Build organizational capacity
to make Orbit-shifts
Organizations need to not just reskill or upskill their workforce; they
have to fundamentally repurpose them
I
ngenuity of human thoughts, leading to mind-
blowing breakthrough business opportunities
and possibilities, can never be replaced by bots.
That the mundane and day-to-day is taken care of
by the ‘wired’ organism — AI, bots and machines
floating over Clouds; it’s time to unleash the organ-
ization and people towards making Orbit-shifts.
The organism is getting lots of love and affec-
tion from businesses and its spreading fast. The
possibility of a full blown colonization seems very
real — quite an unsettling thought. However, this
change, like any change, presents us with excit-
ing opportunities, only if we choose to see and
embrace it. The most seductive and powerful of
these opportunities is ‘Building an innovative
workforce’. With the right culture, practices and
methods, systems and structures, an innovative
s t o r y
workforce will be able to conceive, pursue and
execute game-changing leaps and transformative
solutions leading to quantum impact. In essence, a
workforce that will pursue Orbit-shifts, create new
value as against merely maintaining the current —
c o v e r
a dire need for every organization today.
Given the colonization, what makes ‘Building
an innovative workforce’, a great opportunity?
Firstly, any successful pursuit of the inno-
vation agenda, manifesting as a differentiated
offering, process, business model or strategy, is
fundamentally a human endeavor. A successful
innovation pursuit calls for having the mindset of
a ‘challenger’, with the ability to uncover unstated
market needs, challenge wide-held industry and
54 | SEPTEMBER 2017
Gokul Ranganathan
Partner Consultant, Erehwon Innovation
Consulting
organizational mental models and come up with
creative business propositions — things that
the organism can’t. The ‘wired’ organism can
powerfully learn logic, develop algorithms if fed
with volumes of data. More often than not, this
data is representative of current and past trends/
scenarios. The organism can ‘predict, suggest’ and
may be even decide but never ‘imagine’ — a trait
solely vested with us humans. Ingenuity of human
thoughts can never be replaced by bots. Hence,
creating an organization that unleashes and chan-
nelizes people’s imagination becomes mission
critical.
Secondly, talking of businesses, in the last dec-
ade and a half, receptivity towards innovation has
tremendously increased. What was earlier a desir-
able, nice-to have corporate brand badge is today
seen as a key driver for growth and profitability.
‘Optimization’, which is pursed rigorously today,
is going to become a commodity with the advent
of the ‘wired’ organism, forcing organizations to
differentiate through innovation. An innovative
workforce with the right paraphernalia is going to
provide a ‘ready-state’ for organizations to think
and action their innovation agenda, thereby creat-
ing powerful end-market differentiation.
To build organizational
innovation capacity,
the role of L&D needs
to undergo a tectonic
shift — not just catalysts,
evangelists or partners
but Strategic Capability
Architects
 Thirdly, the attraction and traction points
for today’s workforce are fundamentally differ-
ent. Conventional drivers like stability, security
and flashy perks are secondary for them. Their
primary ask is a powerful, meaningful ‘purpose’ to
work towards. They are ‘experimenters’ deriving
their gratification from pursuit of ‘out-of-the-box’.
An ‘organization for innovation’ would provide a
fertile, infectious playground for this workforce,
for it democratizes innovation which otherwise
would continue to remain elitist.
There are some great examples of initiatives
taken by organizations towards building an inno-
vative workforce and the rich dividends they have
earned as an outcome is there for us to see.
Take the case of Titan Jewelry Business, which
created the famed Innovation School of Manage-
ment for its supply chain division. Employees, in
teams, work on impossible, current and futuristic
innovation challenges in front of the business. In a
span of 20 weeks, teams navigate these challenges
systematically to come up with breakthrough solu-
tions and prototype them as well. These teams have
thought of and executed possibilities which have
Ingenuity of human thoughts
left even the leading domain experts across the
world speechless.
can never be replaced by bots;
One team has created a 420X jump in the pro- thus, creating an organization that
ductivity of a globally benchmarked manufactur-
unleashes and channelizes people’s

c o v e r
ing process — a first in the world while another,
tripled the capacity of their plant without adding
any manpower and several more such Orbit-shifts
imagination becomes mission critical
were achieved. Today about 60 percent of the work-
force are innovators and the innovation school has

contributed significantly to the bottom line of the
organization. Anand Group, a USD1.2 Billion auto-
component group, has institutionalized innovation
in 7 group companies. Anand group has created
a robust innovation ecosystem where innovation
happens by-design. About 1300 employees have
been enabled to pursue innovation challenges on
an on-going basis. For every six yearly KRA, each
of these innovation champions, taken on an impos-
sible innovation challenge — Innovation is a habit
here.
These organizations have not just reskilled or
upskilled their workforce. They have fundamen-
tally repurposed them. Quantum Leaps achieved in
these organizations cannot be achieved by an algo-
rithm running on a machine. These were solely the
outcomes of a passionate, creative human pursuit;
outcomes of an innovative workforce. Instead of
letting innovation be accidental and personality-
centric, they have created a workforce who can
make innovation happen by-design. Instead of
innovation being a cream layer of skill, limited to
high performers, they have made every employee
achieve high performance through innovation.
Innovation has become a norm of engagement
within these organizations.
Every business rides on a ‘factor of eternal
assurance’. A laundry business’s deep, unstated
belief is that as long as there are human beings,
they would clothe, which would need a wash-cycle,
assuring an eternal continuity of business. For
insurance, it is ‘life security’. For automobiles, it
s t o r y
is ‘mobility’. These factors of eternal assurances
are anchored around the market needs, which as
we know, would undergo massive changes time-
to-time. The future ‘factor of eternal assurance’
which organizations should build and capitalize
on is the ‘innovative workforce’. Such a workforce
can never put an organization out of business even
if the entire industry shuts down, for they would
have already identified newer core opportunities
and adjacencies for the organization.
Now, what does this mean for the L&D function?
L&D plays a critical but often a thankless
‘supplier’ role within an organization — mid-
year performance reviews, identifying capability
gaps, personalized training plan and interven-
tions, catering to specific requirements from the
business leaders — the services offered are cool
and plenty. There is consensus omnium amongst
L&D fraternity around ‘evolving to stay relevant
& valuable’. However, to build the organizational
innovation capacity and for businesses to success-
fully leverage the innovation opportunities, the
role of L&D needs to undergo a tectonic shift — not
just catalysts, evangelists or partners but Strategic
Capability Architects. Architects who can influ-
ence and shape the business vision and innovation
agenda, whose business and end market under-
standing is superior, who are able to create and
catch market trends and influence the business to
build the innovation capability needed for them
to be cutting-edge in the market. And the new role
sounds cool too!
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