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Krishnan on Innovation

Jun 30
2 min

Innovation Diagnostic

What is stopping you from innovating? Analysis of data from over 5000 organizations that have taken the InnoSurvey(R) reveal common 8 blockers to innovation The organisation either lacks a clear innovation strategy or it misses clear goals and direction leading to a lack of faith in innovation Large organizations tend to prioritize current business and current year over long-term thinking They fear failure and avoid dealing with uncertainty and risky projects (and innovations

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Jun 30
4 min

The 3 Horizon Approach to Growth

Do you have a portfolio of initiatives that cover both today, the future and the space in between? The three horizons of growth was proposed by Baghai, Coley and White and published in a book The alchemy of growth (1999). It is a framework that has served well over the years. Bill Sharpe presents the three horizon framework as a futures tool, a tool to drive transformative change (Three Horizons: The patterning of hope, Bill Sharpe (2013)). In a world which is facing massive

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Jan 27
4 min

What's keeping CEO's up at night: Insights from C-Suite Challenge 2021

2021 saw the developed world and some of the developing countries succeed with the massive rollout of vaccination to deal with the COVID pandemic. The end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022 is bringing renewed optimism that the worst of the pandemic might be over and we are entering the phase where the pandemic turns endemic; milder infections that can be managed without lockdowns and disruptions. In this context, the C-suite challenge 2021 report from The Conference Board pro

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Jan 18
4 min

Ensure your offerings are relevant in the market

I was recently asked for advice by a friend regarding buying a DSLR camera. He was getting a wonderful offer. He always wanted to take photographs like the pros with big lenses. After going through the needs, we concluded that despite the DSLR being a fantastic offer, it made little sense to buy. A great product at bargain pricing, but completely irrelevant to the customer needs. The digital camera industry is going through such a transformation phase. We have manufacturers p

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Dec 14, 2021
4 min

Doing Things Right and Doing the Right Thing

In 2006, Nokia commenced production of its mobile phones in India with a lot of fanfare. They brought in the best manufacturing expertise, implemented lean manufacturing, had an excellent supply chain process. Very soon Motorola would set up a factory very close to them as well. It was indeed a moment of pride for Tamil Nadu and Chennai. However, Apple, a company with no record in the mobile phone business, was set about disrupting the industry. In 2007, they launched the iPh

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Nov 15, 2021
3 min

Puppetry of Innovation - Distinguishing features of innovators who drive growth through innovation

Puppetry remains a fascinating art, a thoroughly enjoyed event that has few masters. You marvel at the skill of the artist in manipulating strings and wonder what sort of genius it takes to do it all. A master puppeteer will tell you that it’s all a science and not sorcery. It takes years of practice, understanding how the strings work when it’s pulled and mastering the angles and science behind the strings. But then you also require the ability to build a great story that th

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Nov 15, 2021
3 min

Puppetry of innovation - Introduction

Puppetry remains one of the fascinating art, a thoroughly enjoyed event that has few masters. You marvel at the skill of the artist in manipulating strings and wonder what sort of genius it takes to do it all. A master puppeteer will tell you that it’s all a science and not sorcery. It takes years of practice, understanding how the strings work when it’s pulled and mastering the angles and science behind the strings. But then you also require the ability to build a great stor

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Nov 12, 2021
3 min

Gathering New Ideas to Drive Growth

When I see the advertisement from one of the online investment platforms like Groww etc., I wonder why this didn’t come from an established player. I am sure boards of their competitors must be wondering why they didn’t introduce the new product or service that has hit the market from an unknown company. I am certain that these organizations spend time on strategy, generate new growth ideas, have “innovation” as a priority, have a digital transformation agenda etc. Yet, break

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Sep 14, 2021
4 min

Strategy and Strategy Making

The CEO of one of my SME clients remarked at the end of our engagement that for the first time he realized strategy could be a process! Coming from a person who had an MBA from an IIM and one who was looked up to by many other SME owners, it surprised me. Later when I became a member of a network of SME owners, I was far better prepared to explain my work. Many would ask what do you mean by strategy and strategy making? To put it simplistically, strategy is the decision that

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Sep 8, 2021
4 min

Exploring innovation opportunities through sprints

Insulin to treat diabetes had been in use since 1920s. While there was constant product development, including the massive one of genetically engineered “human insulin”, the massive transformation happened when the customer experience was addressed through the Novopen. A women doctor, a mother of a diabetic child, was the driving force to the discovery. Fed up with the poor experience of administering correct dosage and the associated difficulties, her unflagging collaboratio

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Aug 18, 2021
6 min

Welcome Ola S1!

Lessons for corporates on innovation Ola, a company that started as a copy of Uber, launched its electric scooters on Independence day. Now what is interesting is the size of the ambition and the feature set of the vehicle. Plenty of people will say that it is early days and Ola has to prove the quality and reliability of the product and pull off the volume projection. It’s worth reminding that people were similarly sceptical of Reliance when it ventured into oil refining and

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Jul 15, 2021
4 min

The dangers of a lack of innovation agenda

I was lucky to be in the audience and hear Sridhar Vembu of Zoho talk about the priorities of Indian companies and the nations as such. Sridhar has led Zoho to become one of the leading lights of Indian software companies, not because of cost efficiency, but due to product innovation. His company outperforms Indian software giants on value-added per employee, a testimony of its innovation prowess. Sridhar contends that our nation is slipping as businesses aren’t focused on th

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Jun 25, 2021
2 min

Disrupt your own business!

Magnus Penker has a habit of saying that all Hollywood stories have one of two themes; a stranger comes and changes things or you go on a journey and change things! Innovation is very much like this story. You can wait for someone to come and disrupt your business or you can go on a journey and create the disruption. You have the choice to play the victim or be the protagonist. The choice is yours! We find that it is not very difficult to become the disrupter. All it takes is

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Jun 24, 2021
3 min

Strategy and Innovation

Traditional approach to strategy management in business organizations refer strategy to mean corporate strategy (“What business should we be in”) and business strategy (“how shall we compete in this business”) Other references are classified as functional strategies. However, we are discovering that innovation and innovation strategy is now a very critical part of corporate and business strategy. The pace with which markets and businesses are getting disrupted, the lifecycle

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Apr 27, 2021
3 min

To Innovate or to be Innovative

In organizations there are many things that you have to execute and some things for which you have to build capability. Take for example market research, it’s a very important activity for quite a lot of organization. However, rarely do you need to build an organization capability to carry out market research. In a similar vein, you get advertisements designed and executed, you don’t build an advertising capabilities. In both these examples, you need a few experts or resource

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Apr 21, 2021
3 min

Scan your horizon to innovate

Throughout my life I have been a voracious reader. As a kid, I took to reading history and books on the world war (non-fiction books) were my favourite ones. Subsequently, I took to reading science fiction and spy thrillers. One of the interesting things I found in many spy thrillers was a curious topic of papers being written by ignored analysts about future or emerging scenarios. In many novels, these neglected papers would come to haunt the decision makers and the hero in

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Apr 16, 2021
3 min

Have you designed your growth strategy?

We have had a year of pandemic and a new financial year has started in India. As a leadership team you would have probably gone through a strategic planning process and developed a strategy as well. Does your strategy go beyond business planning for the year and look into your future? Well if you are unsure, check out if these elements are addressed (thanks Magnus Penker, your book is a classic on this topic) Scope: Does the scope of your strategy include the following? Core

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Apr 13, 2021
3 min

Digitalisation and Innovation

Organizations are spending enormous resources on “digital transformation”. Do we understand what digital transformation means and how this enables innovation? This blog is an attempt to create clarity on the topic. Gartner provides a good definition for multiple terms when it comes to anything related to digital Digitization is the process of digital enablement or converting analog (paper based) into a digital format. This could be data and forms as well as process. ERP is pr

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Apr 12, 2021
3 min

Innovation triggers to look out - Over-priced and under- priced offers

This is part 3 of a multi part article. Read earlier parts here - https://bit.ly/3s2T7PH and https://bit.ly/3dMGvqG Every organization wants to innovate and the boards are very supportive of innovation efforts. But how good are you at recognizing the smoke that indicates that innovation is now a priority? An analysis of the great organizations that have failed to survive disruption in their industry, will show that even great organizations can fail to see the danger signals o

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Apr 9, 2021
4 min

Innovation triggers to look out for - Complex offers

This is part 2 of a multiple part article. Part 1 can be read here: https://bit.ly/3s2T7PH Every organization wants to innovate and the boards are very supportive of innovation efforts. But how good are you at recognizing the smoke that indicates that innovation is now a priority? An analysis of the great organizations that have failed to survive disruption in their industry, will show that even great organizations can fail to see the danger signals or grab disruption opportu

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Krishnan on Innovation

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