The new innovation agenda

There’s this wide-spread notion that Indians aren’t good at innovation but just dishing out services to support someone else based in India or else where. While it may appear to be trivializing a broad subject as ‘innovation’ by linking it with the movie, 3 Idiots, now running to packed houses in the country – it is a reflection of how a broad subject hitherto restricted to the realms of intellectuals can be simplified and served to the masses. From the definition of manufacturing to flying a small airplane to successfully delivering a baby sans any medical support – the movie offers enough for innovative minds to chew. The fact is that there is perhaps no other country which is as stretched as India when it comes to leveraging resources – natural or otherwise. And that very fact make Indians adaptive innovators. We come out with the most effective solution though it may not be the best when it comes to presentation of the same.

No doubt, India’s innovation prowess can be substantiated by several products that left the worldwide market bemused – Nano being the latest. How about the Mumbai dabbawalas – who gave management gurus new framework on process innovation? If one delves into India’s business landscape, examples of innovations would come out in plenty. Who can forget the shampoo sachets customized for a specific audience in India? According to Navi Radjou, Executive Director of the Centre for India & Global Business (CIGB) at Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, Indians have a penchant for turning adversity — such as widespread scarcity of natural and financial resources in India — into an opportunity to innovate and create more valuable products and services at less cost for more people. Radjou provides the example of Harish Hande, who founded SELCO in Bangalore, India in 1995. While the Indian government is still deliberating on how to effectively deliver electricity to the 600 million Indians who live off the grid, Harish has already sold more than 100,000 modular solar lighting systems in the remotest regions of India. His firm SELCO employs an innovative business model that relies on a cost-effective grassroots distribution network to deliver affordable electricity on a pay-as you-go basis to underserved Indian shops, households, and schools to power their everyday socio-economic activity.

As the shift to the networked economy becomes more pronounced, the world will possibly embrace India’s standards of innovation – quick and cost-effective. Why? Couple of reasons:

a) Innovation can’t wait: As competition increases, faster innovation-to-market will become a norm. Organizations will open their innovation horizon – beyond a captive center - and equip themselves to understand the market they serve and also the adjacencies. Innovation will not be restricted to a specific number of people in the organization but manifold implying the rise of intrapreneurs.
b) Cost of innovation: Obviously, with the need for more and more innovations, cost will race down the spiral and force companies to leverage best resources across the network. Having said that innovation will also become customized to address specific markets. Example, IBM’s spoken web initiative in India.
c) Innovation will be value-based: Incremental or disruptive, as organizations focus on addressing specific markets by customizing their innovation initiatives, the focus will necessarily be on extending the best value for their customers. Recall the introduction of shampoos through sachets in rural India – the customer proposition will be largely value-based of which cost becomes a significant component.