around the world.

While browsing through material on climate change to take for my class of second semester Operations students at Alliance School of Business, Bangalore, I came across an interesting article by Dr Vivek Murthy, present Surgeon General of US and his wife Alice Chen, published in Harvard Business Review of Sept. '19, titled Should we be more optimistic about fighting climate change ?, (click here). Dr, Vivek came up from humble beginnings from Karnataka, the state where I am staying now and which is the IT and Digital capital of India.

The article made interesting reading.  

Dr Vivek makes the startling statement that climate change is the greatest public health challenge facing communities around the world.

Though the article was written before the Covid virus struck the world and put it in limbo for almost 12 months, the push for using sustainable products was existent then.

World over we see a shift in lighting applications from filament based bulbs to CFL bulbs and finally to Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs which has brought down energy consumption by as much as 90% and also reduces the total cost of usage as the life of LED bulbs are significantly much higher than Filament bulbs. The cost and performance comparison given in the fig to the right by the Earth Project (www.earthproject.com) is in itself very eye opening. As we all know usage of LED bulbs is not only good for the earth, but it also good on your purse.

The 2017 launched Project Gigaton from Walmart to take off greenhouse gas emissions from the value chains of the world has been having remarkable success and is a great reminder for organisations around the world to look after mother earth. 

The Terraton initiative from Boston, US pays farmers for being environment friendly by capturing Carbon in the soil by switching to regenerative farming practices.

The Covid scare has frightened people from artificially prepared and packaged fast food food to more natural food, including fruits and vegetables. They are more aware of the quality of the food they consume. This is promoting healthy lifestyle and helping the farmers of the country to earn more by means of organic farming.

Though climate change is staring at us on our faces, it is not a bad future we are facing, though extreme natural events have increased. The improved awareness and numerous environment projects taken up like Project Gigaton etc are bound to make the earth a better place to inhabit for future generations to come, let us strive for that.

George.