A nudge against sleep and productivity
Trying to stay more informed, entertained, educated, mindful, and fit? More apps, subscriptions, and content is counter-productive
Charles Assisi
Co-founder and Director
Founding Fuel
Charles Assisi is an award-winning journalist with two decades of experience to back him. He is co-founder and director at Founding Fuel, and co-author of the book The Aadhaar Effect. He is a columnist for Hindustan Times, one of India's most influential English newspaper. He is vocal in his views on journalism and what shape it ought to take in India. He speaks on the theme at various forums and is often invited by various organizations to teach their teams how to write.
In his last assignment, he wore two hats: That of Managing Editor at Forbes India and Editor at ForbesLife India. As part of the leadership team, his mandate was to create a distinctive business title in a market many thought was saturated. When Forbes India was finally launched after much brainstorming and thinking through, it broke through the ranks and got to be recognized as the most influential business magazine in the country. He did much the same thing with ForbesLife India where he broke from convention and launched the title to critical acclaim.
Before that, he was National Technology Editor and National Business Editor at the Times of India, during the great newspaper wars of 2005. He was part of the team that ensured Times of India maintained top dog status in Mumbai on the face of assaults by DNA and Hindustan Times.
His first big gig came in his late twenties when German media house Vogel Burda marked its India debut with CHIP a wildly popular technology magazine. He was appointed Editor and given a free run to create what he wanted. During this stint, he worked and interacted with all of Vogel Burda's various newsrooms across Europe and Asia.
Charles holds a Masters in Economics from Mumbai Universtity and an MBA in Finance. Along the way he earned the Madhu Valluri Award for Excellence in Journalism and the Polestar Award for Excellence in Business Journalism.
In his spare time, he reads voraciously across the board, but is biased towards psychology and the social sciences. He dabbles in various things that catch his fancy at various points. But as fancies go, many evaporate as often as they fall on him.
My contributions
106 articles written
The ROI on goodness
It makes more economic sense for business to be good in the longer run
Why anti-trust is antiquated for Big Tech
A compelling alternative approach for regulators is to build ‘data democracy’—give users ownership of their own data and allow them share or un-share it with tech aggregators based on the quality of service they get
Nothing personal. Just business
Biryani has the attention of entrepreneurs, investors and consumers. Biryani by Kilo was among the first off the block. This is the story of the founding team. Thus far
No country for old people
They are educated, retired, and well to do. Yet digital technology has left them behind. What’s behind this digital divide?
Death of the white shirt?
The millennials’ love for selfies is driving a change in what sells in apparel stores—and the rise of Jawed Habib
How will you manage your life?
All of us are taught how to manage our careers and finances. But how do we manage our relationships and measure our life?
The world as seen by Michael Phelps
Listening to the greatest Olympian ever offers life lessons that can be extrapolated into multiple domains
Paul Allen the artist versus Bill Gates the entrepreneur
There are artists and entrepreneurs. Their stories aren’t pretty. But tough calls must be taken. Their stories can be found across the world, India included where the IT Services business is staring at a tough time
Aadhaar and the three laws of tech for entrepreneurs
In listening to the Supreme Court pronounce its verdict on Aadhaar, some pointers emerge to the vagaries of entrepreneurship