Question paper

Namrata
1. What is Innovation management? Write down the steps.
2. What is a breakthrough or disruptive innovation? How does it differ from
incremental innovation? Give examples.
3. Discuss a few quality process innovation tools?
4. What is strategic inflection point? How do you recognize the strategic
inflection point ? what is the need for this? Explain with examples.
5. to reach a strategic inflection point? Use a balance score card (BSC) to
elaborate this.

Raj
6. What are the hurdles to technology diffusion? Explain this in relation to Fujis
technologic and strategic prevelance in digital photo diffusion.
7. Can emerging technology itself become the technology platform on which
successful diffusion takes place? Give one example.
8. What are complementary assets? How do they help in technology diffusion?
9. What are open standards and how do they help in technology diffusion?
10. In India the internet penetration is only around 20 %. Identify the
technology diffusion hurdles and create a BSC to assess the most pertinent
obstacle. You can also mention the other methodologies or tools used to
identify this?

Question paper
11. What is Innovation management? Write down the steps.
Ans ) Innovation management is the discipline of managing processes in innovation. It can be used
to develop both product and organizational innovation. Without proper processes, it is not possible for
R&D to be efficient; innovation management includes a set of tools that allow managers and engineers
to cooperate with a common understanding of goals and processes. The focus of innovation
management is to allow the organization to respond to an external or internal opportunity, and use its
creative efforts to introduce new ideas, processes or products
Innovation processes can either be pushed or pulled through development. A pushed
process is based on existing or newly invented technology, that the organization has
access to, and tries to find profitable applications to use this technology. A pulled process

tries to find areas where customers needs are not met, and then focus development
efforts to find solutions to those needs.
The Steps to Innovation Management:

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.

Challenge
Collaboration.
Combination.
Peer Review Evaluation.
Testing and Development
Implementation.
Review
New needs and Inspiration.

12. What is a breakthrough or disruptive innovation? How does it differ from

incremental innovation? Give examples.
Radical innovation is often defined as the commercialization of products and
technologies that have strong impact on two dimensions:
a. the market, in terms of offering wholly new customer benefits relative
to the previous product generation in the category, and
b. the company, in terms of its ability to create new businesses.
Incremental Innovation: The knowledge required to offer a product builds on
existing knowledge - competence enhancing. Most innovation is incremental.
13. Discuss a few quality process innovation tools?
Few of the quality process Innovation tools are:
Random entry idea generating tool : associating random words or
thoughts with the problem.
Provocation Idea Generating Tool: The use of any of the provocation
techniqueswishful thinking, exaggeration, reversal, escape, distortion, or
arising. The thinker creates a list of provocations and then uses the most
outlandish ones to move their thinking forward to new ideas.
Movement Techniques: The thinker develops provocation operations by
the following methods: extract a principle, focus on the difference, moment
to moment, positive aspects, special circumstances.
Challenge Idea Generating Tool: A tool which is designed to ask the
question "Why?" in a non-threatening way: why something exists, why it is
done the way it is. The result is a very clear understanding of "Why?" which

naturally leads to fresh new ideas. The goal is to be able to challenge

anything at all, not just items which are problems. For example, one could
challenge the handles on coffee cups. The reason for the handle seems to
be that the cup is often too hot to hold directly. Perhaps coffee cups could
be made with insulated finger grips, or there could be separate coffee cup
holders similar to beer holders.
Concept Fan Idea Generating Tool: Ideas carry out concepts. This tool
systematically expands the range and number of concepts in order to end
up with a very broad range of ideas to consider. Eg. the black hole in the
universe.
Disproving: Based on the idea that the majority is always wrong take
anything that is obvious and generally accepted as "goes without saying",
question it, take an opposite view, and try to convincingly disprove it.

14. What is strategic inflection point? How do you recognize the strategic
inflection point ? what is the need for this? Explain with examples.
A point at which technology changes the playing field wherein
a. Old rules of winner / loser change.
b. Changes cannot be easily predicted.
Ways to Recognize Strategic Inflection Point
Use diagnostic tools like BSC, Statistical SAS, to identify impact of technology on
overall ROI.
Measure new techno against a life cycle of competitive innovations and diffusion.
Strategies for navigating periods of technological change.
Technology needs completeness: eg for automobiles roads are a must;
for e-marketing internet is a must.
Open standards: makes technology diffusion easy eg. the blue ray disc,
Andriod OS. When to allow open standards?
Institutional changes : tech has to be backed by new org structure,
behaviour , all a by product of innovation. If perceived in a negative way
then org resistance will follow. Eg. techno creating job loss; GM food; plastic
money creating debts.

 Potential opportunities: timing of techno use, resource base to exploit

the techno, external connecting points eg, Metro requires co-ordination
with KSRTC for feeder services, A38o requires ., techno portfolio and
capital.
15. to reach a strategic inflection point? Use a balance score card (BSC) to
elaborate this.

16. What are the hurdles to technology diffusion? Explain this in relation to Fujis
technologic and strategic prevelance in digital photo diffusion.

17. Can emerging technology itself become the technology platform on which
successful diffusion takes place? Give one example.

18. What are complementary assets? How do they help in technology diffusion?
Complementary assets are assets, infrastructure or capabilities needed to support the
successful commercialization and marketing of a technological innovation, other than
those assets fundamentally associated with that innovation.
Value chain: complementary assets of sales force, distribution channels, brand image,
customer relationships, etc other than technology takes hold into a quagmire for start

ups.eg. digital camera took a long time due to the customer belief in what Kodak
believed , that digital can never have photographic quality; EMI invented the Cat scan but
in less than a decade had to quit due to GE. To access comple assets IT 70% ( 50% for
others) start ups let themselves be acquired/ merged/ out of business in ten years time.
Eg the last mile problem of internet co. @home. If you cant bypass it buy it or join it is
the mantra for start ups.eg. NCL , Canada to Microsoft.

19. What are open standards and how do they help in technology diffusion?
A set of technological standards that are not the intellectual property of any firm,
typically recognized standards, established by industry worldwide or multi firm
organizations.
Helping in Technology Diffusion:
1. Since the specifications are known and open, it is always possible to get another
party to implement the same solution adhering to the standards being followed.
2. Another major benefit is that it will be easier for systems from different parties or
using different technologies to interoperate and communicate with one another.
3. Using open standards will also offer better protection of the data files created by
an application against obsolescence of the application.
4. If open standards are followed, applications are easier to port from one platform to
another since the technical implementation follows known guidelines and rules,
and the interfaces, both internally and externally, are known

20. In India the internet penetration is only around 20 %. Identify the

technology diffusion hurdles and create a BSC to assess the most pertinent
obstacle. You can also mention the other methodologies or tools used to
identify this?

Aditya
21. Value curves of the budget Airlines in US strategic canvas is as shown
below:
Can you create a blue ocean for South west Airlines? Justify the value
innovation strategy with suitable explanations.
22. What is technology completeness? Explain with an example.
23. What is winners curse? How can you overcome this?

1.

24.

2.

25.

3.

26.

4.

27.

Sunil
28. What is the concept of The six hats system of De Bano to foster
innovations?
29. Your product is in the cash cow phase of the PLC. What is the best
strategy would you use to ensure continued profits for your co. taking
blue ocean strategy and incremental innovation into consideration?
30. What are the hurdles to technology diffusion? Explain this in relation to
Fuji technologic and strategic prevalence in digital photo diffusion.
31. Enumerate a few sources of innovation.
32. How do you create innovation in self?

Question paper
Sunil.
33.
What is the concept of The six hats system of
De Bano to foster innovations?
Dr Edward de Bono's 'Six Thinking Hats' will provide the skill and tools that can be applied
immediately. It is a simple and effective system that increases productivity. The principle
behind the 'Six Thinking Hats' is parallel thinking which ensures that all the people in a
meeting are focused on and thinking about the same subject at the same time.
In this system thinking is divided into six categories with each category identified with its own
coloured metaphorical 'thinking hat'. By becoming pre-sensitised to each of the 'hats' one can
easily focus and re-direct thoughts, conversation, meetings or reports. In team environments the
difference between brilliant and mediocre teams lies not so much in their collective thought but
in how well they use them and how well members work together.
Organisations that use the 'Six Thinking Hats' system report that their teams are more
productive and in general "happier and healthier".
It is a fact that meeting productivity depends not so much on who attends but in how well the
facilitator runs the meeting. Invariably times for meetings using this system have been reduced
by at least 40%.

The Six Hats:

The White Hat: calls for information known or needed. "The facts, just the facts."
The Yellow Hat: symbolises brightness and optimism. You can explore the positives and
probe for value and benefit
The Black Hat: signifies caution and critical thinking - do not overuse! Why something may
not work
The Red Hat: signifies feelings, hunches and intuition - the place where emotions are placed
without explanation
The Green Hat: focuses on creativity, possibilities, alternatives and new ideas. It is an
opportunity to express new concepts and new perceptions - lateral thinking could be used here
The Blue Hat: is used to manage the thinking process. It ensures that the 'Six Thinking Hats'
guidelines are observed.
Benefits:
Lead shorter and more productive meetings
Reduce conflict
Look at decisions and problems systematically
Achieve results
Generate more and better ideas
Think clearly
Improve team results
Solve problems, innovate and create.
Teams and Individuals learn "How to":
Adopt a deliberate thinking process for solving problems and finding opportunities
Reduce adversarial interactions between team members
Stimulate innovating by focusing creative energy
Foster collaborative thinking (not necessarily agreement) from everyone in the group
Create dynamic and positive meetings that make people want to participate
Spot opportunities where others see problems
See beyond the obvious
View problems from new and unusual angles
See all sides of a situation
Keep egos and 'turf protection' in check
Save time.
Isolate the types of thinking - negatives, positives etc
Identify information that is missing or needed
Spot dangers and potential problems and ways to overcome and avoid them

34.
Your product is in the cash cow phase of the PLC.
What is the best strategy would you use to ensure
continued profits for your co. taking blue ocean
strategy and incremental innovation into
consideration?
Cash cows are units with high market share in a slow-growing industry. These units typically generate
cash in excess of the amount of cash needed to maintain the business. They are regarded as staid and
boring, in a "mature" market, and every corporation would be thrilled to own as many as possible. They
are to be "milked" continuously with as little investment as possible, since such investment would be
wasted in an industry with low growth

Incremental Innovation
Incremental innovation (sometimes referred to as sustaining innovation) uses existing forms
or technologies as a starting point.
It either makes incremental improvements to something or some process or it reconfigures
it so that it may serve some other purpose.
Other good examples include the:
Apple iPod. The original iPod came in just white, and enabled you to store and play your
mp3 music collection only. Incremental improvements have occurred over time so that
today you can buy them in many different colours; store your family photographs and even
your video collection.
Global Positioning Satellite. These are now common place in motor vehicles to assist
drivers in getting from A to B. GPS systems in cars are an example of an incremental
innovation in which something that already exists has just been reconfigured to another
use.

What is Blue Ocean Strategy? Ten Key Points

BOS is the result of a decade-long study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than 30
industries over 100 years (1880-2000).

BOS is the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low cost.

The aim of BOS is not to out-perform the competition in the existing industry, but to create
new market space or a blue ocean, thereby making the competition irrelevant.

While innovation has been seen as a random/experimental process where entrepreneurs and
spin-offs are the primary drivers as argued by Schumpeter and his followers BOS offers

systematic and reproducible methodologies and processes in pursuit of blue oceans by both
new and existing firms.

BOS frameworks and tools include: strategy canvas, value curve, four actions framework, six
paths, buyer experience cycle, buyer utility map, and blue ocean idea index.

These frameworks and tools are designed to be visual in order to not only effectively build
the collective wisdom of the company but also allow for effective strategy execution through
easy communication.

BOS covers both strategy formulation and strategy execution.

The three key conceptual building blocks of BOS are: value innovation, tipping point
leadership, and fair process.

While competitive strategy is a structuralist theory of strategy where structure shapes

strategy, BOS is a reconstructionist theory of strategy where strategy shapes structure.

As an integrated approach to strategy at the system level, BOS requires organizations to

develop and align the three strategy propositions: value proposition, profit proposition and
people proposition.

35.
What are the hurdles to technology diffusion?
Explain this in relation to Fuji technologic and
strategic prevalence in digital photo diffusion.

Q: What can diffusion of technology achieve?

A: If technology is properly used for economic development, you can transform the way development is done. So
much money has been spent for development assistance, and the results have been relatively meager.
We're saying the reason these monies have done so little was the projects were on such a small scale. So how do
you take a leap of scale? Technology can be the multiplier that increases the impact.
We're working on a significant project now. We're linking all secondary schools in the developing world with the
Internet. We're turning them in to e-schools. This will provide better training for teachers, better text books, and better
ideas. You use the schools for training students and teachers, and as hubs for Internet access for the community
around them. Pilots are being launched in India, Mozambique, Bolivia, and Ghana.
Q: What are the main hurdles
A: The main problem is for policymakers to recognize the opportunity. They see it theoretically. But when it comes to
where they spend their scarce dollars, they don't do it. It's a difficult choice. They need to be convinced, and to do it
right.
They need to think of it in new ways. This isn't a matter of buying 10,000 computers or rolling out broadband. They

should be thinking, how can I do health or education better with technology? There has been a lot of waste in using
technology in ways that are not relevant.
Fuji technology:

http://www.fujifilmholdings.com/en/news/2008/0213_01_01.html

36.

Enumerate a few sources of innovation.

Sources of Innovation (Peter Drucker)

Back to Threats and Opportunity Analysis or Methods and Tools
Peter Drucker, one of the greatest management thinkers from the last century, defined in his book
Innovation and Entrepreneurship (1986) 7 classes of OPPORTUNITIES. He named these the
"SOURCES OF INNOVATION", namely:
1. THE UNEXPECTED: An example of the unexpected is the development of Nutrasweet. A chemist
developed a new chemical. Accidentally he got some of it in his mouth. To his surprise it tasted
very sweet. This was the start of a development trajectory, that took many years before
Nutrasweet was introduced by Searle into the market.
2. INCONGRUITIES: Incongruities or conflicts between opposing functions, requirements or values
may be the start of an innovation. For example the request for a small car with still enough space
on the inside seems to be incongruent. This however was solved in a new design as the Smart.
3. PROCESS NEEDS: An old proverb says that necessity is the mother of invention. In the old
days of the US many unskilled immigrants from Europe arrived. They were peasants that lacked
in skills for the manufacturing of sophisticated artifacts such as guns. In those days one made
every component of these guns by hand. To let them fit to each other and work properly required
high skills in manufacturing. By making machines more precise and introducing standardization
of the artifacts one could produce thousands of components individually. The machine or gun
could be assembled using arbitrarily with ever component from the stores. The individual tasks
could easily be learned by the immigrants, without years of training to become an overall master.
In this way they could profit maximally from the existing economies of scale and learning curve.
4. INDUSTRY AND MARKET STRUCTURE: Industry markets and market structure may offer
opportunitys for new types of services. Outsourcing of activities such as maintenance of the IT
infrastructure is an example. Other examples are the merging of industrys such as for example
the merging of the computer industry with consumer electronics or IT with business consulting
services. The X box of Microsoft is just one example from many.

5. DEMOGRAPHICS: Demographics have long been a major source of innovation creating

opportunities for new types of products and services. Life style drugs such as Viagra are just
examples where the growing group of elderly people who feel themselves still very healthy and
who would like to enjoy life longer can conquer the effects of biological aging.
6. CHANGES IN PERCEPTION: An example of changes in perception as source of innovation is the
following. In older days health was seen as related to body mass, meaning fatter people were
perceived as more healthy. In the last century this perception changed as a result of medical
studys that revealed that overweight was a risk factor. Since that time many light products have
come to the market. Many substitutes of sugar have been developed such as Nutrasweet. Also
substitutes of fat have been developed although these have not been successfully introduced
into the market yet.
7. NEW KNOWLEDGE: Last but not least new knowledge has produced many opportunities for new
products. The emergence of micro-electronics and new programming methods and tools,
biotechnology, nano-technology etc have been the main motors of innovation and progress over
the last decades . This will probably continue for the coming decades.
Here a link to a tool that assess the underused sources of innovation

37.

How do you create innovation in self?

How To Create a Culture of Innovation

July 6, 2009
I define innovation as an organizations ability to adapt and evolve repeatedly and rapidly to stay one step ahead of
the competition. A culture of innovation, when done right, gives you a competitive edge because it makes you more
nimble with an increased ability to sense and respond to change.

A culture of innovation has less to do specifically with new products, new processes, or new ideas. There are of
course discrete innovations such as the iPhone or a battery that is powered by viruses (MIT has developed this).
These are valuable and necessary in order to create a culture of innovation.

But a culture of innovation is more than new ideas. It needs to be repeatable, predictable, and sustainable. This only
happens when you treat innovation like you treat all other capabilities in your business. This means having, amongst
other things, a defined process.

An organizations innovation process must achieve three things. It must:

focus on the right challenges

find appropriate solutions to those challenges, and

implement the best solutions.

These translate into three portfolios an organization must create:

A portfolio of challenges

A portfolio of solutions

A portfolio of projects

Lets take each one at a time.

A Portfolio of Challenges
All companies have challenges. They can be technical challenges on how to create a particular chemical compound.
They can be marketing challenges on how to best describe your product to increase market share. They can be HR
challenges around improving employee engagement.

An organizations ability to change (i.e., innovate) hinges on its ability to identify and solve challenges. Challenges are
sometimes referred to as problems, issues, or opportunities. But at the end of the day, they are all just various forms
of challenges. I will use these terms interchangeably here.

Where do you find these challenges? You can find them anywhere from customers, employees, shareholders,
consultants, vendors, competitors, and the list goes on.

Lets face it, companies have no shortage of challenges.

And guess what, some of the most important challenges to solve are hidden due to organizational blind spots and
assumption-making.

The meta-challenge for all organizations is to find which challenges, if solved and implemented, will create the
greatest value. Given that organizations have limited resources and money, prioritization is critical.

My favorite quote (used many times in this blog) comes from Albert Einstein If I had an hour to save the world, I
would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute finding solutions. Most companies spend 60 minutes
of their time finding solutions to problems that just dont matter.

Therefore, the first step in creating a culture of innovation is to surface, identify, and codify challenges. And then you
must become masterful at valuing, prioritizing, and framing these challenges.

Think of your innovation portfolio much like you would handle a financial investment portfolio. You want some safe
bets (incremental innovation) and some riskier investments (radical innovation). You also want a variety of
innovations ranging from technical challenges to marketing challenges, and service challanges to performance
improvement challenges.

Once you have the right challenges to solve, the next step is to find solutions.

A Portfolio of Solutions
Every challenge has multiple potential solutions. And there are multiple ways in which to find these solutions.
Some challenges are solved in the moment by the person who thinks them up. Most challenges in fact are solved this
way. These challenges tend to be unarticulated in that they are not presented to the organization as a problem to
solve.

Other challenges are more complex and require specialized expertise. You need to find the right person(s) with the
right knowledge.

Others require less technical expertise and are solved through creative thinking.

For each challenge, you need to first determine which mechanism would best yield a viable solution. Approaches
include, but are not limited to

Internal Individual/Team: This is the most common way challenges are typically solved. This is when you
use internal resources whose job is to solve these types of challenges. For example, this would be the
development team members assigned to a particular product. They are paid to solve their product development
challenges. Brainstorming is often the tool of choice.

Internal Crowdsourcing: Sometimes the best solutions are found by people who typically do not work on
this problem. It might be a customer service representative finding a great new branding idea. Or maybe it is

tapping into R&D people who are in different parts of the organization. Sometimes this can be achieved through
company-wide competitions. Read my article on howreality TV show type competitions can be used to stimulate
creativity.
Outsourced (External Single Source): Some challenges can be solved (and potentially implemented) by a

third party who takes ownership for delivering the result. Typically, outsource partners are found through some
type of RFP process. eLance.com is a well-known example of a platform that matches specific challenges with
bidders who are able to solve specific types of problems.
External Crowdsourcing: Some challenges are best solved by a diverse group of external solvers who can

independently work on a solution to your problem. In some circles, this is referred to as Open
Innovation. InnoCentive and 99Designs.com are two good examples of this. A challenge is posted and solutions
are provided by a wide variety of solvers.
These are only a few of the many approaches. If one technique (e.g., internal team) does not yield a workable
solution), try a different approach (e.g., external crowdsourcing).

Regardless of which technique(s) you use, the result will be a portfolio of solutions for the given challenge.
Depending on the technique you use, you may end up with a low signal to noise ratio. This is the ratio of a signal
(what you want that is, good ideas) to the noise (what you dont want the duds). Your success is often based on
your ability to separate the wheat from the chaff.
The next step is to strengthen and select the best ideas, combining them into a comprehensive solution. If you find a
solution that works, the next step is to implement.

A Portfolio of Projects
The final attribute of a culture of innovation is the ability to take all of the selected solutions and turn them into
programs/projects so that they can be converted from ideas into reality.

Elsewhere on this blog, I discuss many different ways of making this happen. Some of them include Build It, Try It,
Fix It an iterative development process where you learn by doing rather than analyzing. Other more waterfall type
development approaches are more linear and rely heavily on analysis and testing (analyze, design, build, test,
deploy).
Regardless of how you implement, without this step, you end up with lots of ideas on the cutting room floor, none of
which create value.

During implementation, it is critical that you keep track of the value proposition for each project, having the courage to
change direction, or, in some cases, killing ideas altogether.

Bottom Line
A culture based on surfacing, solving, and implementing valuable challenges can make innovation repeatable and
predictable. This requires more than just a process, it requires an entire innovation capability [read my perspectives
on the innovation capability].

My mantra is, When the pace of change outside your organization is faster than the pace within, you will be out of
business. And as we all know, todays pace of change is crazier than ever. A culture of innovation, when done right,
can give you a leg up in a highly evolving marketplace.

Rahul
38. How do you create an Innovative / learning organisation.
What are the system context factors for a battery powered car
39. What is a technology stack and how do you define stack ownership and
dominance?
40. The analytical reasons given in technological adoption/ implementation
and innovation management that created such a stupendous success of
Apple?

Pradeep
41. How far is the strategy of Blue oceans effective? Explain with refs to
industry samples.
42. What is a bundled architecture in technology stack? Enumerate the
main components of Technology adoption. No explanation is required. If
you are looking.
43. What is blue ocean strategy and why innovations based on this is very
effective? Name one co which has adopted blue ocean strategy in a big
way?
44. You are the MD of ITCs soap division. Using blue ocean strategy can
you innovate and create a new market space? If so how?

Mathur
45. What are the six principles and six paths to using the concept of Blue
ocean strategy? Explain with examples?
46. What are the internal 7S changes required to ensure smooth adoption
of automation in a garment factory?
47. In Colins Hunter or Hunted Porters 5F +1 is mentioned. What is this
+1?In which parts of Poters 5F analysis do you see a new technology
impact ?

Dynamite
48. What are the advantages & disadvantages in dealing with emerging
technologies in a large size firm? Give examples from history?
49. How do large firms overcome technology diffusion problems? Explain
with examples from the past.
50. Measuring emerging technology against a life cycle of competitive
innovations and diffussions is the best technology impact diagnostics.
Explain with examples.