IN for innovation

I am very proud, but not surprised, to see Tata Group and Reliance Industries listed as 6th and 19th respectively in the list of world's 50 most innovative companies, compiled by BusinessWeek(BW) ( April, 28 '08 issue). Both the companies have one thing in common, their aggressive and innovative strategies; no brownies to guess the contribution of NANO to boost up Tata conglomerate's ranking. Not only the technological innovation but also the innovation in assembly and distribution keeps the cost of this 623 cc car as low as $ 2,500 - making it world's least expensive car. Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries, India's largest conglomerate, got listed due to its overwhelming growth - that's what BW stated in its magazine, seems very vague but it's true.

As the famous saying goes "Necessity is the mother of invention", one ponders what statement would go for the term innovation; which soundex invention. As per my experience, innovation seems to be the most iterated but not that fruitful jargon, in today's IT world. The first time I heard this word buzzing around was the summer of 2006, when my employer, launched a contest to kindle the mind of thousands of its employees in order to think in an innovative manner. I gave my shot and surprisingly got selected for the two day-one night residential program in a cool resort, in the outskirts of Bangalore. After the completion of the supposedly innovative, not to mention the fact that it was full of fun, food and booze, program I resumed the mundane work without much innovation. So the million dollar, probably billion, question is - how to make someone think innovative? Well my attempt in this blog is not to answer this question because I know it would be too early even to attempt one, may be I will try once I tackle my own mid-life crisis; I hope I will deal it innovatively ( pun intended). Many a times, in an attempt to fire the i-neuron in its employee's mind, companies overdo; they publish many banners, send loads of e-mails trying to invigorate its employees mind, organize more innovative sessions, and even more frequent usage of the elusive word - innovation. How frequent? well, it's so frequent that it will definitely make you feel pissed-off and one will try to avoid it as much as possible. One will not only get irritated to see this word in a newspaper article but also try not to think in anyway which might remotely or unknowingly create something innovative.

Well, I do not see any exaggeration in the words of amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos- "frugality drives innovation"; that's true, I believe. Frugality encourages one to take the best course; one will find and take the most efficient path, use least possible resources and ultimately one will end up being innovative. I guess, Indians are pretty much good in utilizing limited resources, there is hardly any abundance of resource, to its maximum capacity and in being frugal. It won't be surprising to see more Indians or Indian led companies in the forth-coming compilations of innovative companies. This year its three, third one being Arun Sarin led Vodafone Group, who knows by 2020 ( well 20-20 cricket is quite hot now, hence picked out this year) we will see 50% of the slots being captured by an Indian name. Amen!