Lazy Sunday #4 - Sales, reviews and compassion

Welcome to the first Lazy Sunday in 2024.

The beginning of January is a busy time for me, coming out of New Year’s celebrations right into celebrating a couple of birthdays.

Enough parties, I say!

This year started with a 🎆: a couple of articles calling for increased regulations of neurotechnology (Fletcher Reveley wrote an excellent piece in Undark) and in parallel, neurofeedback technology is being called the next tech frontier. Both are good, because they show increased attention on all sides.

Last but not least, but actually first in today’s newsletter, we will dig into some interesting research on the relevance of sales teams, product ratings and compassion in business.

Happy reading!

Find my research

Sales has a real place in B2B Enterprise relationships

A study looked into the NPS and value extraction of buyer vs. seller initiation of relationship. They found, that when sellers initiate the contact, the value extraction as well as the NPS of the relationship is higher. The whole discussion around “do we really need large sales teams” can be answered with a “yes” for enterprise deals. (Engaged Management Review)

Do product ratings show the true value?

Once a product is released, the rating hunt is on. Whether on Amazon or on G2 for software products, early ratings are important to determine the initial success of the product. Because ratings basically utilize herd mentality (or rating and popularity bias), early good ratings will help to determine future success. The question is, whether this is actually user-friendly and whether there is a need for updates of recommendation algorithms. (Library of Medicine)

Empathy vs. Compassion: what is better for performance?

So much has been said about the need for empathy in leadership. So I looked into some research, because you know, Forbes is not necessarily the pinnacle of science. But here we go, research supports Christine Comaford’s statements.

Empathy allows resonating with both positive and negative feelings of others. Done over a longer period of time, this can actually have negative health impacts, as we start to “internalize” the “pain of others”. Compassion allows for a more positive twist. Definitely worth reading, if you are in a people leading position. (Forbes / ScienceDirect)

Do you know how hunger actually works?

When I read the headline, I was surprised. We don’t know how hunger works? We get hungry, we want a sandwich, we get a sandwich (if we are in the lucky position to be able to get one). Hunger overrides most other needs. Hunger makes us perform worse, and impacts our objective decision.making process. Hunger is so (!) basic, no species would survive without the feeling of hunger. And yet we do not know, how it works. But we are edging closer. (MITReview)

On top of tech

Will regulatory frameworks be on top of tech in 2024?

A couple of weeks ago, I highlighted the importance of regulation of neuro-related technology. This is a fantastic and fascinating look into the race governments are entering. Interestingly, South American countries are spearheading the implementation of regulatory frameworks in their legislations.

There is a lot at stake. While Facebook working of data provided by users and cookies, AI already has a deeper look into user behaviour due to its ability to analyse users’ input and almost make conclusions on peoples’ thoughts. New technologies in neuroscience could one day “read” your mind remotely. The Undark piece is really good! (Undark / FrontiersIn)

BostonDynamics connects to EEG glasses

To be honest, I have always found BostonDynamics (BD) fascinating, but slightly creepy. Now BD has released “Spot” connected to glasses powered by AttentivUI. These glasses measure EEG (electrical brain activity) and EOG (electro-oculography: eye movements) to communicate wirelessly with “Spot”. The combination is called Ddog, and aims at supporting physically challenged people.

Unfortunately, I can not be a 100% sure, whether these videos are real, as I, in contrast to spot, can not read Nataliya Kosymna’s thoughts (Nataliya is the project lead), but it’s nevertheless impressive. (MIT)

Synchron gets a “new” CTO

Okay, why is this important, you say? Synchron is an Australia based, but soon to be relocated to the States company, working on an invasive brain-computer-interface, that kicks Elon Musk’s Neurolink’s ***. Synchron is also a good example of the deep tech coming out of Australia (am I biased?). Watch Tom Oxley’s TED talk here.

Riki Banerjee has been with the company for some years. Her background is in neuromodulation and engineering. Forget GPT prompts, neuromodulation for consumer tech will be the new skill.

What is interesting for the business people peeps: Riki Banarjee highlights the complexities of outsourcing steps during the manufacturing process. You can’t build it all in-house, if you want an industry-leading product. (BusinessWire)

Neurofeedback therapy officially enters the land of entrepreneurs

An interesting read on the potential impact of neurofeedback on high performers in the business world. To quote:

(FastCompany)

Misc but not least…

In case you did not know, I am into music. I actually thought I will be a DJ playing around the world. Well, it did not pan out that way, but I do love everything music. So I got intrigued when I saw, that specific music at specific hertz rates, can help with focus, relaxations, as it gets the brain into the “right wave length”. Here is a Spotify playlist. Try it out!

Thanks for reading.

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And now: enjoy the rest of the day.

See you soon,

Alex