I haven’t written any reviews for my years in the past. So this year I am writing a brief review for 2021, the year that just went by. Here is a list of things that happened in the year 2021.

1. Year started with vaccinations starting worldwide and a sense of victory over COVID and hopefully we/all thought the COVID time was gone. Turned out challenges were far greater than initial victories in vaccine science & creation, namely – trials, approvals, supply chain, number of vaccinations applied worldwide, delivery, manufacturing and more – it turned out to be a worldwide exercise which ultimately ecosystem of vaccines was able to conquer. Vaccine delivery to people was outmatched by new infections initially although over time during the year vaccines became available and people readily got vaccinated leading to better outcomes. Scientists and all associated with vaccines brought down the vaccine creation and production cycle from 10 years in the past to approximately one year which in itself is an unmatched feat till now. Positive thing has been newer types of vaccines, collaboration in science across the world and the fact that the lockdowns or restrictions brought us closer to family members and network where the commute time got converted to time spent with family and network either digitally or in person. We could use the extra time to build better habits of reading and much more. It taught us to value small things and things that we have in a realistic manner rather than focus on other things.
2. In the first quarter, I decided to move out of services to a technology product company which also supported me in forming my own private limited firm. Turned out to be a good journey of learning, exploration and working in a new area – “Customer Success”. It was an area which I had not been actively working on in the last 8-10 years but as the year progressed I could pick up with the company’s help and move ahead.
3. Teaching wise I consolidated from teaching at 3-5 universities / colleges / platforms to only one university. I have been teaching at Nirma University now for 3+ years as a visiting faculty where I now have focus on subjects – Python & R programming, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, BigData & Hadoop, Business Process Re-engineering and taking few other lectures in co-teach mode related to information systems, programming, operations & data science at institute of management. Support from both places in terms of good mentors and colleagues where I work resulted in good quality output throughout the year.
4. I could write about 11 blog posts in the year which is approximately 1 per month in varied areas. Lot of my past / current students or colleagues either in teaching world or industry or people in my network have triggered many of these discussions or the thoughts have come to me while randomly analysing many of these things. Overall I am looking for my network’s suggestions on similar topics continuously.
5. Later, in spite of COVID and all the problems around it, Ahmedabad University and UCSD helped us to complete our GEMBA in online mode. All credit to them for running a top class program and keeping the same level of high quality delivery so that the whole batch could finish the program on time. I got a chance to do a 4 week certification on digitization of supply chains from NITIE and got admission to BITS Pilani for MTech in Software Systems as well – so time well spent.
6. Looking forward to the new year – I hope everyone gets to put COVID behind and have a happy new year where people can spend time with family and network in a positive way plus have a career / job / business / startup / teaching / research area / spend time in a way that suits them.

Email me: Neil@HarwaniSystems.in