Innovation & Technology

I still remember the day it was sometime in early 2006, as new joiner, I was meeting Director of DRDL (Defence Research and Development Laboratory). We had a cup of coffee, discussion on my interests, why DRDO etc., at the end of it I asked him what he expects and he responded “You need to understand that in DRDO, R is small while D is capital”. It took me time to comprehend, but that also brought clarity on difference between Research and Development. To make matters simple I will say Research is more oriented towards Innovation, while Development is more oriented towards Technology. While innovation lies in the territory of Unknown, technology is in the territory of Known.

The first example which come to mind is invention of Wheel, while invention of wheel was an innovation, its first use as per archaeologists was limited to toy dogs used by Olmec children in southern Mexico 3000 years ago. Uses of wheels for transportation was a technological advancement which made life of our ancestors easier and help them in growing faster.

One can argue that innovation is the first step of technology or vice-versa unless you carry out a technological advancement an innovation is not its worth. Let us not go in to that, what should be of our interest is what role innovation and technology plays in growth and improved competitiveness of an Organization.

Many of us think that innovation and technology is responsibility of R&D function in the organization but in the new economy, innovation and technological advancement is not limited to only products, but it is similarly applicable to processes, methods, organization developments, information management etc. Just to take an example of product development (which is a mix of innovation and technology), it is not a standalone activity which can be carried by R&D department, but it is linked to market, identification of customer needs (stated and unstated), availability of communication channels, manufacturability of the product and so on. To stress upon the applicability of innovation and technology in different areas in organization we can take an example from Automotive industry. For a successful organisation like Ford which was based on Product Innovation there also exists a Toyota which emphasized and worked on Process Innovation.

The point I am trying to come here is that, most of the companies which have success and have registered the quickest growth are those that use, in their daily activity, innovation and technology advancement, and it is particularly for this reason that a significant percentage of their income is generated by new or quality/functionally improved products and services.

21^st century is the century of information in globalized & connected world. This puts pressure on maintaining uniqueness in any innovation and technological advancement, which means to stay relevant and competitive, organization need to have more frequent and more rapid innovations and technological advancements.

As innovation and technology is important for the continued success of any organization, it is imperative to discuss what can be done to promote innovative thinking and development and adaption of new technologies in our teams and organization. Some of the steps which I think can contribute are

• Provide your team a reason to connect:  When people feel connected they create their own incentive to be innovative. Make sure the team members are in the loop on strategies and challenges. Invite their inputs and involve them early on in processes and plans, this will motivate them to actively participate and will bring more ideas.
•  Stress the importance of Innovation and Technology: Make sure that all your team members are aware that their ideas are welcome. Unless they understand how better ideas and processes can keep our organization competitive, our efforts at encouraging their participation will not be successful.
• Training and time for brainstorming: Arrange training for structured problem solving techniques, schedule time for discussion on new ideas. One method can be to set aside time for brainstorming, conduct regular group workshops and have team days out. Most of the times a team brainstorming session is more effective than the sum of its parts.
• Encourage change and challenge the established way: Broadening our experiences can be a great way to bring new ideas. Short-term role swaps can bring a fresh perspective to job roles. Encourage team members to look at how other businesses carry out things, even those in other industries and sectors. Ask them how we can adapt or improve. Encourage people to keep looking anew at the way they approach their work. Ask whether they have considered alternative ways of working and what might be achieved by doing things differently.
• Be supportive and tolerate/reward failures: We all must have heard how at TATA an award category called “Dare to Try” was created, which recognises sincere and audacious attempts to create a major innovation that failed to get the desired results. This promoted the culture of risk taking and propelled the individuals and teams to try and innovate.
• Act on ideas: Innovation is special if it results in action. Put aside time and resources to develop and implement the ideas worth acting upon. Failing to do so not only means we fail to benefit from better ideas, but flow of ideas might also dry if people start feeling that the process is pointless.

To end with, successful organization are a combination of continuous innovation and technology, and to create one such place is my next goal.

Leaving IIM Bangalore

Life took a full turn in these two years at least one aspect will be similar to life before IIM, “working for a firm”. Life at IIMB had everything fun, friends, stress (lot of it) and sports (especially late night badminton sessions). I am not sure what I enjoyed most during these two years, being with friends, those competition filled badminton sessions, felling during exams that they will be over soon or the moments when exams got ever. Everything looks like a dream from first day to last day.
Friendship here was different in the sense that time spent with friends was limited to dinner, lunch, mess visits at odd hours in night and sports. This is different from undergrads in the sense that people generally spend time in their rooms. I am not sure this was effect of internet or IIM. Once I wrote about how competitive this place is and this feeling had grown with each day I spent here. Take sports, studies or whatever else everyone wants to be at top, this I think is a side effect of professionalism.
I am writing this piece after convocation so a mention of convocation is must. It was an special occasion for everyone present students and their families. Receiving the degree was such a moment that many of us don’t remember how we posed for the camera, did we smile or not, when we took it and how we came down of the stage. We all are waiting for the pics to come so that we can look in to that moment.
Between college end and convocation I travelled to Bhutan with friends. Nice place to be if you are not afraid of heights, although I am but then also I enjoyed being there. Tracking to Tiger Nest (TaktSang monastery) was pick of the trip. Amid the trip we realized that our ATM or credit cards will not work in Bhutan and then we found out that we have only enough money that we can spend one day less in Bhutan.

In Paris during first and second week of December

I was in Paris for an exchange program at HEC Paris. I was thinking what to right about. About Paris, the Louvre, La Eiffel Tower or so many famous places in Paris, but the idea which struck me was the difference in life style between an Indian and French. The question was raised by one of our fellow classmate from France. He was telling about his life and the point was that his father lived a better life than him while he and his father both are engineers and according to him this is happening since the so called emerging countries are asking their share of the pie. Although it is very obvious that with a higher growth rate the lifestyle of people in emerging countries is getting better, it is nowhere near to the lifestyle of people in developed countries. And I wondered is the development is a zero sum game and is India's or China's development will bring degrade the development of other countries. And even if it is doing so it is justified to some extent. We are growing it is because of our own capabilities and competitiveness, if we are getting jobs it is because we have the manpower and capability to do that.

The other thing which was interesting was a lecture by Indian ambassador in France. He was also trying to answer the same question and according to him this is the transition phase and things will take some time to settle. I think this is a period where world is moving towards equilibrium and people are feeling the effects of disequilibrium.

The most positive thing I think is now people from other countries are very much open about coming and working in India. Most of the students with whom we interacted showed their desire to work in India.

Coming to what we enjoyed most in Paris. We traveled to Champagne and tasted best Champagnes in the world. Boat trip on Seine was awesome and going around Eiffel tower was lifetime experience. Another experience which I enjoyed most was when I have to take trains and walk for 2.5 Kms with my luggage after I missed the taxi which came to pick me up at Airport. It was slightly scary but quite adventurous to walk in the woods to reach HEC.

After a long time

How can people become more disciplined, on their own or by control or they can’t be. Yesterday I met a person in BESCOM while working on a project. He looked very much annoyed with society .When we asked the question what BESCOM (Electricity supply company) is doing to bring down transmission and distribution losses and reduce power theft his anger just burst out. He related it to everything starting from bank failures in USA to all the problems with capitalism. He cursed everything from government, politicians to bureaucrats for problems of state electricity boards. But as a firm believer in free markets (Now) , I was almost out of sync with his ideas, I wanted to ask him a lot of questions but respecting his age,experience and passion for his thoughts, I asked very few. The problem with his ideas was that he was supporting something which spoils the tax payer’s money. Why the tax payer’s will pay for the inefficiencies of the SEBs. If SEBs are supplying power at low cost, eventually the tax payers are paying for that and then there are inefficiencies involved with tax collection and administrative expenses of SEBs. Why not directly pay that money for power. Then the question comes what about people who can’t pay high prices for electricity. First there is a need to find out who are people who can’t pay and then we need to target the subsidies to them. Why give free power to every farmer which causes over consumption, instead charge the marginal cost and use that for other development programs and other infrastructure development programs which will help in development of society. According to the person in BESCOM the conductor losses due to poor wiring is very high and government need to work on that , again who will pay for that tax payers, but why can’t SEBs do that by making profits and utilizing that fund instead of going through the tax mechanism. His argument was proper metering will not stop power theft; the question is why it can’t, how private companies are able to do it while SEB’s are not. Is it due to corruption of employees or due to less disciplined society? I think the technology is advanced enough to stop these thefts if it is used properly. My overall argument is no one should try to justify something which has some inherent problems, he was correct in pointing out the problems, but I differ with solutions he was suggesting.

Last blog of 4th term

Terms come terms go, we learn something , we don't learn many things. The question is how these learnings affect the way you think. Sometimes I feel they affect, during final year of B.Tech a prof told start looking at things like an engineer and I started trying and really it changed my view of machines. Same is now, now I also look at billboards on roads side. Enough is enough what am I writing.

I was reading articles of WSJ , one article was about Indian entrepreneurs, it talked about Dhirubhai and Sunil Mittal, how they built their umpires from scratch and how they fought the system and overcame all the hurdles, another story was about Muslim girls in Kolkata learning boxing to make a career out of it. I wanted to draw some conclusion from this, if life gives everyone a fair chance, if these girls have options will they still go for boxing or they will look for options which can yield better results. How they are forced to choose boxing as a career when they know that only one or two will become successful.

We went to IIMC for the sports meet and won the event there, every time I go to Kolkata I feel like this city will never change, it is the same for last 4 years, same Trams , no change in the shops, same old Taxis. Met a college friend after long time, it was nice. Saw a movie named " Love Aaj Kal", I don't know what the directors think about the viewer. If viewers will digest any rubbish talk. As told by one of the friends "nice movie if it is on mute".

This post is dedicated to Mr. Tyagi for his writing skills

Things around you affect your life in a big way

Life is such a journey you always find some thing in the way which forces you to change your path. For a long time I had the feeling that I am in control of my life. But as life started unfolding I realized that things and people around you control your life in a big way. They not only has the power to change the way you move forward but also the way you think about your life and future. A thing which always bothers me is " How much we learn from mistakes committed by others". And if we learn how much we use that learning to make our life better. I asked the same question from one of my friends and he presented a very different perspective, " a mistake for you might not be mistake for some one else". Did I ever thought in this manner, probably no. When you go to learn in a class room you not only learn from what you study but you actually learn from the people in the class room. During one of the classes today, I picked up a nice thought " Running your own business will be the most humbling experience in your life", you will learn to respect people. Coming again to mistakes, whenever I feel that I have committed a mistake, every mistake I can remember which I have committed in my life comes in my mind and I try to correlate the mistake I committed now to mistakes committed earlier by me. This helps me at least in taking one resolution, I will not commit this mistake again.

Trying to write in length on suggestion of another friend. I got a chance to go to the place where I started my professional career. Whenever I go to Hyderbad , I feel like this is my home. I don't know why this attachment is , why people at that place are so nice and supportive? Last month I met many people who worked with me, everybody is still the same( nice, supportive and encouraging) . Thanks guys!

Reflection on last one year

Today was first day of the 2nd year @IIMB. During the reorientation program we tried to think back and find out the changes which took place in everyone during the last one year. As they say “Change is the only immortal thing in life”, last one year has changed every one in IIMB. We filled one form which asked many questions on changes that can take place. When I was going through that questionnaire, one thing on which I was sure that I am now more open to people and their ideas. I know how to get the best out of some one and how to avoid some one @times. Life now looks as a place where you need to compete hard with an aim to achieve greater heights. When I look back and think about some incidences and my reaction on those, I can’t stop laughing. I don’t know the changes which I might not be able to see in myself happened for good or for bad , but surely there are some changes.