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Balancing Creativity with Discipline – Innovation Management at TCS

Dr. Gautam Shroff

Vice President and Chief Scientist

July 26, 2013

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R&D @ TCS

Tata Research Development and Design Center was founded in 1981– To conduct applied research for the Indian

industry in particular and society in general– To apply existing knowledge for the benefit of

our industry and our people

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Innovation Management

Traditional view – Innovation management is a paradox– There cannot be a ‘process’ for innovation– Innovation is sporadic, serendipitous– Innovation is limited to R&D teams

Contemporary view– Innovation is not ‘nice to have’ but essential for survival– There has to be a consistent, sustained path for

innovation– Innovation process is important to harness ideas and build

a steady pipeline of innovation– Innovation is organization-wide

Defining and managing an innovation process is important for organizations to benefit from innovation

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How to Balance Creativity with Discipline?

19 labs, geographically distributed (not all in India) overlapping research areas large and successful core business

– resists change unless value is `huge’Questions & Answers: guiding and coordinating many different research

efforts? theme-driven collaboration leveraging complementary

expertise balancing short term benefits with long term value

options?manage investment using technology market map

driving business value?4E model

measuring successes, and failures?monthly reporting in a project-tracking tool; generates BSC

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Ideas to Outcomes – The Overall Process

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Where are we investing? Research Themes

Research Areas and

Themes

Optimize

Digitize

AnalyzeDe-Risk

Sustain

Analytics-led IT TransformationBiz-Dev-OpsSoftware EngineeringAssurance

Enterprise MobilityEnterprise SocialDigital ConsumerICMEIntelligent InfraHuman-Centricity

Information FusionConnected MarketingSystems BiologyHPC and Big DataAlgorithms & Decision Sciences

Security, Privacy, TrustGRC PlatformsReal-time Risk

Green ITIT for GreenWater, HealthEducationFrugal Innovation

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Research Areas: Orthogonal to Themes

Research Advisory Board

Jeff Ullman VS SubrahmanianKrithi RamamrithamDK Subramanian

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Co-Innovation

COINTM builds collaborative frameworks to foster innovation

across the TCS Ecosystem

Academic Alliances

Academic Alliances

Strategic Alliances

Strategic Alliances

Startup Partners

Startup Partners

Venture Capital Fund

Venture Capital Fund

MIT University of California, Berkeley Singapore Management UniversityIIT KanpurISI KolkataIIT Bombay *IISc Bangalore* Aalborg University, Denmark*

1EAito TechnologiesAmazon WebservicesAttensityAttivioAvhanBlink MobileBoxToneCheckmarx

ClarabridgeiRaje SystemsJamo SolutionsJiveNeospeechPerfecto MobilePerpetuitiSentimetrixTestplant

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The Internal Enabler – the ‘4E’ model

Evangelize

Explore Enable ExploitInventions, Ideas, Prototypes

Solution initiatives with business sponsorship and targets

Articulation of the Explore and Exploit areas, Feedback, Brand

Deployment, Scale-up, support

MeasurementPatents, white papers, publications, journals, awards

Solution Quality, Success of Pilots, Business

Quality and quantity of touch points, feedback

Wins, revenue, profit, non-linearity, c-sat, societal impact

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Cloud Computing: TCS iON – a new model

Pay-as-you-use

Shared Service

• A hosted service accessed over

Internet, managed by IT experts

• Subscription-based model.

Per-User-Monthly-Price

(PUMP)

• Hardware + Network + Software

• Office apps + Common business apps + Core vertical apps

Complete Accountability

• TCS is the single point of contact. New features once

a quarter

Biz Ideas and Practices

• Things that have worked well, are available to

others

IT-as-a-Service Layered Offering

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Motivation from Customer Major manufacturer mentined an unreported event of fire in a supplier’s factory could have save millions of pounds even if it is reported in 3-4 days instead of 7-8 days

Tsunami and Earthquake

Huge Losses

Less Frequent Events

Disrupts Supply Chain

Globally Reported

Fire or Strike in a Supplier’s Factory

Huge Cumulative Loss every year

More Frequent Events

Silently Disrupts Supply Chain

Not/Lagged Reported

Information Fusion: Event Detection Engine

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ICME: Integrated Computational Materials Engg

Domain Independent Domain/Application Specific

A configurable platform, number of reusable tools, ontologies for domain independent entities and selected domain specific application problems

Collaborating with units across TCS, Industrial Partners, Academia and Research Labs

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Manage Talent and Nurture a Culture of Innovation

External

Environment

Attract

Grow

Nurture

Identify

Engage

Reward & Recognize

Communicate

Internal

Environment

Effectiveness

Academic Interface

Learning & Development

Talent Acquisition

Talent Deployment

Talent Management

Growth Initiatives

Senior Leadership

Mentor

Academic AlliancesR&D InternsResearch Collaborations

PhD HiringA+ InstitutesResearch SabbaticalsPhd Fellowships, FFS Conferences / Seminars

Technovator / InnovationRole wise interventions

Role based deploymentCross Pollination

Innovation AwardsCTO R&R frameworkComp & BenRole based Promotions

Integration across labsBenchmarking of practices

Communication channelsFeedback mechanismsSurveys

MentoringGrooming future leadersMember of CTB

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“Measure and Report”

Associates in Asset Creation, Research & Development, i.e., 4E and beyond into

products2500+

Patents Applied till June 30th 2013- 90 Granted

1340

Papers published in Journalsor Conferences in 2012-13

269

Rank in Information Week 500 Innovators 2011

163

Research Scientists in Corporate Research, i.e., the Explore phase of the 4E model

300+

MIT Technology

Grand Challenge

Award

Stockholm Challenge

Award

Golden peacock Innovative Product/Service, Innovation

Management Award

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Summary

Managing Innovation – the TCS Experience

1. Invest in R&D: attract the right people to start

with

2. Relate Innovation and the Business

3. Define the Scope and Focus Areas

4. Establish a Process to enable Innovation

5. Establish Internal and External Capacity

6. Manage Talent and Culture

7. Measure and Report