Book review: Hit Refresh

Can elephants dance? Satya Nadella, only the 3^rd CEO in Microsoft’s history certainly thinks so, as he narrates the story of how he is trying to inject new life into Microsoft’s soul.

Once nearly synonymous with personal computing, Microsoft lost its mojo in the last decade as mobile phones literally gatecrashed into our lives and became the primary channel to access everything from music to internet. Many had written off Microsoft at this stage, but Satya narrates how he is breathing new life into the company, changing attitudes and bringing in new paradigms.

Microsoft, is changing, and making the world an even better place for us

The book starts on a personal note as the author traces his origins from childhood in the small towns of India to his entry into Microsoft headquarters in Seattle in the early 1990s and his eventual rise to the top in 2014. The author is modest in often acknowledging the role of luck in his success, pointing out how he always found himself at the right place at the right time. Son of a civil servant, the author narrates his fascination for cricket and early leadership lessons he took from the game. There are stories from the ups & downs in his personal life, like meeting the love of his life, and the trying circumstances surrounding the birth of the first child. 

This is a book about transformation, one that is taking place within him and also within the company. What was the situation at Microsoft when Satya took over? What did he inherit? And what is it that he wants to change? Trying to bring about culture change in such a big organization is not easy, it is a painfully slow grind but the author’s efforts have slowly started showing results. There is now a renewed growth mindset. Several key events and decisions, such as the launch of Windows 10, learnings from the Nokia acquisition and corporate dispute with Samsung etc. are described, giving an insight into the author’s personality and working style. The author shows how his seemingly unconventional decisions to partner arch-rivals such as Apple or Google have paid off. Surprisingly, even in this dispassionate world of coding and corporate strategy, Empathy keeps repeating itself.

And thankfully, the book doesn’t end here!

In the latter sections, the author takes a deep dive into technologies of the future, and how Microsoft is “trying to imagine a better future for everyone”. It is this that I liked the most. The author writes about three things Microsoft is betting on – Mixed Reality, Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing. What are they? What can they do? And where are we – the human race - heading? These are topics not just for the geeks. The author shows how these technologies will become essential tools in everything we do – from education to medicine, or help us fight cancer or global warming. Going beyond pure computing, technologies of the future will not only help us see, hear and analyze, but also “make us feel”. Does this mean machines will eventually ‘take over’ - as some fear? Or will they only augment human capabilities to make this world an even better place for all of us? It is this ‘Human vs. Machines’ OR ‘Human + Machines’ debate that is currently the rage the world over, and the author assures us there is nothing to fear from the future.

In recent times, the growth of technology has also thrown up difficult issues surrounding privacy, security and free speech. The author discusses delicate issues such as privacy of user data and government surveillance, the dilemma between privacy vs. security, individual freedom and liberty vs. public safety. The author rues that laws always lag technological changes, causing friction between Regulation and the Corporation. The role of companies in modern society is also discussed.

As they say, ultimately the best way to predict the future is to invent it. And that is what Microsoft is doing. 

Do give this book a read – it did change my perception of Microsoft, and our future - for the better.

Book review: The Inevitable

What comes to your mind someone says ‘technologies of the future’? Think blockchain, driverless cars, Artificial Intelligence, 3-D printing, drones…. I recently happened to read “the Inevitable” by Kevin Kelly, a futurist and the Founding Editor of the Wired magazine. The sub-title of this book said “Understanding the 12 technological forces that will shape our future”. This is a review of the same. A more concise review has been put up on the Amazon website.

When I picked up this book, I was expecting a deep dive – or at least a comprehensive introduction to technologies (not specifically the ones mentioned above but whatever else) the esteemed author thinks will come to shape our future. However, that was not to be.

The book revolves around what I may loosely call for want of a better term, the ‘Internet–AI–Cloud–Analytics complex’ and various things that are being achieved combining these. The “12 trends” that the author talks about are different manifestations of using the same: 

1. Becoming – a process of constantly changing, evolving, improving

2. Cognifying – How AI is being injected into everything around us 

3. Flowing – Everything is information, copied multiple times and flowing seamlessly around the world over the internet 

4. Screening – More and more screens will enter our lives – from digital books to VR goggles to living room and building walls etc. 

5. Accessing – Access will become more important than possession or ownership 

6. Sharing – Open source software, social media collaboration, aggregator sites, crowd funding etc.

7. Filtering – Since there is an abundance of everything (information age), it will all need to be filtered 

8. Remixing – Mixing multiple elements of different media to create new things, findability, rewindability etc. 

9. Interacting – VR, and one step beyond it to Augmented Reality (AR) 

10. Tracking – From intelligent devices tracking our body to “lifestreaming”, “lifelogging” etc. End of privacy. 

11. Questioning – the most unlikely things will happen and we will need to constantly keep questioning 

12. Beginning – the changes which are on our way are so mindboggling that we are beginning anew

These one liners do not do full justice to the depth to which the author has gone, but I wanted to give a glimpse of what really the author means by technology “trends” and how they differ from technologies or specific technology developments. 

Indeed what the Google-Facebook-Netflix-Amazons of the world are doing is quite remarkable. But beyond a point, the 12 trends appear to be a regurgitation of the same underlying technological capability. The book keeps coming back to the same names again and again, at times making it difficult to distinguish one chapter from another. 

To be sure, there is nothing wrong in what the author has written, but this is not what I was expecting. On the whole, a bit of a disappointment.

Future of Banking - Part II

In the previous article (click here), we saw some of the trends that are sweeping across the world of banking technology today. These changes will revolutionize the way we bank in future. We continue from where we left off, covering new developments, this time mainly in Corporate Banking.

7. Remote Deposit Capture: In the U.S., banks now supply a scanner which their business customers use to scan the cheques they receive. The images are then uploaded to a bank portal, from where the image is directly sent to the clearing house for clearing. 

Individual customers can photograph a cheque they have received using their Smartphone, and automatically upload the image through an app to the bank’s portal, which sends it online for clearing. No need to go to the bank to deposit the cheque at all! This development is specific to the U.S., since a special Act ensures legal validity of the cheque thus deposited electronically.

8. The end of L/C: Letters of Credit have been at the heart of world trade for decades, but they would soon be history. ICC (International Chamber of Commerce, the body which regulates world trade) is in the process of giving recognition to a new instrument called the Bank Payment Obligation (BPO) which will one day replace the L/C. The BPO can be exchanged between banks via XML messages and incorporated into an automated STP (Straight Through Processing) environment, causing substantial cost reduction and bringing operational efficiency.

9. Automation of Supply Chain Finance: Soon, Corporate buyers will receive quotations, select suppliers, place orders, receive bills and make payments directly through their bank’s portal. Sellers can bid for tenders, accept orders and raise invoices online, through their bank's portal, without handling any paper. This is much more than simply scanning a physical invoice or any other commercial document – the system will generate its own serial number, have digital signature etc and be a legally binding document without any physical existence. Further more; the Bank’s Core systems will be integrated with the Corporate ERP systems, making communication between the two entirely automated.

Automation of the Supply Chain will save billions of dollars across the world and prevent millions of trees from being cut. The BPO, and Supply Chain Automation taken together will completely revolutionize the way corporate financing is done by banks in the world today.

10. eBAM (Electronic Bank Account Management): Can you imagine how many bank accounts a large corporation such as McDonald’s or General Electric might have? Could be in thousands. Managing so many bank accounts – opening, closing, keeping the list of signatories and their operating mandates updated, efficiently utilizing the funds lying around in them, sending instructions of various types to the banks and following up with them is a mammoth task. eBAM, a product launched by SWIFT allows a company to open accounts, add or remove signatories and close accounts online without any manual intervention. Since transactions (i.e. sending and receiving money) have already moved online, once Banks perform the mandatory KYC (Know Your Customer) exercise and establish a relationship, a Corporate customer can open accounts, operate them and close accounts when the purpose is over, all by itself, without any manual intervention by the bank 

To conclude, Banking will look very different from the way it looks today. Plastic cards and cheque books will cease to exist, you will not need to know what your account number is. Mobile phone based payment systems will make physical currency become redundant, and offices will become truly paperless!

Apple’s iPhone is hardly four years old, but in such a short span of time it has turned the world of mobile telephony upside down. Developments which are at a conception stage will become mainstream tomorrow, and that day is not far away!

Future of Banking: Top trends that will drive the change

It is too clichéd to use the term “change is the only constant”, but nowhere is this truer than in the field of technology. In this 2-part article, I bring to you some recent technological developments in the field of banking that will change the way we do our banking forever: 

1. Biometric ATMs: If my fingerprint or iris scan is enough to identify me, do I need a plastic card? A bank in Turkey has rolled out 2400 biometric ATMs across the country. Japan already has a huge network of such ATMs operational, all of them based on the “finger vein” technology of Hitachi. Under this technology, rays of light pass through your fingers and capture pattern of the veins. The pattern is image processed using a special algorithm and digital data is generated. Pattern readers installed at ATMs read customer’s vein pattern and by comparing it with what is already present with the bank, a customer is identified. Hitachi claims finger vein technology is more reliable than using fingerprints, since the veins are inside the body and hence completely tamperproof. 

And if ATMs can have vein readers, will POS Terminals (those ubiquitous swipe machines where they swipe your credit card) be far behind? Plastic cards may soon be history. 

2. The "Pingit": You can now send money to anyone using only his mobile number, no need to know the account number! A common database, operated by a central body such as a Clearing House, will hold a “mapping” of the customer’s phone number to the account number. A simple mobile phone app will allow users to transfer money from their bank accounts to another just by entering the recipient’s phone number or selecting the name from address book. Payment instruction will be routed to this common database which will identify the account number to be credited. This development will substantially reduce the need to carry cash, even more than what the advent plastic cards did. (“Pingit” here is actually the brand name of such a service launched by Barclays in the U.K, others may launch it with a different name).

3. The e-Wallet: A “digital” wallet, stores all the data about your credit cards, prepaid cards etc digitally, which you can access online or through your mobile phone. When you shop, you just tap the phone on the wallet “reader” installed with the merchant and the transaction is authenticated automatically. The communication between your phone and the merchant’s reader happens over an electro magnetic field (somewhat akin to Bluetooth). 

To use the e-wallet online, once you have selected the items you want to buy and move to the payment options, just sign-in into your e-wallet account and the transaction is completed instantly using credit card data mapped within the wallet. Digital wallets are considered safer than leather wallets and credit cards, which can be stolen and misused. Banks will soon stop issuing physical cards completely, since only the data on the card is required, not the physical card itself. If the same data can be stored on your mobile phone, do you need a plastic card?

4. The Social Networking bank: Last year, Facebook got 15% of its $ 3.7 billion revenues from Payments business. It has already got ‘money transmitter’ licenses in 15 U.S. states, and is applying for more. This way, it is directly competing with Banks and money transfer companies like Western Union in the remittance business. In India, ICICI Bank allows customers to perform transactions like checking your account balance, generate statement and order cheque books through Facebook. Social Networking sites will give serious competition to Banks for certain types of services in the future, as it will not be necessary to visit the bank website to operate your account!

5. The end of Cheque Book: Europe has already done away with cheque books. Even in the rest of the world, cheque book usage is declining. And with the payment revolution brought about by the mobile phone hitting the banking world like a Tsunami, cheque books will soon be a thing of the past.

6. Bank Account portability: Regulators have been talking about Account Number Portability (“change your bank without changing your account number”) for a long time, but it is difficult to introduce and expensive to implement. Thankfully, with the cheque books gone, account numbers will die too! Or atleast, the way we see them today.   

A central body, such as a Clearing House will hold the “mapping” of a customer’s old account number to the new account number, and any mandate to debit or credit the old account (such as direct debit / credits, ECS mandates, RTGS, NEFT transfers, standing instructions and all sort of Electronic Fund Transfers whichever way they are done) will be automatically routed to the new account. Changing your bank will then become completely hassle free, reducing bank account to a commodity.

(To be continued…….)