innovation and influencing change: applying best practices in classroom teaching
TRANSCRIPT
INNOVATION AND INFLUENCING
CHANGEABHISHEK SYAL
NITTTR, CHANDIGARH
ABHISHEK SYAL
About me■ MBA from MIT Sloan ■ Market Intelligence at EMC Corp.
■ Co-inventor to 4 patent pending tech
■ Founded and led my own social venture, ARISE– Differentiated offering: self-learning
for disabled– Innovative combination of online and
field volunteers
Agenda■Part – I: Why should you care to study innovation?
■Part – II: A framework to analyze innovation types
■Part – III: How to apply innovation’s best practices in your classroom?
■Part – IV: Key Takeaways
WHY INNOVATION?Part - I
Change is a part of evolution
■Four things: tools, physical attributes, brain function, lifestyle
Innovation and Change
■Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity – not a threat. (Steve Jobs)
■ Innovation is change that unlocks new value (Jamie Notter)
This change affects society..
■ Hunting and gathering – wheel, arrows, tribes ■ Farming society – agrarian, feudal – sickle, marketplaces,
cities ■ Industrial – printing press, assembly lines, transport■ Information – electricity, telephone, communication■ Knowledge – computers, internet, decisions■ Future ? – smartphones, social media, space travel,
quantum computing
Disrupts industries..
■Car disrupted horse as mode of personal transport
■Electricity disrupted kerosene lamps as personal home lighting
■Telephones disrupted postcards and mail
■Smartphones disrupted telephones
And topples governments and organizations..■Facebook and twitter and ‘crowdsourced traditional
media’ (Al Jazeera) toppled or changed governments in– 2009-2010 Iranian election protests “Without
Twitter the people of Iran would not have felt empowered and confident to stand up for freedom and democracy,” Mark Pfeifle, a former national-security adviser wrote.
– 2010-2011 Tunisian revolution– 2011 Egyptian revolution– Libya, Turkey, etc..
Innovate to influence the change
■Innovation has affected every component and organization of society, think evolution
■Embrace the change sooner than later, think to your advantage
■Best to innovate to influence change than be influenced by change
THINKING ABOUT INNOVATION?
Part - II
Innovation
■ Innovation is a new idea which, when implemented, leads to a more effective device or process.
■ Innovation can be viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs, or existing market needs.
(Wikipedia)
Innovation by Application Type■Product related: new products, services or
technologies ■ Smartphone app platform disrupting Nokia and
Blackberry■ Uber or Ola cabs disrupting the cab/taxi industry■ Whatsapp disrupting texting and calling
■Process Related: new business models in businesses, government or non-profits
■ SaaS based businesses disrupting licensing■ Online government services disrupting traditional
bureaucracy, increasing efficiency■ Social Impact Bonds changing how non-profit impact is
measured
Innovation by Deployment Type■Radical Innovation:
– completely new, breakthrough research or a business model
– Needs fresh perspective, talent or even new customers
– High risk, high return
■Incremental Innovation: – Small changes, slightly better services– Use existing resources or users– Low risk, low return
2 x 2 Innovation Framework
New Features
New Products
Process Efficiency
Management
Innovation
RadicalIncremental
Product oriented
Process oriented
Key Takeaways
■2 x 2 innovation framework that you can use ■Don’t stereotype the four types of innovation■The value creation of the results are highly situation
dependent, this framework is just directional guidance■Diversify projects in all four types in the classroom ■Project activities, outcome and learnings to be shared
so that the students get the maximum learning experience
APPLYING INNOVATION
PART - III
Finding the Right Problem to Solve■Expressed user needs
– When you are very hungry, you want food– E.g.: dandruff oils, fan
■Unidentified Pain-points– When you are very hungry, you want delicious
food – E.g.: Uber or ola cabs, cars, telephone
Customers don’t always know what they want, but they know bad experiences
User Interviews to Find the Right Problem■Best done with a 360 degree stakeholders to
understand the ecosystem■Map the user’s decision making and product
experience journeys■Ask them pain-points or issues they face■Ask them how do they solve for these issues currently ■Go to the 4 or 5 whys ■Do a lot. A lot is not enough
Lean Startup Methodology for Innovating■Define the pain-point you are solving in users’ words
and then, find a new minimum simple solution that solves it
■Create a dashboard of final results and test out the customer landing metrics
■Pivot, if needed■Build Measure Learn■Final Product or Services Build and Launch
TemperatureApp■With Julian Struab, MIT Phd and Erica Swallow,
MBA, MIT■Idea: smart sensing of temperature through
existing smartphone tech ■Idea: Enable personalized temperature control at
workplace■Interviewed employees, facility managers,
professors, building admin, other temperature control startups like ecovent
■Pivoted our idea to smartphone thermometer – a great learning experience during our New Enterprises coursework
Difference in Engineering vs Design Approaches ■Engineering heavy focused on problem solving, analyzing,
and arriving at the right solution– Mostly single-shot– Defined by parameters and constraints
■Design and Architecture focused on problem identification, developing multiple solutions, rapid prototyping testing, arriving at optimal solution– Highly iterative– Defined by constraints; more variables to play around with
MIT / Harvard Classroom Experience■Focus on giving students methodologies to solve
the problem; latest case study method■Choice of software or own choice ■Let the students find their problems to solve■Focus on real world issues and existing user pain-
points■Focus on problems with big or bottom of the
pyramid impact■Teach teams about team norms, focusing on
collaboration, communication and divide and conquer
Applying Innovation Principles in Classroom■Projects should be as forward looking as possible■Problem Identification for the future – look for
current unsolved pain-points■Focus on high value creation / high impact rather
than complexity■Projects should be in teams having students with
different skillset
Applying Innovation Principles in Classroom■Project work should be shared in class with
feedback and questions from other teams ■Encourage students to develop global perspective
through understanding different market contexts and their local solutions
■Don’t reinvent the wheel but use latest available tech, especially open source
KEY TAKEAWAYSPART - IV
Key Takeaways■Innovation is everywhere,
influencing change■Focus on finding the user
pain-points■Encourage simple
solutions that improvise on existing research / hi-tech
■Collaboration of agile teams is key