Its official!

The 2012 Innovation for India Awards Ceremony will be held on 30th March 2012 from 6.30 to 8.30 pm, in Mumbai at the Jamshed Bhabha Theater at the NCPA.

In addition to meeting winners, finalists,  Innovation experts and practitioners from across the country – the Awards are an opportunity to interact with some great thought leaders on this subject. We are excited to announce the participation of Dr. Ram Charan, highly acclaimed speaker and author as the Chief Guest and Mr Nandan Nilekani, Chairman UIDAI as the Keynote Speaker for this year’s Innovation for India Awards.

Forbes has listed Dr. Charan as one of the 50 most Influential Management Gurus in 2009. The Economic Times in the same year named him the Global India. Dr. Charan is a business adviser to some of the world’s most successful companies including GE, Thomson Corporation, KLM, Bank of America and Honeywell. With an engineering degree from the Banaras University, Dr. Charan went on to attend Harvard Business School and is a former member of the Harvard Business School Faculty. He is the author of several insightful books and articles on business and leadership, including The Leadership Pipeline, The Talent Masters and Execution. For a full list of his books and articles, check out Dr. Ram Charan’s official Website.

With innovation being a key ingredient of global Management and Corporate agendas, Dr Charan shares his ‘action orientation’ in a FastCompany interview:

“First, as Thomas Edison said, an idea is called invention. Converting an idea into revenues and profits or something a customer uses is innovation. Innovation is selecting an idea and converting it to the production of a product, service, or new business model that creates growth and profit.”

Forbes calls him “a guru, a business sage” and with over 35 years of experience in business and strategy, it is no wonder that many CEO’s have applauded his work and sought his insight.

Mr. Harsh Mariwala, Chairman, Marico has been an admirer of his work, especially highlighting that  Dr. Charan  “has a gift for identifying key issues very easily and his language is very powerful”.

 Nandan Nilekani is recognized as one of India’s most successful software entrepreneurs and as the co-founder of Infosys where he also served as CEO for over 5 years. He was conferred the Padma Bhushan in 2006 and in 2009, TIME magazine listed him as one of the ‘World’s Most Influential People’. He is today the iconic leader behind the design and implementation of Aadhaar, the Unique Identification project (UIDAI) for the Government of India. Aadhaar was initially conceived by the Planning Commission as an initiative that would provide identification for each resident across the country and would be used primarily as the basis for efficient delivery of welfare services.

Last month, the Aadhaar number count was inching close to 120 million, about a fifth of the way to its target by 2014. In just over a year-and-a-half since the journey began, Aadhaar has equaled the size of the world’s largest biometric database maintained by the United States.

Nandan Nilekani’s highly acclaimed book ‘Imagining India’ cemented his place as a prominent thought leader and innovator. Business Week describes it as “a rich, insightful look at today’s India through the eyes of a business leader”.

We are honoured to have Mr Nilekani as our keynote speaker at this year’s Awards ceremony and are eager to hear him speak about his journey and UIDAI’s mammoth task of creating the world’s largest biometric database’s of individuals.

The 2012 Awards saw an unprecedented 432 applications and entries for Awards across Business, Social and Public Sector Innovations. Following a rigorous evaluation and inputs from an independent Jury, the Marico Innovation Foundation is very excited to be announcing the final winners on 30th March 2012.

The Award ceremony is scheduled for the evening of March 30th 2012 from 6.30 to 8.30 pm. Participation is by invitation only. However this year we are happy to announce a limited set of open registrations. If you are interested in attending the ceremony and hearing Mr Nilekani and Dr Ram Charan speak, follow the link and register for an exclusive invite. We are reserving seats for Innovation enthusiasts, students and members of the Indian Innovation community who wish to join this evening.

Pictures and details from the 2010 Awards are accessible here.

India - massive challenges equal massive opportunities

The Marico Innovation Foundation plays the role of a catalyst for innovation in India and works toward building a rich, inclusive innovation ecosystem. We asked our Jury for their perspective on the role of the Government, the Private Sector and the Social sector in building this ecosystem?

Ms Aga articulated the complexity of the issue by highlighting the strengths of each sector and described the potential challenges of tapping into these strengths. “Government has the resources and an existing delivery network. Private sector is equipped with technology and managerial expertise and the social sector has in-depth understanding of the challenges at ground level. (However) Gaps in transparent practices and trust levels between the three entities could be potential obstacles that prevent them from joining hands and working out a win-win for everyone concerned.”

Prof Jhunjhunwala renowned Professor from IIT Madras focused on the start-up ecosystem in his response. “(We) Need more government funding at start-up level. Need policy and incentives to try out indigenous products when they are available, rather than insist on established imported products”. Prof Jhunjhunwala is also a serial entrepreneur who has founded seven companies centered on new technology and innovations in existing technology.

Creating a significant social impact in India often requires innovation and with this idea in mind we asked the Jury to describe a few of the major social impact areas that demand innovation solutions. Education, green energy and inclusive growth are some of the big issues that came up.

Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala

“India’s biggest problem is uneven economic growth today.” remarked Prof. Jhunjhunwala. “Innovation has to focus on this. Indian society has a large number of challenges – that means more potential for innovation”. Through IIT Madras he is working toward building formal and informal environments for industry persons, academia and young people to come together, innovate and ideate.

 “Green energy is an important issue for the planet while education and inclusive growth is critical for India.” said Mr. Nadir Godrej, Chairman, Godrej Agrovet and the Managing Director of Godrej Industries. He is an Indian innovation enthusiast, and Godrej has a strong focus on green practices which are critical for its continuous growth and development as a leading FMCG.

Mr. Nadir Godrej

Mr Godrej was clear that social organizations need to innovate to use fewer resources and meet their specific goals while businesses need to innovate and target the bottom of the pyramid; strive to be commercially successful as well as meet societal needs.

Ms. Aga highlighted literacy and skill development as the two main areas that she believes demand social innovation in India.

Ms. Anu Aga

Following several years of Business Leadership, Ms. Aga is now deeply involved in social impact projects. She is currently a trustee at the Akanksha Foundation as well as a Board member of the Women’s India Trust and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. Ms. Aga shares that “Development for the millions of our young people to help them to be gainfully  employed and productive for the overall benefit of society” will need to be a key focus.  This will require two key elements. The creation of adequate employment opportunities in various sectors of a growing economy to  absorb the skilled workforce. And a decentralised machinery to combat corruption at grass root levels and to ensure that development funds reach the desired beneficiaries.

Innovation continues to be underlined as a key ingredient for India’s growth and development. It is this insight that fuels the Marico Innovation Foundation and sets the bar high for each Innovation for India Award. Stay tuned to this blog for more insights and interviews from our Jury. We hope this gives you a better understanding of the foundation’s mission and makes the award process and selection more transparent.

Find out more about how the Marico Innovation Foundation is directly supporting Social Innovation.

The awards are just 2 months away and we will be reserving a portion of the seats for the public to attend and be a part of the ceremony. If you are interested in attending, stay tuned to our Facebook page and Twitter handle for updates.

Wishing all our reader’s a great start to a wonderful new year. As you probably know the Innovation for India Awards closed with over 450 applications in September 2011.  December 2011 saw the first round of Jury meetings. Our Knowledge Partner, Bain and Co have shortlisted the entries through a rigorous assessment and the Jury has had a chance to do one round of review and selection. The Jury is made up of 8 eminent innovators and thought leaders from India. Read more details here about the Jury.

The innovations are being assessed on 3 main criteria – Uniqueness, Impact and Sustainability. The first round of assessment has lead to 47 entries being shortlisted and considered for the 2012 Innovation for India Awards. These shortlisted entries were presented to the Jury with details on how each of them score on the key criteria.

To shortlist over 450 applications into a rich pool of 47 potential winners is no mean feat and though we can’t share any specific names or identifiers with you right now, we can give you an idea of the nature of innovations that seem to be making the cut.

Within the Business applications, large scale innovations that address a massive market gap with services, technology and products seem to have impressed the Jury. Being cost effective, especially efficient, easily adoptable, exhibiting a potential to expand and scale are some clear characteristics of the shortlisted entries.

Within the Social sector, exhibiting large scale impact in numbers or developing a model that has the potential to be highly scalable seems to be a criterion for selection. Developing inclusive models that are sensitive to cultural differences and break through language barriers while still creating a significant impact are being considered.

Within the Public sector entries, all the shortlisted entries seemed to exhibit clear, transparent and tangible impact that was effective and timely. Building effective public-private sector partnerships was a clear indicator of success and most of the models show a huge potential for scale.

One overlapping characteristic of most of the shortlisted applications is the use of technology. Many of the applications indicate that organizations have either developed their own technology or modified an existing technology to meet a specific need. Technology innovation has the potential to make any product or service cheaper, more adoptable and efficient, scalable and easily replicable. And in a rapidly growing country like India – application of technology to scale the impact of an innovation seems to be an underlying trend in many of the applications that are making the cut.

Dr. Mashelkar, Chairman of the Marico Innovation Foundation defines Innovation as the Successful Exploitation of a New Idea.  And in many ways the shortlisted candidates represent ideas that have not only demonstrated uniqueness – but are also clearly reflecting the ability to grow and create large scale impact.

We know you are keen to learn the names of the shortlisted applications and winners but we still have one more round of Jury meetings to go before selecting the winners! The winners will be announced at the Innovation for India Award ceremony in March 2012.

The Awards ceremony is a much awaited biennial event in Mumbai and entry is by invitation only. The event brings together Industry Leaders, Innovation Champions and all the Finalists. This time the Awards ceremony is also going to have a few ‘open seats’ reserved for enthusiastic members of the Innovation Ecosystem in India. Stay tuned to the blog, Facebook page and Twitter handle  for more information on how you can get an exclusive invite to the award ceremony. Hope to see you there!

Yuva Parivartan provides employability training to young people who have either dropped out of formal education (or) are at risk of having no real livelihood options. It is estimated that by 2016 close to 500 million people in India would have dropped out of school, having gone through less than 5 years of schooling ( read more) creating a huge drag for the economy and a major challenge for industry in the country. This high rate of school drop outs and a large gap in terms of real employability options is a critical social challenge that needs urgent focus.

The YP Innovation challenge:

Although the team has successfully managed to create a low cost training model and setup the required resources to do so, the model is constrained by the number of youth who came to its physical centers.  Increasingly, the core operations team at YP was finding that a majority of their target group were not interested in building capacity for themselves – or in seeking any real employability options. With limited real livelihood sources at hand, lack of exposure to the wider world, limited access to go beyond their rural catchments – the youth we met were mostly convinced that no real option exists.  And if it does exist its too expensive and unaffordable. Interestingly though, most of them had high expectations of how much they wanted to earn, which, it figures, is in itself a barrier for them to take up entry level jobs (offered by YP courses). In the search for instant gratification the teenagers in their minds continued to discount existing opportunities.

For the YP team it was not feasible to set up infrastructure in remote areas where the population is scattered, but the need for such an intervention was most felt in these areas. Similarly it did not make sense for the youth to travel about 40 kilometers a day for their training to the centers. In a sense it was a catch 22 situation that limited the team in reaching out to the rural, tribal youth and impacting their lives.

Innovation, prototype design and the thinking behind it:

To address the challenges it became clear that the model had to evolve into one that could provide:

•    A low cost, scalable solution that solves the last mile gap
•    Has the potential to reach the most rural and remote villages
•    In an engagement of a few days, be able to start a transformation at a mindset level.
•    Demonstrate value by exposing them to sample livelihood opportunities.

Once it became clear for the YP team that cracking a model with the above design parameters would result in the removal of maximum number of barriers of scale, the Mobile Camps Model was designed – and a lot of ideation, brainstorming and prototyping went into the design stage.

A mobile camp offers basic training free of cost over a period of 7 to 10 days depending on the courses and its complexity. The basic infrastructure and equipment required for the teaching gets transported to the identified village and is housed at a public venue like the school or panchayat training room. Thus addressing the remoteness challenge by taking training centers to where the students were instead of the other way around. Also through on-job training opportunities within a catchment radius, the students get a taste of real earning possibilities. These opportunities are complemented by life skills training, aspiration of achievement and exposure to industry needs in an experiential manner.

Early Signs of Impact & Potential Evolution of the Model:

The camp model has now evolved to offer on job trainings for a month or two after completion of the course – thus exposing the candidate to real life learning and livelihood scenarios, thus also increasing the probability of the candidate getting his/ her first real livelihood opportunity soon. It also forces the YP team to create more advance courses (leading to better livelihood options) at their centers, since basic training is done through the low cost camps model. The camps become a pipeline for the centers and partnerships that help YP expand its reach deep into the remote rural parts of India where this need is the most. Operated at a very low cost, using shared resources, a well designed curriculum and integrating it with locally relevant skills makes this model widen the base of impact for YP tremendously.

The following graph depicts a quantitative leap created by this innovative approach to widen the base of students coming into the programme:

Yuva Parivartan plans to scale throughout Maharashtra – demonstrating the direct impact of this model. Apart from this they are in the process of standardizing their camp modules into replicable formats, thus enabling other organizations to pick up the model and run with it. Kishor Kher, Founder of KSWA, the parent organization for the YP programme is emphatic about the need to facilitate several other NGOs and organizations to adopt learning and insights from the YP model and apply it in their regions. He believes that this form of fission or natural adoption is the key to ensuring that all youth in India have a second chance.

YP is also working hard to crack a market-based placement model (which is being prototyped) that will create enough business sense to make a compelling value proposition, for other organizations to be interested in. Work is also ongoing with corporate programmes for specific skills to be developed for the industry.

Watch a film on Yuva Parivartan’s work.

Read more about the acceleration programme supported by Marico Innovation Foundation, designed and implemented by Innovation Alchemy.

For more details follow us on twitter (@innovationindia and @innovalchemy) or write to us at info@innovationalchemy.com; akshayd@maricoindia.net

Blog Post Author: Aditya Tejas, Research & Project Management, Innovation Alchemy Consulting

The need for Innovation in solving Social Challenges

New age Social Enterprises and more traditional non-profit civil society organizations form the formidable ‘third sector’ that complements the public and private sector in the country. Over the last couple of decades, social organizations have created impact in areas that the Government and the private sector have had a challenge working within. Health, education, employability, access to drinking water, better nutrition… all these are subjects where social organizations have applied government funds, market models and philanthropic money to demonstrate impact. Social Enterprises have an edge over the Government in terms of understanding the core issue within communities, being agile enough to learn quickly by failing fast and cracking innovative models that could go the last mile in efficient and low cost ways.

However, more often than not the initial success at prototype stages does not always lead to large-scale adoption and impact. Organizations tend to compromise innovation and do a trade-off between the larger challenge and the potential feasible impact possible through current resources. Limited resources, high costs of capacity building, poor infrastructure, limited working capital for operations are all reasons that good ideas seem to stop growing after a point.

At the same time issues of health, education, employability, women, farming are all becoming more critical to solve. This makes it imperative that social organizations adopt innovation principles to overcome the odds. Finding ways to take a leap into large scale impact.

Guiding Social Innovation – a catalytic programme

As one of its initiatives to catalyze the Innovation ecosystem in India, Marico Innovation Foundation has designed a 10 month program called Guiding Social Innovations. Facilitated by knowledge partner Innovation Alchemy this program is designed for Social Enterprises to apply Innovation to scale their impact, beyond organizational constraints. This is achieved through a hand-on methodology that helps a team engage with an innovation process over a 8-10 month period.

This programme was launched in 2012 and implemented in two broad phases:

1. A series of open innovation workshops, designed for social organizations to explore and reflect on the need for innovation, learn tools and frameworks to apply in their own context
2. Building on the workshop, selecting two social organizations/ projects for an in-depth acceleration facilitation programme that will handhold the team for an 8 month period with the objective of demonstrating new ideas, insights and prototypes for scale of impact

The open innovation workshops were conducted in August and October of 2010. The acceleration/ incubation programme was implemented between January and October 2011.

The core tenets of this in-depth programme design are:

1. Building the core team’s capacity to use Innovation tools, frameworks and methodologies in solving issues and blocks of social impact. This programme consciously works with a core team inside the organization NOT just the primary leader
2. Identify the core blocks to scale and find ways to create breakthroughs in those, enabling faster deeper impact
3. Demonstrate the potential of the ideas – in a manner that the board, management and investors see the potential of supporting it further with time and funds

Both the teams Yuva Parivartan and Waste Wise Trust have been through 8 months of in-depth support and some early impact is starting become visible.

The incubation period defined the value of scale in our operation.  From our current operation of 5 tons per day, to 100 tons per day or 1000 t/p/d, we buoyed over the notion of scaling and how it happens, current impact vs potential impact and uniqueness of crafting a change.   The creative exercise which is the hallmark of every session with Innovation Alchemy helped us in transforming existing facility of waste management to learning center that attracts number of clients and visitors; Establish a network across the city to mobilize, train and take on logistical support from every actor involved; and establish a for profit company in its legal terms and make it distinct with social and  business impact indicators. Anslem Rosario, Ashoka Fellow and Founder Waste Wise Trust and Mythri Seva Samith (Parent organization)

The Innovation Incubation Process by Marico Innovation Foundation is a very good step to guide & handhold NGO’s like KSWA to take a big leap in an innovative manner. The inputs & insights on the YP model, and (the support) thereafter in dividing YP activities into three different clouds was a great learning; hence innovative lever for us to invent the CAMP as backward linkage to the  existing YP activity. Secondly, involving the energy of external experts in the overall YP innovation process helped us to find our way very easily. Dr. Vivekanand Sawant, Director, Yuva Parivartan Skills Development, KSWA

Read more details on how Yuva Parivartan has leveraged this support to build out their Camps Model, a big lever for future scale of the programme.

For more details on the Guiding Social Innovations programme please write to info@innovationalchemy.com; and akshayd@maricoindia.net

Follow us on twitter for regular updates: @innovationIndia

Watch Videos from the series of Innovation Practitioner Workshops in 2011.

Innovation for India Award Criteria

The first phase of selection is conducted by our Knowledge Partner, Bain and Company who have reviewed and evaluated every single application according to the defined evaluation framework. Top candidates were identified by an unbiased panel of technical experts and then a first-hand audit was conducted to validate the selections. This leads us into our first phase of Jury selection, short listed candidates are rigorously evaluated and reviewed according to the Uniqueness, Impact and Sustainability of their innovations.

Many questions and concerns came up during the discussion such as – How important is commercial viability when judging innovation and impact? Can previous winners be re-awarded? Should we only consider innovations that create impact in India or can Indian innovations that create impact on foreign soil also be considered?

After much deliberation and review, a follow-up verification is now being conducted. This involves a detailed due-diligence where short-listed applicants are contacted to further clarify any questions raised by the Jury in Phase 1. The next and final Jury session will be held on February 9th where the 2012 Innovation for India Awards Winners will be selected.

Dr. Mashelkar at the Pune Innovation Practitioner Session

“With each award, the bar has been raised” remarked Dr. Mashelkar who reminded the Jury that they must be mindful to judge each and every application with the utmost scrutiny and set the bar higher each year. That being said, we are even more eager to see who will make it to the Awards ceremony in March. Do stay tuned to our Facebook  and Twitter accounts for up-to-date information on the Awards process and for deeper insight into the Indian Innovation Ecosystem.

We have had many previous Innovation for India Award winners join us at the Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and New Delhi Innovation Practitioner Sessions, here is a short film from the Bangalore session:

Bangalore : Innovation Practitioner Session from Innovation Alchemy on Vimeo.

For more on the Innovation Practitioner Sessions, check out the Innovation for India Vimeo Channel

The “Internet” is a major disruptor. The Media, Telecom, Retail, B to B Commerce, Government to Citizen services, communication have all been disrupted by the power of the internet revolution. The 100 year old telecom industry has, in just 15 years, seen its REVENUE MOVE from voice based local telephony TO national long distance telephony TO cellular voice and NOW TO wireless data.

In an even shorter time span, the Indian telecom industry has grown from 40 million to 800 million subscribers, a feat comparable to the iconic Manhattan Project. Not only have the number of subscribers grown but call rates are among the lowest in the world and our service providers lead the world in innovative new business models, such as tower sharing, value added services like ring back tones and the use of SMS for government to citizen initiatives. The reach of these innovations is now spreading to regions such as Africa.

With the upcoming shifts into 3G/BWA can India’s very innovative ICT industry make India a role model for the world?  Here are some critical differentiators that I believe will make India an Innovation sandbox…

1. Unleashing the power of small and medium businesses
2. Making way for new age web 2.0 business models for Indian Businesses
3. New Productivity tools for small and medium businesses
4. Increase significantly, reach and access to the internet
5. Leverage the power of Apps
6. Create a base of profit via 4G
7. Make India an innovation center for ‘useable’ innovation

In the section below I have elaborated on my take on each of these points – and how it could help India leverage its Market as a potential Innovation sandbox for the telecom Industry.

A.  Unleashing the power of Small and Medium Businesses (SMB):

SMB’s are the cornerstone of the Indian economy. The country’s jugaad capabilities come to life in this vibrant sector. With around 40 million SMBs, India has the world’s second largest population of small and medium businesses. Retail commands the highest share (50%), followed by other services industries (25%), and manufacturing (around 20%). Unfortunately though, the usage of IT in the SMB sector is very low.

In my opinion the reason for the low ICT spend in this sector is because the bottom line potential of ICT is not fully understood. So what can the industry do to make itself ubiquitous in this sector?

1. Host ICT solutions centrally or over the cloud and enable pay as you go for SMB companies
2. Build verticalized SMB solutions which are unique to the more popular industry clusters such as in the manufacturing sector or for the diamond industry or the textile sector.
3. Enable SMBs to reach and sell to a large market

Telecom service providers are easily the most important touch points for any ICT spend in this sector and they should leverage this reach and offer more solutions to SMBs.  “Verticalized Solutions” are unique to a particular SMB segment. Certain verticals lend themselves to rapid IT spends, for instance analysts’ reports state that more than 14% Americans use healthcare specific mobile apps. Would such vertical apps, perhaps customized be useful to Indian SMBs?

There is an untapped potential for small businesses to market themselves locally through telecom technologies. I’m deliberately using the term “telecom technologies” as opposed to Internet because I believe an integrated marketing plan should involve a ‘combo’ of telecom technologies such as mobile, land line,  call center, internet, sms, mobile web and 4G.

B.   Making way for new age Web 2.0 business models for Indian businesses

Business is about creating a product/solution/service that offers unique value to a customer in a cost effective manner. The DAGMAR model proposed in 1961 by Russell Coley calls for four phases of creating customer awareness of a product – Awareness, Comprehension, Conviction and Action.

For a majority of Indian business key challenges include – understanding the changing demands of customers (market research), making customers aware of our products (awareness), making customers passionate and knowledgeable about the product (conviction) and providing the right channel for selling.

Globally, the tools provided by digital marketing – social media, search marketing, local based marketing- are revolutionizing the marketing and selling processes for enterprises. A vast majority of Indian businesses – even large ones- are in the early stages of leveraging such opportunities. While they have a good idea of the Internet’s potential to communicate their services, they have not fully used the medium’s potential to engage with customers. And since the right engagement leads to sales, this is an example of an opportunity lost.

The ecosystem of a new age start up with business models which are a mash-up between US style pure play social media and Indian style high touch customer engagement can enable such new age business models for Indian enterprises. One such start up www.drumaroo.com for example works with retailers, enabling them with location enabled web presences at around Rs. 295 per month.

C.  Leading the way for the growth of SMBs with new productivity tools

3G/BWA can provide tools to the Indian enterprise which can serve as a great enterprise leveler, the same way as the Internet has been as a social leveler.

3G/BWA based productivity tools can give a leg up to SMBs  by being applied across collaboration services, video conferencing, Presence and status, Mobile extensions to the office, productivity tool extensions on to the mobile and conferencing

 (D)  Increase Internet reach and access

As early as 1982, France had an information device attached to a telephone called the Minitel. It was a proprietary version of a typical telephone directory where consumers could get information about locally available services and products. The content was dynamically refreshed. The Minitel has now grown to over 10 million subscribers and has survived for many years even with the Internet. While I’m not suggesting a Minitel, however Small and Medium Businesses would do well with an Internet ecosystem that includes devices, broadband and local location based content.

A variety of new devices, new form factors may need to be developed for India. As per the latest reports over 42 million tablet form factor computers have been sold. More than 50% of Internet users connect to the net via a mobile phone. I believe the coming roll out of BWA in early 2012 will see the likes of Reliance roll out devices and form factors in India, tied in with Indian apps, India specific solutions.

 (E) Leverage the power of apps

Apps in the Indian context can be very powerful, since the Indian user is far more tech savvy and younger than his/her western counterpart. A user’s entire telecom experience can be app driven; enabling customers to choose the tools that will best address their business/personal needs. Worldwide, apps are very successful with over 25 billion apps being downloaded in 2010-2011 according to Gartner.

(F) Create a base of profit via 4G

Everyone knows that in India, entertainment rules. Bollywood and IPL have extremely powerful mass media reach and I believe that there is an opportunity for the upcoming BWA rollouts to leverage this.

Is there an opportunity for the upcoming 4G rollout to leverage it? In my earlier role at Intel, I worked on a Mobile VAS solution for the 1^st version of KBC. It was a complex ecosystem effort involving Intel, Comviva (Bharti Telesoft at that time), Star TV and others. The VAS solution brought the reach of “KBC” into a common man’s mobile phone.

4G rollouts are vital for the nation’s well being, broadband amplifies national growth. However, the key is to do it profitably and in the right way- the right things at the right times. Initial 4G roll outs can get a kick start with entertainment while the next gen can kick start massive enterprise growth.

(G) Make India an Innovation Center for useable Innovation

Globally there seems to be consensus that mobile will continue its fast growth and the world will have more mobiles (SIMs) than people- source IETF. India with her billion people is perceived as being a “Giant Startup”. Can we create unique usage models in Health care, Utilities, Transportation, e-Governance, Finance that are ahead of anyone else? We have some good beginnings in Government to citizen initiatives on the mobile. Can we be the first to latch onto new Global innovations such as “Embedded SIMs”, NFC and other areas and be the first to rollout mass applications? Such applications can impact a large segment of the Indian population. The mobile is a ubiquitous device and can play a large macroeconomic role such as enabling equity between cities and villages, be a social leveler across all communities and regions and provide opportunities for people to live in villages and have meaningful global careers. Possible? I think it is.

Siva Ramamoorthy is a Director at Genband – a JP Morgan one equity partners PE firm. Siva has worked in global locations in the technology industry with both large brands and startup’s. At Tejas Networks one of India’s most successful home grown product companies, he led work in establishing the uniqueness of the firm as an innovation leader and a precedent for product companies from India. At Intel, he worked on Government-citizen initiatives such as with state governments of Tamil Nadu, enabling telecom value added services such as with TV shows, cricket and embedded computing.

He holds a MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. He has presented on Innovation at United Nations ITU event in Sydney and Fiji at their invitation.

The Jury consists of prominent members from the business, social and government sectors, including governing council members from the Marico Innovation Foundation and many other renowned innovation experts in India.

The full list of Jury members is as follows:

Dr. R.A. Mashelkar – Deeply connected with the innovation movement in India, Dr. Mashelkar is currently the Chairman of India’s National Innovation Foundation, Reliance Innovation Council, Thermax Innovation Council and Marico Innovation Foundation. We had the chance to interview Dr. Mashelkar and learn more about the Indian Innovation Ecosystem, watch video of our interaction below:

Ms. Anu Aga – Ms. Aga is on the Board of Thermax Limited, the leading Indian player in energy and environment management, and also a Council member of the Marico Innovation Foundation. She also supports various organizations that promote education, in particular of underprivileged children from slums. To learn more about Ms. Aga, check out the Marico Innovation Foundation website.

 Dr. Makarand Phadke – Dr. Phadke is the Senior Vice President of the Reliance Innovation Leadership Centre, a group of powerful thought leaders that help shape the organizations’ innovation policy and strategy. Dr. Phadke was the keynote speaker at the Mumbai Innovation Practitioner Session, to hear more about his views on Innovation, check out a short film from the session below:

Mr. Ravi Venkatesan – Mr. Venkatesan is an Independent Director at Infosys, and was the Chairman of Microsoft India. He is a Director on the Board of AB Volvo and a member of the Advisory Boards of Harvard Business School and Bunge Ltd. Learn more about Ravi Venkatesan.

Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala – A firm believer that India needs Indian solutions. Professor Jhunjhunwala, a renowned professor from IIT Madras goes beyond just teaching, he is also an entrepreneur who has founded seven companies centred on new technology and innovations in existing technology. Learn more about Prof. Jhunjhunwala.

Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan – Mr. Gopalakrishnan is Director at Tata Sons. He is also the Chairman of Tata AutoComp Systems, Rallis India and Advinus Therapeutics, Vice Chairman of Tata Chemicals, and Director at Tata Power and Tata Technologies. Read more about Mr. Gopalakrishnana’s views on Innovation.

Mr. Nadir Godrej – Mr. Godrej is Chairman, Godrej Agrovet and the Managing Director of Godrej Industries, India’s leading manufacturer of oleochemicals, edible oils, vanaspati, and bakery fats.  Mr. Godrej is an Indian innovation enthusiast, and Godrej is known for its innovative approach to doing business and developing products.

Dr. Shashi Singh – Dr. Singh is a Director at the Govt. of India’s Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences and was also Director of DIHAR when they won the 2010 Marico Public Services Innovation Award. Dr. Singh was a panelist at the New Delhi Innovation Practitioner session; watch a short film of the session below:

So there you have it, 8 extremely diverse Thought Leaders with tremendous expertise in understanding and applying innovation have cometogether to help us select the most innovative business, public and social initiatives in India. The next few months of selection will be rigorous and we can’t wait to hear the results in March. Good luck to everyone who applied!

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What is Titan’s relationship with Innovation?

“Innovation has been in our DNA. We are a 25-year-old organization and we’ve always been an innovator”, remarked Meera. When Titan first launched as a watch maker, they were the only watch makers in the world to be entirely quartz technology driven, at a time when the Indian watch market was a predominantmechanical watch market. To this day, Titan retains a dominant position in the watch industry in India.  Breaking the rule and doing things differently has always been the norm.

Titan took a stab at product innovation by developing Titan Edge, a completely indigenously developed watch that is recognized as the slimmest  (1.15 mm) water–resistant watch in the world. Several other Watch Makers have attempted slim watches, however Titan holds the distinction for having also made it water-resistant. This required technology innovation at various levels. As a result of this proactive approach to creating breakthroughs, Titan won the Marico Innovation for India Award in 2008 for developing the Edge.

How is Innovation Applied in Titan’s Innovation Strategy?

Meera Harish at the Bangalore Innovation Practitioner Session

“Cross pollination is one of the most powerful routes to innovation”, says Meera. The crux of Titan’s Innovation strategy is to cross-pollinate and learn from others, both internally and externally. “Titan does not believe that there are any ‘bad ideas’ and no idea is discouraged. You need to try fast and fail fast in order to innovate”said Meera. The ‘Dare to try’ award started by the TATA Group reflects this ideology and rewards individuals and teams who tried out an innovative idea, irrespective of whether they were successful or not. This kind of an award process, which is part of the annual Tata Innovista Awards Program, is helping to build a culture of innovation across all TATA Companies, that encourages the use of failure as a tool – and not as an inhibitor.

How does Titan Cultivate and Sustain Innovation?

Here is a quick look at a few different innovation enabling practices at Titan.

Titan Innovation Council is a 15 member council of varying seniority and experience, whose members are handpicked from different departments (as varied as HR, product development, marketing). The purpose of the council is to enable innovation and seed a culture of innovation at Titan in a systematic way. The council also helps bring a cross functional view into innovation challenges.

Titan School for Innovation – “There is a technique to innovation, innovation can be taught.  That is the philosophy behind the Titan School for Innovation” says Meera .The school was started by LR Natarajan, Chief Manufacturing Officer, Jewellery who implemented innovation at the Tanishq jewellery factory in Hosur. Workers are taught the tools of innovation and use these tools to solve problems, increase efficiency and productivity.

Innovation Bazaar – A platform for employees to showcase their best ideas of the year.These ideas are judged by an eminent Jury.  The Bazaar is an excellent opportunity for Titanians to innovate, compete, push the boundaries and learn from one another.

Titan Interweave – The ultimate cross-pollination platform!  Like the Bazaar, Interweave is another opportunity for Titanians to present their best ideas, but without the pressure of being judged. The sole intention of Interweave is to help  separate divisions and departments to interact and pick up new ideas and learning from each other.

Titan Diagon Alley – This is a quasi academic program for Titan’s high potential managers, held at IIMB. Diversity is a powerful tool of innovation and the Council included many innovations in this program, including getting managers from other industries to participate, involve college students to sit in on the Titan teams and bring in fresh perspectives on the business challenges & invite experts from other industries to share innovation practices.

What became clear from our conversation with Meera was that Titan Industries is really integrating  innovation across all levels. They may be a 25-year-old organisation, but innovation has always been in their DNA and in the New Age Titan , innovation is becoming a key ingredient in their process and functioning for the future. Over the years, Titan , a billion plus dollar enterprise , has successfully launched many different products and brands that target a diverse range of customers and successfully set up a number of successful businesses & brands including Titan Fastrack, Tanishq , Gold Plus and Titan Eye Plus. What is evident is that there seems to be a system behind Titan’s innovation and success.

Meera Harish was a Panelist at the Bangalore Innovation Practitioner session, organized by Marico Innovation Foundation. See a short video from the session below.

Mansi Reddy, Bangalore

Three basic criteria exist for choosing a Marico Innovation Award winner:

1. Sustainability – An innovation that is likely to endure for a long time
2. Uniqueness – An innovation that is doing something different and one of a kind
3. Impact – An innovation that is creating a significant social impact

Innovation for India Award Criteria

2012 Awards: Applications, Jury Process  and what to expect in the coming months

This year we received 432 applications in total! The response has been overwhelming and we are looking forward to the results. We are now in the process of reviewing and evaluating all the applications.

An external unbiased Jury of eminent business and social leaders and practitioners has been selected and the evaluation process has begun. The Jury will include Governing Council members of the Marico Innovation Foundation as well as renowned innovation experts in India. To ensure fairness, no Jury member will have any prior connection to shortlisted candidates.

The first phase of the Jury process has begun and top entries are being reviewed. Applicants that have made it through the first round may be expected to provide more detailed information on their innovation. The first phase of selection will come to a close at the end of October/ early November 2011. A follow-up verification of selected applicants will be conducted before the second phase of Jury selection. The second phase of selection is expected to take place in the month of January, 2012 when the final winners are decided.

The winners will be announced at the Marico Innovation for India Awards Ceremony which is scheduled to be held during the month of March, 2012.

We are looking forward to see who will be picked and recognized at the 2012 awards, good luck to everyone who applied! There is a lot of interaction and knowledge sharing planned over the next few months so do stay tuned to the blog and follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/maricoinnovationfoundation) and Twitter (@InnovationIndia) for regular updates.