Prof CK Prahalad, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw urge Indian firms to embrace innovation

The seminar was led by Professor C.K Prahalad, one of worlds most influential business thinker and Professor M.S Krishnan, a leading technology expert and faculty at Michigan Ross Business School. The focus of the seminar was on How to reinvent company processes and culture in order to sustain innovative solutions. Dr Prahalad and Prof Krishnan shared the innovation framework from their book The New age of Innovation. Prof Prahalad argued that organizations have to address customers individually and access resources globally to serve their objectives.

Mrs. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman & Managing Director, Biocon delivered the key note address. Mr S Shivakumar, CEO, ITC Agri Business and the brain behind ITC eChaupal initiative also spoke on the theme of innovation.

Said Prof C.K. Prahalad, In the new approach to business innovation, growth of every business depends on accessing global network resources to co-create unique experience to individual customer, symbolically N=1. He further added, Companies should resource goods and services required to develop new offerings anywhere from the world R=G, to import competitiveness. It is about identifying each customers needs & preferences, problems & working towards providing optimal services, facilities or solutions. Looking at the needs of future customer, The New Age of Innovation will act as a strategic planner which helps in transforming the same.

According to him for an organization to be successful it is imperative that it strengthens the two pillars (N=1) & (R=G) of the organization on which would rest the future of it. N=1 states that value is based on unique, personalized experiences of customers. It is about identifying each customers needs & preferences, problems & working towards providing optimal services, facilities or solutions. Then & only then would the organization reach the ideal target N=1.

Prof M.S Krishnan elaborated on yet another aspect of the book by providing an example of partnership between India based IT firm Ramco Systems and PHI Helicopters a US based Fleet management Company to elucidate how the concepts of flexible and resilient business processes and focused analytics could lead towards a N=1 and R=G transformation. He said that understanding the consumer, and value based pricing, was the key. He also said that India has the advantage in this new approach to business strategy with centrality of IT and human resources and insisted that India must seize the opportunity.

In her keynote address, Mrs Mazumdar said, Most forward-thinking companies see great value in innovation as its critical to their survival in an increasingly diverse and global market. Its a privilege to have a seminar of this stature in Bangalore as this is the right time to think and imbibe innovative business practices.

The seminar was organized collectively by Michigan Learning Centre, IIIT-B, CIM India and media relations are being handled by Pragma Communication.

Earlier, Prof. Sadagopan, Director-IIITB extended a warm welcome.

The University of Michigan is one of the great public research universities of the United States. India is a research satellite of the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Scholars study the next practices of managers, including how they leverage global resources and access new markets. The focus is to study and provide thought leadership to such an emerging area, a global resource leverage needs a multi-disciplinary approach, deep commitment to the inherent potential of the business trend, and India as a destination. The Ross Business School is part of one of the best research universities in the world, and has established deep linkages with India and the nascent global resource leveraging industry; hence, it is ideally suited.