Shivakumar

Country Director, Nokia

At Nokia Shivkumar is incharge of pushing growth in the handset business and supporting other lines of business like networks. Earlier he was the executive director and vice president of Philips India.

Chandra M. Kintala

Director, Motorola India Research Labs

Based in Bangalore, Chandra Kintala oversees the work of all Motorola Lab Centers of Excellence in India. He is responsible for engaging research with Motorola's businesses units and Global Software Group - the software arm of Motorola India. He is also responsible for Motorola's partnership with industry and academia in India.

Gulu L. Mirchandani

Chairman & MD, MIRC Electronics Ltd. (Onida)

'Envy, Owner's Pride' is undoubtedly one of India's largest and most recognizable campaign ever. The man behind the success of Onida brand of TVs and now other home appliances is Gulu.

Today Mirc has reincarnated themselves with the slogan- Nothing but the truth. But the devil persists.

Rajiv Narang

Chairman & Managing Director, Erehwon Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

Founder and CEO of Erehwon Innovation Consulting, Rajiv’s passion and mission is to fuel the growth of innovative leaders and organizations. Rajiv has, over the last 17 years, developed a keen insight into ‘what does it take for leaders and organizations to innovate and grow’.

He is the innovation consultant to the ‘Innovation for India’ foundation and also a member of the managing council.

Venky Rao

Vice President, Satyam Computer Services Ltd

Venky is a Vice President, Real Time Leadership Center at Satyam Computer Services Ltd and part of his responsibilities include Innovation Enablers full-life-cycle-business at Satyam. His extensive global experience includes most recently as the Head of Cisco Systems global development center in India responsible to start its Indian operations and developing eco-system partnerships.

Subu Goparaju

Vice President, Infosys

Subu Goparaju is Vice President and Head of Software Engineering and Technology Labs at Infosys Technologies Ltd. He has been with Infosys for the last 18 years. Goparaju has spent more than a decade in IT consulting, project management and solution delivery management.

Subu's mandata is to look at emerging technology continuously and identify ways to explore those for business benefits both for Infosys and its clients.

Dr. C Mohan

IBM Fellow and IBM India Chief Scientist, IBM India

As IBM India's Chief Scientist Dr. Mohan's responsibilities relate to serving as the executive technical leader of IBM India within and outside IBM. He is an inventor on 34 patents and was named an IBM Master Inventor in 1997.

Don't miss listening to this REAL innovator.

Dheeraj Gupta

Managing Director, Jumbo King

Called as India’s McDonalds…..Jumbo King is the first institution to wrap and serve Vada Pav. The efforts begun with the simple premise that the common man has a constitutional right to get hygienic food at an affordable price!

Dheeraj Gupta and Reeta Gupta, MBAs, gave shape to their dreams on 23 August 2001 and today Jumbo King has a huge fan following in and around Mumbai.

An inspiration for several such MBAs.

Vinay L Deshpande

Chairman & CEO, and Founder, Encore Technologies

Vinay heads the firm responsible for the famous creation- Simputer, one of the world's cheapest and smartest computer. His firm - Encore Technologies is driven on a judicious blend of relentless innovation in using technology and exceptional customer service.

Vinay is an MSEE from Stanford University, USA with over 35 years of experience in hardware/ firmware development, and in R&D Management.

Neil Foley

Senior Design Manager, Titan

Having graduated from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, in 1995, Foley’s professional career began designing bus interiors, and he quickly caught the attention of Titan Industries in 1996, where today he works as senior design manager.

Foley’s dream is to take Indian design to a level that commands international awe and respect. “The cultural influences of my country have a lot to teach us, and pose practical solutions for today’s fast-paced lifestyle problems,” he says.

What do you say.

Mehmood Khan

Global Leader, Unilever Innovation Process Management, Unilever

Mehmood Khan is Global Leader of Innovation Process Development at Unilever. For Mehmood, what has become prevalent in innovation is the issue of sustainable value creation. His work involves working with people around Unilever by establishing Unilever Innovation Communities across the business as well as spanning across Categories, Brands, Continents and Country boundaries

According to Khan, innovation is about turning creativity in a successful enterprise.

Interesting thought, what do you suggest.

Harish Manglik

Chairman & Managing Director, Accenture India

With over 25 years of experience as a global business and consulting leader, Manglik heads Accenture's operations in India.

Manglik observes Accenture having a culture of combining innovation, teamwork and global scale to deliver high performance to its clients.

Douglas Solomon

Chief Technology Strategist, IDEO

Doug Solomon leads technology strategy efforts at IDEO, working with clients to effectively leverage technologies that create both business and social value. In the course of his career, Solomon spent 15 years at Apple where he was senior vice president of strategy and corporate development, at Interval Research as co-president, and at Palm as chief strategy officer, in addition to positions at many other startups and corporations.

More recently, Solomon was vice president of investments at Omidyar Network, helping to develop a diverse investment portfolio to create opportunity for individuals to improve the quality of their lives. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication Research from Stanford University and also has attended the Chinese Language Program at National Normal University in Taipei.

The name IDEO is sufficient. Do listen to this innovator.

Prof. C.N.R. Rao

National Research Professor & Honorary President & Linus Pauling Research Professor,Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research

Prof. Rao is one of the world's foremost solid state and materials chemists. He has made prolific and sustained contributions to the development of the field over five decades.
Apart from being honored with Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, Prof Roa is also conferred with Hughes Medal by the Royal Society in 2000, India Science Award (the first recipient) in 2004 and Dan David Prize in 2005, among others.

Do listen to this legend and share your thoughts.

Kris Gopalakrishnan

S. Gopalakrishnan - CEO and Managing Director, Infosys

The ex- Chairman of CII Karnataka, S. Gopalakrishnan is one of the founders of Infosys. He plays a key role in defining Infosys' strategy and in using technology and innovation continuously to maintain its leadership of the industry.

In his views, "The best way to measure innovation is through patents".

Share your views on Kris' speech.

Innovation Networks and Partnerships

Solutions and concepts for most innovation needs can be best met by looking at places beyond the traditional sphere. Increasingly, companies are realizing that the innovation potential that lies outside of a company is exponentially larger and often, much more effective & viable than the in-house capability. Innovation networks and partnerships are all about systematically tapping into these external innovation assets.

• Innovation networks: Innovation networks bring together either problem solvers or power brokers (who have access to problem solvers) on a single platform so that a specific innovation need or problem can reach out to the best possible solution provider.


• Open Innovation ecosystems: Open innovation ecosystems revolve around the philosophy of like-minded organisations with complementary needs being co-located in a single campus/location, pooling manpower and other resources and working together on new innovations relevant to all participants in this ecosystem.


• Strategic partnerships: Industry-Government partnerships & Industry-University alliances deliver innovations to solve real-life problems in a model that brings together industrial funding and the best brains together in win-win relationships.

Innovation Tools, Systems and Structures

What are the various breakthrough tools, systems and structures that have been leveraged to maximize the innovation throughput in organisations? Is there a way to systematically learn and draw out systems and structures from other industries and sectors? What are the learnings (and guiding principles) around customizing Innovation tools and processes for individual organisations?

Some of the tools employed by successful innovators are:

• Innovation enabling tools: Systematic innovation in organisations can be driven through focused exercises that encourage the practitioners to think outside the box and look for solutions in places they would not normally look for.


• Knowledge management systems: New ideas and learnings developed in-house need to be captured, mapped and made available to everybody else who might benefit from this journey. Knowledge management systems include “learning reports”, technology chat groups, blogs, etc.


• Technology mapping: A pre-requisite to driving new innovations is to understand the current state of technology, and also map new “white spaces” where new proprietary innovations are possible.

Commercializing Innovations

Recognizing the challenge and creating breakthrough solutions is one thing and commercializing Innovation is quite another. The session would primarily evaluate the various go-to-market models for Innovative ideas. What are the learnings, guiding principles and pitfalls around commercializing Innovation? What are the various ways and mechanisms available for innovators to generate commercial value for their innovation? What are the challenges in commercializing innovations –regulatory, infrastructure, Intellectual property, ROI measurement etc that India Inc faces today?

Funding Innovations

How do organisations create a fund for nurturing innovation? How do innovators & entrepreneurs within and outside the organisation get their ideas/ventures funded? While examining Innovation proposals what do Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors look for? What are the emerging trends in areas like – Concept uniqueness and relevance, Market Acceptance, Business plan – revenue generation, profitability and exit options, and Leadership – Innovators passion, expertise and competence etc? What are the various parameters along which Innovation successes are measured? Given the unknown territory and unseen results how do innovators make their funding propositions more innovation friendly?

Innovation in Large Organizations

Many large organisations have innovated successfully to catapult India Inc.’s reputation at the global stage. Many others in sunrise sectors like Retail, Health Care, Hospitality and Biotech etc are poised to follow suit. Also, when it comes to functional disciplines, Innovation has transformed the very fabric of these organisations – Manufacturing, Supply chain, Marketing & Positioning, Human Resource Management, Technology etc.

What has made this happen? What have been some of the successes and learnings in stimulating Innovation in Large organisations? What are the paradoxes and dilemmas that these organisations typically face? How do they strategically balance their existing profitable businesses with creating ‘never seen before’ solutions?