Innovation Management

Innovation Management

Many of us have attended the classes for hours but some gets the chance to learn a fantastic subject and that too by an excellent Professor not for some hours but for the entire night…..

Yeah that happened in ISBR. The subject was Innovation Management and the person for the day (not day indeed but Night) as Guru was Mr. Pavan Soni, Innovation Evangelist and Innovation Consultant, Wipro.

I was one among the bunch of lucky students to have the lecture…

It all started at 9 pm and ended at early morning till 5.00 am.

The journey for the day on the boat of IM (Innovation Management), with a commander like Pavan Soni was unforgettable. What is Innovation? Difference between Invention and Innovation was taught with the relevant examples. Innovation was not taken as to be taught only in Business, but also in politics, economy, how great people did that and to conclude that as the point of observation in every human being. There happened a lot times when the biggest of the theories were revised, given commend upon and discarded with logical and factual data. Darwin’s survival of the Fittest was also discussed in brief and how the linear graphics of evolution was disproved by the opinions with facts which concluded as the Step function nature of Graph. How Innovation happens in big companies like IBM, Apple, Google, Nintendo, TATA, Maruti, Toyota, BMW, Walmart, GE, Microsoft, P&G, Nokia and many more was taught and discussed. The categorization of people among Reasonable and Unreasonable was discussed which was told as the Choice of individual person to be either one of them. The graphical representation was done to let the logic enter in the form of picture. Moreover the small movie (ad by Apple) was shown to understand the same in a better way. The recent surveys on the world’s top companies which are Innovative were discussed in detail one by one. The Guru for the Night described the types of Innovation on several bases e.g. on the basis of magnitude, impact, function etc.

The Product Innovation, Process Innovation and Business Model Innovation were discussed in detail with plenty of examples. The impact of these innovations on customers, company and top line& bottom line of any organization were interesting to understand.

Now, there happened a lot of Big Companies in the cold night so why not a small cup of Tea in the break…

After break, IBM’s survey and interview of 100 CEO’s from all around the world in the form of a report which described that where and at what degree of importance Innovation is in the companies and how does they do that.

Incremental, Breakthrough and Disruptive Innovation was taught and their order on the basis of performance and price.

GPI (General Purpose Innovation) and SPI (Specific Purpose Innovation) was discussed.

Tom Peters (a great management guru) definition of Innovation, “Innovation is equal to WOW” was quite interesting and impressive creating WOW in the students.

The other topics were the Obstacles for Innovation, Investment of companies in Innovation, Similarities in Innovators, How to measure Innovation and BCG survey on Innovation was discussed. The ROI (Return on Innovation), Monetizing Innovation were the interesting one.

And finally, LIGHT …the sunlight which appeared to enter through the windows of thought after a lot of Unlearning and Learning.

Special thanks to the Professor …