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Ali Aydan: You are leaving money on the table at the front door.
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There is a metric in property development that often gets overlooked in the spreadsheet. “The First Touch” When a prospective buyer approaches a premium house, they have already made a subconscious judgment before entering. If they have to fumble with a cheap, jagged key or a plastic fob, the value of the asset drops…
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Ali Aydan: Motion creates clarity.
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I started my week by walking to the office. It is not for fitness. It is for the mind. We have just finished January. For the last 31 days, the corporate world has been obsessing over “Strategy”. We have hidden behind spreadsheets, roadmaps, and forecasts. We have convinced ourselves that planning is working. It…
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Ali Aydan: A perfect product is a thousand invisible handshakes.
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It is easy to look at a finished DORIX lock and credit the designer or perhaps the engineer. But in reality, a flawless product is not the result of a single “genius”. It is the result of a chain of custody that must remain unbroken for months. I often teach my team about the…
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Ali Aydan: Technology should respect history, not erase it.
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There is a conflict at the heart of the British property market. We have some of the most beautiful heritage architecture in the world. Victorian terraces. Georgian townhouses. Edwardian mansions. Yet, when we try to upgrade these homes, we often ruin them. Walk down a street in Kensington and look at the doors. You…
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Ali Aydan: Engineering in London. Building for the world.
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There is a dangerous assumption in hardware that “Design” and “Manufacturing” are two separate phases. People think you finish the drawing in London, hit send, and the factory abroad simply prints the product. This is how companies fail. To meet the demand we are facing this year, we cannot rely on cottage industry production…
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Ali Aydan: The lock is the body. The software is the soul.
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If you look at a DORIX lock, you see steel. You see glass. You see a physical barrier. But if you look closer, you are looking at a Trojan Horse. The mistake most hardware manufacturers make is thinking their job ends when the box is shipped. They sell the metal and walk away. We…
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Ali Aydan: Your home is too smart for its own good.
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We have reached a tipping point in the “Smart Home” market. Ten years ago, the goal was connectivity. Today, the reality is clutter. You need an app to boil the kettle. You need a password to turn on the lights. You need a firmware update to open the blinds. This is not convenience. This…
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Ali Aydan: Competence is common. Caring is rare.
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You can hire for almost anything in 2026. You can hire for technical precision. You can hire for operational experience. You can hire for punctuality. But there is one metric that does not appear on any CV. The Spark. I have been thinking a lot recently about the difference between a “perfect employee” and…
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Ali Aydan: Great design is the absence of noise
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We are living in the age of “Interface Fatigue”. Walk into a modern smart home, and you are screamed at by technology. There are screens on the fridge. Flashing LEDs on the router. Touchpads on the light switches. Every visible button is a demand for your attention. It adds to your cognitive load. At…
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Ali Aydan: The era of the “Digital-Only” moat is over
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For the last decade, the investment thesis was simple. Buy SaaS. Avoid hardware. The logic was that software had zero marginal costs and infinite scalability. Hardware was seen as messy. It required inventory, logistics, and capital. But in 2025, the wind has changed. We are seeing a massive correction in the market. Why? Because…