Driving on innovation super-highway

Shashwat Chaturvedi

If every time the word innovation was spoken and a token amount of one rupee was to be deposited in my bank account, I would be a millionaire on the second day of NASSCOM Leadership Forum!

It's not about money, honey. It's about innovation now. Everyone from Prof Michael Cusumano to Azim Premji have been talking about how important innovation is, and the ways and means to innovation, etc.

Not surprising, the IT Innovation in India Conclave sessions are running to a packed house. Ganesh Natarajan, deputy chairman and managing director, Zensar Technologies, chaired a session, IT Innovation in India: A Reality Check, which was attended by ex-Wipro vice chairman Vivek Paul in his current avatar as managing director, TPG Ventures.

Ganesh spoke about a how shift was required, “as the IT industry in India has been built on the pillars of low cost arbitrage, and now needs to move to another level.” He spoke about the old adage, where invention happens at the top of the pyramid and innovation at the moment, but that was no longer the case with IT companies in India innovating at both ends. “The Innovation ecosystem in India is in a very fragile state right now,” he added. He also spoke about how NASSCOM was promoting innovation in Indian IT companies, especially in the start-up stage.

Paul spoke about the 'trap' most Indian “Two-three-year-old companies” had fallen into, namely, they wanted to emulate the success of a services company or were trying to focus on a niche, without knowing much about it. Paul spoke on his experiences as a venture capitalist, and how most of the innovation was happening at the start-up stage.

“There is an amazing blush of new ideas in the various new ventures that are coming up,” he said. According to him, a lot of innovation was currently happening in the bio-pharma space.

“Innovation has a sense of Darwinism in it. It thrives on competition,” he added.

His advice to people who wanted to innovate was to inculcate the four values: be alert, develop the ability and willingness to take risks, be open to change with changing market dynamics, and most importantly aim high.