Eureka of Innovative Culture

7/29/2019 Eureka of Innovative Culture

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Vinod Kumar RaharIngenious DriveNashik palnt -1E-mail:[email protected]

Eureka of Innovative culture: New theme to improve Business prospects

Now days, Market dynamics are crossing boundaries, becoming global.This changed business arena is leveraging organizations to cope up withGlobal competitors. The only tool to conquer Global market shares is towin Customer hearts by fulfilling their expectations. Every rival ismeticulously nurturing his Business developing engines through thefuel of Technology upgradation,Creating new market through newProduct development, Refreshing existing products, Strengthening the

Supply chains, Improving Quality etc. All are the conventional tradesolutions. But, a few organizations are striding towards these covetedtargets by the relentless pursuit of available conventional tradesolutions along with the new differentiating edge. This edge is theinvolvement of Human Intellectuals, the People. This is beingpersuaded by building innovative culture ofIdea based organization.

The various means for cultivating the culture of Idea based organizationare Ingenious drive, Be curious, Spark, Ideas 4 Aviva, MISE, Thinksimplicity. But, this edge is becoming conversant to market. Hence, it

solicits much effective involvement of peoples Soul, Intellectual, andIntuition. Because, it is the people at the frontline of any organizationsoperations, who know best what works and what doesnt for hisorganization. Anyone can have a creative idea, if it comes at the cost ofSimplicity and Common sense. This can be easily comprehended by theExample of NASA v/s Russia approach to find the solution for a commonproblem. Back in 1960s, NASA was faced with a major dilemma.

Astronauts needed a pen that would write in the vacuum of space.NASA got cracking into developing the $1.5 million gravity- immuneastronaut pen. At the same time, the Russians too were faced with the

sane dilemma. However, they used a pencil instead! The above anecdotehas been a famous legend for years; however, the lesion is simple thatSimple & Common sense birth Creativity.

Peoples give Ideas. Some ideas work, others ruthlessly backfire. Yet,ideas are important. An interesting observation that experts make isthat seniors make a huge mistake by overlooking ideas suggested bytheir people who might actually see an opportunity that their seniorscant. This calls for a virtual attitudinal renaissance. Indeed, seniors

who have realised the significance of mutual- learning workatmosphere, vouch for its effectiveness.


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Incubating Ideas, Developing Ideas, Nurturing Ideas, Fostering Ideas,

Propagating Ideas are the available means to cultivate the Culture ofIdea based organization.

There are numerous organizations which have realized the potential of

Idea based culture. And, they are rigorously striving to motivate theirHuman capital to find the innovative ideas; which can leverage thebusiness prospects by improving the organizational operations. Here aresuch examples. They are not our core competitors, but, it might possiblethat ours core competitors are practicing the same tool, as; this newedge is becoming the everyones most desired path towards the journeyof Excellence.

1. The Patni SPARK (systematic pooling, analyzing and researchingknowledge) methodology facilitates organization-wide involvementin innovative idea generation leading to new products, solutions andservice offerings. The ideas received through SPARK are processedthrough a multi-stage validation process that establishes thefeasibility of the proposed offering. The internet portal capturesideas and gives easy access to Patni employees to participate. Thisactivity is supplemented with the business analyses and incubationcell which tracks technology updates, changes in governing laws andregulations, competitor offerings, etc. Once an idea is selected, theincubation cell develops the offerings with supporting

methodologies, tools, white papers and expertise. The solution is testmarketed, and a small customer base is built before releasing it tothe mainstream market.

2. MTV Network India, has regular, CFT (cross-functional team)sessions where employees from different departments of theorganization brainstorm and ideate on topics like Cost control,Revenue enhancements, etc. that can help the business grow. Thisactivity breaks hierarchical barriers and fosters participation fromall verticals.

3. Tesco HSC has launched an internal campaign called, Be Curiousto encourage innovation and creative solution. Through thesesessions, they have been able to receive a lot of ideas from theiremployees to further their business prospects. Experts also confirmthis activity also improves employee morale.

4. Aviva Life Insurance has introduced Ideas 4 Aviva, a scheme inwhich every member of Aviva has an open invitation to influenceany aspect of business by giving suggestions and ideas on how towork smarter and better. These suggestions could relate to areasranging from best management practices to business strategies tohow to make Aviva a better place to work. An empowered IdeasTask Force, whose job is to evaluate and shortlist winning ideas and


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facilitates their implementation, reviews the ideas. Projectmanagers are assigned to every winning idea with the aim ofbuilding on the idea and taking it to its natural conclusion.

5. Maersk India Pvt. Ltd. also has unique initiatives in place forempowering employees. Maersk has a separate Innovationdepartment in its global headquarter and its regional headquarterswith a specific charter to facilitate delivery of a certain number ofideas per year, translating into a certain addition to the group

bottom line. In addition, each of the 400-odd trainees undergoingthe MISE(Maersk International Shipping Education) programmeeach year are required to submit a carefully analysed idea before theend of the two year training programme that is then submitted tothe relevant managers for evaluation and the best ideas enter theimplementation pipeline.

6. In Fritolay India, PepsiCos snack food division, the regionalflavours are often born out of the insights drawn from ouremployees. For example, a young executive drew upon her ownGujarati background that helped them create the Kurkure Gujarati

Tamatar flavour, which has a Gujarati chutney taste as distinctfrom a tomato sauce flavour. The marketing executive in questionworked with the R & D team to develop the product and then drewup the communication that connected with the consumers, making ita big hit.

7. Philips Electronics India Limited conceives that usually, CEOs areconsidered the prime thought leaders and decision makers in anyorganization. However, the size, the complexity as well asgeographical spread of companies today make it impossible for one

person to do the job. Thus, it is necessary to give employees thefreedom to suggest ideas that can influence the business in apositive way. Philips follows a systematic approach towards this.The idea suggested by the employee is first given the right supportby the concerned manager. If it requires funds and resources, theemployee is helped to develop the idea as a full-fledged case thatgets reviewed by the management. And, those whove implementedideas successfully have patents registered in their names. Philipsalso organizes contests/platforms to bring to the fore better ideasfrom employees.

(a) Designed to inspire all employees at Philips, Think simplicity, aunique contest inspires Philips employee to become a SimplicityBrand Ambassador. The contest, aimed at recognising all ideasimplemented or under execution by employees, which have broughtSimplicity to the workplace.

(b)A Simplicity day, an annual single day event is organized whereteams are formed at each location and through a globally designedworkshop; each team gets cracking on how they can bringSimplicity to the workplace.


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We at Mahindra, are also pursuing same approach to cultivate theIdea based organization culture throughout Automotive sector by themean of Ingenious Drive. The above alluded examples expressclearly the potential of Idea based approach, lead by the people. Sotherefore, we have to put our genuine efforts to build this theme & toencourage ours colleagues.

One has to shun primary assumptions that most of us have aboutwhich ideas are important, whos given the idea, under whatcircumstances the idea was generated and will the idea work. Afterall, who would have thought that Archimedes would have thoughtthe law of upthrust while he was relaxing in his bathtub?

Hence, we have to get inspired by the Archimedes example &engaged with the Ingenious drive, to think the Ingenious Ideaswhich result Cost reduction, Quality improvement, Work contentreduction, Productivity improvement, Enhancement in Safety,

Morale & Delivery to achieve our Automotive sector Goal, Promise2010.

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Eureka of Innovative Culture