India Innovation Summit- Day-2 Session-VI

The last session for the day was themed around: Good Practices on Making Innovation Happen.

The discussion was moderated by Naveen Kulkarni (Director- BD and Research Asia, Philips), on deliberation on some of the good practices of managing an innovation program. On the panel were: Anil Menon (President, Globalization and Smarket Connected Communities, Cisco), Pickhard Friedhelm (MD, Robert Bosch Engg and Biz Soln'), and Prof. Rishikesha T Krishnan (IIM Bangalore).

Anil shared that at Cicso, with over 160 acquisitions done, 90% employees are retained and they look for talent in an acquisition and are very selective while doing so. He further opined that having a good competition makes you better. Creativity is often emotionally taxing and the reason large firms' aren't often innovative is that they are designed to survive shocks, have more to loose, and hence resist change. Their tendencies to slap confidentiality on everything and to keep filing patents without knowing good from bad is not always appropriate. At Cisco they don't spend too much time on making strategies, they start first and then if it succeeds, they make plans to scale. He summed it up well by saying that success is your degree of freedom which comes from what all you have tried (and failed at). Don't fear failure.

Prof. Krishnan picked three instances from India, viz: Tata Ace, Bajaj Pulsar and M&M Shaan. He said that innovation models in india are a mix of- top down, tech + biz confluence and need an ability to manage complex projects. He picked from AG Lafley (Former CEO of P&G)- "do the last experiment first", ie- Know what's not working early. Further the best way to make innovation work is influencing stakeholder systematically.

Pickard from Bosch defined innovation as something which is new as well successful. Pickard proposed that engineers are good at problem solving, don't ask them to identify problems, give them problems to solve. On a question on industry- academia relationship, he said that industry expects basic skills from students and rest gets developed on the job.

Naveen did a fantastic job in moderating the panel discussion and engaging the audience in Q&A session. Sighting instances from Philips India, he stated the role of de-centralized operations in managing an innovation program and the methodical Stage Gate approach.

The session followed by the valedictory session.

Two wonderful days, full of insight got over. I draw a lot of learning from these days and believe the same for you.
Take care and do share your comments.

India Innovation Summit- Day-2 Session-V

The theme for this session was: Potential for Business and Technological Innovation by Industries.

Focusing on the holistic growth of India, the session featured few of the socio-economic opportunities being explored. Subu Goparaju (Head Setlabs, Infosys) chaired the session.

First up was Anurag Gupta (CEO, A Little World), who showcased his novel micro-finance product- ZERO. Comprised of a mobile phone and a handheld device it's a novel solution currently powering some 60 lakh banking customers across India. The device is solar powered, has fingerprint and voice print recognition, and is a self sufficient unit. The bank is run by women inside the house and is fairly intuitive and safe. With one banking branch for every 35 villages in India, Anurag maintains that India has a huge room for micro-finance.

Ashish Gawade (CEO, BOPEE Innovations) was next. Sighting instances from the research work done by late Prof. CK Prahalad and Manashakti Centre of Peace of Mind, Ashish depicted the wealth that lies at the bottom of the pyramid and the need to enable/ mobilize it.

One of the distinct speakers at the session was Dr. Suresh Deshpande (President IAGES), who spoke about his experience in creating a robotic arm useful in laparoscopy operations. The ingenuity and the intent of Dr. Suresh was commendable while creating Swarm which is far economical than other solutions available in the market. For his emphatic talk and commendable achievements, he received a standing ovation from the audience.

The last of the speakers was Rajendra Pratap Gupta (International Heathcare and Retail Expert), the person who wrote the manifesto for BJP. He depicted the 1/3 rule that he coined sometime back, that pretty much applies to everything in India, ranging from mobile penetration to people in BPL and India's GDP. Through a series of suggestions, Rajendra deliberated on pressing issues including- agriculture, healthcare, poverty and distribution. A talk full of interesting facts.

Subu did a very good job in moderating the panel discussion and keeping the Q&A focused (often a tough task).

India Innovation Summit- Day-2 Session-IV

The theme for the first panel discussion on day 2 was- Is India Innovating?

It was more than a question. It was a challenge as I Vijaya Kumar (CTO, Wipro Ltd.) likes to put it. He maintains that while India often fails to innovate, Indians do, and it comes from the power of ecosystems. Due to the novelty and visibility factors of products, their innovation is easy to appreciate, while that's not the case with services, making it more obscure. He set the context of the panel discussion around the Innovation Clusters and how to improve the Ecosystem.

The first speaker was Manoj Kumar Mandelia (Founder, Canopus India), a student from IIT Kharagpur. Started by five students from the campus, Canopus focuses on Waste Water Treatment for SME industry and household. Leveraging its patent pending LOCUS technology, the approach uses microbial fuel cells and not just treats water but also generate electricity in the process. Realizing the dearth of treatment plans in India, the team geared up to designing those as well and are now scaling up. Manoj concluded his talk very nicely by depicting the way a great idea loses its advantage from mind-to-market and how often our academic system is responsible for our risk averse behavior.

The next was Paul Basil (CEO, Villgro Innovations Foundation), who presented a very strong case about the big business opportunity existing in villages of India. He stated that there are 600 million Indians dwelling in about 600,000 villages and there's a huge room for creating social enterprises out of these. Through a very engaging presentation, studded with images of ingenuous creations from across India, Paul very effectively brought home the point that a little bit of investment in rural areas can yield rich results. Some of Villgro's investments include: MyIdea Program for students, Seed Funding, Talent Mentoring Networks, InnoHub, Unconvention (innovation awards), Innovation Fellowship Programs, and Teaching Entrepreneurship at schools, among others. A very emphatic talk.

Next came Preetha Reddy (MD, Apollo Hospitals) who gave a very interesting perspective on innovation in healthcare, especially in India. The 4 Ps of health care being: Predictive, Preventive, Personalized, and Participatory. While there are access issues in India, both in terms of physical and financial, India leads the world in low cost, high quality healthcare services. For instance Yeshasvani Healthcare Insurance Scheme where rural people deposit Re 1 covering their surgery cost, and Apollo Reach are ways of bridging the gap. She also hinted at the US learning from India in terms of cutting waste and adopting process innovations in healthcare.

Talking of Innovation in India and missing out Reva, doesn't happen often. It was Chetan Maini (CTO, Reva Car Company), talking about the need to innovate and his vision for EV in India. Stating the ambition of Reva to be earth's favorite Electric Vehicle Mobility Solution company, he depicted highly innovative and contemporary approaches in the making. With 40% of workforce involved in R&D, the key drivers of innovation at Reva are- Strong IP Committee, Rich Consumer Insight, Thinking and Doing Differently, and Value Innovation coupled with High Tech. Chetan opined that often not having a benchmark helps innovation. Talking of the two new products- NXR and NGX-2, Chetan depicted novel additions such as solar roof, advanced telematics, intelligent energy management and low carbon footprint as key. He also illustrated the innovative selling and distributing approaches adopted in London while leveraging online media and teenagers. Chetan summarized it well when he said that in India there exist pockets of excellence, which now need to come together.

Last of the talks came from Arvin Baalu (Head of Engg- Harman India), where he mentioned about the work Harman India is doing to support new product launch, globally. That's like moving up the value chain.

In all a very well moderated session after which the audience broke for tea.

India Innovation Summit- Day-1 Banquet Session

Exhausted with a day full of stimulation around business, technology, academia and government, the audience needed something different. The banquet session did very much the same. Studded with the likes of Kiran Bedi (Retd. IPS Officer), Sudha Murthy (Chairperson, Infosys Foundation), Shashi Deshpande (Writer), and Raj Kumar Khatri (Commissioner of Industrial Development, Govt of Karnataka) the stage was set for some different strokes.

Moderated very well by Kris, the panel was the highlight of the day.

Narrating instances from her wee days at police, Kiran Bedi stressed upon the need to generate resources without complaining. She urged the audience to focus on what's available and what you want to achieve. Calling policing as 'legal social engineering', Kiran mentioned about galli schools that have evolved to become Navjyoti Community College, recognized by IGNOU. Another being Safe India e-Complaint which allows citizens to file police complaints over the internet. Yet another being India Police which aims at providing education to the children of cops. She appealed to the youth to add something before and something after money, ie. Ethics before making money and a purpose after. And then making money is not bad. In her highly inspirational and candid talk, she said that courage is the single most important element of success. She maintained that Business Schools for the Poor, Community Colleges, and Home Care Industry have a huge potential for propelling future growth.

In her down to earth style, Sudha Murthy confessed that being impractical is her greatest strength and biggest motivation. This impractical approach has helped her build compassion. For her, discipline and creativity aren't opposite, but one drives another. She urged youth to run after passion and not money, as life is a colorless picture and you can color it as you wish to. Having quizzed on work-life balance, Sudha said that one needs to lead a balanced life and discipline helps in doing so. Sudha opined that telling stories and giving real life examples are the best ways to inspire people. While doing so, never be judgmental, let the students derive conclusions.

Shashi furthered the sentiments by narrating her early career struggle as a writer and how persistence helped her reach to this level. She said that writers have a rather tough life owing to little social dealing and often one is left alone. It's only the self confidence that helps sail through. To her, being true to oneself and working for no external reason are important to a satisfying life. She also said that having a compartmentalized approach, one for work and one for family, has helped her largely.

Raj added his experiences too on how vital it is to be driven by the concerns of clients (citizens of the country) while sighting instances from managing the Global Investor Meet at Bangalore. Raj complemented the panelists very well and one could see the sparks flying on the stage.

A brilliant finish to a very insightful day. Thanks CII and all the organizer for such a fulfilling gift.

India Innovation Summit- Day-1 Session-III

The theme for this panel discussion was- 'Organization and the Creation of Innovation DNA'

Though the word DNA sounds quite loaded, the weight of speakers on this panel did the justice. Chaired by Ajay Nanavati (MD, 3M India), the session revolved around good practices of managing a structured innovation program in a corporate and enabler there of. Ajay started with this cute definition, 'Research is converting Money into Knowledge and Innovation is converting Knowledge into Money'. He outlined the Innovation DNA to be comprising of- a marketplace of ideas; visionary leadership; systematic approach; and collaboration, supported by human and technical skills.

The first speaker was- Andrew J Ouderkirk (Corporate Scientist, 3M), who spoke about the yin and yang of operations execution and innovation entrepreneurship in every successful organization. At 3M, a culture of innovation stems from: Access (to markets and platforms); Resources (including 15% time, funding and network); and Systems (for New Product Introduction, Metrics, and Stores). While depicting the Periodic Table of Technologies, Andy explained the way a technology evolves. This could be evolutionary (expert led), recombinatory (scouts and architects led), or revolutionary (scouts and architects led). These technologies result into a myriad of new products and that's how innovation get managed at the powerhouse.

Next was Rahul Bedi (Director- Corporate Affairs, Intel India), this time as a panelist sharing traits of inspirational leadership. Rahul maintained that at Intel, the two drivers of culture are- Egalitarianism (equality) and Constructive Confrontation (ConCon). The former makes it truly an open door (no door as he likes to say) company, and the latter allows people to debate objectively. He also warned that often visionary leaders might overshadow the company leading to over alignment and deselection of what's not on leader's side. That's what kills diversity. That brings back to the two principles Rahul discussed that shape Intel.

Idit Biton (CMO, Systematic Inventive Thinking), furthered the discussion with a brief introduction about her company, followed by illustrating some principles of creativity. While engaging the audience in real creative exercises, Idit introduced- Subtraction as one of the useful tools for idea generation. The talk brought freshness into the session, not just because of the presentation by a lady (first one since morning), but also because of her ability to involve the audience. A well received talk.

The session was concluded by a brief talk from VR Ferose (MD, SAP Labs India) on SAP Developer Network and some of the work SAP is engaging with partner organizations.

India Innovation Summit- Day-1 Session-II

The theme for this session was: 'Changing Demographic Profile of India- Role of Youth in Innovation'

The stage was set with people from across age groups. Moderated by Rahul Bedi (Director- Corporate Affairs, Intel India), the panel focused on role of youth in innovation. Rahul started with a candid Q&A with Kaushik Srivatsan (Grand Prize Winner, Intel International Science and Engg Fair). Young Kaushik won everyone's heart with his innocent responses to some real pressing questions and lived through his journey of reaching (and then winning) the grand prize. What stood out was the role of mentors and scope of such engagements.

Next was HK Mittal (Adviser and Head- National Science & Tech Entrepreneurship Development Board). Must be in his 50s, but quite young by spirit, Mittal narrated anecdotes and stories from Indian entrepreneurs in driving the point home that Indians are ingenuous. His was the most admired and engaging talk of the day. He revealed many instances of grassroots level innovations which came from the strength of Innovation Ecosystem and often driven by personal passion.

He was immediately followed by Suhas Gopinath (CEO, Globals), who became one of the world's youngest CEOs at an age of 14. Suhas took the audience through his schools days and interesting moments of his startups journey. What came out was a profound sense of applying creativity and having an ambition.

The last talk came from Shouvick Mukherjee (Head, Yahoo! R&D India) where he discussed about the early days of his working with Yahoo! and how David Filo (Yahoo's co-founder) used to be frugal in innovation spending, but rich in customer insight. In all a well received talk session. Was the time for audience to take another break and be ready for the next session.

India Innovation Summit- Day-1 Session-I

After a brief tea break, which allowed people to socialize a bit, the first session was quickly on. It was Ashish Chatterjee (Director, Asia Connect + Develop Head, P&G) who set the context on the Power of Networks. While introducing the Open Innovation model at P&G that really opened up the R&D front to over 2 million scientists worldwide, Ashish did very well in providing the structure to the discussion. He talked of three models of engagement, viz: Power of Networks; Collaborative Competition; and Open Source. Power of Networks could be leveraged via- Scouting Teams; Intermediates; or by tapping into Network of Networks. Collaborative Competition can manifest itself on the lines of accruing- direct collaboration, competitions through grand challenges, and for mutual benefits. He also depicted Open Sources instances such as Linux, Human Genome Project and Drug Discovery. A well set context.

The first talk of the panel was by Wolfgang Lehmacher (CEO, GeoPost Intercontinental). Talking about the extent of collaborative innovation at the company, Wolfgang depicted the enablers of innovation as- Local Autonomy; Lean Centre; De- Centralization; Policies, Processes and Incentives; and an Entrepreneurial spirit. He also gave instances of process, product and business model innovations.

Next was Girish Wardadkar (President KPIT Cummins) who illustrated the benefits of adopting an Open Source model of software development and deployment. He presented some very interesting stats from the company.

Now it was the turn of a pharma company to talk about innovation networks. Swaminathan Subramaniam (Director- Licensing and External Research, Merck & Co) laid out the challenges of R&D in the pharma space and how open innovation is getting increased acceptance. The models he depicted were: Leasing and Research Collaboration (19 scouts at Merck globally); External Discovery & Preclinical Science (Virtual R&D); Co-opetiton -I (AstraZeneca and Merck); and Co-opetition -II (Lilly, Pfizer and Merck). He also gave instance of Puretech Ventures where likes of Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Abbott, Lilly, Pfizer and Merck have come together to develop technologies and machines.

Next talk came from Deepam Mishra (CEO, i2 India Ventures), where he shared his experiences from the trenches in nurturing product development for India, leveraging breakthrough technologies. Allegedly, i2 Ventures exist in a space which is the confluence of market, people and technology, and best way for innovation is proactive deal creation. With a focus on Water, Energy, Waste and Agriculture, Deepam maintained that venture for India come from need driven ideas, aided by technology. The talk followed a round of Q&A, though the questions weren't well articulated, in fact most were suggestions. But in all a well received session. People left of lunch as it was well past 1 PM.

India Innovation Summit- Day-1 Inaugural Session

The Sixth India Innovation Summit, supported by CII and Government of Karnataka was another confluence of thinkers and doers in the space of innovation. This has been one of the few events in India where a rich mix of youth and experience could be seen. With about 500 attendees, over 20 speakers and two days, the event lived up to its promise. Here's a quick summary of what transpired. For the event log, you can also visit Twitter (CII Summit archives, 140 char at a time, as my friend Hema likes to call it).

The session began after a 20 min delay with Aroon Raman (Chairman, CII Karnataka State Council) setting the context of what to expect from the Innovation Summit. He opined that innovation is one of the world's oldest professions and that it's inherent in human mind to search. The primary objective of innovation in the 21st century would be to address practical problems and have/ share real experiences. With this pretext, he welcomed all to make the most of the opportunity of interacting with a galaxy of stars on innovation and (un)learn.

It was followed by a brief talk by Kris (CEO, Infosys) on the four elements of development in India- Education, Employability, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He maintained that with over 600,000 professionals working in the city and a very supportive government, Bangalore is fast emerging as not just an IT hub, but also as an Innovation Hub.

The key note of the session was from Ravi Venkatesan (Chairman, Microsoft India). Ravi identified the top technology priorities of Microsoft, viz: Cloud Computing, Natural User Interface; New Devices, Many Screens; and Democratic Access (to IT). Through a series of AVs, Ravi depicted the power each of these technologies possess, and how India is becoming the test lab for such disruptive technologies/ experiences. These include Microsoft Hohm, Windows MultiPoint Server, Medical Bayesian Server, and Project Natal, among others. He also said that, while for the past 20 years the government has allowed the industry to flourish in an untamed fashion, now it is the time for government to intervene and shape policy agenda to enable innovation.

The sentiments were echoed by Murugesh Rudrappa Nirani (Minister of Large and Medium Industries, Gov of Karnataka) as he highlighted the investment done around holistic development in the state. In all it was a very well received opening session.

Themes for the Event

Here's a quick (tentative) overview of what one should expect at the CII Innovation Summit '10.
Day-1

• Inaugural Session- Key notes by Ashok Nayak (HAL); Dr. K Radhakrishnan (ISRO); and S Chandrasekhar (CII Karnataka State Council).
• Session 1: The New Models of Innovation- Talks by Ashish Chatterjee (Procter & Gamble); Dr. Swaminathan Subramaniam (Merck & Co); Wolfgang Lehmacher (GeoPost Intercontinental); and girish Wardadkar (KPIT Cummins).
• Session 2: The Changing Demographic Profile of India- Talks by Rahul Bedi (Intel); HK Mittal (National Science Tech and Entrepreneurship Development Board); Suhas Gopinath (Blobals Inc); and Shailesh Rao (Google)
• Session 3: Organization and Creation of the Innovation DNA- Talks by Ajay Nanavati (3M); Andrew J Ouderkirk (3M); Dr. Md Yunus (Grameen Bank); and Idit Biton (Systematic Inventive Thinking)
• Banquet Session: Innovation Beyond Business- Talks by Kris (Infosys); Dr. Kiran Bedi (Former DGP); Boman Irani (Indian Film and Theatre Actor); and Anil Kumble (Former Indian Cricketer).

Day 2

• Session 4: Is India Innovating- Talks by I Vijayakumar (Wipro); Arvin Baalu (Harman); Chetan Maini (Reva Car Co.); Raul Basil (Villgro Innovations); Manoj Kuman Mandelia (Canopus India); and Preeta Reddy (Apollo Hospitals).
• Session 5: Opportunities for Biz and Tech Innovations by Industries- Talks by Subu Goparaju (Infosys); Anurag Gupta (A Little World); Capt. Raghu Raman (National Intelligence Grid); Mahapara Ali (SBI); and Dr. Suresh Deshpande (IAGES).
• Session 6: Valedictory Session- Talks by Kris (Infosys); VP Baligar/ Dr. Raj Kumar Kharti (Govt. of Karnataka); Katta Subramanya Naidu (Govt. of Karnataka) and Aroon Raman (CII Karnataka State Council)

You can also follow the event on Twitter- #CII_Innovation.

Here comes - Sixth India Innovation Summit 2010

After five very successful years of leading the Innovation Thought Leadership baton, the India Innovation Summit is back in Bangalore. Championed by CII and supported by a range of companies, the Innovation Summit has emerged to become one of the most sought after events of the year. Over the years the event has seen speakers and audience joining in from all over India as well from abroad.

This year's summit is happening over 17th and 18th June at Hotel Taj Residency here in Bangalore. Keeping in perspective the growing prominence of India and other emerging economies on the innovation landscape, the theme is aptly chosen- "Making a Difference in an Emerging Economy".

Panel discussions are around topics pertaining to- New Model of Innovation, Innovation in Social Sector, and Indian Style of Innovation, among others.

As you can see over here the topics are pretty relevant and debatable. Would want you to make the most of the opportunity. To register for the event, click here.

See you there.

Fifth India Innovation Summit '09- Day 2- Panel Discussion- 2

The second and the last of the Panel Discussions was themed around 'Role of Innovation in an Economic Downturn'. The panelists were:

• C E Veni Madhavan, IISc Bangalore
• Raj Kumar Khatri, Commissioner for Industrial Development & Director of Comm and Ind,
  Government of Karnataka
• Bharat Kumar, IT Editor, Hindu
• I Vijaya Kumar, Chief Technology Officer, Wipro Ltd

Veni started by describing the Medici Effect: Which helped start the Renaissance movement in Venice. In Downturn and challenging times creating a confluence of people will help innovation. His key message was that there is also a need for corporate scientific responsibility to come fore and help and nurture research. The benefit will in turn be accelerated innovation that can be leveraged for business benefits.

I Vijayakumar provided the industry/practitioner perspective. He said -Innovation is about inclusiveness. There are typically two kinds we can look at- in-the-box and out-of-the-box innovations. In the box are innovations within the existing environment and systems: innovations around productivity, services and people. Outside the box would be more on customers focused. The greatest challenge for innovation would be to define the problem statement – finding technologies to solve is the next step.
IVK provided an example of an interesting and innovative step in the organization – primarily from a Green perspective and which also resulted in cost takeouts. It was -working out lower power consumption in the labs over the weekends (when consumption is @ 95% but attendance in less than 3%). He described the initial resistance from the lab administrators and the eventual gains.

Bharat Kumar opined that Indians innovate all the time. He gave an example of everyday innovative/ inventive sense in Indians. A vegetable vendor who makes his sales by roaming with his push cart on the streets of Chennai on hot afternoons – takes a different trick of shouting out his wares. While the rest of them shout out the vegetables they have for sale, this vendor shouts out the possible dishes you can make with them. He would scream “Sambar!” and then proceed to narrate all the vegetables you would need to make it!
In effect, he helps the lady of the house visualize all the options she has for the night’s dinner and help her make a choice and come by and make a purchase.

Three key points from the session were:

• One must be cautious about terming some innovations as mere cost cutting and not recognize them.
• Tolerance to failure should increase.
• Leadership is needed. Ability to place people who excel and are passionate will engender innovation.

And that was the end of two eventful days.

Fifth India Innovation Summit '09- Day 2- Panel Discussion- 1

Now's the time for Panel Discussion and the topic for the first panel was- Targeted IT Investments for Business Innovation. Here the panelists were:

• S Sadagopan, Director, IIIT Bangalore
• Diwakar Nigam, CEO, New Gen Software Technologies
• Subu Goparaju, Vice President & Head - SETLabs, Infosys

Prof. Sadgopan quipped that constraints help in aiding innovation. Gave an example of Bank of India. Who were one of the first to do a total outsourcing job. Technical and execution constraints helped them take that decision. That helped them go the path of significantly lesser expenses, and complete automation within 2 years or so as opposed to what would 7 years. Along the line, they crafted SLA norms that pretty much became the template for others to follow when crafting their own outsourcing engagements.
Another example was that of Tirupati Tirumala Temple. The temple authorities have large queues to deal with and came up with a specification that this problem has to be done away with and the technique applied should be executable in less that one minute and cost not more that one rupee per person. And he went on to describe the famous bar coded wrist band – how they cam about the technique. And the other challenges along the way – ensuring that it was water proof ( even if people bathed in the temple ponds ), could not be removed easily and passed on to others and was proven to be safe.
So constraints help. In the case of downturns too, it can be taken advantage for creating winning innovations. The other message was about how IT can be leveraged for solving this problem.

Diwakar Nigam opined that in downturn, the first response is to go on the cost cutting path, and IT can help in this. In Downturn, Business Intelligence and Mining can help – to increase models and increase market shares. Another cost takeout can be by using low cost BPM processes and streamlining business functions. Basically business agility is important in a downturn and IT can be leveraged for the same.

Subu mentioned that during downturn, more focus is on open innovation and open source in his organization. Focus in general in IT innovation will be on improved analytics, collaboration, and efficiency. He said, the current IT adoption in India can be improved. The IT is taken to rural through mobile phones and there is a lot of scope for innovation there.

It too was a well recieved discussion.

Fifth India Innovation Summit '09- Day 2- Session-4

The post-tea session was on the theme of 'New-Think Innovations'. Here the focus was on Energy and Sustainability, calling for a whole new breed of Social Entrepreneurs. The speakers were:

• Gopichand Katragadda, General Manager, Energy & Infra, GE India Technology Centre
• Anshu Bharadwaj, Director, CSTEP
• Paul Basil, CEO, Rural Innovations Network

Gopi listed out the various innovations done in the space of energy, fuel, transmission and distribution, and consumptions. These are:

• Energy- Use of better materials; Better cooling techniques; and increased combustion temperatures techniques
• Fuel Flexibility and Renewable- Need to do impact analysis (when say 5% of the wind is used, land is covered with solar panels and prevent sunlight); and Need ability to predict better
• Transmission and Distribution Losses- India – 30% loss; US – 9%; India should explore options such as Smart Grid to explore this.
• Consumption- We need a cultural shift.

Anshu's organization is a private, non corporate research organization focusing on emerging technologies. His talk was primarily on the supply side of the energy equation. He depicted that today bulk of energy supply comes from coal and oil. The contribution from Solar, Hydel, Wind, Hydrogen Fuel, and Nuclear Power, needs to go up.

• The Green Rural Bio Mass contributes to one-third of Energy Source Import.
• Hydel is a key source now but massive increase will still not meet demand. Further, it might create social issues.
• Wind though not suitable weather wise but progress is been made whereever possible, in parts of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
• Coal is a significant source as of now. It can meet India's demands but we will run out of reserves in 5 decades. Plus there's a concern over Carbon Footprint. It will become expensive and has import dependencies.
• Oil is another major source of energy supply in India. BioFuel can generate 10% of the India’s future demand. But it has its own related issues. Innovation is needed to research next generation Bio Fuels.
• Hydrogen Fuels is not a primary source fuel. Hence some other fuel is needed to generate Hydrogen, say Electrolysis. The fuel requirements is high with Electrolysis. Hence in the overall cost/energy perspective this is not a great option.
• Nuclear Power Sector has a 3% contribution and is a very significant source. After last year’s agreement, this is something that can be leveraged extensively, if we play it right. But huge investment needed. Another challenge is lack of skilled labor.
• Solar Energy is a phenomenal source of energy for which we will need to use just 1% of our land space and meet all our power requirements. Innovations needed in Photo Voltaic Cost and Efficiency, Cells, etc.
• Solar Thermal is about producing steam with Solar Thermal Power and use that steam to generate energy.

Overall Nuclear and Solar was felt to be very promising.

Paul Basil opined that business opportunities by selling to the poor is possible and has a distinct market share. But innovations are required to approach this market. An approach to solve their problems at a price point reachable to them is important. This calls for Support, Money, Legal Support, Labs, Government Support, Mentoring and Education.

The biggest challenge is in building an accessible distribution network that goes into villages. NGOs and other organizations are attempting to help with this, but this is an area that needs innovative models depending upon the product being developed. Things that make the rural business model really work in her view are:

• Ruthless affordability -payment models (example pay back over one cropping season)
• Unconventional partnerships, eg – new stove developed and sold by British Petroleum + IISc+ NGO - marketing done by village women.
• Local value creation - wealth created should rotate inside the village.
• Para-skilling - Aravind Eye Clinic could not provide cataract operations at an affordable cost because of their nursing staff expenses. They trained local women and broke the task to really small manageable tasks and brought the cost down.
• Focus on the poor - treat them as customers
• Enabling Access
• Pay-per-Use models.

A very well addressed issue.

Fifth India Innovation Summit '09- Day 2- Session-3

The next session was on 'Funding Innovation in the Downturn'. The opening remark came from Ravi Narayan, MD Mentor- Partners who threw light on the various VC funding activities across India. In his view, some of the most active funding partners here are: Sequioa; DFJ; NEA; Helilopn; Venture East; Intel Capital; Nexus; IDG; and Acumen.

In this current economic downturn, there are opportunities both for the Entrepreneur as well the Investors. Opportunities for the former are:

• Best companies built in downturn
• India continues to grow. Opportunities abound
• Opportunities in India needs to scale and to be price sensitive.
• Therefore, adopting Western models won't work here
• In India – there are delivery challenges. Reach out here means millions of users

For the investors, opportunities are:

• Prices are more reasonable now
• Tends to gravitate to less risky propositions
• Get more time to make investments
• Time available to scrutinize the governance of the start up
• M&A opportunities for the start up evaluated to decide on funding.

This was indeed a very good context setting.

The speakers for the session were:

• P Anandan, Managing Director, Microsoft Research India
• Alok Kejriwal, Founder and CEO, Games2win

Anandan spoke about the areas of research done at Microsoft Research. These are:

• Via Products (most research happens here)
• Microsoft Research
• Ecosystem support for partner innovation.

There are 1000 full time researchers working on 60 different research areas. The mission is: Expand State of the Art; Translate to MS products; and Ensure MS has a look ahead on what's coming in.

He opined that in India, typically the industry does more of D of the R & D. Applied Technology is an equally important investment, as it helps social development, economic growth and quality of life.

One of the most scintillating presentations of the day came from Alok Kejriwal who is a gaming entrepreneur. Alok showed some Google Analytics to show the players accessing these games from world over.
As the games gets popular, the games is stolen. While the theft is a reflection of the game's popularity, it does take traffic away. The team then cames up with the concept of “INVIZIADS”. The idea being – as long as the game was played at the correct URL, the ads remain invisible. When the game is stolen and hosted at a different URL, ads start appearing. This disturbs the players and they invariably come to the original location to play without disturbance.
So the message is – in the face of copy cats – its best to invent invent invent.

Fifth India Innovation Summit '09- Day 2- Session-2

Bangalore as an Innovation Cluster was the theme for talks on the second session of the day. Here the speakers were:

• Marcel Hungerbuehler, CEO, Bangalore International Airport Ltd
• Arundathi Nag, Creative Director, Ranga Shankara

The Bangalore International Airport leaves people with mixed feelings. But by no means that innovation was at backseat here. Marcel started with description of the Bangalore aerospace journey. Began with Bangalore’s aviation history: that began in 1941 with Valchand Harichand setting up HAL. Then the follow through of Space Research and other organizations into Bangalore ( DRDO, etc ). Another critical component being the founding of the Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc) by the Tatas.
Moved on to the aerospace industry. India is just entering it. The work needs to move to design. This is essential because all the companies who sell aerospace related items to India are obliged to offset the 7 Billion USD earned by executing this work in India. There is about 1.3 Billion USD till 2020 in manufacturing related outsourcing.
The work that can be done is in testing, manufacturing and repair of aircrafts. The requirements from companies are that they need land, regulation framework, tax related aspects and predictability in the environment.
Moved on to BIAL itself. Currently, the company employees 6000 people – directly, via operators and via partners.. And indirectly: Via advertisers, food and utilities. Some of the innovations from here are:

• Common User Terminal Equipment (no need to have dedicated check-in counters for optimal utilization)
• 2D Bar Code Compliant (that become the passenger boarding pass sent to a mobile phone or hand held)
• Fully Wi-Fi (first in country to provide free Wi-Fi)
• Common Use Self Service (self service check-in kiosks)
• Baggage Reconciliation System (helps ground personnel to track, monitor and match passenger baggage)
• E- Konfer (a web based emergency alert and group communication system)

So that's a lot of good money earned and spent within the city.

Arundathi begun with the history of Bangalore. How it was intended to be a market city. That the “boiled beans” tale around the city is a legend. Bangalore has a culture that has absorbed all this and made it into its own. And has a many faceted personality. Look at the phrases such as “adjust madi” and “one by two” to reflect the accommodate and sharing culture of Bangalore and not something to look down upon.
The core of her message was that Culture is not defined by language, religion etc – but by human connect. How we interface with each other. How we interact with each other. We should learn to greet and be with each, know how to interact in public spaces.
Innovations and improvements in a city should retain the identity of the city, the unique appearance and feel. How sensible is it to erect anonymous glass buildings that could be anywhere. For example – why is green suddenly such a hype? And even then – we should look at our own backyard and pick up good green practices.

In her view:

• The industry must not progress such a way that people are divorced from being humans
• Its important to keep the human being going. Everything is not just about money.
• We must preserve our culture and for our children to inherit it sometime.

The session followed by quick round of Q&A and then over to lunch.

Fifth India Innovation Summit '09- Day 2- Session-1

The first session of the next day morning was on - Open Innovation and Co-Innovation. The speakers for this session were:

• S Bhaskaran, Sr Director - Philips Healthcare, Philips Electronics India Ltd.
• Ajay Vasudeva, Head R&D India, Nokia India Pvt. Ltd.

Bhaskar provided an overview of the cycle of innovation and how the trends are moving to open innovation through a series of graphs that reflected the increasing number of patent activities. In his view the reason why Open Innovation is an imperative is owing to:

• No one can have the best know how
• Open innovation increases exponential knowledge
• The information in increases at such a pace that it's impossible to keep up, let along single handedly harness
• Best to collaborate and leverage
• Technology is racing.
• There are mechanisms now available to leverage.

He depicted the innovations to be of various types, including: Closed; Co-Creation: Customers; Open - Anybody; Grassroot – Bottom Up; Democratizing - Masses; Crowd Sourcing; Web to Solicit; Crowd Casting; and Solicit from specific, paid people via the www. Some of the examples being: Innocentive; MiPlaza (Philips); and iPhone Dev Center; among others.

He summed up the talk highlighting on how firms can make Open Innovation work:

• Company policy – state it clearly
• Need top management buy in
• Break the not-invented-here syndrome
• Good to have a grand failure to accelerate acceptance of open innovation
• Dont be too far ahead of time. Open innovation works best when the its current and at the edge and everyone can contribute and take it forward
• Information ubiquity becomes important
• IP Infrastructure -> Should be robust
• There should be sufficient regulatory protection/enablement
• Company infrastructure to protect IP

A very well made presentation.

Ajay started with an overview of R&D activities at Nokia followed by some of the driving principles. These are:

• Consumers are in control. They collect 12 billion data points, analyse and brain storm and figure out solutions. This breaks the market into 13 segments for who devices have to be designed.
• Strong partners and vibrant Ecosystem – containing research fellows. Leverage all this.
• Culture and Values.
• Focus on sustainability (green, eco friendly), and
• Also there is opportunity to take up.

Some of the examples of Open Innovation are Nokia are: forum.nokia.com and store.ovi.com where they get developers and mobile enthusiasts from across the globe to help them develop the next breakthrough. One such innovation is Nokia Life Tools. It is a range of Agriculture, Education and Entertainment services designed especially for the consumers in small towns and rural areas. Another one is MeraNokia which is pre-installed in certain cell phones and offers services around Agriculture, Education, Ringtones and Astrology.

These two talks followed a good round of Q&As

Fifth India Innovation Summit '09- Day 1- Banquet Session

The Banquet Session for the Day- 1 was themed around 'Beyond Business : Innovations in Art & Culture'. The intent was to explore the various influencing factors, be it education, culture, political influences, theatre, art, fashion that give India its distinct flavour.
Harish Bijoor, the Brand-specialist and CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults moderated the session. He quotes a 6 year old survey and what influence innovation and people said – “Culture, environment, politics, people and religion. He impressed upon the value of INSIGHT to any innovation.
The panelist were:

• Surupa Sen, Creative Director, Nrityagram
• Sharukh Mistry, Director, Mistry Architects
• Krishna Byre Gowda, President, Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress
• Prasad Bidappa, Image & Fashion Consultant

Surupa provided an overview on the Innovative Gurukul system for all dances in NrityaGram. It has one of the best dance ensembles in the world. In her view, the innovation needed is to preserve the arts. The younger generation is not so much in the mode for ”Eat, drink, sleep, dream, breathe” a dance form. Also need corporate blessing for the arts. Need alternate methods to focus on excellence and preserving the arts.

A survivor of Asian Tsunami, Sharukh's call in life came when he was approached to resettle the villages devastated by the episode. The approach was to go without any plans, listen to the needs of the clients, and build sustainable alternatives involving the locals. His insight has been:

• Use local material
• Start a participatory process
• Think about innovative materials and processes in a ”cradle to cradle” method. We must worry and understand about how it is born and where it goes and how it finally dies. Else its not innovation.

Krishna Byre Gowda discussed about the problems of Indian Youth Congress and how they turned around the processes internally and that helped them in a big way in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Pondicherry and affected the current UPA results. The innovation was that a already prevalent idea was simply unlocked and implemented efficiently. The problem being IYC was stagnating. The election processes within for leaders at all levels was opaque. It was not dynamic and full of favoritism. Centrally decided by high command and hence lot of grassroots level disconnects.
The change was to make the election process more democratic. Challenges in breaking down current resistance. Focus now on broadbasing this to all states and making it an ongoing sustainable process.

Prasad opined that India has a lot of designer talent – but there is no single brand that’s famous world wide from India. Italy has many – Gucci, Armani etc. None from India. We were very happy being the ‘tailors of the world’ – but now that place is quickly being taken over by Bangladesh, and other Asian countries. So cost effective outsourcing is not there for India. We need to move to design and create our own brands. Fashion industry is badly in need of this innovation. India needs to go global!

It followed an interactive session with the audience culminating into networking and the corporate dinner.

Fifth India Innovation Summit '09- Day 1- Session-3

The final session of the day was around the theme of- 'Indian Innovations & Global Footprints'. Opening address was by Jatin Desai, the Co-Founder and CEO of The DeSai Group. He spoke about the imperative of innovation for a sustainable future. The six skills identified for the future are: Discovery; Creativity; Purposeful Implementation; Influence; Mindful Play Action; and Spiritual Integrity. Drawing insight from this long career, he suggested that typically these are four sources of ideas, viz.

• Internal, planned – 20% ( strategy, mkt research)
• External, planned - 5% ( industry studies, consultants)
• Internal, unplanned– 30% ( adhoc, incremental )
• External, unplanned – 45% ( customers, suppliers, competition )

A brilliant context setting!

The speakers for this leg of the event were:

• K Venkataramanan, Member of the Board & President- E&C Projects, L&T
• Ashwini Kakkar, Executive Vice Chairman, Mercury Travels
• M K Shankarlinge Gowda, Secretary - Transport Department, Government of Karnataka

K Venkataramanan provided an overview of how innovation is managed in the short-term and long term in L&T. How the practices were driven down from senior leadership - a tracking mechanism was put in place. How it was important to rope-in the good performers into the innovation life cycle. Top management consultants (external) were used to articulate needs and innovation plans. One key aspect that came up was that for L&T - where it wants to be in next 5 years, one key dearth will be leadership. So one of the innovations was to define a process, find top performers and give them a road map that would ready them for leadership. L&T took this exercise to have leaders ready in the next 5 years and then next 7/8 years time frames (2 sets of leaders).
One other challenge in engendering innovation is to create a culture shift where all recognize that the young and performing people will quickly become leaders and hence there is a need to move from traditional seniority based leadership. At the same time, one must explore ways to retain the experience and loyalty of the senior employees. So L&T has worked hard to strike a balance between these two aspects.

Ashwini opined that the economic downturn has brought the following behaviour to the forefront – Cheaper, Closer, Shorter and Later in tourism/travel industry. They want to travel cheaper, to closer destinations, for shorter durations and decide at the last minute (later/delayed decision making). He talked about the various innovative trends adopted by the industry to reach out and service customers – Online, Buzz, high touch/low touch services, iPhone apps, buzz marketing, etc.

M K Shankarlinge Gowda depicted some of the innovations done in the government – specifically in the KSRTC. By connecting very well with the audience and addressing some of their queries, he was able to built a rapt audience. Some of the innovations introduced in the recent past are: Introduction of new buses; Electronic ticket issues; AWATAR system; Introduction of a single ticket concept in phases; Increasing use of IT; GPS already installed in buses – plans to extend it to users via SMS; Though the Airport buses occupancy is low, the buses effectively reduce 6000 cars from using that road; New types of bus stands being started – park at the bus stand and take the bus to work; and Green fuels being explored – ethanol etc .

A well poised session with contribution coming in from allied industries and audience.

Fifth India Innovation Summit '09- Day 1- Session-2

The second session was themed around- "Current Downturn and Innovative Solutions to the Dominant Concern". The opening remark came from Bhaskar Bhat, MD of Titan who quipped, " The economic downturn can be viewed as a economic Tsunami. Instead of having a carpet-bombing approach, its important to understand what’s our position in the economic tsunami and take appropriate measures." In his view, the key aspects are - assess your position, plan measures and execute to precision. Good companies do this well and tide over the bad times and are ready to take on the good times. Traditional economic analysis methods and approaches won't work. Need to deep dive, understand categories, their applicability to your business, cherry pick and then proceed.
The three speakers were:

• C Ganesh Narayan, Executive Director, C Krishnaiah Chetty & Sons
• Hameed Bhombal, Sr. President & CTO, Aditya Birla Group
• Jawahar Malhotra, CTO & VP, Yahoo India Research and Development

Ganesh started with providing an overview of the jewellery industry, a high end luxury retail business which is unorganized and is ruled by emotional purchases. It has moved from purchases for occasions to portfolio divestment. During recessionary times when spending is low, purchases are postpone, cash flow dries-up, there are specific areas of focus, these are: Leveraging CRM; eTailing is not enough as customer needs to touch, feel and wear; Paying more attention to customer desires and invest in employee training.

Offering an R&D view to Manufacturing Innovations, Hameed opined that with recession comes newer opportunities in having a fundamental look at the processes and practices. Further low carbon initiatives are an imperative and provide a lot of business opportunities. This calls for investment in R&D. The Group has built a new Science and Technology Centre to address the same.

Jawahar from the Yahoo Research spoke about the need to straighten the fundamentals. He pointed out that the long term general trend is the movement of revenues from traditional publishing to online publishing. But in the downturn, the revenues are reduced. This calls for online publishers, like Yahoo come up with innovative methods – business models, advertising etc. Some of these are: iPhone apps; Open Web; Open Social; and Cloud Computing (Applications/platforms as a service; Democratization of Grid; Hardware Optimization). Further there's ongoing research on newer pricing models, new methods to display; new ad formats and tapping into the Web 2.0.

Quite an enriching session just before the close of the day.

Fifth India Innovation Summit '09- Day 1- Session-1

The first talk session of the day was on 'Economic Cycles and Innovations'. The three speakers were:

• Sahana Sarma, Partner at McKinsey and Company
• Amit Kalyani, CMD of Bharat Forge
• Girish Wardadkar, President and Executive Director, KPIT Cummins

Sahana depicted the Innovation HeatMap that plots the various cities across the world on the basis of innovation momentum and diversity. Based on the number of patents filed in a given period of time and spread across industries, these cities were classified as Silent Lakes, Shrinking Pools, HotSprings, or Dynamic Oceans. India is now a Hot Sprint. The goal should be to move to become a Dynamic Ocean (Silicon Valley is a Dynamic Ocean). The five key needs for innovations in her view are: Infrastructure, Business Environment, Human Capital, Leveraging local innovations, and Govt Regulation. Though India has made a mark in the space of IT and has more than its share of young talent, but still in terms of research, India stands low. To sum up, with the current recession, when things improve and the cycle moves to an upturn, things will move to a New Normal. For India, there needs to be a focus on infrastructure improvements, increasing R&D spend, generating more PhDs, and innovating and leveraging locally.

Amit Kalyani started with providing an overview of the Kalyani Steels. The priorities during the current times are: cash conservatism; operative efficiency; sending the message to grassroots level; cross-pollination of ideas; bringing the lowest common denominator into play; prevent lethargy from growing into the system; and work to maintain productivity. According to Amit, understanding that 50% is the New Normal, need is to work on retaining talent and leveraging existing relationships for newer opportunities. Some of the good practices around innovation at Kalyani Steel are co-creation with IITs, hiring PhDs, and building a process to reward and recognize innovation.

Speaking on Digital Manufacturing, Girish from KPIT Cummins shared his experiences on the agility and connectivity offered by the new techniques of manufacturing and expansion. The components being: Process Digitization; Process System Integration; Digital Prototyping; Layout Optimization; and Global Manufacturing. It has helped Cummins with an ability to automate design, and build a manufacturing model from scratch. Also to design and build a virtual plant before implementing the same. An Indian success story.

Some of the takeaways from the Q&A session that was followed were:

• Investments in R&D have not reduced, rather it has become focused on a narrower set of options. (2 or 3 instead of 10)
• Move towards leaner R&D. Thoughtful rationalizing of R&D
• Most companies do more of the D of the R&D. The R is done by institutions where the ideas are proven
• India needs to invest more in education, generate more PhDs, advance graduate degrees (tertiary education)
• What kind of innovation works in recession: Radial, breakthrough or incremental? All works. Incremental is easy or can be done organization wide. All work. Take what's best for your organization.