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Lateral Sparks, the weekly quiz from YourStory, tests your domain knowledge, business acumen, and lateral thinking skills (see the previous edition here). In this 94th edition of the quiz, we present issues tackled by real-life entrepreneurs in their startup journeys.

What would you do if you were in their shoes? At the end of the quiz, you will find out what the entrepreneurs and innovators themselves actually did. Would you do things differently?

Check out YourStory’s Book Review section as well, with takeaways from over 355 titles on creativity and entrepreneurship, and our weekend PhotoSparks section on creativity in the arts.

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Q1: Digital carbon footprint

The rapid spread of digital infrastructure and its increasing daily usage by consumers and businesses have raised concerns about the carbon footprint of our digital lifestyles. How can players like data center operators address some of these challenges?

Q2: The importance of data

We are living in an increasingly data-centric world, and the power of ubiquitous data has been likened to oil, gold, and even water. However, gathering data and ensuring its quality and relevance is only the first part of the digital journey – what’s next?

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Q3: GenAI impacts

Generative AI (GenAI) is making rapid inroads into tasks that require creating and editing of text, images, video, music, and other media. This raises serious concerns about how workers can redefine themselves. There are also legal issues here – what are some of these concerns?

Q4: Customer service

The rise of analytics and automation is increasingly transforming the customer engagement function. However, there is still a strong case for keeping human involvement here. How would this work?

Q5: Footwear opportunities

The footwear industry is dominated by leather. However, many consumers and businesses are concerned about issues of animal rights and environment sustainability. What’s a way out of this?

Answers!

Congratulations on having come this far! But there’s more to come–answers to these five questions (below), as well as links to articles with more details on the entrepreneurs’ solutions. Happy reading, happy learning–and happy creating!

A1: Digital carbon footprint

“As initiatives towards sustainability gain momentum, data center operators across borders are now investing in renewable energy options like wind, solar, geothermal, and hydroelectric power,” explains Sudipta Sanyal, Principal Architect – Data Centres Services, Aurionpro Solutions.

“Aside from this, data centers need to have IT asset management systems that prioritise responsible e-waste management as well as recycling practices,” he adds. Read more here about how data centres are embracing energy-efficient designs and use of material with less embodied carbon footprint.

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A2: The importance of data

“What makes data a valuable resource is not the sheer volume of its generation, but the analytics part of it, which offers game-changing abilities to industries and companies,” explains Manish Jethani, Co-founder and CEO, Hevodata.

“Unfortunately, almost 73% of data that companies generate remains largely unleveraged,” he observes. Read more here about the power of analytics to anticipate future demand and optimise processes in real time across a range of sectors.

A3: GenAI impacts

“Large amounts of content are used to train the models used by AI and the current set of applications does not indicate the sources used to derive content they output,” cautions Chris Hardee, AVP of Technology at Lumenci.

“The legality of training AI models on copyrighted materials is being tested,” he adds. Read more here about how countries like India have granted copyright for AI-generated works co-authored by humans, whereas the US does not recognise copyright for works not created by humans.

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A4: Customer service

“Even as businesses go digital, the human experience plays a critical role to establish trust with customers,” says Avinash Deepak, Senior VP and Business Head, Airtel Business. Human-centric approaches create meaningful experiences for customers.

“We take initiatives to listen to our customers that give us insights on their pain points, so that we can make their experiences on our platform an absolute delight,” adds Akhil Gupta, CTO and Co-founder, NoBroker. Read more here about how companies retain the human edge for customisation and keep dedicated relationship managers for users.

A5: Footwear opportunities

“I wanted to uplift artisans without harming animals in the leather industry,” affirms Haritima Mishra, Co-founder of Agra-based vegan footwear brand Attitudist. Vegan leather is more decomposable and thus environmentally friendly.

Use of animal leather can entail business burdens of holding inventory and ensuring timely payments, which can be reduced via vegan options. Read more here about how this startup has acquired 300,000 customers and is working with 100 artisans.

YourStory has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators (downloadable as apps here: Apple, Android).