XIMB seminar on Operational Innovation

Speakers on the occasion included Sree Kumar Krishnan, Head, F&A Horizontal, Cognizant; Narayanan Srinivasan, Head-Wholesale Banking Operations, Standard Chartered; Vikram Mahidhar, Head- R&D, Deloitte India Operations; Venkata Reddy, VP-Supply Chain, PepsiCo; and Pinaki Banerjee, Managing Director, Pilkington, etc.

Introducing the topic, XIMB Dean (Academics), Prof. W S Williams pointed out that though operational innovation came to the forefront only two decades ago, this concept was around since the beginning of the 20th century. Operational excellence is different from operational innovation as the former reduces cost and eliminates errors and later focuses on better ways of doing things. There are two types of operational innovation: product innovation and how to deliver values through it, he said.

Citing examples of operational innovation, Prof. Williams elaborated how Toyota and Wal-Mart sustained their lead over the competition through operational innovation. Taking a cue from this example, Standard Chartereds Narayanan Srinivasan said, Toyota can produce any model of car within 20 minutes, despite the complexities associated with manufacturing a car.

Cognizants Sree Kumar Krishnan said, Though operational innovation is extremely important as it provides a lead to the organization, it is pretty hard to pull off. There are many areas which have remained undefined in operational innovation.

Talking about how to apply operational innovation, Mr Krishnan said, There are four simple ways to apply: look for a role model from outside your industry, identify and defy constraint assumptions, make special cases the norms and rethink the critical dimension of work. There are four pitfalls of operational innovations: measuring innovation, research & development, linking rewards to innovation and the matter of the top line focus of the company.
The speakers agreed that operational innovation is essential for sustenance and for gaining the competitive edge. They pointed out that with increasing competition and fast changing technology, operational innovation has taken center stage -- as it can change the rules of the game. There cant be a defined process of innovation, which has become extremely important for organizations in the fiercely competitive scenario, was the conclusion drawn by various speakers at the seminar.

The evening also saw the release of the Ashwamedh journal. The journal included 8 research papers, selected from a national paper writing competition that was a precursor to Ashwamedh 2007. The competition had received a huge response from across the country with about 130 entries coming in from B-schools including IIMs, XLRI, ISB, FMS, SCMHRD and XIMB.