Nasscom Summit focuses on innovation

BANGALORE: Process and innovation go hand in hand from the conceptualization of a product till it establishes itself in the market, according to Srini Rajam, chairman and CEO, Ittiam Systems Pvt Ltd.

Addressing a session on Does Too Much Process Stifle Innovation at the Nasscom Quality Summit 2006 here today, he said that innovation is a new method that provides a competitive advantage to the company and customers.

“Innovation is not only an idea, but it also involves a process that materializes the idea,” he said.

Rajam added that in an organization, the senior management team also plays a vital role in striking a proper balance between process and innovation.

Krishnakumar Natarajan, CEO, Mindtree, echoed similar thought. “Process and innovation of an organization also depends upon its beliefs and guiding principles. Process and innovation of a startup differs from that of a grown up organization.”

Natarajan added that Mindtree in its initial days followed the traditional process of brand marketing. “However, to gain existence in the market, innovation is important.”

N Lakshmi Narayanan, president and CEO, Cognizant Technology Solutions, emphasized on the importance of environment and culture to balance innovation and process. Citing the example of ‘Silicon Valley Model’, which collaborates between individuals, academia, venture and capitalists, he said that the replication of the same model in different countries was a failure.

Analyzing the reason for the failure, Japan found that in the Silicon Valley model the focus was on technology, which received 60 per cent of the investment and the rest towards biomedicine. In Japan the investment was distributed to different areas.

In the UK, that country’s culture was seen as the reason for the failure of the model.

Responding to a query posed by the moderator, Prasanto K Roy, chief editor, Dataquest, on the top challenges faced to balance innovation and process, Narayanan said, “Day-to-day operations involves continuous improvement, needs implementation of vigorous process, to exist in the competitive marketplace. An organization always has to look at from the customers’ perspective in addressing the business problems.”

Touching upon the legal issues involved in process and innovation, Mike Zinda, senior vice president, CA Inc., commented that innovation and process has to adopt and confirm to all the kind of governance compliances and HIPPA regulations.

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