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
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
Workshop on 'Patents in a Knowledge Economy' - A Knowledge Rich Treat
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
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
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Rethink & Redefine Innovation !
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
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
Monday, September 27, 2010
Building a Smart Intellectual Property (IP) Portfolio
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
– 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
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Strategic Innovation - Imperative for Creating Innovative Organisations
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.
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.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Sixth India Innovation Summit 2010- A Great Show
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.
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.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Is there a specific trend for Innovation?
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.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Coming Soon : CII's Sixth India Innovation Summit 2010 - Bengaluru
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
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
Friday, April 23, 2010
Linking Cricket - IPL & Innovation
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
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
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Knowledge Network - Leading Invention across borders
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
Innomantra Salutes 'Global Innovation Guru Prof. C K Prahalad' for his contribution to the Management world. May his soul rest in peace.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Innovation @ Bottom Of the Pyramid (BOP)
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.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Innovation Inspired by Nature: Biomimicry
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
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Iridium V iPod - A Short Case Study
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
3rd March 2010
*****************************************************************
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Jugaad to Systematic Innovation: The challenge of India
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??”
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??”
Monday, March 15, 2010
Innovation for the Knowledge-Enabled Enterprise
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
