“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.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Innovation @ Siemens
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Innovation @ Wipro
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”.
************
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
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.
*****************
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.
*****************
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Innovation @ Google
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:
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.
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.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
INDIGENOUS DEVELOPMENT - An energy drink to The Nation
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.
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.
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