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In the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/enterprise/India-Must-Look-Beyond-Microsoft-Heres-Our-First-Set-OfArguments/articleshow/30992782.cms">first part</a>, we have looked at the extent of <keyword id="10387" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Microsoft">Microsoft</keyword>’s reach in Indian homes, offices and schools. We have also examined the waning usage of its products, thanks to the rise of innovative and free alternatives, compounded by people’s inclination to use a single device for work, pleasure and learning. Now let us look at the implications of technology usage in India and how the IT services industry can safeguard itself from falling into a rut by asking itself <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_do_you_want_to_go_today%3F">the same question</a> Microsoft has asked the world for years! 
 
Microsoft is firing blindly Right now, Microsoft is like a headless monster whose pie is being eaten by two equally huge beasts – <keyword id="6354427" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Apple">Apple</keyword> and <keyword id="6355629" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword>. Of course, Ballmer &amp; Co. waged many wars in the recent past. They launched the Surface tablet to take on the <keyword id="101239" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="iPad">iPad</keyword>, pitted Windows Phone against <keyword id="75489" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="IOS">iOS</keyword> and set up Bing against Google. They fought on TV, they fought on <keyword id="10879" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="YouTube">YouTube</keyword> and they fought in courtrooms. But all they’ve won so far is a horde of indifferent consumers. As a result, staff and investor morale has taken a beating – many insiders are complaining about the dearth of flexibility and death of innovation at Microsoft. 
 Microsoft finds itself grappling with a new world where the personal computer, on which it built its empire, has no place. The chaos is apparent even in their flagship business – Windows. Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 8 and <keyword id="1016196" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Windows-RT">Windows RT</keyword> are indistinguishable from each other and need to be merged into one cohesive Windows. 
 
But it has (nearly) endless ammo 
However, it’s too early to write off Microsoft. Big companies don’t die easily. Apple has languished at the bottom of the industry for a decade and a half before it rose from the dead to become the world’s most valuable company. 
 Microsoft is still far above the rest with a market cap of $300 billion and cash piles of around $80 billion. Forbes contributor <keyword id="2076402" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Mark-Fidelman">Mark Fidelman</keyword> has gone as far as to suggest that the company will be bigger than Apple in three years’ time, spurred on by the One Microsoft initiative, which will give users and developers an integrated experience across the phone, tablet, PC, console and the TV. 
 
The road ahead 
There is a distinct possibility that Apple-quality smartphones and tablets will become commoditised. In such a scenario, software may once again dictate a user’s choice of hardware. However, Microsoft, or any other software company for that matter, will not be able to take advantage of such a shift. 
 Thanks to Apple and the <keyword id="6355645" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="android">Android</keyword>, there are only two ways in which software proliferation may happen. One, it can be bundled together with the hardware to form an integrated system, which you can sell for a great profit, should it capture the public fancy. Two, it can be given away and opened up to the development community, which might well transform it into something bigger than you ever imagined. You can then try and figure out a way to churn out profit from it. 
 
Companies can no longer do a Windows and make profit by selling unified software for other companies’ hardware because code is now a commodity. Indian tech firms have risen to prominence on the strength of their coding skills, unlike the Far East’s hardware manufacturing titans. So this is a slow but definite turn of events of which they need to take very serious note. 
 
Trickle-up instead of trickle-down Whatever Microsoft’s future might be, Indian homes and workplaces will have to extricate themselves from their dependency on Microsoft software and technology. So that when the world moves on to Android’s next delicacy, <keyword id="300053" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Google-Docs">Google Docs</keyword>, and whatever lies beyond that, we don’t find ourselves stuck in 1995. So that when kids in the US build their own apps and hacking code to change the rules of their favourite games, we, too, can pursue a national pastime other than Solitaire. 
 
Change has to start from schools, colleges, institutes and offices. The process has begun, but not as a result of conscious effort; therefore, only a few are aware of it. On the education front, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aakash_2">Aakash 2</a>, the much-publicised and subsidised tablet for students, operates on Android 4.0. In the industry, small firms which used to be known as software companies, have leveraged the transformation of the Internet and rebranded themselves as Web &amp; app development firms. PHP and other open source languages are becoming the mainstay of programming and coding in India, reducing the use of Microsoft’s .NET (which includes the once all-powerful Visual Basic) to just an option. 
 
How change will impact us 
The Indian IT industry should be able to comprehend these changes and must adapt quickly. Organisations and individuals in the US and Europe, places from where India gets the bulk of its back-office processing work, have moved on to more nimble platforms, devices, operating systems and productivity tools. But Indian firms, with their service-focused mindset, are always late adopters of technology (that has been tried and tested in the West) and that puts them at the risk of getting pushed to the bottom in terms of innovation and growth. 
 The local bigwigs – TCS, <keyword id="6354512" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Infosys">Infosys</keyword>, <keyword id="10862" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Wipro">Wipro</keyword> and others – should be deeply concerned about the continued lack of innovation in their offerings. Being a profit-making, back-office mammoth that deals with technology any grandfather in the US and the UK can understand is not exactly a creative way to avoid the Fat, Dumb and Happy syndrome in the business. 
 To achieve great success, businesses need to embrace great failures and take on immense capital risk. Subroto Bagchi, co-founder of <keyword id="6357902" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="MindTree">Mindtree</keyword>, cited the development of a new drug or auto model as examples of initiatives that require billions of dollars in R&amp;D just for the remote hope of hitting the mass market. That kind of <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="40" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> doesn’t exist in India, especially in the early stages of product development. 
 TCS and Infosys have the capability to <keyword id="47916" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="invest">invest</keyword> this kind of money, and have the potential to grow and retain intellectual property, as part of an innovation-through-experimentation process. But they choose to stick to the cheap-and-cheerful, well-trodden paths. The truth is that Indian companies mostly reflect the overwhelming public mindset – that of risk aversion. 
 Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD of <keyword id="6358361" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Biocon">Biocon</keyword>, hit the nail right on the head in an attempt to answer if the next Apple or Google could be born in India: 
 
Investors in India prefer predictable, imitative business models and me-too products, where they have the visibility of assured returns. Thus, Flipkart – which is modelled on <keyword id="6391410" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Amazon-com">Amazon.com</keyword> – has received a lot of investor interest in India. On the other hand, business models that are truly innovative and untested find no takers among the investor community here. 
 
Innovation, investment and marketing are the three legs on which businesses are built. Remove one and the tripod comes crumbling down. Bereft of innovation, Microsoft risks turning into just any other company. Closer home, Infosys is making similar mistakes. 
 
It’s time we stop ‘looking up’ to people, companies, governments or technology and start ‘looking beyond’ them.

Looking Beyond Microsoft: Where Do You Want To Go
Today?

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="13891032" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="terrausd" source="Orion">TerraUSD</keyword> fell below its $1 peg in a weekend selloff.</li><li>The fall of the token and its sister coin luna put the spotlight on <keyword id="13891031" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="algorithmic-stablecoins" source="Orion">algorithmic stablecoins</keyword>. </li></ul>The recent plunge of the <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/terra-usd">TerraUSD</a> cryptocurrency below its peg to the US dollar is highlighting vulnerabilities in so-called algorithmic <keyword id="11931190" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="stablecoins" source="Orion">stablecoins</keyword>, two experts told Insider. TerraUSD is the fourth-largest stablecoin in the cryptocurrency market, according to <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/view/stablecoin/">CoinMarketCap,</a> but its market cap has been more than halved to $7 billion in less than a week. Heavy selling in TerraUSD — or UST — that started <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/terra-peg-dollar-luna-stablecoin-crypto-and-stokes-fears-bitcoin-2022-5">over the weekend</a> prompted it to lose its $1 peg, with Wednesday's move taking it as low as $0.298, according to CoinGecko data.UST's price is maintained by its sister coin called <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/terra-luna">luna</a>, which itself on <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/terra-terrausd-luna-ust-stablecoin-plunge-do-kwon-death-spiral-2022-5">Wednesday tumbled by as much as 97%</a>. Do Kwon, co-founder of Terraform Labs, the group behind UST, said Tuesday he was <a href="https://twitter.com/stablekwon/status/1524049689510694916">working on a recovery plan</a>. "The problem with an algorithmic stablecoin is there's no formula that can currently predict everything that's going to happen, and to my knowledge, there isn't a very successful Artificial Intelligence algorithm that self-adjusts," Mark Fidelman, direct of SmartBlocks, an agency that develops marketing strategies for cryptocurrency technology and businesses, told Insider on Tuesday. He's also the host of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdydg2MsKIAm4KL3tU97rhw">"Cryptonized" podcast</a> on YouTube. The value of algorithmic stablecoins is set by a computer algorithm. Those digital assets are unlike so-called traditional stablecoins which are backed up by assets such as fiat currency or government bonds or gold.There's a balancing act in UST as traders are incentivized by profit to maintain the coin's dollar peg. If UST drops below $1, traders can take them out of circulation by "burning" them in exchange for $1 of luna. If UST climbs above $1, traders sell luna to convert into UST, pushing its price down. Crypto observers over the weekend reportedly witnessed large withdrawals of UST from Anchor Protocol, which acts as a bank for the token. One big holder dumped $285 million worth of the token, <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/terra-peg-mechanism-in-doubt-as-ust-crashes-to-67-cents">crypto news site CoinTelegraph reported</a>.The <a href="https://lfg.org/">Luna Foundation Guard</a>, a non-profit aimed at growing the terra ecosystem and that oversees that UST holds its peg to the dollar, <a href="https://twitter.com/stablekwon/status/1523532474860539905">deployed $1.5 billion in capital</a> to allay market concerns around UST. UST, however, de-pegged for a second time and luna slid in value. The foundation said Monday it loaned $750 million worth of bitcoin to trading firms to help protect the UST peg and loaned 750 million in UST to accumulate bitcoin as market conditions normalized. The Luna Foundation's reserves as of Tuesday <a href="https://datastudio.google.com/reporting/b31cc9e5-c54c-4418-a6ce-b332c57e82e9/page/4YBqC?s=or-T7NeGLew">stood at $195 million</a>, a drop of 83% from the previous day, according to a breakdown of its reserves the foundation <a href="https://twitter.com/LFG_org/status/1512678523546345474">makes available on its Twitter page</a>. The reserves were made of the <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/avax-usd">Avalanche</a> token, the luna token and UST itself. "When pressure was put on it and the underlying assets associated with it started to decline and the reserves couldn't fill that staking, then the peg breaks," Adam Carlton, chief executive of PinkPanda Holdings, told Insider. PinkPanda provides consulting services on digital assets and is building a mobile app for users to access <keyword id="11895317" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cryptocurrencies" source="Orion">cryptocurrencies</keyword>, NFTs and the metaverse. The UST and luna price drops came after a rough week for US equities as investors continued to price in expectations for the Federal Reserve to aggressively raise interest rates to cool down inflation that in March kicked up to a 41-year high. Cryptocurrencies including bitcoin also suffered losses alongside the broader equity market. "Theoretically [holding the dollar peg] works when you don't have market volatility or you have reserves but what we saw with UST is it doesn't work when you have extreme market volatility, which we know is incredibly common in cryptocurrency," said Carlton. Last week, LFG said it had bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin to add to its reserves. It has said in the past it intends to acquire $10 billion in bitcoin for its reserves."The problem is you're collateralizing now a cryptocurrency with yet another cryptocurrency. So there's just no tie into real-world assets," said Carlton. "Everyone has put US dollars into all these funds – they put it into bitcoin, they put it into UST, they put it into luna," said Carlton. "And then as people sell and withdraw back into fiat, they all decline … so it's a very much a compounding effect." There are some stablecoins that are "pretty predictable," enough so that institutions use them, said Fidelman."So if one of the pillars of that foundation breaks then it calls a lot of other things into the question. Cryptos are an emerging, new market and there needs to be more confidence in it for new people, new investors, new institutions to get involved in it," he said. "Now, is it going to be devastating to crypto? Absolutely not. But you can see some of the impact - whether it's related to luna or not - that it's having on the overall crypto market," Fidelman said.

A controversial stablecoin is 'breaking the buck.' Here's what that means, and why it's such a big deal.

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="12142474" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="peter-thiel" source="Orion">Peter Thiel</keyword> recently announced a <keyword id="11893902" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bitcoin" source="Orion">bitcoin</keyword> "enemies list" that included <keyword id="11915967" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="warren-buffett" source="Orion">Warren Buffett</keyword>, <keyword id="11893572" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="jamie-dimon" source="Orion">Jamie Dimon</keyword>, and <keyword id="12981584" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="larry-fink" source="Orion">Larry Fink</keyword>.</li><li>He described Buffett — who has repeatedly dismissed bitcoin — as "enemy No. 1."</li></ul>Tech investor Peter Thiel recently lashed out at influential people he described as <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/btc-usd">bitcoin's</a> "enemies," saying their anti-crypto stance is holding back the leading digital asset's success.During his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko6K82pXcPA">keynote speech</a> at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami, he said billionaire investor <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/peter-thiel-warren-buffett-bitcoin-price-crypto-keynote-miami-2022-4">Warren Buffett was "enemy No. 1</a>" and called him a "sociopathic grandpa from Omaha."Thiel also cast <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/jpm-stock">JPMorgan</a> chief executive Jamie Dimon and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/blk-stock">BlackRock</a> chairman Larry Fink as part of a "finance gerontocracy" — a society run by old people."This is what we have to fight for... for bitcoin to go 10x or 100x from here," said Thiel, who has made crypto-related investments personally and via VC firms he's helped establish, including the Founders Fund.<h3>Here's how six <keyword id="11893898" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="crypto" source="Orion">crypto</keyword> experts reacted:</h3>Anthony Scaramucci, founder and managing partner of SkyBridge Capital"While the 'financial gerontocracy' of Warren Buffet, Jamie Dimon, and Larry Fink is a real phenomenon, it is not an impediment to another bitcoin bull cycle. Bitcoin is a democratic asset, and we're seeing consumer demand force institutions like JPMorgan and BlackRock to build out bitcoin and crypto services for clients. Just this week, Fink himself noted strong consumer demand for bitcoin, and BlackRock invested in <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/circle-stablecoin-funding-round-usdc-blackrock-fidelity-crypto-2022-4">Circle's $400 million round</a>.Bitcoin is in search of its next large marginal buyer, which will come in the form of large asset allocators when we have more regulatory clarity on how digital assets will be treated."Staci Warden, CEO of the Algorand Foundation"Thiel's response to bitcoin skepticism has some truth, in that the leaders of traditional finance have been too slow to recognize the legitimacy of bitcoin as a digital store of value. But his maximalist view (the belief that bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that will matter in the future) in the end suffers from the same lack of vision as those whom he attacks."Peter Eberle, president and chief investment officer of Castle Funds"What do Warren Buffet, Jamie Dimon, and Larry Fink have in common? They work for some of the largest middlemen in the world. Why would they support bitcoin? It makes them obsolete. Warren Buffett investments are focused on middlemen businesses. Businesses where you need to hire a middleman who gets paid a commission – insurance, real estate, banking etc. I am not surprised that Warren Buffet opposes bitcoin, it makes him obsolete."Mark Fidelman, founder at SmartBlocks"While I admire Warren Buffet and have followed his philosophy for stock investing for decades, Buffet is a financial geriatrician who primarily cares for the old way of investing, and not the new. I do agree with Thiel, and will add that we need a Crypto Buffet to plainly explain to the masses how investing in crypto is a solid long term value strategy."Budd White, cofounder and chief product officer of Tacen"Blockchain technology is maturing and gaining credibility in traditional financial circles, and more than 1 in 4 young investors are now investing in <keyword id="11895317" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cryptocurrencies" source="Orion">cryptocurrencies</keyword>. How did this happen? It certainly wasn't because the world was hanging onto the words of old-school investors for a new-age digital currency. The world Buffett, Dimon, and Fink made their millions in has changed – and it's clear that adopters and investors no longer need the blessing of the old guard to feel comfortable dipping their toes in bitcoin."Marie Tatibouet, chief marketing officer at Gate.io"Well, Buffet invested a billion dollars in Nubank – a financial institution that's famous for being bitcoin-friendly. Dimon may hate crypto all he wants, but didn't JPMorgan just release a metaverse lounge on Decentraland?So, the bottom line is that they can say what they want, but money-making opportunities will dictate their actions. But, as things stand, their actions are definitely supporting the crypto ecosystem."Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-vc-family-offices-blockchain-investing-lennertz-co-oksana-tiedt-2022-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">An exclusive European multifamily office started exploring blockchain investing in 2017. Its head of funds shares how it made early high-conviction bets on big names in crypto VC — and identifies 2 under-the-radar firms to know</a>.

Peter Thiel called out Warren Buffett, Jamie Dimon, and Larry Fink as bitcoin's enemies. Here's how 6 crypto experts reacted.

<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>In an increasingly competitive marketplace, how do you get noticed and build a powerful reputation? I interviewed more than 50 top thought leaders in fields ranging from business and technology to genomics and urban planning to find the answer.Here are 10 of the best insights they shared in my new book <a href="http://amzn.to/1FVYNP9">Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It</a>."When you start building your brand in a corporation, it's a confined space. You don't need to be the best in the world; you just need to be the best one there. You can be a big fish in a little pond, and if you're the biggest fish in that environment, you get bigger and can then start to do things outside the organization." -Michael Leckie, regional vice president at Gartner"The fact that I don't have a lot of competition in what I do is astonishing to me. We say to every salesperson, every marketing person, every engineer, every CEO: 'Here you go, here's this free platform. If you say somethingthat's worth writing, people will read it. Do you want to use it?' And they say no. What's that about? I literally don't understand why people are eager to put 140-character things out of Twitter, but aren't willing to actually share thoughtful, generous, useful insight in a more permanent platform." -Seth Godin, bestselling author, entrepreneur, marketer, and public speaker"If you want people to do their best [work], they have to feel really safe, take risks, be naked, bare all, and if you're in an environment where you could be mocked, it's not as helpful…we held tight to that philosophy. Rigorous but supportive: that concept really resonated for people." -Eve Bridburg, on the founding of GrubStreet"When there's not a long and stable operating history from which to make accurate forecasts, beating the plan isn't cause for celebration. In fact, successfully executing it often leads to failure because you're fulfilling a bad plan." -Eric Ries, entrepreneur"[Codifying a system] is important because it provides a set of touchstones that we can return to for every new situation we face. What's the system here I need to apply? What are the principles of influence that might be available to be more persuasive in this new situation?" -Robert Cialdini, Regents' Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University"If you understand women, whether you're selling lingerie or technology, that's critical to your success." -Paco Underhill, environmental psychologist and author<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>"It's not about arriving at a certain place. It's about keeping an open question as to how you're impacting the earth and looking for ways accessible to you, given where you are in your life, to make a positive difference." -Reverend John Gibb Millspaugh, food justice organizer and Adaptive Leadership expert"Part of it is looking at where the audience is. You've got to figure out where they are. It's not about how to get them where you want them to go." -Robert Scoble, blogger and author"I try to make my content shareable as much as possible. I might create a SlideShare about it. I think, how do I repurpose this information so it spreads far and wide?" -Mark Fidelman, entrepreneur and consultant"You don't need time to have a good idea, you need space and you can't think appropriately if you don't have space in your head. It takes zero time to have an innovative idea or to make a decision, but if you don't have psychic space, those things are not necessarily impossible, but they're suboptimal." -David Allen, productivity consultant and author<a href="http://www.dorieclark.com/">Dorie Clark</a> is a marketing strategist who teaches at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. She is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591847400/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1591847400&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=thebusiinsi-20&amp;linkId=E27YEWKT7BQOZFZW">Reinventing You</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591847400/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1591847400&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=thebusiinsi-20&amp;linkId=C5ANELHL2ND5M26E">Stand Out</a>, and you can receive her free <a href="http://dorieclark.com/join/">Stand Out Self-Assessment Workbook</a>. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-good-bad-habits-of-smart-people-intelligence-iq-2015-3">The smartest people in the world share these common traits</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="s1YXQwdDrsteiQzMg_snVwF7WTLwmOdK" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

You Searched For "Mark Fidelman" and got 4 results

Looking Beyond Microsoft: Where Do You Want To Go Today?

Rohan Ayyar

A controversial stablecoin is 'breaking the buck.' Here's what that means, and why it's such a big deal.

Carla Mozée

Peter Thiel called out Warren Buffett, Jamie Dimon, and Larry Fink as bitcoin's enemies. Here's how 6 crypto experts reacted.

Shalini Nagarajan

How to become known as the best in your field

Dorie Clark, "STAND OUT"

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