Ajay Dhurv Rathi

A father, climate activist & researcher

[Strategic Signals 📡 @SignalsStrategy]

Game Boy (1989)

In 1989, while competitors like Atari $PONGF and Sega $SGAMY were focused on handheld consoles with color screens and more powerful processors, Nintendo opted for a mature, cost-effective 8-bit processor and a monochrome LCD screen.

This seemingly outdated technology allowed Nintendo to prioritize gameplay, portability, and exceptionally long battery life using readily available and cheap AA batteries.

By focusing on these core elements and offering the console at an affordable price, Nintendo made the Game Boy accessible to a vast audience.

📡 The monochrome screen, while technically less advanced, was power-efficient and allowed players to easily discern gameplay elements. The lower cost made it accessible to more consumers and developers, leading to a vast library of games.

The result was a phenomenal market success, with over 118 million units sold, making it the best-selling console of the 20th century.

[Strategic Signals 📡 @SignalsStrategy]

Game & Watch Series (1980)

Observing bored businessmen on trains playing with their LCD calculators, Yokoi recognized an opportunity to leverage the readily available and inexpensive LCD technology from the fiercely competitive calculator market.

He applied lateral thinking to create simple, addictive games integrated into watch-like devices. This technology was mature, cheap to mass produce, and power-efficient.

Yokoi took this basic display technology and applied it to create simple, self-contained handheld electronic games.

📡 Instead of aiming for complex graphics or processing power, the focus was on engaging gameplay within the limitations of the hardware. This innovative use of LCD screens for dedicated games paved the way for the handheld gaming market.

[Strategic Signals 📡 @SignalsStrategy]

📡 “Lateral Thinking” involves using these mature technologies in new, unexpected, and creative ways to create novel experiences.

It’s about applying existing knowledge from one area to another to generate innovation.

[Strategic Signals 📡 @SignalsStrategy]

📡 “Withered” in this context does not necessarily imply that the technology is old or obsolete in the common sense of the word.

Instead, it describes technologies that have been around long enough to be thoroughly vetted and refined and whose limitations and capabilities are deeply understood.

Key characteristics of withered technology include

- Established and efficient manufacturing processes,
- Widespread availability of components due to mass production,
- Significantly lower costs compared to cutting-edge alternatives, and
- A deep collective understanding of how the technology functions and can be applied.

[Strategic Signals 📡 @SignalsStrategy]

📡 What made Yokoi particularly brilliant was his ability to identify withered technologies and implement them in a new context in a way that no one thought of before.

What did Yokoi mean by withered technology here?

Withered technology refers to mature technology that is well understood, readily available, cost-effective, and typically has a stable and predictable development lifecycle.

[Strategic Signals 📡 @SignalsStrategy]

📡 As it turns out, the Ultra Hand sold over 1.2 million units and became a huge success for Nintendo.

The impressed Yamauchi then invited Yokoi to start the game and toy operation of Nintendo.

[Strategic Signals 📡 @SignalsStrategy]

📡 One day, during a factory visit, the then-president of Nintendo, Hiroshi Yamauchi, saw Gunpei Yokoi playing with a toy extending arm that Yokoi had created for his own amusement during his spare time while working as a maintenance personnel.

This device that Yokoi built could grab distant objects with suction cups.

For someone like Yamauchi who was trying to turn his company around, Yokoi’s extended arm invention called the Ultra Hand caught Yamauchi’s attention.

Yamauchi instructed Yokoi to develop his Ultra Hand prototype into a proper product. Yamauchi said,

[Strategic Signals 📡 @SignalsStrategy]

📡 Nintendo attempted to diversify its business by experimenting with other ventures.

This gaming giant once tried to operate a taxi company, love hotels, and even tried to produce instant rice. They even experimented with selling vacuum cleaners.

But it didn’t work out well.

[Strategic Signals 📡 @SignalsStrategy]

📡 In 1965, a Japanese man named Gunpei Yokoi started working at a playing card company after his poor performance in his university’s electronics exams.

So, he had to opt for a job as a machine maintenance worker in this playing card company that we know as Nintendo $NTDOY.

Back in that time, Nintendo was struggling financially and was trying very hard to survive.

Nintendo’s success with the playing card business was no longer adequate to keep the company going as Japanese society was gradually shifting its interest from playing cards to other forms of entertainment, such as pachinko and bowling.

This led to the decline in sales, and eventually, Nintendo’s stock price plummeted after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

[Strategic Signals 📡 @SignalsStrategy]

📡 In a lot of cases, investing in a company that is working on expensive and not-so-profitable (yet) cutting-edge technologies doesn’t always make much strategic or financial sense for someone who has a very low-risk tolerance from an investment standpoint.

Our CIO @ShahAdaanU uses Nintendo $NTDOY and particularly Gunpei Yokoi's design philosophy "Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology" as a mental model to evaluate and make investment decisions.

Read his newsletter/thread below to understand Yokoi's philosophy that shaped the gaming industry👇

https://t.co/bTJFyI78Bw

[Shah Adaan Uzzaman @ShahAdaanU]

📡 Read my newsletter/thread on "Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology" from @SignalsStrategy 👇

[Strategic Signals 📡 @SignalsStrategy]

3/ The Rise of Super Apps.

Super apps didn't work pretty well in the US. Elon Musk is building X as a super app. So there is a lot to witness in the US markets in the future.

But super apps worked really well in some Asian countries. Super apps brand themselves as a "one-stop solution," which incorporates different services into one platform or app.

The idea of super apps became popular because of the huge success of WeChat in China.

Grab's moat is its positioning as a super app.

Grab operates a super app ecosystem integrating ride-hailing, food delivery (GrabFood), digital payments (GrabPay), financial services (GrabInsure, GXS Bank), and logistics (GrabExpress). Its platform connects over 35 million monthly active users with 2.8 million drivers and merchants across eight Southeast Asian countries.

One of our team members has advised policies to a South Asian country. One of the biggest challenges he faced in his country was banking the huge unbanked population.

Most people in the Southeast and South Asia region do not even have a bank account. That's where the FinTech revolution comes in.

Various FinTech companies have been massively successful in these countries only because they simplify user onboarding and transfer of money.

And Grab has digital banks!

We will publish our signals 📡 in detail pretty soon.

[Strategic Signals 📡 @SignalsStrategy]

2/ The bullish public sentiment surrounding $GRAB may cause worries among some investors about whether the stock is overhyped.

How do we look at this? Our analysis says Grab's fundamentals are pretty strong.

This is the company that beat $UBER in its own game. Uber had to shut down its operations in Southeast Asia and sold its Southeast Asian operations - including ride-hailing and UberEats - to Grab in exchange for a 27.5% stake in Grab and a board seat.

Toyota, SoftBank, BlackRock, and Ray Dalio have invested in $GRAB.

[Strategic Signals 📡 @SignalsStrategy]

1/ Before we publish our signals 📡 on $GRAB, we felt it's important to touch base right now so that you can stay ahead of the market. Here's a "big picture" overview of $GRAB:

A friend of one of our team members had to attend a policy conference in Malaysia. Before she traveled from Bangladesh (where Grab is not operational), she downloaded the app on her phone and jumped on the plane to Malaysia.

Grab's mobile app is ranking 46th in the "travel" category in the US App Store.

This is super important because Grab is not operational in the US. So how can an app, without being operational in a country, get so many users or general attention?

This is primarily because the countries Grab is operational in right now are tourist destinations, along with their business and other significance.

Grab operates in 500+ cities across 8 Southeast Asian countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Cambodia. All these nations are established tourist destinations.

- Singapore attracted over 19 million visitors in 2024, driven by its reputation as a safe, clean, and efficient destination.

- Tourists visit Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Borneo (Sabah) in Malaysia. Ecotourism is rising, with destinations like Taman Negara National Park gaining traction for biodiversity tours.

- Post-pandemic recovery saw Bali’s (Indonesia) tourism surge by 40% in 2024, driven by digital nomad visas and wellness tourism.

- Thailand remains Southeast Asia’s most visited country, with 35 million tourists in 2024.

- Visa exemptions for European travelers and expanded flight routes increased 2024 arrivals by 25% in Vietnam.

Every time a tourist visits any of these 8 countries, they download Grab on their phones in most cases. That explains Grab's rank in the US App Store.

[Ajay Dhurv Rathi @AjayDhurv]

@SignalsStrategy Loved the analysis. Keep up the good work!

[Shah Adaan Uzzaman @ShahAdaanU]

@albd1971 @ALBDMedia 5. Performance in Key Indicators

[Shah Adaan Uzzaman @ShahAdaanU]

4. Formulation of National Menstrual Hygiene Management Strategy 2021

[Shah Adaan Uzzaman @ShahAdaanU]

In contrast, let's revisit what our @albd1971 government has accomplished in the last couple of years despite the prevalence of religious extremism 👇

1. Elimination of VAT & Tax on Imported Raw Materials Required for Manufacturing Sanitary Napkins.

@ALBDMedia

[Shah Adaan Uzzaman @ShahAdaanU]

2. Free Sanitary Napkin Distribution

[Shah Adaan Uzzaman @ShahAdaanU]

3. Pad & Equipment Distribution and Entrepreneurship Training for Women