Biocon to set up Biocon Cell for Innovation Management at ISB campus

The cell will instruct companies how to innovate at low cost and how to manage and assess associated risks.

The Indian School of Business (ISB) Hyderabad has now joined hands with Biocon Limited, a biotechnology company, to help promote innovation in business. Biocon and ISB on June 08, 2009 announced the launch of the Biocon Cell for Innovation Management (BCIM) and said that the cell will help organisations find gaps in their ability to innovate, assess how to manage and mitigate risks associated with innovation and how to produce high quality, strategic innovation at low cost.

The cell will be established under the aegis of the Centre for Leadership, Innovation, and Change (CLIC) at the ISB. Biocon has promised an initial investment of Rs 1 crore to set up BCIM at ISB Hyderabad and it will also provide funds to the cell, as and when required, over a minimum period of one-year.

Emphasising the need of innovation, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman and MD of Biocon, and Executive Board Member of ISB, said, We have to find new solutions for the unique challenges we face in India and innovation is the key to forge this. At Biocon, innovation has been our driving force right from its inception. I want the BCIM to understand the process of innovation and develop champions who will make innovation a part of company culture.
Taking pride on the way ISB has ushered innovative practices in Indian management education, Ajit Rangnekar, Dean of ISB, said, We are proud to partner with Biocon for setting up the cell for spreading the knowledge of the process that underlies innovation. I know that innovation is in Biocons DNA and hence I say that it is a befitting partnership. I am confident that the BCIM within the CLIC at ISB will produce high quality research and educational output in business innovation.

Professor Prasad Kaipa, Executive Director of CLIC at the ISB, who will drive BCIM, said that the primary objective of the BCIM will be to foster innovation and link it to operational excellence. India and other emerging markets have developed breakthrough ideas in the process of facing challenges unique to their countries. BCIM will focus on understanding and streamlining these knowledge processes through research. We will discover the success stories and processes that have worked for various organisations and prepare a framework that can be implemented by any company across the world, Kaipa said.

The Board of BCIM will include a representative of Biocon, the Executive Director of CLIC, other prominent industry leaders and academics in the area of innovation and strategy. The board will play an advisory and enabling role by providing research ideas to assist the activities of BCIM.