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| This month, I provide links to my latest posts and then share a link to an excerpt from The Making of a Generalist that I posted on Father’s Day. I hope you enjoy… And as always, I welcome your feedback!
Best,
Vikram
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| JUNE 1, 2025
On the campaign trail, President Trump made a promise to revive the American economy and deliver greater opportunity for working families: to create “a middle class that is once again the envy of the entire world.” Making that pledge a reality starts with tax cuts and deregulation but doesn’t end there. It will require policymakers to reconsider who has access to wealth-building opportunities.
Unfortunately, far too many Americans lack the tools available to the wealthy. More Americans deserve the opportunity to invest in private markets, and that’s something Trump’s administration can provide. The Securities and Exchange Commission has a unique opportunity to… |
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| JUNE 4, 2025
It was a surreal moment…while Harvard’s graduation ceremony was underway last week, the Trump Administration’s effort to ban the school from enrolling international students was making its way through the courts. Alan Garber, the University’s President, took aim at this policy during his opening address when he welcomed graduating students from “around the world, just as it should be.”
The assembled crowd cheered at the reference, and speaker after speaker reiterated the sentiment that Harvard should be free to educate the world. And when news broke that a judge had issued a preliminary injunction against the Trump attempt to ban foreign students, the New York Times reported that celebratory reactions rippled through the crowd… |
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| | JUNE 14, 2025
For many business leaders, the cross currents of a global trade war, military conflict in the Middle East, shifting geopolitical pressures, and disruption from new technologies have created a paralyzing level of uncertainty. Does it make sense to invest when artificial intelligence may replace your entire industry? What if tariffs create chaos in your supply chain? For many, the obvious course of action is, well, no action at all.
As a generalist with a contrarian bent, I’ve decided instead to look at the big picture, connect the dots across different trends, and come up with a probabilistic assessment of how the future may unfold for the pizza industry. It’s led me to a different course: I’m proactively investing amidst today’s uncertainty as I see a bright future ahead… |
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| JUNE 21, 2025
Recently, I’ve been intensely focused on all things pizza – a natural consequence of my having recently started a frozen pizza manufacturing business. Pizza news, the pizza market, anything affecting the pizza ingredient supply chain…all grab my attention. And I always detour to the frozen section of any grocery store to see the offerings, placement, and pricing of the pizza products they offer. But I also continue to monitor the context in which the pizza industry operates and regularly watch Sunday morning news shows, skim about 5 newspapers each day, and religiously listen to Bloomberg News.
Given my long-standing interest in foreign affairs, geopolitics, and economics, it should be no surprise that a recent headline about the “Pentagon Pizza Index” caught my attention. The index, which tracks pizza orders heading to the headquarters of the US Department of Defense from local pizza shops, tends to surge immediately before geopolitical or military events transpire. Why’s that? When the world is on the cusp of major events, those working at the Pentagon usually work late and order pizza… |
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| JUNE 29, 2025
Last week I wrote about the Pentagon Pizza Index, which for decades has seemingly predicted world events. The idea is to monitor DC-area pizza shops for spikes in business, the thinking being that a crisis would require late nights for those working in national security, and they would need to order something to eat.
The practice apparently originated with Soviet spies in the 1980’s, who used to track pizza delivery cars, and journalists at the time also noted increases before the invasions of Grenada and Panama, respectively. After pizza deliveries to the Pentagon and Langley spiked the night before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 1990, the concept broke out into the public imagination. At the time, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer remarked, “Always monitor the pizzas.” |
| | | Special Father’s Day (re)Post |
| (FROM JUNE 2024)
While celebrating Father’s Day with my own children, I couldn’t help but think about my own father. He’s an amazing individual who embodies the adventurous spirit and can-do attitude that drives America. He came here with little, worked hard to build financial stability, and eventually started a family. He’s never felt the need to hyphenate his identity and continues to believe America is that shining city on the hill that drew him (and millions like him) to this land of opportunity. One of his proudest days continues to be the day he took an oath to America and became an American citizen. He exudes wisdom that comes from a life filled with character-building experiences. He is an inspiration to me and has been a caring and dedicated father to me and my sister and devoted husband to my mother. In honor of Father’s Day, I am posting an excerpt from my recent book, The Making of a Generalist, about his decision to come to the United States. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. THE PURSUIT OF BETTER
My father arrived in America in the mid-1960s as a student seeking an automotive technical education. Armed with an associate of applied science degree that he had earned in India in 1957, he enrolled in Roberts’ Technical and Trade Schools in Manhattan and began his journey toward acquiring a skill, some know-how, that might enable a better life. Unsurprisingly, there were struggles along the way. He ran out of tuition money. To secure room and board, he lived in a hotel and worked as the overnight front-desk clerk. He made money driving a cab. Throughout it all, he never wavered. He knew America was where he wanted to stay, where he intended to set down roots.
After his stint in Manhattan and now armed with his technical certification… |
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| | As many of you are aware, I’ve returned to writing my weekly newsletter and have been pleased by the rapidly growing interest in my thoughts. As I have in the past, I’m addressing a wide range of topics, ranging from geopolitics and economics to social trends to technology. The overall theme of my work is focused on “navigating uncertainty” and how a generalist approach can help us all make sense of what seems like chaos. If you have not already done so, please consider subscribing! (It’s Free!) |
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| Have an upcoming board meeting, corporate offsite, conference or other event in which you might want to have Vikram share his view about the global economy, geopolitical dynamics, technological developments, or social pressures? Click below to inquire about his availability! |
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| VIKRAM MANSHARAMANI is an entrepreneur, consultant, scholar, neighbor, husband, father, volunteer, and professional generalist who thinks in multiple-dimensions and looks beyond the short-term. Self-taught to think around corners and connect original dots, he spends his time speaking with global leaders in business, government, academia, and journalism. He’s currently the Chairman and CEO of Goodwell Foods, a manufacturer of private label frozen pizza. LinkedIn has twice listed him as its #1 Top Voice in Money & Finance, and Worth profiled him as one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Global Finance. Vikram earned a PhD From MIT, has taught at Yale and Harvard, and is the author of three books, The Making of a Generalist: An Independent Thinker Finds Unconventional Success in an Uncertain World, Think for Yourself: Restoring Common Sense in an Age of Experts and Artificial Intelligence and Boombustology: Spotting Financial Bubbles Before They Burst. Vikram lives in Lincoln, New Hampshire with his wife and two children, where they can usually be found hiking or skiing. |
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