Game of Consultants
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Guesstimate Cheat Sheet
Useful numbers for guesstimates and market sizing.
Nintendo
Find out how Nintendo pivoted from Playing Cards to Gaming Consoles.
The Business of Dying: Why Death is a Trillion-Dollar Industry
Death is often treated as a deeply personal experience, yet behind every funeral, cremation, and insurance claim lies one of the world’s most resilient industries. From funeral homes and cemeteries to grief tech and cryonics, the business of death has evolved into a global market worth trillions of dollars.
What appears to be a sacred ritual is also a highly structured commercial system shaped by corporate consolidation, pricing power, and emotional vulnerability. Families navigating grief are often pushed into costly decisions, while investors increasingly view death care as one of the most dependable sectors in the economy. As cremation rates rise and traditional funeral models face pressure, the industry is rapidly reinventing itself through personalised memorials, AI-driven digital afterlives, and emerging preservation technologies.
The economics of dying reveal far more than how societies handle loss – they expose how commerce, technology, and inequality continue to shape the human experience even in death.
Explore the full analysis in Vithurna’s article.
Is Lipstick a Recession Indicator?
Even in times of economic downturn, consumer spending does not disappear—it transforms. The “Lipstick Index,” a concept coined during recessionary periods, reveals how individuals shift from large, deferrable purchases to affordable indulgences or “micro-luxuries” that provide comfort, control, and a sense of normalcy amid uncertainty.
Rooted in consumer psychology, these small purchases—from cosmetics to streaming subscriptions—serve as emotional coping mechanisms, reflecting a deeper need for self-reward during financial stress. For businesses, this shift presents a strategic opportunity: success during a recession depends not on selling necessity, but on offering accessible moments of escapism and reassurance.
From cinema experiences to innovative campaigns like Hyundai’s assurance program, brands that align with consumers’ emotional needs can not only survive but thrive during downturns.
Explore the full analysis in Anna’s article.
The Cascade of Closure: Analysing NASA’s Shutdown Impact on Global Economic and Scientific Progress
When political deadlock on Earth brings space exploration to a halt, the consequences extend far beyond grounded missions and silent laboratories. The 2025 shutdown of NASA revealed just how fragile global scientific progress and economic ecosystems can be when they hinge on government stability, disrupting research, delaying international collaborations, and unsettling thousands of lives tied to the space economy.
What appears to be a budgetary impasse unfolds into a far-reaching crisis—impacting global projects like NISAR, weakening trust in long-term partnerships, and triggering economic slowdowns in communities dependent on space infrastructure. From stalled innovation to furloughed scientists and shaken investor confidence, the ripple effects highlight how deeply interconnected science, economy, and policy truly are.
Yet within this disruption lies a shifting global dynamic. As uncertainty clouds NASA’s reliability, agencies like ISRO may find new opportunities to emerge as stable and strategic leaders in the evolving space landscape.
Explore the full analysis in Sanjana’s article.
Algorithm Anxiety: Are Managers Getting Overpowered by Machines?
Artificial intelligence is not just transforming how organizations operate, it is quietly reshaping how managers think, decide, and define their own relevance. As algorithms take over complex decision-making, a growing sense of “algorithm anxiety” has emerged, where leaders feel their cognitive authority being challenged by systems that are faster, more accurate, and increasingly indispensable.
This shift is not merely technological but deeply psychological. The traditional role of managers as decision-makers is evolving into one of interpreters and overseers, often leading to a loss of ownership and confidence. Yet, as organizations experiment with human-AI collaboration, a new paradigm is emerging—one where managers regain purpose not by competing with machines, but by contextualizing and ethically guiding their outputs.
In a world driven by optimization, the real challenge lies in preserving human judgment, empathy, and meaning. As hybrid teams consistently outperform purely human or automated systems, the future of management will depend on striking a balance between machine intelligence and human intentionality.
Discover the full perspective in Purnika’s article.
Why Groups of Experts Watch Disasters Unfold and Let It Happen
Why do disasters unfold in rooms full of experts without anyone stopping them?
Contrary to popular belief, failure is often not a result of ignorance, but of silence. Drawing from psychological research, historical case studies, and organisational behaviour, this article examines how the bystander effect operates inside expert groups, turning warning signs into “open secrets” that no one acts upon.
From NASA’s Challenger disaster to Kodak’s missed digital revolution and the 2008 financial crisis, the piece explains how diffusion of responsibility, pluralistic ignorance, and groupthink prevent individuals from speaking up even when they know something is wrong. The article also explores how organisational design, not individual intelligence, determines whether expertise translates into action.
Read Sanya Agarwal’s article to understand why intelligence without psychological safety can be dangerously ineffective and what organisations can do to break the silence.