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”.

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