Innomantra

PatInformatics - A diary of New Technology

2010-11-27T16:00:00.000+05:30

The term patinformatics is borrowed from the names of some of the common technological fields such as bioinformatics, cheminformatics. The term patinformatics is used to define the process of analyzing patent documents to uncover the trends and relationships camouflaged amongst them. Commonly computational methods or computer software are used to study the patent documents. Patinformatics could be considered as macro level analysis as opposed to bioinformatics where in the biological data are analyzed on a one-on –one basis. But since 80% of technical knowledge is embedded in patents and there are 35 million patents available for study, analysis worldwide, it is not feasible to adopt one-to-one analysis approach. However the concept of micro level analysis could also be employed provided the amount of data to be studied is confined in few patent documents. But the requirements of accuracy and precision remain unaltered for both types of analysis. Micro level analysis could be performed with the aid of computer software, but macro level analysis do require human intervention and better intellectuality on the part of people who study the patent documents. The term patinformatics is said to include all macro level analysis process including

• Patent intelligence – the process of using the patent information to identify the technical capabilities of an organization and to build a competitive, strategic technical plan.

• Patent Mapping – the process of utilization of published patent data to create a graphical representation of the art pertaining to a specific subject area or an invention.

• Patent citation analysis – the process of studying patent citations to determine a patent’s value and also to identify potential licensing partners and to obtain leads based on the citation of an organization’s patent by another organization which may or may not belong to the same market space

Choose Innovation Over Complexity

2010-10-05T10:31:00.002+05:30

http://business.in.com/article/rotman/choose-innovation-over-complexity/17862/1

Workshop on 'Patents in a Knowledge Economy' - A Knowledge Rich Treat

2010-10-01T13:58:00.000+05:30

Innomantra Consulting in conjunction with Finnegan LLP, USA, organised a one day workshop on “Patents in a Knowledge Economy – A focus on US Patents and Technology Market” at Bengaluru on 22nd September.

The event attracted around 50 delegates. IP professionals from various corporate houses and legal firms converged at the event. The introduction part was delivered by chairperson of the event Dr. Shantha Shankar.The event began with key note address by Dr.Vishwanathan Seshan, Country Manager,IP & S of Philips Intellectual Property and Standards. Dr.Seshan shared interesting aspects of IP which enthralled the audience.

The workshop began with sessions by Mr.Anand Sharma, Finnegan LLP later by his colleagues Dr.Rajeev Gupta and Mr.Louis Troilo. The trio from Finnegan switched places to divulge various aspects of Patents in US. Being a workshop the delegates were made to involve in interesting exercises to strengthen the basics of Claims and IP Valuations. Post lunch session Mr.Lokesh, CEO of Innomantra spoke about innovation and patents. Anand Sharma unveiled the report on “Patent Portfolio analysis of Major Indian IT companies” a report prepared by Innomantra Consulting.

The delegates were shared with the executive summary (available at http://www.innomantra.com). The final session was a panel discussion moderated by Anand Sharma and the panellists included Dr.M.V.Shankar , Innovation differentiation leader at Honeywell Technologies, Dr.Pradeep Desai, Principal consultant at TCS, Rakesh Prabhu, Partner at ALMT Legal and Lokesh V, CEO at Innomantra Consulting. Delegates involved in interactive Q&A session with the panellists and exchanged ideas. The delegates also got to share useful material prepared by team Finnegan and Innomantra which was exclusively developed for the event. The content slides were also shared with the participants.

The sessions (in order) – Procurement of Patents in the US, Name of the game is Claims, Patent Enforcement in the US, Patent valuation for today’s businesses, Business Strategies for IP due diligence, Indian Major IT companies and its patent portfolio & A panel discussion on “Penetration to US technology licensing market”.

Comments by the delegates:

Thank you for organizing such a wonderful workshop. I really enjoyed participating in it and learnt a lot.
-Sanjay Marathe ,Senior Vice President, Head Delivery – GTS and CTO Zensar Technologies Ltd.

It was great to be a part of the workshop. We have gathered lot of information.- Dr.Rekha Mallia, Synthite Industries Ltd

"We thank you for organizing a great workshop with such a great team of speakers. This workshop also gave us an opportunity to interact with the professionals having a diversified background apart from IP"
-Lakshmikant S. Powale ,Lead IP Analyst,GE India Technology Centre Pvt. Ltd.

Thanks a lot for all your help and support.
-Mohua Sengupta, Vice President, Patni Computer Systems, Hyderabad, INDIA

"It was a pleasure attending the seminar & it was very useful". -Fiaz ur Rahman, Manager IP, Wipro Technologies

"The workshop was organised differently and in truly a signature of Lokesh. There was transmission of skills in the workshop.The entire team did a wonderful job" - H L Narendra Bhatta - Sr. Associate, Krishna & Saurastri Associates

Rethink & Redefine Innovation !

2010-09-30T15:45:00.000+05:30

When Mahatama Gandhi used non-violence as a means to drive the Independence movement in India, not only was it a philosophy but also an innovative way to take on the then world power, considering the resources he and the country had. When Ratan Tata imagined Nano, he wanted to provide safety and security to families riding two-wheelers but he also wanted to create market for cars where it did not exist. Same is true for low cost hospitals like Arvind eye hospital were launched with an idea to provide the standard health care at a lower cost, where the cost was driven by the affordability of the customer segment, who in this case were patients.
Innovation means different things to different organizations. It is also different at different times for the same organization. There is a motivation or need for innovation that defines the purpose and roadmap of Innovation. In a commercial organization the ultimate purpose is always to improve top line and or bottom line while servicing a segment of customers. There are various components that contribute to this purpose and the new ones can always be added. As a business leader you need to figure out what does innovation mean to you and your organization. How should it impact its various stakeholders like employees and customers. What are the risks that you can afford to take and what are the resources that you are willing to commit? You need to access what stage your business is in and is it ready for the kind of innovation you are looking at. Businesses follow a lifecycle, in the beginning every business is based on some innovation, and as it takes maturity over a period of time the initial innovation becomes mainstream. This is when you probably need to begin working on your next big innovation to maintain your competitive edge.

Let us take the example of Indian IT industry. It’s core service offering is software development, implementation and maintenance. Now as a core service innovation, they keep on inventing and adopting new technologies and improving their processes. But what has been Indian IT industry’s biggest innovation is their alchemic ability to turn students and professionals from varied backgrounds into software engineers. More than a decade back there were hardly any computer engineers passing out of the technology institutes. Even today their numbers remain a small percentage of the total manpower requirement of the industry. IT companies managed this challenge by setting up internal academies or training centers to take on the supply side challenge of the business. Can you think of the IT boom in India without this big innovation in a non-core area?
You constantly need to figure out what and where your business’s next Innovation should be? One of the ways to know what areas of your business need innovation the most at a given point in time is by using audit tools. A typical audit tool will help you look at the various functions of your business and its ecosystem. It would give you pointers by way of specific questions, answers to which will highlight the need for innovation in that area. Based on the comparative analysis of these areas, you would know what areas need innovation the most. You can use the results of an audit as an input to your innovation roadmap.
According to Doblin’s ten types of Innovation, core product innovation is just one type of Innovation. So look at your business model, your processes, your value chain and your offerings and see where you can innovate. Deciding when, where and what to innovate is as important as brainstorming on how to innovate.

Contributed by : Anuradha Goyal

Building a Smart Intellectual Property (IP) Portfolio

2010-09-27T13:35:00.000+05:30

Building a Smart IP Portfolio

– A New Mantra in Knowledge Economy

After the global slowdown the new economy of think-tank is about “Excel or Expire”. Globally in the last five years Patent Offices have become busier day by day as the number of patent filings is significantly increasing beyond their capacity. This trend has not been affected even during the slowdown. The courts are moving towards the pro-IP, as its legislation. The awards for damages are growing in multifold, which were a rare scene in the business world of earlier days and this is quickly spearheaded in developing countries too. So corporations are required to act quickly and align their business processes to this Knowledge economy.

Managing Intellectual property portfolio smartly is so critical that corporations are assessing their Intellectual Property (“IP”) management programs to ensure that they are deriving maximum value from this important asset. There are a number of ways in which value can be derived from intellectual property, including:

• Protecting important commercial products and processes.

• Blocking competitors from entering the market.

• Lead time for developing, manufacturing and selling products.

• Licensing assets.

• Enforcing assets for exacting royalties and damages.

• Deterring competitors from enforcing their patents against you.

• Adding a negotiating tool to your tool box.

Appropriate IP management is specific to a company’s corporate culture and business objectives. Approaches to management can fall anywhere on a broad spectrum ranging from “defensive” to “aggressive,” depending on what the company wants to accomplish.

Creating Wealth and Not Risk From IP Assets

A “defensive” IP management model would lead a company to focus on generating a worldwide patent portfolio for the primary purpose of protecting royalty payments or taxes paid by foreign subsidiaries for rights to the parent’s technology. A company following a “defensive” IP management model might also be generating an extensive patent portfolio to impress investors. For startups, this could be critical to raising venture capital money. Public companies frequently tout their extensive patent portfolios to substantiate their commitment to technology in hopes of boosting or maintaining the value of their stock.

On the other end of the spectrum, companies following an “aggressive” IP management model might license out their IP rights and technology. Some companies “mine” their existing portfolios—that is, they look for unused or less important existing IP assets (such assets that don’t support a company’s businesses) to offer for licensing to others.

In addition, companies may also develop a patent portfolio to enhance their freedom to operate in a certain field of operation. Such patents act as a deterrent to competitors against suing the owner of this portfolio. As part of a pre-litigation due diligence, companies commonly study the target company’s patent portfolio to identify patents that could be asserted by the target in a counterclaim. The identification of a substantial potential problem often deters a company from asserting its own patents against the target. These “freedom-to-operate” patents do not necessarily cover or relate to a company’s own operations, but are based on its understanding of where its main competitors operate and its identification of areas for patenting within the competitor’s field of operation.

IP As a Metric for Innovation

Anyone who is in the field of IP recognizes the value that corporations place on aggregate IP numbers - primarily the number of patent filings. However, such filings are an imperfect indicator of actual innovation for a variety of reasons. Raw numbers provide no information about the scope of protection afforded by the patent filing, thus providing the same “score” for an incremental advance in science, as it does for a ground-breaking invention. Raw numbers also fail to take into consideration other valuable information including filing strategy for a particular industry, or for that matter, a broader corporate strategy, such as patent protection versus equally, if not more valuable, trade secret protection. Despite the inherent limitations of using IP as a measure of innovation, there is certainly a correlation between patent activity and research and development (R&D). Simply put, patent-based indicators do measure the productivity of research, if one accurately measures patenting activity.

How Developing Countries Could Change to Better Compete in a Technology Market

To accurately account for the role that IP has on innovation, there are many factors that developing countries need to consider beyond the aggregate patent numbers. The result of these factors will be to increase research productivity, which will ultimately result in an increase in patent activity. In addition, there is undeniable link between a country’s IP enforcement framework and innovation. Stronger patent rights, such as better enforcement mechanisms, a lower number of restrictions on IP protection, or more patentable subject matters stimulate inventors to file more patent applications, and seek protection in the developing country.

Authors:
Louis M. Troilo is of counsel with Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP in Washington, DC. Mr. Troilo can be reached at lou.troilo@finnegan.com.
Lokesh V, CEO, Founder, Innomantra Consulting, He can be reached at Lokeshv@innomantra.com

Strategic Innovation - Imperative for Creating Innovative Organisations

2010-08-04T11:55:00.000+05:30

Innomantra in association with The DeSai Group,USA conducted 2 day workshop on “Strategic Innovation”. The workshop was conducted by Mr.Jatin Desai.

The event was conducted in Bengaluru (1st , 2nd July @ Chancery Pavilion) & Coimbatore (7th,8th July @ The Residency). Industry Leaders and Innovation practioners from elite corporate houses and individual innovators participated in the workshop.

Having global expertise in the field of “Strategic Innovation”, Jatin Desai elaborated on the principles of strategic innovation with several case studies. Each participant had a privileged facility- “Innovation Styles” which gave an insight into the individual’s innovation style. The 20 question online facility gave results of individual pattern and later these results were used to discuss on the methods of using/modifying the personal innovation style. The workshop also included various tools which the participants could apply in their respective organizations. Workshop content included well laid out material giving deep insights into strategic innovation.

Sixth India Innovation Summit 2010- A Great Show

2010-06-19T21:13:00.000+05:30

India Innovation Summit- Season 6

It was the time for innovators to congregate for the annual CII event at Bengaluru, chaired by Kris (Infosys) the summit is becoming more popular and meaningful than ever. This time around the 2 day bonanza for the innovators & students was arranged at the Taj Residency. The venue was buzzing with activity for 2 days, where each session was replete with learnings for all. The event was also a perfect setting for networking. This summit was sponsored by many corporate and also supported by The Government of Karnataka. The days were split into sessions dedicated to various themes; the illustrious panellists would moot their ideas around the session theme building up the interest of the audience. The audience were then given an opportunity to question the panellists (though this backfired on day2 when the Q & A session was wavered and not related to the session topics).

On day 2, the topic of Session 4 was “Is India Innovating?”, a very interesting question to which the panellists univocally responded in positive. Without much ado, the session chair, Vijaykumar (Wipro) initiated and gracefully handed over the proceedings to the panellists, first on the list was budding entrepreneur Manoj Kumar Mandelia (Canopus India) who elaborated how his start-up ventured into waste water management and explained the Innovation attribute in the venture. Next in line was Arvin Baalu (Harman) who explained about his company’s exposure in audio Innovations. He went on to say that to sustain and grow their company is extensively innovating and believed that only innovation could allow them to sustain their current market presence. Rahul Basil (Villgro Innovations) then took the talk to a different level by explaining how there is Innovation in rural India; his talk was embedded with various examples of how the huge rural India is actively innovating. The session moved on to Preetha Reddy (Apollo hospitals) who charmed the audience with her elegance and clear thoughts. She pointed out to the audience that the whole world is watching India for healthcare innovation, she said success stories like the jaipur foot, narayana hrudayalay’s heart care, and various others are making other countries to sit up and watch us. Telemedicine has caught up so fast that today India is probably moving faster than others; she explained that healthcare in India is no more conservative; India is fastly adopting the latest in technology and is also investing heavily. The limelight then shifted to Chetan Maini, who unfolded the Innovation at Reva, Mahindra Reva. He explained that his company not only adopted product Innovation but also tried at business innovation. Reva sold their first 1000 cars in UK without investing a single pound on setting up a showroom, a true example of business plan Innovation. All the panellists related their field of work and explained to prove the point – “India is innovating”.

CII is doing a wonderful job by providing such a platform for innovators and alike. CII had associated with Global Investors Meet (GIM), probably the next GIM should be GLOBAL INNOVATORS MEET at Bengaluru. Cheers.

Is there a specific trend for Innovation?

2010-05-17T08:57:00.000+05:30

Man evolved into what he is today due to many inventions and innovations. From roaming around in jungles to today’s authority among living beings, man has travelled a long way. The basic innovations were based on necessities. The necessity for food forced the early man to innovate hunting techniques and tools, this trend caught up and he went on to master the art of tool making. The necessity for protection from fury of nature forced him to innovate in shelter making, this trend continues to date. The necessity to lead a healthy life forced him to search for medicinal properties in herbs and other sources in nature, this trend carries on with ultra modern innovations in medical field. Each walk of life is explicit with such examples.

Somewhere in the history the need based innovation, a branch of innovation popped out, this was innovation for lifestyle. He started innovating for not just necessities but also for luxury and fun.

Strangely, but surely there is a particular trend of innovation, whether innovations are for need or for luxury. There seems to be a spurt of innovations suddenly in one particular field. Although activities of innovating continue to happen in all walks of life, there are particular innovation-centric areas, which see incredible innovations. Innovators around the world strive to keep up the trend and emulate it.

There are many distinct examples to illustrate particular Trend in Innovation. These trends are evident and could be in communication, medical, aviation, food, transport, clothing, aerospace, weaponry, or any other walk of life.

Innovation itself innovates, and there is definitely a trend for it.

Coming Soon : CII's Sixth India Innovation Summit 2010 - Bengaluru

2010-05-08T22:27:00.000+05:30

Confederation of India Industry for the past five years has been successfully organizing a unique event, the suggestive name of this much touted event – “India Innovation Summit”. This congregation of innovators and corporate world brings in thought provoking and meaningful insights on the latest in Innovation. Each year the event carries a theme around which the summit revolves, the 5th India Innovation Summit theme was “Role of Innovation in an economic downturn – The India Advantage”.

The event attracts innovators and corporate world to a platform where new learning and meaningful results follow. During one of the previous summits the participants voiced the need to meet on a regular basis and thus evolved “The Innovation Forum”, as Kris Gopalakrishnan, chairman for the 5th Summit proudly shared this information. The Innovation Forum meets on a regular basis at Indian Institute Of Management –Bengaluru.

The 2 day India Innovation Summit included 9 sessions including panel discussions on key topics. Each session was headed by a Session Chairman had eminent innovators, speakers from industry and different walks of life (government representatives, politicians, stage artists, fashion designers, etc).

The keynote address was by Azim Premji. In his address Azim Premji highlighted the need of Innovation. In a startling revelation of statistics he mentioned that out of 500 fortune companies in 1957, only 74 survived to make it till the year 1997 and around only 30-40 survived till date. The data was relevant as these huge conglomerates ceased to exist due to lack of Innovation in the organization.

Each interesting session had lot of learning to offer for the participants. The Innovation Summit is getting better and better every season.

This year, the 6th Innovation Summit is around the corner (June, 2010). Watch out for this event which is going to be better than ever. Be there, be a part of the best in “INNOVATION World”.

Scribe : Rakesh

Linking Cricket - IPL & Innovation

2010-04-23T14:41:00.000+05:30

The buzz word around Indian sports revolves primarily on Cricket. The latest event making it to the top is the IPL (Indian Premier League). The concept/business model itself is an innovation. When the sport looked almost saturated, there came an innovation, a spark of fire which ignited the entire cricketing community with unknown fire & energy. Followers of the game sat glued to the TV sets, so much so that most of the streets ran empty during match timings.

Rules are made to be broken – an old saying, but IPL has adopted this by bending the traditional barriers. The format, the team composition, the economy and the sheer size is a total change from the orthodoxy which the game was known for. Even a small modification in the gaming tradition - like including cheerleaders, was seen as a sin during the first season of IPL, but today it has become order of the day.

The sport gear has also seen a plethora of innovations. The ‘mongoose’ bat, the new design shoes, the modified helmets, and many other accessories stand testimonies for innovations triggered by IPL.

A trendsetting movement always attracts innovators not only from that particular field but also from other fields. IPL did not make only cricket fraternity to innovate; it also opened the platform for the media to innovate. There was a live coverage of the match in 3-dimensional format, a concept put into use for the first time in India. This integrated technology innovation into a sporting innovation. Even the hotel industry innovated by offering live coverage & special events along with their F&B . IPL opened doors for innovators in advertising field, media, accessories manufacturers, hotel industry and various other fields linked to the event directly or indirectly.

Innovation happened even on the field; cricketers played the game with new methods that were beyond imagination. Improvised batting techniques, variations in bowling methods, each department of the game saw innovations.

IPL – a classic example of “Innovations in Cricket”.

Credit : Rakesh Babu

BCG-Business Week - Innovation Survey 2010

2010-04-22T00:49:00.002+05:30

Knowledge Network - Leading Invention across borders

2010-04-18T21:04:00.000+05:30

http://www.technologyreview.com/web/24642/

“Inventing across borders” it is evident that globalization of R&D is key in emerging Innovation trends through knowledge network leading to inventions. In Indian context, more than 70% of Patent applications are filed by foreign nationals as key inventor, your coverage brought out that innovation connection setting trend. This cross pollination of ideas and market is forcing the labs to network for their innovation efforts. It is further evident that companies moving a part of the R&D efforts outside their home country are not just a part of time zone or cost benefit. They stay-on for innovation through knowledge collaboration. The question now is whether the next wave of export will be Innovation through network of R&D’s across borders. It is surprising that knowledge network is less appreciated in asia-pacific specifically in Korea and Japan... is it due to language barriers?.

Innomantra Salutes Prof. C K Prahalad

2010-04-18T20:15:00.001+05:30

Innomantra Salutes 'Global Innovation Guru Prof. C K Prahalad' for his contribution to the Management world. May his soul rest in peace.

Innovation @ Bottom Of the Pyramid (BOP)

2010-04-12T11:39:00.000+05:30

This concept dwells upon the idea of focusing on the lowest rung in the pyramid of consumers. A book by C.K.Prahlad – “The Fortune at the bottom of the Pyramid” made a revolutionary change in the way corporate and SMEs think about a forgotten reservoir of consumers. The book moots the idea to formulate business modules catering to a huge consumer base of an estimated four billion people who are below the poverty line.

Innovations in BOP: It is not just enough to give statistics of the huge potential customer base. The action next revolved around formulating business module around this segment with the catch that the end product has to be really economical (affordable). Though any innovation has various criteria to be fulfilled, the innovations in BOP area necessarily have to focus on economic viability. A consumer at the BOP segment has expectations as any other normal consumer, but expects the product/service to be fitting in his/her budget. There have been numerous new business models focusing on this area and are reaping rich rewards both in India and world-over. Financial products, consumer products, mobile solutions, computer and electronics, garments, food products and various other categories have explicit examples which have adopted innovations aimed at BOP domain.

If you have and can share a success story or you have come across about innovations in the area of BOP which would help us for our research.

Innovation Inspired by Nature: Biomimicry

2010-04-04T23:04:00.000+05:30

The book “Biomimicry” authored by Janine Benyus, describes a science that studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to provide innovative and sustainable solutions for industry and research development.

Benyus’s book sets out that there are nine basic laws underpinning the concept of biomimicry:

1. Nature runs on sunlight

2. Nature uses only the energy it needs

3. Nature fits form to function

4. Nature recycles everything

5. Nature rewards cooperation

6. Nature banks on diversity

7. Nature demands local expertise

8. Nature curbs excesses from within

9. Nature taps the power of limits.

The book also gives cases of innovations which have been inspired by nature.

Comments: Since the time in memory Man has been constantly reaping nature. Apart from using nature’s gift, he has endeavoured to imitate nature and develop ideas for various purposes. This practice has rendered numerous successes and today’s world is replete with these imitations.

Innovation inspired by nature must be one of the most powerful innovations even in this modern technology driven genre. Some of the basic laws that nature adopts for its innovations (listed above) are valid for any of real world innovator. The concepts remain the same for any innovation and giving a careful look into how nature innovates with purpose will surely give more insights into the process of innovation itself.

Nature in its truest form offers unlimited ideas, it is only unto the innovative mind to lap up these ideas and implement.

Scribe:Rakesh

Iridium V iPod - A Short Case Study

2010-03-21T22:55:00.000+05:30

IRIDIUM: A dream project by Motorola started in 1989. The plan was to provide connectivity anywhere in the world using satellites. After 9 years of intense R&D, the product was launched in 1998. This was a break through innovation as far as technology was concerned. Never in the history there was an offering so unique and innovative. The project was huge in terms of money spent and new technologies developed for the purpose (about USD 6 billion, 1000 patents). During its launch, the handsets were offered at USD 300 and call rates were between $3 and $8. Motorola went into deep financial trouble, main reason was at the same time GSM services were offered at USD 30 and call rates were as low as USD 1. Though the technology offered was unparallel, the premature launch of technology found no takers in the practical world.

IPod: Free digital downloads were offered free on the web by napster.com which became a rage among music lovers. Napster got into patent issues with the music industry and had to wind up free services. Apple a predominantly IT company saw business opportunity. Apple started a new concept iTunes, the affordable downloads made the customer happy and its licensing policy made the music companies also agreeable to the downloads concept. Apple integrated music and Sony’s Walkman idea and gave a new offering called iPod. The rest is history; iPod created waves and made successful innovation.

The Key Learnings:

1. Though both the products had technological innovation, iPod saw huge success because it incorporated entire technology with business model.

2. Premature launch of a superior technology made IRIDIUM to lose ground. (IRIDIUM is now used for high-tech warfare by US army)

3. For any innovation to succeed it must necessarily be useful and also affordable to the end user.

4. Innovation based on user’s expectation often finds success.

5. Proper management of Innovation is very crucial.

Moderator: Dr.Nirmalya Bagchi

Centre for Innovation and Technology, ASCI - Hyderabad
3rd March 2010

*****************************************************************

IPL in Business Field

2010-03-16T16:04:00.001+05:30

Jugaad to Systematic Innovation: The challenge of India

2010-03-16T12:15:00.002+05:30

Innovation Forum @ IIM Bengaluru
11th March 2010

Background: Prof. Rishikesha T .Krishnan spoke on his book “Jugaad to Systematic Innovation: The Challenge of India”. India is on the centrestage with China making headlines world over in all sectors. Innovation is also on the radar, but sadly there are not much of results. The statistics are not very interesting as far as practical innovations are concerned. There may have been numerous incremental innovations that are genuine to the sub-continent but there have been no significant breakthrough innovations that would impact the world.

Question by a participant: Do Indian organizations need to follow innovation techniques that have been formulated by international organizations? India has been adopting systems left by the colonial rulers and these systems are seemingly unsuitable. Similarly, instead of blindly adopting systems framed by others, will customized Innovation techniques based on the strong holds of Indian talent render more quantifiable results?

Answer by Prof. Rishikesha: Probably yes. But unfortunately there have been no instances where a different (Indian) innovation technique has been adopted and experimented. Probably such localized plans will certainly lead to better results among innovators. Even today Indians talk about “zero” and “aryabhata”, trump cards as far as innovation is concerned. Systematic Innovation is still waiting to happen in India.

Thought-provoking topic: “Should organizations think beyond the existing Innovation techniques and focus on customizing systems to the prevailing work-talent environments??”

Innovation for the Knowledge-Enabled Enterprise

2010-03-15T16:09:00.003+05:30

Talk by: Mr. Raj Datta

Vice President & Chief Knowledge Officer, MindTree Ltd,

@ CII-Innovation forum – IIM Bangalore

11th March 2010
First part: Knowledge Management (KM) is an important aspect if Innovation has to happen in any organization. Most of the Knowledge Management strategies are formulated for the “I Know-What I know” category. The other categories of “I Know-What I don’t know, I don’t know-what I know & I don’t know-what I don’t know” require strategies for discovery, learning and knowledge creation. A typical TRIZ analysis shows the details of “degree of inventiveness” and its success rate. A knowledge management should have an organic approach. Most current KM strategies have managed and & controlled processes with centralized intranet repository. But this system has some problems like not providing required attention to traits like human desires, relationship, ideation, knowledge creation and innovation. This ultimately renders the KM strategy less efficient and will not deliver required results.

Second part: Knowledge management at ‘MindTree'.

KM Mission: To establish systems, processes & culture that help to continuously build Intellectual capital

To achieve the above mentioned KM mission a “Knowledge Ecosystem” was devised. At the core of the ecosystem lies –Imagination, Action and Joy, followed by CLASS Value (CLASS is an acronym; each alphabet represents a particular core value). Around these core values there are four spheres – Mind space, Virtual space, Physical space and Social space. Each of these spheres is then elaborated into particular activities defining their goals individually but collaborating with the larger aspect of achieving goals.

Knowledge Management journey pyramid depicts “SHARE” at the first level followed by “COLLABORATE” and at the pinnacle lies “INNOVATE”. The three put together nutshells the whole process of achieving innovation through Knowledge Management.

Spectrums of Communities:

Osmosis: A tech-fest devised to bring in new wave of innovation among employees. Contests organized developed keen participants vying to win the prizes. K-Safaris, K-Cafes would generate more enthusiasm for the innovators and others as well. “Unconference” would allow the innovator to break the orthodoxies and think differently. A unique theme for Osmosis – “Celebration of the Nerd within”, which has a pleasant logo as well.

Connected Minds: A community portal with an active participation of innovative minds of ‘MindTree’. This is to provide a space to interact, exchange and propose ideas.

Open Mind & Tech works: In this spectrum a system was developed to assist collaborative IP creation and also reuse the knowledge generated. What started with just 8 entries today boasts of 350+ ongoing ‘Tech works’ and a healthy base of 85+ reusable ‘Techworks’.

Project space: Collaboration was made at project and account level allowing ideas to grow to next level. To nurture ideas and have systematic innovation a “NEURON” concept was introduced which paid rich dividends in terms of success.

Physical space: It is imperative that physical space is also required for ideation and MindTree created such physical spaces for its employees.

The Outcome: Today 24% ideas are deployed, 10 Patent Applications have been filed. In just 3 years these results were achieved. Adopting KM strategies MindTree has been successful in triggering innovation in the organization; 'MindTree' has won various awards and stands tall as a leading trend setter.

Innovation Brokering

2009-08-21T23:48:00.000+05:30

“Innovation is often given a complex definition. We prefer the simple one: ‘new ideas that work’.”
- Geoff Mulgan

Innovation is everywhere. From the advertisement on TV to the design of mobile phone in your pocket to the services delivered on the streets of your city. The old usage”Necessity is the mother of invention” drives many from NGO’s, Social Entrepreneurs to the big organizations worldwide to bring creativity in providing solutions for the local or global problems.

Have you ever seen any analogy between Thomas Edison, the famous inventor of the electric bulb and IDEO, a design and innovation based consultancy based in USA? Both have implemented “Innovation or Technology brokering” into their practices to bring innovation into their products. The beauty of Innovation Brokering is not inventing something new to the world but it is the ability to reimage and recreate a product while using old ones. Edison didn’t invent the electric light but he leveraged the different existing technologies to make a better light bulb. On the same concept, IDEO has developed over 3000 new products in over 40 different industries since it was founded in 1978. Their designers work with companies from different industries, to get broad view of the latest technologies available worldwide and thus develop innovative and efficient products. IDEO has developed slit valve for specialized bicycle water bottle after getting an idea from similar valves being used in shampoo bottles. The improvement phases in telephone also illustrate the technology brokering. As the first generation phones were moved to cordless and now to mobile phones.

Innovation Brokering shifts the focus from R&D teams sitting in closed labs and inventing something new to making R&D scientists interact directly with customers and bring about innovations by combining earlier existing inventions. R&D teams now work in collaboration with marketing and manufacturing people. Innovation Brokering link with the concept of empathetic design (user friendly design) and provide solutions to particular problems of customers. Thus it paves the way for not only “Thinking out of the box” but also “Thinking into other boxes”.

Innovation Brokers exploit past to create future. They perform a four-step process to bring about innovation. First, they capture good ideas from both within and outside the organization. They closely analyze the environment to get the pulse of the unfilled needs and desires. Secondly, they try to keep the ideas alive. Generally a company loses ideas when employees walk away. So there should be a proper mechanism to have a record of all ideas. Then in the next step they imagine new uses of these ideas. How can they draw meaning out of these ideas through innovations? Finally they put the promising ideas to test.

Often the closed innovation syndrome support NIH (Not Invented Here) behavior. It means the corporate intentionally or unintentionally avoids certain knowledge because it was not invented within the organization. On the other hand open innovation systems support “Wisdom of Crowds” i.e. the ideas coming from different directions and even reaching out to broader public for contribution. The Googling Innovation (Google- search engine) also promotes creative ideas from everywhere. The employees are given 20% time to do the pet projects, which are unrelated to their core work. Wal-Mart also continues to grow through innovations in the inventory management. Sampling foundation also follows this democratization of innovation. The focus of foundation is TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design). TED website presents video and audio downloads of the conference speakers to the public and thus promoting ideas at large. Serving the social cause is considered above all. Even innovation can do miracles in this. Hopelab created by Pam (wife of ebay cofounder, Pierre) develop a video game that motivates young cancer patients to comply with the requirements of the treatment.

Conclusion:
In the business world, the innovation is a binding concern. If a company doesn’t adapt to changing realities, it risks losing its position in the market. It can be difficult to find time from our busy schedules and think about doing thins in a different way. Too often we operate on autopilot. But if we make it a habit of thinking differently it would bring a sea change in our lives and many useful innovative solutions can be generated in the process.

Innovation @ Siemens

2009-08-21T23:31:00.000+05:30

Open Innovation @ Siemens: By Mr.Mukul Saxena- Head, Siemens Corporate Technology India Labs

Scribed by Lokesh V. on listening to his talk at CII Innovation Forum at IIM-B

It is said that Research is transforming money into knowledge but Innovation transforming knowledge into money. And the fact that successful innovations can create economic value.

For Siemens, Innovation is lifeblood.
At Siemens, around 32,300 researchers and developers at various locations in 30 countries throughout the world work on innovations. 55,000 plus patents demonstrates their power of innovation – making Siemens as one of the world’s most innovative companies. In 2008 Siemens registered 8,200 inventions. During the same period, 5,000 patent applications were filed – which amounts to 38 inventions and 23 patent applications each working day.

At Siemens, the definition for Innovation is:
· Adding high value for its customers
· Solutions for major market growths
· A Trend Setter
· Offering Innovative Technologies & Solutions for Important Aspects of Living

Innovation results in S-M-A-R-T value products

· Simple
· Maintenance- friendly
· Affordable
· Reliable & Robust
· Timely to market

Siemens’ innovations have changed the world

Industry - From the first electronic controls – to fully automated machines
Energy - From the invention of the dynamo – to the world’s most efficient gas
Turbines
Healthcare - From the first views inside the body – to full body 3D scan

Most recent Innovations at Siemens:

Somatom Definition Flash: Worldwide first CT with fastest imaging and lowest radiation
Efficient power transport (HVDC): the new 800-kV high-voltage, directcurrent transmission system minimizes power losses
Digital factory: virtual factory makes production more efficient and flexible

Tools used by Siemens to ensure the success of the innovation process
Siemens’ innovation framework enables and supports the quality of their innovation processes
The Pictures of the Future method helps them track future trends early and understand them
Innovation benchmarking ensures their technology leadership
Lead Customer Feedback – achieving success together
Their Culture of Innovation fosters inventors and inventions

Conclusion:
With the ever changing business scenarios, innovation has become the need of the hour. The ‘Picture of the Future (PoF)’ is mind-boggling, which draws the visual scenario of technology and its applications (You can download free copy of the PoF issue from net).Siemens encourages the ideas internal source as well as external sources and believes in Open Innovation. At Siemens innovation process begins and ends with a customer. The end note is, Innovation = Invention + Market success.

Innovation @ Wipro

2009-05-12T22:23:00.000+05:30

Innovation at Wipro
Talk by: Mr. Vikesh Mehta,
Vice President, Innovation Catalyst, Wipro Technology
@ CII-Innovation forum – IIM Bangalore
7th May 2009
Scribe: Lokesh V.

Innovation Management – (Delta) 4 Dimensions
1. De – Dedication Resources
This talks about the importance of dedicated Human Resources potential and supportive funds for innovation management. The people employed in the innovation team is a dedicated function and efficiently to capture innovative ideas. At the same time, every innovation needs capital for developing an idea into innovation. So the organization should support the innovation team with required fund for development. Here the supportive role of Top Level Management is the key.

2. L – Lead Opportunities
Innovation has a relationship with opportunity. So identifying the right opportunity and innovating in that market area gives upper hand in business. In Wipro don’t have a central R&D team instead it has each R&D team for each business activity. This helps them to understand the market needs better and track the innovation program accordingly to the required direction.

3. T – Tools for Support
For innovative ideas to spark up there should be a source for generating it. In Wipro they have Innovation Project Team which reports their findings to Innovation Catalyst and IC reports to the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). These teams are formed to develop ideas into innovations that really suit the market requirements. This is a method of narrowing down the concept and concentrating to the required needs of market development.

4. A – Appropriate Mindset
In Wipro they promote the thoughts of their employees to generate ideas in innovating new products. They conduct Innovation Bazaar for finding new-new ideas and boosting innovative thoughts in their employees.

Innovation Structure & Roles
· Inventor – these are individuals who innovate ideas for the market.
· Transformer – these are the people who convert idea into products of market importance.
· Broker – these people play an important role in the innovation process. They find and connect the appropriate and potential Inventors, Transformers and Financiers together for the better development of the new product for the organization.
· Financier – these are the people who fund the innovation and production processes.

Innovation Mindset
The players in an innovation team must be people from various areas of business of the organization because it helps in come up with better ideas that fit the market requirements.
Innovation Evangelism

Various innovative idea generation and promotion events are conducted in Wipro under the program named “wi-camp: Wipro Innovation Camp.” This is a program to capture ideas from the potential innovators inside and outside the organization. The various events conducted are:

Let Sparks Fly: working with students from various campuses.

Innovation Bazaar: it’s like, the visitors who come for the camp are given paper / plastic money and they can invest their money accordingly in the innovative ideas displayed in the Innovation Bazaar. The amount of money collected by each innovation ideas is recorded and ratings are given accordingly. These innovation ideas are of grass root level.

Story Book of Innovation: an activity in Wipro is recording the stories of development of each innovation place in the organization as well as in the world into books. These books motivate their employees to think accordingly and innovate. The other events are Inflection point and Idea Lounge.

Innovation Grid in Wipro
These are activities taking place inside Wipro with its employees to encourage, guide and support the employees to come up with new ideas and build relationships for better development.

“No idea left behind” – as any idea can lead to a great invention. So Wipro values each idea that comes up within their organization and analysis them all to find its suitability.

Talent Utilization – in Wipro they value and encourage the potential of their employees. This is mainly done by the Broker who finds various potential employees working in various idea developments and connects them in to share and develop together a better project.

Virtual Team – this is connection or bringing people of the organization working on the same field under various heads and departments through modern technological devices like video- conference.

Expertise Sharing – sharing of thoughts and idea with and between the experts in various fields for mutual growth.

Measuring Return on Innovation

1. Money : it’s by calculating the percentage contribution made by the innovation in raising revenue.

2. Brand Equity: it values the brand value of the product created through its innovativeness in the market by methods like premium pricing, repeat sales.

3. Knowledge Acquisition: through evaluating the research publication, white papers, patents.

4. Ecosystem Strength: it‘s understanding the value of innovation through the preferred vendors.

5. Organizational Vitality: employer of choice

Learnings of Wipro:
1. Culture of Trust and Confidence.

2. “Timely Recognition” is important than “Delayed Rewards”
Earlier in Wipro they had a practice of giving monetary compensation for teams who came up with important innovations. But the problem was this monetary benefit took time (approx 3years) to reach the team members passing according to organizational rules. So this method was not effective in Wipro therefore they introduced a new method of appreciation along with monetary benefits like giving a chance to have dinner with the CEO, and so.

3. Difference between “failed attempts” and “wasted efforts”
Attempting and failing is accepted in Wipro, but they constantly evaluate the innovation activities taking place so as to understand activities which won’t give any returns if taken further. This is done to reduce and control the funds & time spent on innovation which results into a wasted effort.

4. Co-innovation with partners helps faster time to market.

5. “Broker” is a key role in Innovation Management.

6. Different strokes for different folks – “Idea Forward” vs. “Aspiration Backward”
It basically talks about motivating the employees in the right way by understanding their needs.

7. Don’t underestimate the importance of “Story Telling”.

************

Open Innovation @ P&G

2009-05-12T22:18:00.000+05:30

Open Innovation @ P&G
Talk By: Mr. Ashish Chatterjee, Head- Bangalore Innovation Center,
Director- Asia Connect + Develop & Beauty Care,
Proctor &Gamble India
@ CII-Innovation forum – IIM Bangalore
7th May 2009
Scribe: Lokesh V.

Becoming the Partner of Choice for Open Innovation
Introduction
This is a concept of joining hands between the potential players in the market by collaborating among themselves with innovation and technology process. P&G started this, 7-8 years ago, when it found that the Top-Line growth was not happening. This was started under the inspiration, leadership and guidance of their CEO, A G Lafley. The words of the CEO were “if we don’t innovate we don’t grow,” since P&G is a consumer product manufacture i.e. mostly dealing with FMGC products and “touching life & improving life” as their underling concept, P&G had to put more effort on coming up with new product innovation.

This gave rise to a new method of development in P&G called “Open Innovation.” The need for welcoming open innovation has an important plus point that, there may have a good R&D within the organization but the population outside the organization may hold a greater potential in innovating and developing new products. So understanding these potential makers or players and joining hands with them is called Open Innovation.

The creation of network in business with others like customers, retailers and suppliers, etc helps to develop and achieve 50% innovation. But as benefits are always associated with challenges, the greatest challenge in this approach is making the in-house R&D researchers understand the values and merits of this approach. As when the organization goes for open innovations it may give a negative impact to its R&D researchers as ineffective people and take open innovation as a competing concept for their existence. So they may build a negative attitude towards the acceptance of open innovation approach.

One of the best ways to develop is by making Suppliers not just Vendors but a “Business Partners” in market. So to make the suppliers follow in line with the innovation strategy of the organization, make a change in the traditional culture of business relationship and treat the suppliers as business partners.

The other way is joining hands with Business Competitor in a new product line and starting a new business while being competitors in the existing business. This could be a mutual growth for both.
This will help in gaining their maximum support and cooperation in business. This is not a cost cutting exercise, but it’s a value adding exercise.

Success Stories

1. P&G with Clorox
P&G had developed an innovative plastic food wrapping product and wanted to implement it into market. Since they were not having the technology for mass production and the financial analysis gave a negative result for starting it from zero level, they joined hands with North American leading brand in this space called “Clorox” for the marketing of the product with their new technology. P&G supported with the technology of the new product and Clorox implemented it through their production system. This is marketed with the brand name “Impress”. This product became a big hit in the consumer market in North America.

2. Swiffer Dusters
This is a product that P&G marked in America, Europe and Africa by joining hands with a Japanese company. As we know that dusters are not flexible to be used at ever corner. But one of the Japanese Company which had a strong brand value in Japan came up with a new product which is a flexible duster. Since the inventor company had a market only in Japan, P&G joined hands with them and used their technology for marketing the product in other parts of the world while the Japanese company controlled the market are in Asia. Thus, P&G used a technology of their competitor in Japan by connecting with them and made a brand in the rest of the world, which stands as a win-win situation for both.

3. Olay
This is one of the best wrinkle treatment creams available in the U.S market and is a reputed brand name produced under P&G. They got this technology from a SME in France called “Sederma” which had this formula and were a market leader in France. By connecting with this SME, P&G could capture and emerge as one on of the best brand in U.S market. Thus, even joining hands with small-medium enterprises can be a helping hand in the open innovation approach.

All these examples are the success stories of P&G by the adopting the “Connect + Develop approach”.
Learning from Downfalls
“Be flexible with IP Rights & deal structure” because every deal is unique. Sometimes some deals may stand good on paper but its actual implementation may not have such an effect as it was thought off. When being a bigger company like P&G and getting in deal with a SME or an individual (innovator), one of the great things to remember is to get an answer for this question “would you sign if you were the party?” before proceeding with the deal or contract agreement with the other party. This is because while being a bigger player in market when compared to the other party the organization may try to dominate the deal. This actually de-motivates the innovator to join hands for the deal and subsequently he joins hand with ones business competitor, which could be a bigger loss for the organization.

To have a better cooperation with ones partner (SME or innovator) don’t try to carve the biggest part from the deal but try to make a big pie for all to share. This creates a Win-Win situation and the partner won’t feel he is being treated as “Second Class.”
Thus, this points to one though i.e. “Love the one you are with.” This will build and maintain a greater degree of trust in the mutual relationship put forward. Thus developing products with the existing or earlier know company or dealers will build higher degree of trust and cooperation than that with a new comer. “The second deal with the same partner takes half as long and is worth twice as much as the first.”

Open for Business
In the concept of open innovation one must
· welcome unsolicited ideas
· be smartly proactive
· have a “robust” vetting/ rapid response, internal system

Connect + Develop
It’s all about “collaborating for value creation.” It’s not the number of connection that matters but the value of the connection which matters. These values can be generally divided as:
· Monetary Value created by Partner and Innovation.
· Scale and Global reach.
· Trusted Brands and winning track record.

C+D begins from home i.e. the systematic organization should be done from within the organizational desk to find the business mid spot where the innovation will fit in the market space. In collaboration and connection, one must understand what one can do internally and what one needs from external source. C+D is all about relationship built on shared understanding of capacity and a clear connection to innovation strategy and also value creation & number of connection.

Focus Areas

1. SMEs – in early days the multinational companies with huge R&D labs hold the 70% of the patent rights in the world but today it has reversed and SMEs hold 70% of the patent rights in the world while the rest is in the hands of MNCs.
2. Capabilities & Service – one should be able to locate the IP resources and must know whom to connect with and when.
3. Knowledge Partners – this is all about institutional support from research institutions like NASA, CSIR.
4. C+D with Universities – this is gathering information from research project works done by students under various Universities. Ecological sustainability can be brought with working with University.

Learning Points:
1. Establish, Nurture & Maintain the relationships with all whom you get connected.
2. Build Confidence & Trust.
3. Find the right deal structure.
4. Effective collaboration framework – this can be achieved by internally developing and making the organization’s employees understand the value of partners and developing them with the growth of the organization.
*****************

Innovation @ Google

2009-01-28T22:37:00.000+05:30

This is based on Talk by Dr.Prasad Ram -Head Google India @ CII meet at Bangalore on 23rd Jan 2009

There is a myth that Innovation is only for particular type of company. He was with Xerox. He said, if you recall Mouse, Computer, Ethernet etc every major technology used in PC was from Xerox. But Xerox has completely missed out the opportunity for commercializing these inventions.

It is not that Google has a unique Innovation process. Nothing is rocket science! We just focus on user; we are working for stake holders, driven by monetization. If you focus on user, the money will just flow and the stake holders will be happy.

Basic philosophy is:

Fast is better than slow
You can be Serious without a suit !
Sending e-mail from the CEO to every Googler about what's happening in the company"
CEO meets every Googler quarterly and religiously"
Everyone has an important role to play.
It does not follow any hierarchy where any one fall in HR ladder nine Rules of Innovation

1) Everybody must understand what the company is :(From CEO to Cooks in the canteen). It flashes the Vision of the company at least twice a day!

Mission - We are about organization information - which includes video, audio, contents, data bases etc. If anyone comes up with an idea - It makes up the mind of the initiator whether it fits the company's vision or not!

2) Hire the best:
They have unique method and every hirer is looked upon by Larry page and their package too. "One bad apple, would rot the whole basket of apples". This is the most important job to be done and this is very much Top Driven, Mr. Prasad said, being the Head of the R&D. He does not have a freedom to hire single candidate. But he can introduce them to the process. The success of the company is that, they could hire some of the best in the industry.

3) Share all Information:
Suppose an Acquisition is happening, every employee understands it. The CEO shares what happened in every board meeting. Everybody including founders, knows every quarter what is his objective (This is a learning from Intel). Setting a very ambitious goal and attaining 30% is also encouraged. Integrating KRA's is part of the system. Everyone gets to know what others are doing, so that there is a better understanding between groups! Snippets: Everyone sends a six point snippet on what he has done in this week.

4) Innovation is collaboration:
How has the "Google Map" come about? We all know the fact that 70% of the world does not have maps. Because there is no financial incentive to develop, especially in countries like India. Where does the business opportunity lie in this? One engineer took the initiative to come out with a Wiki based product. Everyone knows the places where they move around, where they eat, pray, bank etc. The online business group said that we have an idea of Hyderabad. Let us see whether we can map Hyderabad.

5) Morph Ideas- Build on the Ideas:
Engineers by just writing a two page article on what they are going to do, get unbelievable support across Google. Researcher, user designers, specialist in the area approach by means of the published article. Morph ideas do not kill the ideas.

6) We encourage people to fail.
Sometimes failure is not a very bad idea. Leverage the idea and materialize it into a product. Launch early, do not wait at building up the best product. Even Google has not build the perfect product yet. Launch early and iterate. Do not wait for every feature to be there and release.

7) User Interface:
Do not make user to get confused, The Google's user interface amazingly is not much different from its launch in 1994 and now. Identical search boxes, but search results have changed in terms of videos, images etc. We did lot of changes in the back end through research and understood by mining user data.

8) Data is everything:
In Google, we have the two screens- one of course is for the presentation. We do not just trust by the citations but use the second screen to show the data from the site and how it is concluded. Not based on intuition. At Google it is religiously practiced. For Example: From the data we have analyzed in "Orkut"- A popular social networking site by google for younger group ,that if the birthday notification pops up in a user's group, Immediately, he will respond through posting a "Happy Birthday" message in window (called scrap). This was entirely based on understanding the user.

9) Think out Side the Box:
Disney allows 20 % of employees' time for thinking outside their routine job. Google Map, Orkut, Many of the features of Gmail / search is from this.

The Conclusion is:

There are around 20,000 + people in Google:" Innovation is not about having an environment for it, like good food, place or having 20% time for it. It is all about making time to think differently and creatively." Talk to people as many as possible to get more ideas on the same " Build a prototype to really see the potential of the product.

2009-01-01T23:40:00.000+05:30

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, require creative imagination and marks real advance in science.
Albert Einstein

INDIGENOUS DEVELOPMENT - An energy drink to The Nation

2009-01-01T23:34:00.000+05:30

The imperativeness of the indigenous technology is that it catalysts the economic growth of the country along with demonstrating our technical superiority. The initiative towards the indigenous technologies also helps the organization as well as its nation in attaining self-reliance. An initiative towards indigenous technology development provides excellent opportunities for innovation and in revolutionizing our technological competitiveness.

The progression of indigenous technology development stimulates nation’s intellectual capacity building, thus creating a demand for home made products in the global market. Implementing a strategy for indigenous development provides the consumer with a set of alternatives and enhances the competitiveness in the global market. The indigenous technology development also plays an important role in minimizing the imports and also provides a better bargain in Intellectual property or technology market.

The strategic alliance between the various technology developers would offer:
Benefit from mutual technological, managerial and financial strengths.
Setting up of realistic specifications, reduction & optimization in development
Minimizing the time to market
Encouragement for the development of spin-off technologies
This will significantly raise the value chain for the products in domestic market.
Effective cost control on products could be implemented.
There could be bright opportunities for creating Intellectual property and uplift the company’s Intellectual capital through its exploitation.

To promote indigenously developed technology it is necessary to have a focused and sustained effort. We as techies must get passionate, demonstrate our capabilities every time on the new challenges of the futuristic business environment. It is imperative to commit oneself to the core of technology development through continuously update the knowledge in the given field of technology. The indigenous development demonstrates our command over the ever changing technology. Thus it boosts our confidence in risk taking.

Recent, successful launch of Chandrayaan-I made the whole world to open their eyes for the technological capabilities of the mother country. Chandrayaan-I with an un-insured budget of Rs.386 Crores has demonstrated the superior potential of techies in exercising critical missions with a passion, a commitment and a pride for the nation.

Crossroad Innovation

2008-12-27T09:45:00.000+05:30

Many times my thought process goes in why majority of the companies’ life span significantly lesser than human beings. What made companies like “Stora” a company in Sweden, which was founded in twelfth century, still exist as 700 plus years young innovative company. They started with a timber cutting and processing business but is still a successful living company in various areas of food processing and electronics industry.

There are numerous companies, with number of stories we come across the globe, that evolve with zoom and enter into gloom quite early. Only successful companies manage the brightness of their business in contrast to fast changing businesses. What we manufacture today may not be our future business, but how the learning in the industry is utilized in other area of the business is all about Crossroad Innovation. This does not guarantee the success; the learning may lay the foundation for preparedness to meet the future risk.

It you look at Nokia’s story of a meek timber products company and a conglomerate, from rubber boots to toilet paper. Here again the history repeats as it happened in the case of “Stora”. Now Nokia is into consumer electronics and holds a niche market in mobile phone business. If you analyze their Numero-Uno status, it boils down to Innovation and understanding their customer’s requirements.

Meeting at the intersection with different industry, brings in lot of new knowledge into our domain. This is termed as “Next Mark” which goes beyond the benchmark in your own domain. Many corporations fail due to very reason that they don’t see or recognize the need to change, focusing more inward than outward, and full of activity like fighting fires, dealing with and concerned about today’s catastrophe and emerging storm on the horizon. If we are internally focused on process we may miss out to identify the caution signals from the other industry. For instance, harvesting and distribution of Ice was in boom in late 19th Century. In 1870’s there were around 14 firms in Boston area of USA that were cutting around 700,000 tons per year. Several thousand people were employed. The entire industry was thrown out by a single invention of refrigeration and the growth of modern cold storage industry. Looking at the “Century Club” companies like 3M, P&G, Siemens, Philips, Rolls Royce, Ford, GE, - we can see that much of their longevity is down to having developed a capacity to innovate in their process’, products and repeating it successfully. Success can strike by luck, but repeating it, there is bit more than luck.

The crossroad scientist Michael Faraday born on 22nd Sept 1791, was best known for his discoveries of electromagnetic induction and of the laws of electrolysis - his biggest breakthrough in electricity was his invention of the electric motor and benzene in chemistry with his three (3) years of formal schooling. The passion drives innovation which you are at "Crossroad".

Innomantra Strikes

2008-12-27T08:41:00.000+05:30

InnOmantra: Inno: Meaning Innovation – Chant Innovation & build culture of Innovation or a climate for Innovation. Mantra meaning: They are primarily used as spiritual conduits, words or vibrations that instill one-pointed concentration in the devotee. Other purposes have included religious ceremonies to accumulate wealth, avoid danger, or eliminate enemies. The word mantra is a Sanskrit word consisting of the root man- "manas or mind" and the suffix -tra meaning, tool; hence a literal translation would be "mind tool". Mantras are interpreted to be effective as sound (vibration), to the effect that great emphasis is put on correct pronunciation (resulting in an early development of a science of phonetics in India).