The Pandemic has taken a massive toll on kids. We may not see it, but it's there. For all the sentiment around reducing screen time over the years, the pandemic has actually accelerated & pushed many of the already vulnerable kids into the black hole of the internet and dopamine driven rewards. When schools re-open things wont be easy, the education system & parents needs to be ready for the challenge and be ready to build a support network around children to help them flourish once again. Your kids are not your schools responsibility!

Outcomes

"When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."Goodhart's law. In other words, when we set one specific goal, people will tend to optimise for that objective/outcome regardless of the consequences.

The Cobra Effect.

British colonialists tried to reduce the snake population in India(Delhi)

They did what they knew best, incentives aka bounties for dead cobras with cash given out to the killers. Much like managers set incentives for staff.(more on that later)

The policy initially appeared successful, snake catchers claiming their bounties and fewer cobras being seen in the city.

Yet, instead of tapering off over time, there was a steady increase in the number of dead cobras being presented for bounty payment each month. Nobody knew why. Have you guessed why yet?

Realising that the cobra bounty converted the snakes into valuable commodities, entrepreneurial citizens started actively breeding them.

Govt caught on clearly, the breeders figure out their jig was up no more cash incentives, released the snakes into the city, resulting in further compounding the issue, far worse than the original one. A great article on systems think and the Cobra effect here. The lesson being that Outcomes alone don't work. Outcomes done right should pair a quantity measure with a quality measure.

One New Thing

An Ommaya reservoir is an intraventricular catheter system that can be used for the aspiration of cerebrospinal fluid or for the delivery of drugs (e.g. chemotherapy) into the cerebrospinal fluid was invented in 1963 by Dr. Ayub Khan Ommaya MD, ScD (h.c.), FRCS, FACS a Pakistani American neurosurgeon. He was born on April 14, 1930 Mian Channu, Punjab, Pakistan. Before Dr. Ommaya's work in the 1960s, there was no effective way to deliver chemotherapy treatments for brain tumors. His invention of the Ommaya reservoir, a plastic dome-shaped device with a catheter attached to the underside, made possible the delivery of chemotherapy to the brain and spinal cord. In addition, the device served as a prototype for all medical ports now in use. Heres a Washington Post story that covered his fascinating life and accomplishments.

Boring stuff that scales

So heres a long term belief that Ive held. Not every one needs to or can be Netflix rich.Not every business needs to be sexy. One typically can make good money doing something silly / unsexy / un-innovative/ copied/borrowed/ better mousetrap etc. When somebody asks you your business idea you don’t have to have a remarkable answer. This is what keeps on happening to us, we keep looking to build remarkable things by having remarkable ideas by forgetting why we should start a business in the first place. To provide a decent and structured cash flow that allows us to grow. Give your self room to think about the dull, the boring, the simple stuff. If you are competing with your self and your ego to build the next Tesla you wont have moments of clarity to attack boring problems.

So think Local Services not the "uber of stupidity or super app of X"

Here are my top Suggestions

1)Residential Window cleaning - do it your self/hire a crew. Students, friends , un or under-employed, you can get started in under 30k PKR today.

2)Home Veggie patch/garden setup as a service. From buying planters to planting seeds to setting up the actual garden both in horizontal and vertical urban settings. Net net , have a plan to commission a veggie patch/garden based on peoples budgets show pictures of end product and share pre made packages and roll out a few a week.

3)Solar panel cleaning services. Solar is big business now in large cities with erratic power supply. First year contracts for cleaning are included in price of the setup. What happens in year two? Build a calendar where people can add their contract expiry date and quote them a price 2 weeks prior to the contract then hire a cleaning crew or partner up with some one in service 1 to go to market.

4)Chopped veggies delivery. Doesn't sound like much. But trust me, once people get used to convenience they will keep on coming back for more. Every one needs time and more time and then some. Urban middle class and growing rich classes (hired help) need things that help them achieve minimalism nirvana and speed etc.

5)Home composting setup as a service. Given the choice, who wouldn't want to compost, especially if it saves or generates some thing for the home owner. This will take time as we aren't used to it, but can totally be a scalable idea once enough traction is built. Buy the mulch people produce?

6)Old school idea, yes a Paid hotline for tech queries over the phone. We have an entire subset of population who gets cheated due to wrong advice, wrong parts, wrong services, incomplete info. From setting up your smart tv, to configuring your wifi, to using your phone, to using a microwave or electronic device correctly or its service or maintenance related items. Have some one you can call for 50 Rs a question. Payment via easy paisa/jazz cash.

7) Fixer on wheels. Not every thing needs an app. Not every one knows how to use an app. Imagine an on call 24/7 rider service available within a 5km radius. From getting your photocopies done, to doing errands to going to buy groceries for you, to doing pre agreed-scheduled tasks. One number, local faces, no gig economy guys a small team who service people in a neighbourhood or vicinity. Use case(s), you need a local carpenter to do some quick repairs, call the fixer to bring some one across. Instead of paying 30k a month for a person to be employed full time with a bike the real idea is to have a time share on X hours a month on a reliable person/company who will come to you when needed. You get 5 Hours a Month or 5 Tasks. For 2500 PKR subscription. I mean you will have to do the math to make it work but you get the drift.

8) Un Pasteurised milk on wheels. Back to basics, doodh wala. Figure out a small place in Malir get some cows, target the affluent market, excellent packaging ala simple glass bottles. Bring it home.. You can get started in under 1M PKR and literally grow the business. Pool in, raise some friends and family money and build it out slowly.

9) Home cooked meals as a permanent subscription targeting the affluent. Corona has done to the rich what it has done to the poor. Lots of people have had to cut social interaction and thus cut house hold help. Especially live out help for cooking. Build a Desi meal menu, 2 meals a day, delivered to house holds with Husband & Wife combo (52-70) yrs of age, whose kids don't live with them or live overseas(empty nesters if you were). Simple fare, daal chawal, salan roti, one Sabzi ensure this is not made in diesel but the best available cooking oil and in the cleanest of environment. With the lunch, deliver the dinner as well. The math is simple, in the affluent parts, a full time cook costs 25PKR a month. (Thats the base line this house hold can direct to your service) If you can do 4 (2 lunches 2 dinners) Portions a day for 20 days a month at 1000 PKR a day, you have already won this space. Delivery plus add-ons extra. As a local service built, block by block and area by area in DHA/Clifton/PECHS/KDA this wins. The household also doesn't have to shop for staples or go to the market and limit corona exposure altogether. Get 10 people to subscribe for a month, right after ramzan, in the mean while tie up with a cloud kitchen, one id recommend is HotPod. You can reach out to my friend Adeel incase you need more info on working with a commercial kitchen for building your brand.(Not a sponsored post)

10) House hold/ home/ apartment painting. I polled 2600 people over a 2 month period from 8 Cities in Pakistan on the one home service they dread doing but one they wished they did more frequently. The resounding answer at 87% was getting ones home painted. It cant be this hard, get a crew together, get excellent at estimation. But before that use online channels to build demand. Do one location. Get a review, build on it. Do a stellar job. Do it on time, do it on budget, don't break peoples house hold effects, train your crew. Buy your paint/supplies all up front from whole sale or directly even partner with the brand, that would discourage them from painting round-abouts for free publicity. There has to be an easier way. Make three rates. The only difference in all three is Quality of Paint used. Then make a 4th Rate for faster premium service - as an add on.

You heard(saw) it here first ...

Have you ever heard of Pakistan Maroc Phosphore, S.A. Its is a joint venture with Office Cherifien des Phosphate (OCP), a Moroccan Government entity entrusted since 1921 and the biggest industrial group of Kingdom of Morocco with managing all the phosphate reserves of the Kingdom of Morocco. Phosphoric Acid, being the main raw material for DAP production, is being imported from Morocco. To ensure the continuous supply of this strategic raw material to run our DAP plant at Karachi, OCP and the Fauji Group (Fauji Foundation, FFC and FFBL) entered into a joint venture for its uninterrupted supply. The company, named as Pakistan Maroc Phosphore S.A (PMP) was formed in 2004 at Morocco with a paid up capital of 800 million Moroccan Dirhams. Project cost was 2,030 million Moroccan Dirhams (US$ 250 million).

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

What you should be reading & why

Great Leaders Live Like Drug Addicts: How to Lead Like Your Life Depends on It. In his book Michael  shares 3 principles that he learned during rehab treatment and goes on to share how he lives by them:

1.Practice rigorous authenticity

2.Surrender the outcome

3.Do uncomfortable work

Michael does not say that implementing these 3 principles work as a quick fix, rather it's something to do every day- even on the days when we don't feel like it. This is an authentic insight into building better humans and leaders. He tells his story of going from a drug addict living with a victim mindset to a successful CEO by following what he was taught in recovery. He talks about how all leaders hide behind a mask, like addicts do, and how living mask free can change your life.

Bonus- Michaels TedTalk

Great Leaders Do What Drug Addicts Do | Michael Brody-Waite | TEDxNashville — www.youtube.com

This is my story from drug addiction and homelessness to founding and leading a company on the Inc 500 list.

Monetise your time

Monetise your time by reducing distractions from your life. Also know this: distractions at work are a symptom of a dysfunctional company culture. In a world of beeps, buzzes and notifications how do you monetise more of your time by being less distracted?

If This is your life, you are leaving money on the table:

1)You plan on getting started with a new important work project, before you begin the notification stream on your phone takes you out of focus

2)Once you do find your way pas those social media/content distractions, as you're about to get back to work, a colleague walks in to your office and wants to have a chat

3)At home, the beeps from notification screens get in the way of quality time with your loved ones. You are lost whilst your kids are talking to you. Being checked out mentally but being physically there.

Another day goes by, and once again, your most important personal & professional goals are put on hold because there is no real gain or momentum in the things you planned to do, instead more than half your time is lost due to items seeking your attention but distracting you.

If you are guilty of all or most or some of the above, you are leaving money on the table. How so? Time away from kids, Time away from family, mentally being checked out. Not having laser focus when you should.

In the end know this, all the "work related" items causing these distractions will not equal your boss coming to your funeral with ESOPs for your wife and children saying he was such a hard worker, here have some equity in the company. Dont f-up your present for your future by ignoring the current.

You are trading your health and doing a future allocation by betting the house today. In the end the only one that wins in this is the guy who employs you. End distractions by setting hard rules. Work and Personal Phone numbers to be separate. One device will kill you faster. 9-5 is what some one pays you for, if they cant operate within that space, the company culture is toxic, they are either under staffed or incompetent.

Time to move on. You owe no one any thing besides what they are paying for. Don't let your moral compass be the only compass in this journey. Time truly is money, time well spent with kids is more valuable, than time being distracted away from them. No amount of time will fix the cost and burden of a deteriorating health.

Made in Pakistan

Pakistan Ordinance Factory makes a mean MP5. Details here  . Whilst many enthusiasts may have known that already what I didn't know is that you cant legally own one domestically unless you are a retired officer or have permits etc to do so. But What a wonderful gift Youtube is, these guns are available at gun stores across the united states and the reviews led me to some fascinating insights.

1) Its favourite amongst people looking for said type of firearm

2) It costs between 1200 to 1500 USD in the US (wondering how much money our govt makes from the sales) The Auditor Generals report from Page 187 onwards is a telling sign no less of how much performance improvement or digitization can help this.

3) People buy it then go crazy customising it, so whilst weapons export may be a regulated space, add-ons can clearly be a huge market to look into as you can sell them on amazon.

One Last thing

Things Ive been thinking about.

1) Lack of antiques/antique stores being online in Pakistan thus an avenue for building a business. Blogs/discovery/tours/sourcing/sales + all this also has a huge content play.

2) Entire markets being digitally deficient, like "Khajoor Market in Lea Market" and the opportunity to add vendors and make them searchable. Price of entry a smart phone that almost every one has. Would open up the market to orders locally and inter city.

3) How the hardware market is ready for disruption if some one could build a product pricing engine. Locks, handles, nails, your average daily fare, all priced and housed and run by a single "monopolistic trading sub-group". Power to them but an opportunity ripe for the taking, build a fair price store display all prices small brick and mortar that rolls up digitally.

4) What would it take for us to encourage locally built consulting/advisory businesses across segments? We continue to align our fortunes with foreign consultants. Local experience & expertise is in-valuable but under valued. Similarly a listing for people with rich experiences who are retired who want to volunteer their time and be matched with startups/anyone else needing the support or expert opinion. Could have two versions, paid advisory for time and volunteer depending on the needs of the founders + advisors.