Vinod Kumar Rahar Ingenious Drive Nashik palnt -1 E-mail:-rahar.vinodkuamr@mahindra.

com

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 with Global competitors. The only tool to conquer Global market shares is to win Customer hearts by fulfilling their expectations. Every rival is meticulously nurturing his Business developing engines through the fuel of Technology upgradation,Creating new market through new Product development, Refreshing existing products, Strengthening the Supply chains, Improving Quality etc. All are the conventional trade solutions. But, a few organizations are striding towards these coveted targets by the relentless pursuit of available conventional trade solutions along with the new differentiating edge. This edge is the involvement of Human Intellectuals, the People. This is being persuaded by building innovative culture of Idea based organization. The various means for cultivating the culture of Idea based organization are Ingenious drive, Be curious, Spark, Ideas 4 Aviva, MISE, Think simplicity. But, this edge is becoming conversant to market. Hence, it solicits much effective involvement of peoples Soul, Intellectual, and Intuition. Because, it is the people at the frontline of any organizations operations, who know best what works and what doesnt for his organization. Anyone can have a creative idea, if it comes at the cost of Simplicity and Common sense. This can be easily comprehended by the Example of NASA v/s Russia approach to find the solution for a common problem. 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- immune astronaut pen. At the same time, the Russians too were faced with the sane dilemma. However, they used a pencil instead! The above anecdote has been a famous legend for years; however, the lesion is simple that Simple & Common sense birth Creativity. Peoples give Ideas. Some ideas work, others ruthlessly backfire. Yet, ideas are important. An interesting observation that experts make is that seniors make a huge mistake by overlooking ideas suggested by their people who might actually see an opportunity that their seniors cant. This calls for a virtual attitudinal renaissance. Indeed, seniors who have realised the significance of mutual- learning work atmosphere, vouch for its effectiveness.

Idea based organization.

Incubating Ideas, Developing Ideas, Nurturing Ideas, Fostering Ideas, Propagating Ideas are the available means to cultivate the Culture of

There are numerous organizations which have realized the potential of Idea based culture. And, they are rigorously striving to motivate their Human capital to find the innovative ideas; which can leverage the business prospects by improving the organizational operations. Here are such examples. They are not our core competitors, but, it might possible that ours core competitors are practicing the same tool, as; this new edge is becoming the everyones most desired path towards the journey of Excellence. 1. The Patni SPARK (systematic pooling, analyzing and researching knowledge) methodology facilitates organization-wide involvement in innovative idea generation leading to new products, solutions and service offerings. The ideas received through SPARK are processed through a multi-stage validation process that establishes the feasibility of the proposed offering. The internet portal captures ideas and gives easy access to Patni employees to participate. This activity is supplemented with the business analyses and incubation cell which tracks technology updates, changes in governing laws and regulations, competitor offerings, etc. Once an idea is selected, the incubation cell develops the offerings with supporting methodologies, tools, white papers and expertise. The solution is test marketed, and a small customer base is built before releasing it to the mainstream market. 2. MTV Network India, has regular, CFT (cross-functional team) sessions where employees from different departments of the organization brainstorm and ideate on topics like Cost control, Revenue enhancements, etc. that can help the business grow. This activity breaks hierarchical barriers and fosters participation from all verticals. 3. Tesco HSC has launched an internal campaign called, Be Curious to encourage innovation and creative solution. Through these sessions, they have been able to receive a lot of ideas from their employees to further their business prospects. Experts also confirm this activity also improves employee morale. 4. Aviva Life Insurance has introduced Ideas 4 Aviva, a scheme in which every member of Aviva has an open invitation to influence any aspect of business by giving suggestions and ideas on how to work smarter and better. These suggestions could relate to areas ranging from best management practices to business strategies to how to make Aviva a better place to work. An empowered Ideas Task Force, whose job is to evaluate and shortlist winning ideas and

facilitates their implementation, reviews the ideas. Project managers are assigned to every winning idea with the aim of building on the idea and taking it to its natural conclusion. 5. Maersk India Pvt. Ltd. also has unique initiatives in place for empowering employees. Maersk has a separate Innovation department in its global headquarter and its regional headquarters with a specific charter to facilitate delivery of a certain number of ideas per year, translating into a certain addition to the group bottom line. In addition, each of the 400-odd trainees undergoing the MISE(Maersk International Shipping Education) programme each year are required to submit a carefully analysed idea before the end of the two year training programme that is then submitted to the relevant managers for evaluation and the best ideas enter the implementation pipeline. 6. In Fritolay India, PepsiCos snack food division, the regional flavours are often born out of the insights drawn from our employees. For example, a young executive drew upon her own Gujarati background that helped them create the Kurkure Gujarati Tamatar flavour, which has a Gujarati chutney taste as distinct from a tomato sauce flavour. The marketing executive in question worked with the R & D team to develop the product and then drew up the communication that connected with the consumers, making it a big hit. 7. Philips Electronics India Limited conceives that usually, CEOs are considered the prime thought leaders and decision makers in any organization. However, the size, the complexity as well as geographical spread of companies today make it impossible for one person to do the job. Thus, it is necessary to give employees the freedom to suggest ideas that can influence the business in a positive way. Philips follows a systematic approach towards this. The idea suggested by the employee is first given the right support by the concerned manager. If it requires funds and resources, the employee is helped to develop the idea as a full-fledged case that gets reviewed by the management. And, those whove implemented ideas successfully have patents registered in their names. Philips also organizes contests/platforms to bring to the fore better ideas from employees. (a) Designed to inspire all employees at Philips, Think simplicity, a unique contest inspires Philips employee to become a Simplicity Brand Ambassador. The contest, aimed at recognising all ideas implemented or under execution by employees, which have brought Simplicity to the workplace. (b) A Simplicity day, an annual single day event is organized where teams are formed at each location and through a globally designed workshop; each team gets cracking on how they can bring Simplicity to the workplace.

We at Mahindra, are also pursuing same approach to cultivate the Idea based organization culture throughout Automotive sector by the mean of Ingenious Drive. The above alluded examples express clearly the potential of Idea based approach, lead by the people. So therefore, we have to put our genuine efforts to build this theme & to encourage ours colleagues. One has to shun primary assumptions that most of us have about which ideas are important, whos given the idea, under what circumstances the idea was generated and will the idea work. After all, who would have thought that Archimedes would have thought the 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 Ideas which result Cost reduction, Quality improvement, Work content reduction, Productivity improvement, Enhancement in Safety, Morale & Delivery to achieve our Automotive sector Goal, Promise 2010.