"The idea of the three-box solution has its roots in Hindu spirituality," explains Govindarajan. "The ancient scriptures portray life as a continuous cycle of preservation, destruction, and creation. Every entity in the universe invariably passes through these three phases." We've seen how the principles of the three-box solution, inspired by 5,000-year-old texts, are relevant for companies today. To build immortal companies, you must master this preservation, destruction, and creation cycle. "It's a mission that's never fully accomplished because change is the only constant," concludes Govindarajan. You can watch my full interview with Professor Vijay Govindarajan on how the three-box solution helps address the biggest challenges in building an AI-powered organization.

When it comes to imagining the future, customer service often gets painted in a dystopian light. Take the 2002 sci-fi film Minority Report. Tom Cruise's John Anderton walks into the Gap, an identity recognition system scans him, and a hologram asks about a recent purchase. There's something unsettling in this vignette--an unsolicited non-human seems to know everything about you (or, as in the movie, mistakes you for someone else). But the truth is, customers today expect this kind of sleek, personalized service.

The computer on which this article was written is sitting on a laptop stand that tells you everything you need to know about how Amazon does business. At $19.99 (£14.99) a pop, the laptop stand combines everything customers love about Amazon: utility, price and convenience. It's also a total and complete knockoff – of a laptop stand that the San Francisco-based company Rain Design began selling nearly a decade before Amazon decided to make its own. Amazon's innovation with its own version was to replace Rain Design's raindrop logo with its own smiley arrow logo – and cut the price in half. "All Amazon had to do was pick the best one and copy it," said Rachel Greer, a former product manager for Amazon who runs a consulting firm for Amazon vendors.