Innovation Evangelist

Innovation Excellence Award- 5th Innovation Summit

2012-01-25T10:58:00.003+05:30

Pavan Soni receiving the Innovation Excellence Award

The Fifth Edition of Indira International Innovation Summit held at Pune was a eye-opener for me in many regards. Apart from some really amazing talks and ideas being shared, what thrilled me was the company of budding entrepreneurs. The award had the knack of picking up unsung heroes from across India who are doing some really smart and valuable work in the space of social entrepreneurship and contemporary areas. I am humbled to be one of the award recipients at the ceremony and what made the accolade all the more sweet was that I was the only awardee in the individual role. Broadly there were two categories of awards-- firms having done exceptionally well and budding entrepreneurs, and frankly my nomination and award was little surprising. But never the less, I am thankful to the organizers for giving me a platform to evangelize innovation in front of some 500 students and industry friends.

Sharing a few thoughts

This award was a cognizance of the work around innovation evangelism that I could do, especially with school and colleges. What helped tip the judgement was also my decision to move from corporate to academic to pursue the Doctoral Studies.

Apart from my family, three of the people whom I really owe all this to are: Mr. BV Nagaraj from Titan, and Mr. GS Nathan and Mr. Vikesh Mehta from Wipro. These three father-figures have given me what most youngsters could only dream of. The direction, the freedom and precious nuggets of wisdom along the way. Can never ever thank them enough.

Am sure every youngster would have come across these three angels in their life, albeit with different names at different instances. The essence is in identifying such Inflection Points and spotting those nuggets, for some of these could be truly life changing experiences.

Back at IIM Bangalore, can't afford to miss a single beat here, for this is the defining moment of life. The hopes are high, the opportunities are huge and task is tough. Let's walk.

Summarizing the three messages that I delivered during my 8 min speech during the award ceremony:

Hone Fearlessness, Restlessness and Luck! Needn't settle for a few bucks or a grade or two. Purpose of life is to live up to the full potential and this potential is an act of discovery. By being fearless and restless, the odds of success go up and that's what we know as luck.
Attempt living a debt-free life. The next 20 years, for those in 20s, is the most crucial period. Don't waste it in buying home, owning a car and paying EMIs, as EMIs kill creativity by limiting your options. Work enough and achieve sufficient that you can buy all of this at 100% down-payment when time comes!
Research is a wonderful thing. Especially if you have been good in academics, which a good 30% of mortals are. Imagine the waste it is for those who have been brilliant in studies and then they settle for doing things that are at best applied common-sense. That's what defines most of the corporate world around us incidentally. Why not pursue research, after all that's what India and rest of the world now needs more than ever. So here's a call for researchers.

Once again thanking the organizers and Indira Group of Institutions for spotting this lesser mortal and giving an opportunity to share my thoughts.

On doing Management Research @ IIMB: An FAQ

2012-01-15T15:44:00.000+05:30

Pavan Soni at IIM Bangalore campus

Am having the best time of my life. The more I think about it, the more I get convinced that having chosen to do a Doctoral Program was a good decision and the timing was apt. Almost everywhere when I meet people, the reaction to my leaving a well paying job and doing this program remains varied. On the extreme are people who say - "you must be crazy" and on other, I hear them saying, "Gosh! I must have done the same". Am happy that at least I am able to elicit some reaction from them. So here's a note on the life at IIM Bangalore Fellow Programme in Management (Doctoral Programme) and what research entails, in an FAQ mode:

What is Research in Management Education?: Research at large, as I get to understand it, means the pursuit of truth. The different between physical sciences and social sciences, which management is a part of, is that in former, truth doesn't have many versions, whereas in latter truth is subjective. The very subjective nature of the discipline of management makes the pursuit of truth interesting and purposeful. In my area of study- Corporate Strategy & Policy, some of the questions we attempt answering are: Role of Intellectual Property on firm's diversification strategy; or how firms develop innovation competencies, or how family owned businesses assess risk vis-a-vis professional ran, among others. The whole premise of research is based upon learning from specific, non-random situations and generalize the findings for broader applications. It's a balance between rigor and relevance, and is achieved through conceptual understanding, empirical evidence and contextualization of findings. It's an art, more than a science.
Why study Management Research in India?: Doing Management Research in India has significant advantages and the limitations aren't as significant. Let me explain. India is one of the most vibrant and diverse markets in the world and is also a burgeoning factor market (labor market). Many say that the next few decades are for this country. Having understood that most of the management research is 'West' oriented, it's a imperative that it be contextualized to India and supplemented with Indian content. That's a great opportunity for researchers like us. Further, unlike physical sciences, where you need huge laboratory setups and funds for conducting research (CERN comes to mind here), management research isn't that expensive. Here the labs are the various firms and institutions were phenomenons are studied. So as you see, doing management research in India is a low cost, high return bet. Lots of issues to address and here's the time.
Why study at IIMs?: Having spent a few terms in the course now, I am fairly convinced about the virtue of IIMs in India. The three adjectives for IIM-Bangalore, as I know it better than other IIMs, are: Discipline, Rigor and Autonomy. Of the three, most important is rigor. I am working long hours, after a long time, now with my course work. Over 1,000 pages of reading per week, seminars and a constant opportunity to publish. With over 100 faculty members, IIM Bangalore has one of the best setups for management research in our country. We have doctorates from some of the top management institutes in the world here with us as faculty members and they are still working really hard to up the ante in terms of research and publication. My supervisor, Prof. Rishi, says, "beat the US schools in their own game, that's the aim you need to have". The game he refer to here is Publication in Tier-I journals. The intent is to learn and share with rest of the world, to help evolve the Body of Knowledge.
How long does the course take?: One must be prepared to spend at least 4-5 dedicated years to get some worthy research out from the effort. The first two years are intense course work, where one is groomer in science and art of conducting management research and on the core discipline, which is Strategy in my case. Once the student submits the research proposal and shows satisfactory academic performance, the rigor of actual research starts. Then it's a matter of keeping oneself motivated and producing a high-quality research. Traits to look for are: self-motivation, clarity of objective, and grounding in the discipline of research. Needless to talk about the hard work that one must be ready to put in.
How to get into IIM's FPM Programme?: I wrote GMAT, but that's not necessary anymore. It's call for applications, followed by a CAT-like written exam at the campus and then interviews by the area faculty members. In our batch, the throughput was 3%, i.e. of nearly 1,000 applicants, 30 were offered admissions. In my view, apart from academic credentials and clarity of objective, what the institute looks for is: would the person be able to endure the program for 5 long years. It has a serious opportunity cost and one better be sure before applying. For more, check out the FPM page on IIM-B site.
What after the Programme?: All three routes, viz. academics, corporate or research, are open to an outgoing doctoral student. But my two cents here are, knowing the dearth of good teachers and researchers in our country, it makes an enormous sense to get into academics and do some real work. Let's leave the industry for our PGP (MBA graduates) brethren. We are at an inflection point for education industry in India and quality is the key. Good teachers help create good students, a plenty of them. So that's the path to choose. Else why to learn research at the first place?

As for me, I am having a great time right now, busy absorbing all that the institute has to offer, though my supervisor complains that I am not putting my best in and that's something that I take cognizance of. The intent is to make the decision of joining this program count and churn a real good researcher and academician out of myself.

For any comment or query on the program or life @ IIMB, you are most welcome to write back to me. Take care.

Year 2011 in Innovation

2012-01-08T16:19:00.001+05:30

Wish you and your families a very Happy New Year 2012.

In recent years I have been sending out this compendium to people who have interest in the field of Innovation, Creativity and Design. The intent remains to further the understanding of this vital topic and evangelize the spirit of innovation. Here are the 120 stories from 2011. I hope you find this useful.

I will be grateful to you if you could pass on this compilation to your friends and colleagues. That will be a true new year gift for me.

Sources: BBC, Booz & Co., Boston Consulting Group, Business Today, BusinessWeek, CNN World, Economic Times, Fast Company, Financial Post, Financial Times, Freakonomics, Harvard Business Review, HBR Blog, IBM, Inc. Magazine, Industry Week, Knowledge @ Wharton, McKinsey Global Institute, McKinsey Quarterly, MIT Sloan Management Review, Nature, NY Times, Scientific American, Technology Review, The Atlantic, The Economist, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and Wired.

Also do check out the archived compilations here.

Best of 2010

Best of 2009

Dec’ 11 $35 Tablet from India Lots of India's Innovation is Invisible Test Your Innovation IQ The Next 5 in 5: IBM Predicts Future Innovation Tournament @ P&G A World of Jugaad Surviving 2012: An Action Plan for Year Head Sustainability Nears a Tipping Point Creativity Linked to Rule Bending 2011 in Reflection: The Nature	Nov' 11 India's Innovation Stimulus Why Social Innovation needs Design Thinking How Pursuit of Profit Kills Innovation A One-Two Punch to Foster Creativity When Good Companies have Bad Ideas 8 Best Innovation Ideas from Around the World Inventing the Collaborative Workspace Social Innovation: A Matter of Scale Rise in Intellectual Property is Changing the Face of Innovation 3 Biggest Barriers to Innovation and How to Smash Them
Oct' 11 Global Innovation 1000: Why Culture is the Key Steve Jobs 1955- 2011: All about Steve Do Patents Kill Innovation 3M Bets of India- Style Innovation 10 Innovation Myths Crowdsourcing a Cure to Breast Cancer 10 Steps for Creating an Open Innovation Culture What Google's VP Marissa Mayer Does as an 'Idea Connector' WSJ 2011 Innovation Awards Innovating to Zero CO2	Sep' 11 A Three- Box Approach to Managing Business Model Reinvention China in Transition The Age of Customer- Innovator Lessons from Asian Innovators: AsiaNBC From Social Network to Collaboration Network Netflix's Bold Disruptive Innovation Innovating with Services Why we Desire but Reject Creative Ideas China as Innovation Nation Should you Reward Bad Ideas?
Aug' 11 7 Immutable Laws of Innovation How to Prepare for a Black Swan After the Tsunami The Future of Innovation Management: The Next 10 Years How to be like Apple The Elusive Big Idea Innovative Ways of Storytelling 5 Ways Standardization can Lead to Innovation Why Playing Games Could be Next Big Thing for Business What Innovations Would Make Cities More Livable	Jul' 11 How will you Measure your Life: Clayton Christensen Innovation's Nine Critical Success Factor The Paradox of Samsung's Rise Leaders find Creativity in Chaos We Share Too Much and It's Stifling Innovation The Best Strategy for Big Innovation: Know Your Limits Montessori Build Innovators Can Innovation be Reduced to a Process? Think Like a Designer Women Enhances Team Intelligence
Jun' 11 IBM @ 100: Ideas that Shaped a Century TR 35 Winners: Innovators under 35 Forbes World's Most Innovative Companies Global Innovation Interest Index The Global Innovation Index 2011: Most Innovative Countries Nokia's Epic Fall Resource Efficiency: The Sixth Wave of Innovation Innovating in Uncertain Markets: 10 Lessons in Green Tech The Business Models Investors Prefer Y Combinator is Boot Camp for Startups	May' 11 3M's Open Innovation Salman Khan: The Messiah of Maths How to Fire Up the Innovation Engine Stanford's Fresh Entrepreneurship Factory Lessons from Zuckerberg's Personal Innovation Lifestyle How Facebook Hacks its Way to Innovation 5 Common Mistakes Business Leaders Make About Innovation Bamboo Innovation (Chinese Lessons) Future Cities of Innovation Unthinking Machines: Future of AI
Apr' 11 Sparking Creativity in Teams: An Executive Guide Why Most Product Launches Fail The Paradox of Open Innovation: Intellectual Property How the Ivy League is Killing Innovation 8 Ways to Democratize Experimentation How to Institutionalize Inspiration in Your Company Larry Page on Innovation Innovation Lessons from NY City Design Fundamentals from MIT The Evolution of Web Design	Mar' 11 EmTech India 2011: Top Indian Innovators Seven Steps to Better Brainstorming Global Cities of the Future 9 Ways to Test an Entrepreneurial Idea How eBay Developed a Culture of Experimentation 7 Deadly Sins that Choke Out Innovation Can Innovation be Disciplined Without Killing it? Teaching Kids Thinking Executing an Innovation Strategy The China 2.0 Innovation Dilemma
Feb' 11 2011 Most Innovative Companies: FastCompany 50 Most Innovative Companies in 2011: Technology Review Cisco's Virtual Management Lab Why Creative People can Loose Out on Leadership Position A Quirky Way of Innovating Open Innovation @ GE Embedding Innovation in Leadership Four Principles of Crafting Innovation Strategy All Innovation is Personal Chris Anderson: Crowd Accelerated Innovation	Jan' 11 The HBR Agenda 2011 Unleashing Innovation in China The Next Big Thing in Managing Innovation Hotbeds of Innovation Larry Page's Google 3.0 Richard Branson on Intrapreneurship Innovation @ Microsoft How to Transform Good Ideas into Great Research? New Business Models in Emerging Markets Innovation: Made in China

Memoirs from Japan

2011-12-30T19:46:00.000+05:30

There's no country so unique as Japan. I mean it.

It's a different world all together. Regardless of so many books being written about Japanese culture, their style of management and success stories for its products such as Toyota and Sony, the only way to know (anything) about this mysterious country is to visit it. By no means a single visit would suffice, but one is worth the living.

As I said earlier, the three words that best describe this great country are: DISCIPLINE, PATRIOTISM and HUMILITY. Need I say more about Patriotism? The response to recent major earthquake and the tsunami that followed, were yet another hint towards how resilient the society and patriotic the people are. But let me start with Discipline. In the week that I was there, I didn't hear a single horn. Didn't see anyone talking on phone in a train or at a railway station. People queuing up at almost all places and above all, never spotted any police officer! Well one can always say that that's true with most European countries as well. But when we couple this extent of discipline with what the nation has gone through and its level of creativity, the trait become virtuous. As for Humility, how about giving respect to absolutely everyone, regardless of age, profession, position or nationality. Haven't seen many people taking with so much of courtesy to taxi drivers or restaurant waiters at most countries. Japanese people epitomize respect for individuals. These factors, put together, answers, to a very large extent, that why this country came to prominence and remained relevant for so long. Not to mention, how unkind nature has been to this island of a few million people.

In front of Toyota Automobile Museum in Nagoya

I always dreamt of visiting a Toyota Plant in Japan. I would call it the Mecca of (process) innovation. The second best could only be the Toyota Automobile Museum. It can't get more lucky than having the museum just a few miles off where I was staying. Built at the site where Toyota had set-up its first power-loom factory, the museum displayed Toyota's history and some of its leading innovations from looms to state-of-art automobiles. For almost four hours I was drinking from the hose of innovation and design and wondering about how ambitious the forefathers of this great company would have been.

Some artifacts at the museum

The most magnificent part of the whole visit was the journey Toyota (then Toyoda) took from being a low-tech local company to becoming a high-tech, quality-led, global manufacturing giant. The automobile section of the museum was a jaw-dropping experience as it not only housed each of the Toyota's car models and its intricate components, but also explained the various assembly level processes that a car goes through. All this demonstrated before your eyes in full definition. What am experience it was.

Models and Artifacts at the Automobile Section

The Toyota Automobile Museum was a great public service in demonstrating people the pride of Japan and the 'stretch' of its ambitions.
Next stop was the Japan Railway Museum, housing the famous Bullet Train- Shinkansen. Though I couldn't travel by this speedy train, the visit to the museum made for it and offered much more.

In front of Shinkansen

Right from early locomotives to fast moving Bullet Trains and latest 500 km/h Magnetic Levitation trains were on display at the museum. You can sit inside a compartment of these high-speed trains, experience the engine control and even drive one on a console. Impressive was the demonstration of Japanese latest MagLev train, which is yet to go commercial.

As for the food, stray and travel, it was never an issue in Japan. Though it was freezing cold, but that too had its fun. Here's a taste of what I ate and relished

In all, a great trip to the land of rising sun, though I couldn't take any snap of this phenomenon. They say, I need to travel to Mount Fuji to experience one. Perhaps next time.

Drew some key lessons from this trip to Japan, here're the top three:

Strive forward, even in the face of adversities
Respect individuals and help create a better society
Love your country, its people, its culture and its assets

Wish to visit Japan again and stay longer!

On Innovation and Development: Nagoya University, Japan

2011-12-30T17:51:00.001+05:30

Last week I visited the Nagoya University in Japan for attending an international conference on innovation and economic growth. Being one of the oldest universities in Japan and located at one of the most vibrant cities, the institute helped me confirm some of the hypothesis I had about the success of Japan as a nation. If I were to identify three words to decipher the university and the country, with whatever limited exposure I had, these would be: DISCIPLINE; PATRIOTISM and HUMILITY. By no means an exhaustive list, but I believe that one would agree to these being big drivers of communities and institutions there. Anyways, let me start with a summary of the conference and then follow it up with musings on Japan.

Conference Poster

The one day conference, titled "Innovation and Knowledge-based Development in South and East Asia from Competitive Perspective", saw researchers joining in from China, Taiwan, India, The Netherlands and Japan, among others countries. There were eight researchers speaking across three sessions discussing about various facets of micro and macro economic development of Asian firms and economies. Here's an overview of the talks.

Conference Speakers and Organizers, Nagoya University

Prof. Hitoshi Hirakawa, from the Economic Research Center at the Graduate School of Economics, Nagoya University, spoke on "East Asia's Economic Development and Industrial Clusters". His research identified significant patterns in cluster formation in East Asian economies and the role these clusters have played in economic development, with a special focus on timing of such cluster formations.

Prof. Song Lei, Department Chair, Department of Political Economy at the Peking University, gave a talk titled "From Telescoping Development to Compressed Development: Origin of Change of Development Mode and its Impact on Developing Countries’ Capability-Building and Innovative Policy". The talk was on how rapidly developing economies, such as, Korea and Taiwan, are catching up with Japanese economic development. This accelerated growth is fueled equally by government policies as well as by firm level choices on focusing on specific segments of the value chain (vertical dis-integration).

Prof. Chen Shin-Horng, Director of International Division, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) at Taipei, deliberated upon "A Taiwan's Strategy Towards Knowledge-based Economy: Servitization of Manufacturing". Sighting instances of leading Taiwanese electronics firms, such as Acer and HTC, professor narrated a trend towards offering complementary services to their customers and moving beyond manufacturing, which has traditionally been their core strength. This movement from modular components to systems and architectures would allegedly help Taiwanese firms retain their relevance in global context.

Prof. Balaji Parthasarathy, ICICI Associate Professor from IIIT Bangalore, threw light on Indian IT industry through his talk titled "The ICT Services Industry In Bangalore, India: Its Changing Structure and Characteristics". One of his premise was that for the success of ICT industry in India, domestic demand would play a major role and so would government policies. Professor discussed about the various government policies since 1980s and their impact on development of the industry, especially exports market, and how bottom-of-pyramid technologies would play a key role in furthering the industry growth.

Yours truly, Pavan Soni, Innovation Evangelist and Doctoral Student at IIM Bangalore, took a firm-led perspective of innovative growth for the industry in my paper titled, "Innovation in Indian IT Industry: Evolution or Revolution". Taking a Dynamic Capabilities perspective of the industry growth, I elucidated six capability building measures for firms, viz. Systematic Innovation Management Program, New Business Models, IP Development, Open Innovation, Sustainability and Green, and Talent Supply Chain Management. Each of these strategies were substantiated with key instances from large Indian IT firms.

Prof. Kaushalesh Lal, Affiliated Researcher at the United Nations University-MERIT, Maastricht, gave his research findings on Indian IT industry in his paper titled, "Export Orientation and Firms' Policy in the Era of Global Slowdown". Basing the research on SMEs in the IT software and services market, based out of NCR region in India, the research attempted identifying the posture of firms towards global economic slowdown based upon their export exposure and firm size.

Prof. Naoko Shinkai from Graduate School of International Business at Nagoya University shared her research findings on Asian IT industry in her paper titled- "Perspectives of the IT Sector in South Asia: Productivity Analysis". Focus was on IT industry in Bangladesh, the drivers and key impediments. Knowing that no IT cluster exists in the country today, the debate was around an impact such a cluster would have on future of the industry and lessons other industries could learn from this experience.

The final presentation was by Prof. Norio Tokumaru from Department of Techno-Business Administration, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology. In his talk, titled 'Clustering and Capability Building in Indian IT Industry", professor presented how different IT cluster in Bangalore was from that in Delhi- Noida region in terms of drivers and value enablers. An interesting observation in terms of how clusters dynamics and composition changes as industry matures.

I couldn't share the research findings in detail as most researches weren't published, but I hope that this summary gives you a sense of direction of research as well the credentials of researchers, in case you plan to contact them.

It was an amazing experience learning developmental perspectives of other countries and how much the Indian IT Industry has offered to and can learn from others' experiences. Thank you Nagoya University for hosting me at your wonderful campus and a great hospitality. Arigatou gozaimasu

Mastering TRIZ

2011-12-15T17:54:00.001+05:30

Last three days were an amazing learning experience. Steep learning curve, I must say, while interacting with David Conley and fellow participants at the TRIZ workshop. Hosted by QAI Global here in Bangalore, the session was unique in several ways. Firstly, it was the depth of subject knowledge and humility that David exhibited. By far one of the most engaging and amicable instructors I came across. Congratulations David! Secondly, the breadth and depth of participation. With over 30 participants coming in from manufacturing, IT, design and other service organizations, the energy levels were high and 'real' business problems got discussed. Lastly, the program structure. It was well spread over 3-days for beginners and I believe David did a great job in spreading over 350 slides over 3 days, without hurrying up through anything. In all, a very well attended and well moderated session. Congratulations to team QAI for this performance.

Participants at Bangalore TRIZ Conference hosted by QAI

Here're in brief the topics David covered over three days:

After briefing us about the origin and key concepts of TRIZ, David suggested us to form groups and identify problems that we shall work for over next three days. Interestingly most problems were business like, not technology ones. Then he introduced us to Functional Mapping, a concept that allows us to visualize the various components within a system and their interrelations.
Then came Trimming, a way of reducing the complexity of the Functional Mapping via elimination of some redundant or harmful components and corresponding actions. Even while performing Functional Mapping, participants could realize possible trimming options
Following it, we did Cause and Effect Chain analysis, in other words- Root Cause Analysis. Known technique, but useful instances. Though it came third in sequence, I was of the opinion that we must have started with it before doing Functional Mapping to help understand the problem better.
And then came the crux of TRIZ- Contradictions. As TRIZ articulates it, invention solves contradictions which are Technical and/ or Physical. We first started with Technical Contradictions and the corresponding Contradiction Matrix and then looked at a few instances. Physical Contraditions came in next.
It was then followed by Pattern of System Evolution and S-Curve analysis, something quite novel for most participants. A good bit of discussions happened here too and again must appreciate David's patience in addressing most of the queries.
The last segment was on Shortlisting the Ideas using Weighted Scoring Method and Perception Mapping.

One of the key takeaways for me was David's 31x31 Inventive Principle Matrix for resolving Business Contradictions. Note that it's not the 39x39 Matrix proposed by TRIZ for resolving Technical Contradictions. This actually helped all participants to relate quickly to problem at hand and device 'usable' solutions.

To sum it up, here're the virtues of TRIZ that I learnt during three days:

TRIZ helps to be in the 'problem space' for longer periods of time and hence helping understand the problem better, than jumping at the solution,
It focuses on 'usable solutions' right from beginning, unlike usual brainstorming techniques. Not to say that quantity suffers as a result. The efficacy of solution is visibly higher while using TRIZ, and
This is a Methodical Approach that can be taught and learnt. And I think, that's a great lesson for all the participants there. After all creativity isn't all that nebulous.

I happen to have a short chat with David post the day-1 of the session. Here're a video. Your comments are welcome.

One of the other presentations from David:

Introduction to TRIZ

CII- ITC Sustainability Awards

2011-12-12T19:14:00.002+05:30

The cause of sustainability can never be over-emphasized, especially when it comes to emerging economies. ITC, the fast paced conglomerate has done its cause in leading and teaching sustainability, whether its by cigarette manufacturing or its ITC Hotels. Five years back ITC, along with CII, launched the Sustainability Award to recognize some of the best practices of sustainability from across Indian firms as well felicitate key achievers.

63 firms out of 350+ have been recognized by the award so far, and I reckon this is the single most important initiative and apt in time. So here's the invitation for the upcoming event to be hosted on December 16, 2011 in New Delhi.

Participants’ triple bottom line performance is evaluated and top performers are identified through:

A rigorous assessment process conducted by trained experts, both on ground and on paper.
The appraisal of finalists by a distinguished jury, with prestigious international, corporate and government representation.

For the session, Special guests will include Mr. Y C Deveshwar, Past President, CII,Chairman, CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development AdvisoryCouncil, & Chairman, ITC Ltd; Mr. SureshP Prabhu, Chairman of the CII-ITC Sustainability Awards Jury, &Chairperson, CEEW; CEOs and members of the Sustainability Awards Jury.

Learn more on the session @ Twitter and Facebook.

...and then there are Entrepreneurs

2011-12-06T16:14:00.001+05:30

Ideatees at the JGI Idea Program

Let me introduce you to a special education program that I have been closely associated with. While the world does business in the name of education, here is an instance of doing education in the name of business. I am talking about the iDEA Program of the prestigious Jain Group of Institutions. Conceived with an intent of providing relevant education and future funding to budding entrepreneurs, this program is as rigorous (if not more) than most current day MBA programs. This small cohort that you see in the pic above come from very diverse backgrounds. We have first generation entrepreneurs with spark in their eyes and fire in the belly, students from business families eyeing to expand their enterprise in a methodical manner and those already running their enterprise.s Before I share my experiences in taking a course for them, here's a bit about the program.

This 18 month program invests first 10 months in preparing students with basic concepts on management and entrepreneurship, such as Strategy, Innovation, Financial Accounting, Strategic Marketing, Operations Management, Human Resources, International Business, Systems and IT, among other very specific course. Over the next 8 months students have business tours across Germany, China, Hong Kong, Philippines and UK. Here they generate business contacts, learn the nuances of doing cross-country business and get a much required global exposure for present day entrepreneur. The student entrepreneurs will be getting a post-graduate diploma in Entrepreneurship leadership at the end of 18th month. 19th month, they launch their enterprise. JGI Ventures would incubate the student venture, and provide infrastructural support for the next 12 months. That to me is quite an incredible initiative and generous investment. Little doubt that in the very first batch, the program has garnered a huge appreciation, including acknowledgement from Forbes India magazine.
My course was on Innovation Management for 40 hours spanning over one month. Teaching these set of entrepreneurs was a unique experience, as mostly I have given lectures to MBA students or done consulting with corporate. Making every bit of information relevant to their ventures and giving an application oriented perspective was quite an ordeal and was fun too. The subject, customized to the group, drew inspiration from the research fields of Entrepreneurship, Creativity, Innovation Management, Neuroscience Personal Psychology, Social Psychology, and Economics, among others. Little doubt that the current stint at IIMB is more than useful in giving a collective perspective.
About the management and staff, if I were to define them in one word, it would be "Missionaries". Their dedication, planning, orderly management and vision is amicable. In just about 2 years the program is off the ground and is already showing keen results. I congratulate the team and wish luck to students as we need more job creators and nation builder today than anytime in past. JGI iDEA is perhaps the way to do.

World Trade Center at Bangalore

2011-11-06T15:56:00.000+05:30

World Trade Center at Brigade Gateway in Bangalore

The World Trade Center (WTC) needs no introduction. The famous Twin Towers of the New York depicted the imperative of having a destination where businesses can congregate, not only from across the country but globally. Today the World Trade Center Association (WTCA) has over 300 WTCs present in 100 countries, and in India we have these at Mumbai and now in Bangalore. This newly built WTC, designed by world famous HOK Architects from New York, is 32 floors high, with a capacity of over 1 million square feet! It's indeed a jaw- dropping experience looking at this structure.

I happen to know the MD of WTC Bangalore and that's how got to see the building and meet the people behind the act. The gigantic building houses a well designed office space, meant to promote cross-country trade, especially for Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs). I was introduced to the vision of the institution, the planning ahead, as well the role WTC envisages to play in promoting international trade in this connected economy. Will talk more on this, but first up- the key services offered by WTC.

For the members of WTC, the global institution offers Trade Information and Marketing Research; Business Services; Group Trade Missions (to various countries); Trade Education Services (seminars and workshops); and Trade Shows and Exhibition. Needless to say, WTC leverages its legacy of over 70 years and 100 nations, giving a multinational perspective and advantage on a business.

While at the discussion, three questions cropped up in my mind, viz:

How different is WTC from any other government organization or trade body, such as CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, NASSCOM, etc?
What should an organization, especially SME (Indian or from abroad), gain from association with WTC?
What's unique about WTC vis-a-vis any other business destination in Bangalore, in terms of hosting an event or meeting, etc?

Taking cognizance of my questions, and sure am not the only one to have such questions, the team came up with impressive responses.

While there are over thousand industry and trade associations in India, WTC serves a complementary function. When Indian firms reach out to the world, the typical routes are through Indian Consulate or through their foreign business partners. But small firms can't afford these. That's where WTC chips in. I like to call it the United Nations of Business. Presence in 100 counties is a solid enough reason for someone to consider banking on WTC for their trade promotions. Hence WTC complements the efforts of GoI bodies as well other government and private association in helping business go global.

While I alluded on the benefits to SMEs via association with WTC, let me portray a scenario. Say there's a coffee plantation company from Brazil that wants to explore trading opportunities in India. Right from doing a market research to helping with translation services and educating on local laws, to getting a contract off the ground, WCT does it all. Any other one stop shop that comes to mind here? Not really. All the more important for SMEs as they can't afford costly services at start of the business.

Apart from offering Incubation Center for foreign businesses, board rooms and meeting room facilities, and from huge exhibition areas, WTCs strength lies in its location. Located at Brigade Gateway, one of world's largest integrated lifestyle enclave, WTC is well connected via Metro to various parts of the city, is next to Indian Institute of Science, ISCKON and other government and private institutions. Good reason for firms to host their partners here.

The bigger question is, can Bangalore be the New York! We have long lauded this city of its tech talent, but we all know that the city offers more than what meets the eye. So I invite you to see for yourself Bangalore's newest trade destination- the World Trade Center and get your perspective widened!

Innovation in India

2011-11-04T19:14:00.001+05:30

I just returned from a humbling experience while being one of the jury members at the India Innovation Incubation (i3) Southern Zone finals, hosted here at Bangalore. The event, jointly hosted by CII, DST and Agilent Technology. in partnership with Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship, IIM-A and Young Indians (YI), goes a long way in establishing an examplar of how grassroots level innovations could be nurtured systematically.

Shortlisted from over 700 applicants, today's event hosted at GINSERV, saw 38 finalists presenting their creations, which were finally shortlisted to 15 to be presented at National Finals to be held at New Delhi. These innovations ranged from bioscience, to agriculture and sanity, power generation and nano technology. What was contagious and humbling was the enthusiasm level of the participants and the realization that great many innovators dwell on our land. We need an eye to spot them, some funds to scale them and channel to take their ideas to market.

i3 Event poster at GINSERV Campus in Bangalore

Key lessons from session were:

There's a need for organizations to provide a platform for budding innovators to showcase their creations. My experience says that there's no dearth of innovators (at least inventors) at our grassroots level. There's an acute shortage of right connections to happen.
India is a fertile land for people to identify gaps (esp. at grassroots level) and address those using ICT. Most innovations fell under this category. Am was glad the leverage ICT is providing to such innovators.
Need to reach out to grassroots level. More than 70% of innovators came from outside of Bangalore. How about hosting such an event in smaller towns where people from nearby villages are invited to showcase and learn from each others innovations (or technology adoptions). Government and institutions such as CII can orchestrate such events.
Awareness generation on Intellectual Property Rights, for both protection and leverage. Great inventions often don't see the light of the day owing to poor guidance or even protection. Here's the role of IPR consulting firms and law firms to chip in in generating the awareness and share the responsibility.

Once again we realize the imperative of innovation by India, for India and for India.

Here're the observations from the event and some inspiration for such Regional Fairs that firms and educational can help host.

A working model of touch- free, mechanically operated urinal

Plastination of Biological Specimen By recycling Environment Pollutants (Plastic Tea Cups And Thermocol)

Lithium- ion Polymer Batteries for Telecom Towers

Energy efficient kiln to bakedead mollusk seashell products

Pooga Singaar - A herbal deodorant soap made from areca-fruit extract for common skin conditions

Other interesting innovations (my pick) include:

Novel nanoparticles ofapotransferrin/ transferring pharmaceutical composition containing them andtheir process for preparation and application in chemotherapy (patented technology)
Device for enabling free flowSpeaker Authentication on mobile phones, tapping into physiological and behavioral component of voice
A Pervasive Foetal Monitoringand Electronic Medical Report Management System integrating the medicalequipment required for obstetrician and gynecologist
Automated Rationing forPublic Distribution System (ARPDS) by utilizing Common Secured e-IdentificationCard
Synthesis of nano copper andits alloys using herbal extracts without involving electricity,sophisticated instruments and toxic chemicals (patented technology)
A way to synthesize nano particles using expired medicines, aiming at safe utilization of expired medicine and a convenient way of generating pure nano-particles
Development of indigenousautomatic cancer patient movement detecting and feed into the radiation machine.

Thanking organizers from CII for promoting and hosting such an insightful and useful event and giving me an opportunity to get an exposure to richness of India's innovators.

Your comments are welcome.

Innovators Talking

2011-10-15T18:49:00.001+05:30

Here're two great speeches. The first one is from Howard Roark, the protagonist in Ayn Rand's famous novel- The Fountain Head and the other one the Steve Jobs' commencement address at the Stanford University. Separated by over half a decade, both these speeches talk about the virtue of the Innovator. A must watch.

Do write back, what do you feel about the Innovative 'Individual'.

Campuses abuzz with Innovation (An Interview)

2011-10-15T18:17:00.001+05:30

Here'a my interview published in the October 2011 edition of Asian Educator Page 30, 31 one of widely read magazines on Education in the Asian context. It was a special issue on Innovation in Education, shared my perspective on campus and corporate.

Would like to receive your re/views.

Page 1/2: Click on image to enlarge

Page 2/2: Click on image to enlarge

Education at IIM-B: Best Practices

2011-10-14T22:01:00.000+05:30

My Reflections on IIM stirred a lot of debate in academic and non-academic circles, and I am not too unhappy about it, as one of the objectives of a scholar is to present a point of view, well observed/ researched and toss it over for a healthy debate. I am really happy to have received constructive criticism both from and outside of campus. It's been a good experience ever since. With one quarter under the belt and new quarter in full swing, here's another note on some of the best practices at the campus. The audience for this note includes: students at other IIMs and B-Schools, faculty members, prospective students and recruiters. Most importantly- my fellow students.

The 'Campus' that really matters: The word 'Campus' is increasingly referred to as the 'placements' at an institute, as against the physical infrastructure and ambiance. In my view, the most important thing an institute offers, apart from good education, is a good campus. A place where intellectual talent can bloom, debates can happen and students can get away from the treadmill of life. Has to be a place which is scenic, quiet, little untouched and having a lot of open space. That's a good reason that top educational institutions in the world are not located inside a tall-glass building but instead spawn large areas, giving a lot of time and space for people to get lost in nature and think. For me, I spend almost 14 hours a day at the campus, as I don't stay on premise. Would have loved to spend more time here. It's blissful. Architects and college administration must never overlook the virtue of a good, green campus, with lots of open space and avenues for students to hang around.
Classes starting at 8 AM: One of the first things that struck me after coming to the campus was the class timings. 8 AM and the session is on. Makes a great sense, as both teachers and students (mostly) are fresh and brings in a lot of discipline in the whole doing. Makes the day look a lot stretched. Not to forget the design of the class rooms and seating arrangement. Progressive staircase style, almost oval shaped classrooms allow a lot of lateral interactions and makes learning fun. Another note for the college management.
Grades/ Marks never disclosed in Public: For the first time in my career I realized that how some simple rules make such a great impact of people's performance and behavior. One such rule at the campus is that students' marks aren't disclosed in public over a notice board or mails, but instead individuals' marks are told in person. This means students just know about their grade (4 point scale), but not about their ranking. This tactic ensures that good performers don't grow complacent or poor performers don't get disheartened. Needless to say that the scores have to fit a bell-curve in terms of grades allocates. Each faculty member shares the corrected copy (via a secretary), allowing students to get any doubt clarified or if someone contests for a re-evaluation. And then the marks are shown in person. Easy, yet very powerful approach of inspiring healthy competition.
Wide adoption of Learning Management System: IIM Bangalore is pretty IT savvy. Right from attendance recording (have a Smart Card here), to publishing class content and soliciting assignments, the institutes does leverage a lot of IT. One of the impressing tools is Moodle, an Open Source LMS, widely adopted here. It enables students to register into a course, faculties to share notes, assignments and important announcements and getting assignments submitted online. Makes learning a lot less dependent on time and location and reduces other dependencies on mails, etc. Needless to say that blogs and other forums are also available for the connoisseurs.

Wonder, what does it take for other institutes to adopt there simple techniques? Not much I must say.

I don't have an iota of regret of having quit a corporate job and got myself to do this Doctoral Program here. Going is tough, but I am happy that I am doing it for myself. I see a value in this. Watch out for next blog post on choosing to do a Doctoral Program. Till then, contemplate on the word 'campus', aren't we misappropriating it?