(From L-R) Harsh C. Mariwala, Chairman & MD, Marico Limited; Kishore Biyani, Founder and Group CEO, Future Group; Manu Anand, Chairman, PepsiCo, India Region and Irfan Razack, Chairman and Managing Director, Prestige Constructions<\/p><\/div>\n

Panel participants included Kishore Biyani, Founder of the Future Group, Harsh Mariwala, Chairman & Managing Director of Marico Industries Limited, Irfan Razack, <\/b>CEO of the Prestige Group, <\/b>& Manu Anand, CEO, PepsiCo India. <\/b><\/p>\n

The liveliest debate was around the theme of \u201cindividual\u201d v.s. \u201cinstitutional\u201d innovation.\u00a0 <\/b>Can the process of innovation be institutionalized to create scale? On the whole, the view was – yes it can.\u00a0 But while processes can be created to deliver incremental innovation, game changing innovation can only be seen by someone who has the passion for the business and the ability to – as Kishore Biyani put it, \u201cjuxtapose data points out of context\u201d. That sometimes means, that \u201cfirst of a kind\u201d ideas have to be \u201cforced\u201d down the organizational chain, until the market proves the success or failure of the idea.\u00a0 Since success has many fathers,\u00a0 ideas once successful, can be institutionalized and then the\u00a0 organization can take over to deliver incremental innovation.\u00a0 For example, in 2006, Future Group\u2019s \u201cSabse Sasta Din\u201d as a concept was implemented, in the face of much, unspoken, internal criticism.\u00a0 Also, the idea succeeded \u201ctoo much\u201d – when launched,\u00a0 the 24 participating stores had to shut down within 30 minutes, because the milling crowds caused riot concerns among the police and authorities. Seven years later, Future Group has created innovation history by \u201ceventizing\u201d our national holidays – \u00a0Independence and Republic day.<\/p>\n

Can innovation survive in large, process driven, MNC organizations?<\/b> While these organizations may lack a \u201cface\u201d in the sense of not always having a charismatic leader,\u00a0 most MNCs have learnt that local empowerment delivers superior shareholder returns.\u00a0 In the case of Pepsi, the category \u2013 food and beverages helps \u2013 because its decidedly local by nature. Besides, as Irfan Razack stated \u201cInclusiveness is the key to creating innovation in the ecosystem.\u00a0 You need the passion to succeed irrespective of whether it\u2019s a professionally managed company or owner driven\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an organization that thinks\u201d \u2013 <\/b>was Kishore Biyani\u2019s rejoinder to the question of whether only the leader \/ entrepreneur is responsible for innovation. Marico has an \u201cincubation cell\u201d \u2013 a single person team \u2013 reporting to Mariwala which scouts and triages new ideas for implementability.\u00a0 Each of the panelists highlighted the need for institutionalizing innovation to make it sustainable \u2013 but also spoke about the need for \u201cgutsy\u201d CEOs.\u00a0 \u201cYou know that 2 out of 3 ideas will fail\u201d said Manu Anand. That means you have to have someone who will empower his team by saying \u201cGo ahead guys,\u00a0 I will take the \u2018can\u2019 for this in case it fails\u201d.<\/p>\n

Does innovation fall by the wayside when you scale? <\/b>\u2013 It can. Because as Mariwala explained \u2013 \u201cthe cost of failure gets higher and higher\u201d.\u00a0 So you\u2019ve got to prototype and try things small. If you fail, fail small, and when you succeed, scale big.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019ve got to collaborate with partners and investors\u201d \u2013 said Manu Anand \u2013 and \u201cyou\u2019ve got to reward, what we call \u2013 \u2018intelligent failure\u2019\u201d \u2013 continued Mariwala. \u201cIn other words, if you\u2019ve done all you can in terms of preparation and execution, and the market simply won\u2019t take up your innovation \u2013 it doesn\u2019t make you a failure. So, we ensure that failure is routinely discussed in \u201cinnovation labs\u201d and employees are not penalized in terms of increments or promotions simply because they have not been part of a success story. We also ask potential candidates to talk about their failures. If they are not able to talk about their failures and what they learnt in the process, they are not right for us\u201d.<\/p>\n

Does our education system kill innovation?\u00a0 <\/b>Not directly. But, \u201cour education system creates linear thinkers \u2013 too much focus on the left brain. For example Stanford has a school of \u201cDesign\u201d \u2013 the approach is to focus not just on the quantitative but also on experiential, or right brain qualities\u201d said Kishore Biyani; \u00a0\u201cthat is, how we process visual, aural and sensory stimuli. This element is missing\u201d.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an attitude problem as well. \u201cI\u2019ve seen too many management students who think they have \u2018arrived\u2019 at the age of 23\u201d \u00a0says Mariwala. \u201cThey need more humility \u2013 and they are too afraid of failure\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ideas for innovation when FDI opens up Retail. <\/b>\u00a0An interesting analogy offered by the panel here was: \u201cIn the west, it\u2019s all about one leader.\u00a0 Look at posters of iconic movies like Rambo \u2013 it\u2019s about one person taking on huge odds and winning. In India \u2013 it\u2019s about the collective.\u00a0 We have something in us that works with this collective \u2013 it creates local relevance \u2013 and it\u2019s our equalizer to the financial might of any incoming retailer\u201d.<\/p>\n

What about innovation in people management? \u201c<\/b>We\u2019ve realized that the people who really know the business are the department managers\u201d said Kishore Biyani \u2013 \u201cand we\u2019ve created an \u2018ideas\u2019 hotline where people can call with their ideas and they will be listened to.\u00a0 \u201cWe all focus on diversity\u201d said Manu Anand \u2013 \u201cbut we also need to focus on diversity of thought. People need to be comfortable with \u2018being different\u2019. That\u2019s when the best innovation happens\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPeople need to be comfortable with being different\u201d \u201cThe Market Capitalization of this panel is about Rs 40,000 crores\u201d \u2013 this introductory line by the session moderator , B S Nagesh, Vice Chairman Shoppers Stop and Founder TRRAIN, had the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[8],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149,"href":"http:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions\/149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}