nitin kamal & venus katela

*COIN or CO-Innovation Network are trademarks of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Ltd

The Title : Innovate and manage innovations – Need of the hour for survival in current economic scenario

Author : Nitin Kamal and Venus Katela

Abstract:

For any business whether big or small, the prime motive is to capture market and reap profits irrespective

of how eventful the economic situation is owing to the dependence on business cycles. Due to

technological breakthroughs in nearly every existing man-made utility, service or product, the yearning to

survive and grow is a predominant thought that is present in every CxO’s leadership team.

To create a new path to capture consumer’s mind and business markets and to develop a sense of

innovativeness among employees, companies need to continuously strive to innovate and create an eco-

system to manage innovations. Following the usual worn-out path to create product and services is the

thing of past and won’t help an organization to compete at global as well as at micro levels in the current

scenarios.

Major challenges faced by an organization are identifying areas of innovation, identifying markets for

corresponding innovations, allocating resources for innovation creation and managing the innovation

lifecycle.

Delay in analyzing and implementing one or more areas in the above mentioned challenges raises the

stakes of losing the competitive edge for a company.

Therefore, the drive to create an ecosystem for non-linear growth strategy through identification and

management of innovations is paramount for all the organizations competing at global scale.

This paper highlights the key drivers and thought processes to achieve non-linear growth by following a

strategic and coherent approach towards driving and managing innovations through a mix of strategy,

process and technology.

Keywords: Innovation Management, Strategy, Competitiveness, Culture, Growth.


Introduction:

Before any one whether an individual or a corporate conglomerate thinks about innovation, they should

be first explained as what is meant by innovation. Innovation is not just inventing something new in terms

of technology or process but it’s an optimized use of existing technology/process for attaining or

experiencing the ideal outcome in a new scenario that is expected out of it.

Any change in process or technology which can bring out technical advancement can be termed as

innovation. When the meaning of “innovation” is spread and defined at individual or corporate level, then

only individual minds would start thinking of their work as innovation and contribute wholesomely and

fruitfully towards it.

For example, using a washing machine for churning out “Butter-milk” or “Lassi” is simplest way of

explaining what innovation is. There is no radical change in technology component. Just that process of

producing the beverage is optimized to cater for large volumes.

In current economic scenario, this is the major lever that is required to be leveraged across organizations

and corporate premises for promoting the message and there is no greater promotion than the “individual

promoting his thoughts or work”. So, if you are able to convince an individual to think from a different

perspective, half a battle is won.

Key Challenges

Before we proceed on how to manage innovations, let’s go through the challenges and constraints that

inhibit the innovation culture in an organization.

Challenge 1 - The biggest challenge that lies in front of corporate or non-profit organizations is to

convince their employees/associates that no idea is small or irrelevant. Every brainwave has a potential

to become the next-gen solution.

Challenge 2 - Next in line challenge is “Leader’s will” to drive innovation culture. Every

company/organization has their own Soft Barriers and Hard Barriers.

Soft Barriers are the barriers which are related to as how the leadership team (decision makers)

actually thinks about and respond to the idea of innovation.

Hard Barriers are related to issues pertaining to an organization’s structure, capabilities and

resources.

The point to understand is that hard barriers are easier to overcome but the challenge remains with

removing or working around soft barriers. If the leadership is not convinced about the value to invest in

innovation, then no matter how bright ideas are being presented, nothing will materialize as driving and

managing innovation at corporate lever requires investment and time which requires high level approvals.


Challenge 3 - Over Innovation

In total contrast to the above mentioned challenges, over-innovation is zeal practiced by innovators to

over-innovate existing technologies to serve a utopian scenario. The problem with this approach is that it

nullifies the basic need for which the innovation was thought upon. There is a thin line between innovation

and over innovation and effort needs to be managed properly and tracked so that one should not get

overboard while maintaining the sanctity of innovativeness for a particular product or concept.

Challenge 4 - Long Innovation lifecycle

This is a very usual scenario and poses a significant challenge to those who are involved in innovation

lifecycle. The significant time lags associated with conceptualizing, reviewing, approving, sponsoring and

promoting an innovative concept can take away the edge from the product and lead to companies lagging

in competitive race.

Challenge 5 – Imitation

As per Harvard study, 97.8% of value of innovation goes to imitation. The point is that it’s good to

innovate but equally important is to save that innovation from piracy which is difficult to prevent but still

manageable.

For e.g. White Castle was the USA’s first fast food chain which introduced burgers to American market

in 1921. However, the famous McDonalds who opened shop much later in 1940 and took cues from

White Castle and today as we all know, what is McDonalds but not many have heard of White Castle.

SPT model – Strategy, Process and Technology

Now, as challenges have been discussed, we need to transcend towards on how to streamline the

innovation lifecycle by using 3 steps SPT framework involving Strategy, Process and Technology.

STEP 1 – STRATEGY

In today economic scenario, its becomes paramount that organizations need to devise strategies to

remain in the competition and maintain an edge over each other. The plain-vanilla style of creating

products and services won’t be of much help as individuals and organizations are getting increasingly

tech-savvy and prudish towards technology and innovation.

Therefore, for an organization to embark on an innovation journey and stay competitive in current

economic scenario, the first and foremost action item to be worked upon by the organization is to do a

well defined and elaborate Due-Diligence(DD) on their existing resources vis-à-vis People,

Organizational Culture, Maturity level, Technology penetration and Infrastructure.


Additionally, in addition to DD activity done, the organization in parallel should focus on doing a non-

biased and comprehensive SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat) and based on the

weighted metrics for all the above mentioned pointers, organization can help itself in analyzing and

evaluating about their IR (Innovation Reality) i.e. where they are currently in innovation lifecycle (AS-IS)

and decide where they want to go (TO-BE).

As per stats collected from various organizations, it’s a well known fact that in majority of the cases, the

lack of innovation is attributed primarily to following.

1. People

The major reasons collated for this aspect is because people:

1. Are conservative in sharing their thoughts and knowledge

2. Do not understand the meaning of innovation

3. Think their idea is not fit or big enough to classified as an innovation i.e. lack of

confidence

4. Averse to think beyond their comfort zone

5. Are not convinced about the benefits and exposure of an innovative product

6. Are not sure on ROI (Return on Investment) that can be accrued from a innovation

product lifecycle

2. Culture

Culture plays another crucial role in enabling and driving innovativeness momentum in any

organization.

Majorly, the culture of an organization is tightly tied to an organization’s market standing, the

markets it cater to and geography its based out of. In most of the cases, the Innovation culture

barometer of an organization can be at high or low scale due to following reasons

1. Resistance of Human Resources i.e. employees in sharing knowledge due to which flow of

information is restricted

2. Extent and breadth of collaboration among employees is limited to their proximity and

personal relationships

3. Knowledge hoarding and re-inventing the wheel is the normal attitude of the employees

4. Organization leadership is following a strict hierarchical protocol inhibiting free flow of

communication between employees and their supervisors thus obstructing innovation thought

waves

The cultural aspect and extent of rigidness in the cultural parameters can be effectively

diagnosed during the DD and SWOT analysis phase.


3. Organizational Role Allocation

At position three, in terms of priority, comes an organization’s openness to allocate proper role

and authority to its employees for promoting and driving innovation.

Most of the time, an organization:

1. Does not have defined roles for spreading and managing Innovation propaganda

2. Have only informal Innovation leads in their business units with no direct performance

measures and power to take decisions whether operational or financial.

3. Defines roles and associated responsibilities on need basis, which are not part of

organization’s formal structure.

The seriousness of an organization in driving and encouraging innovation cannot be adjudged

unless proper role allocation is done along with transparency and freedom to take strategic

decisions.

4. Infrastructure

The last but not the least, Infrastructure surely plays a supporter role for inculcating and

sustaining the innovation culture in an organization. Of course, the brainwave for an innovative

idea is paramount but the supporting infrastructure is equally important to transform the idea into

a reality.

Major issues with organizations striving to bring in innovation culture in their eco-systems are

mentioned as follows:

1. Little or no dedicated infrastructure for developing and supporting innovation practices

2. Very little resources and funding provided for sustaining and developing the existing

innovation labs

So, for an organization to strive well in terms of innovation, it has to unilaterally invest in its

infrastructure where minds can mingle free and bring brainwaves to reality.

A good example will be that of Adobe corporation, who recently opened their state of art office

complex in Lehi, Utah(USA) which has 85% of office space dedicated to outdoor activities thus

promoting collaboration by making its employees meet each other randomly and more frequently.

Only 15% of its space is used for cubicles. This concept has been well-received and after 6

months of its operations, there has been marked increase in incubation of new and innovative

ideas.

The bottom-line for innovation is that you need to collaborate and collaboration won’t happen if

people are not allowed to freely meet and greet and exchange their ideas.


So, by understanding the above challenges and constraints, an organization has to decide on its

strategy which should be both stable and agile with changing economic scenarios and business

cycles.

Depicted below is the strategy followed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for creating an

ecosystem which is driving and propagating the Innovation lifecycle and helping the disparate

entities to form a “Symbiotic Innovation Ecosystem” which is both fostering and promoting

innovation lifecycle using collaboration as one of its pillars.

TCS Co-Invention Network or COINTM

is the brainchild of TCS innovation labs which have

continuously strived for evolving new standards of technology, business and domain innovations.

COINTM

is anchored at TCS Innovation Labs and encompasses entities such as Academic Institutions, Start-up companies, Venture Capitalists, Multi-lateral organizations, and Key clients to bring forth true synergies. COIN

TM involves forming an association between the above mentioned entities to:

1. Leverage shared synergies of internal and external expertise 2. Provide Ecosystem perspective to innovation 3. Encourage channelized approach to innovation


Following is the pictorial representation of COIN

TM framework

Fig-1 : COINTM

Framework

(Source : http://www.tcs.com)

Advantages of following TCS COINTM

Strategy

1. Faster time-to-value: Working with TCS ecosystem partners, customers/idea

incubators/thought leaders can rapidly derive value from an emerging technology

2. Faster time-to-market: Tech-intensive customers can constantly refresh their product and

service portfolio or launch non-stop exciting new products by continually/rapidly incorporating

into them the latest technologies available in TCS COINTM

3. Market responsiveness: TCS customers can more rapidly react to changing customer needs

or competitive threats by tapping into COINTM

capabilities

4. Cost effectiveness: TCS customers can save loads of money by avoiding the need to

reinvent the wheel and source readily-available innovation capabilities in TCS COINTM


5. Strategic differentiation: Working with TCS COINTM

under shared risk/reward model, a TCS

client can co-develop a transformational innovation (disruptive product or cutting-edge

business model) that confers them a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

6. Risk Mitigation: Any partner collaboration undergoes rigorous process of financial, market

and technical diligence to identify and mitigate any potential risks in the joint solution

However, no matter the strategy followed by an organization, the key points to focus upon while

working on creating and promoting innovation ecosystem are:

1. Research and Development (R&D) activities and innovation cannot happen in isolation

2. Markets need to be identified in advance following by extensive market research for

innovation to be propagated and sold to derive the RoI (Return on Investment) which is the

key ingredient in business process lifecycle

3. Thoughts on how to make people think differently and channelizing their thoughts towards

innovation

4. Focus on how innovation products can be sold differently

The above mentioned pointers are the key fundamentals where-in companies and organizations

involved in innovation need to put their thinking hats on and help themselves in bringing about the

change.

As someone rightly quoted “Do not change with change, change before change”, this should be

the mantra to derive benefits from creating and managing innovations in current economic

scenario.

STEP 2 – Process

Process is the second step in SPT framework which some sections of people can argue upon by stating

that “innovation cannot be subjected to process definition”)

Well, it’s a fact that one cannot formalize innovation, but in order to incubate, collate and bring an

innovation into reality, a formal structure and process is required so as to streamline the various flows and

shorten the innovation lifecycle time-period as depicted below.


Fig-3 : Innovation Ecosytem Workflow Source : (www.tcs.com COINTM

)

As shown in the above figure, formulating the Process is the second key focus area in an innovation

lifecycle.

The key activities mentioned in an innovation workflow are:

1. Idea Collation and Filtering

This process activity has much significance as at this stage, the ideas sourced through a network of

individuals, startups, academic institutions are collated and then subjected to evaluation by core

community group comprising of SME’s (Subject Matter Experts) and thought Leaders. The filtered ideas

are then passed on to the next activity in the workflow for further screening.

2. Due – Diligence

As mentioned in the earlier paragraphs, making an innovation is good but finding a market for promoting

and selling the innovative product is of paramount importance. Therefore, identifying and segregating

ideas based on their business, technological and market weight-age is highly recommended as

mentioned below:

a. Business Fitment

Business fitment is a key driver for any proceeds to succeed, therefore identifying and tagging the

innovation idea to the right business area is very crucial.

Never try to juxtapose an idea into a business domain area just for sake of doing. This can have

drastic effects on the further innovation lifecycle.

http://www.tcs.com/


b. Technology Fitment

An idea is as good as the technology or technical compatibility or fitment associated with it. The

fitment analysis for product-technology mapping has to be carried out with seasoned technology

and partner solution managers so as to avoid any oversight.

Additionally, innovations need to be sub-categorized into

i. Breakthrough innovation

ii. Platform innovation

iii. Derivative innovation

c. Market Fitment

Of course, for any product to be successful, it has to be targeted in right market and for right

demographic group.

Before any organization decides to diversify and expand its business horizons or launch a new

product in new market/existing market, it’s advised to use analysis tools like Ansoff Matrix which

is a marketing tool that focuses on current and potential markets/products in order to formulate

corporate growth strategies.

Additionally, if an organization is planning to analyze its business or product lines, the tool most

commonly used is BCG Matrix which was created by Bruce Henderson of Boston Consulting

Group(BCG). As per the BCG matrix, there are four major groups under which products/services

lines can be segregated, as following:

a) BCG Stars:

This group is associated with products/services lines which are having high growth and high

market share.

b) BCG Question Marks:

This group is associated with new products lines having a potential for high growth but low

market share.

c) BCG Cash Cows:

BCG Cash cows are those products /services lines which are associated with high market

shares but low growth. This group does not requires fund intake and can sustain itself on its

own and owners of this group can derive high profits from it. These are the golden eggs in an

organization’s armory.

d) BCG Dogs:


BCG Dogs is the category associated with products/service lines associated with low market

share and subsequent low growth. An organization should get rid of its products which are

associated with this category.

After analyzing, the inventory of its products using Ansoff and BCG matrix, an organization

can formulate its strategy to identify markets for their innovative products and the

corresponding target audience (consumers)

Additionally, Market research needs to be carried out to find the consumer sentiment for any

particular product idea to weigh the pros and cons for launching a particular product innovation

in a particular geography/demographic group.

3. Product Development and Licensing model

Once the final set of innovative ideas are chosen, the next step is to channelize funding and resources on the product design and development. During the typical product lifecycle, parallel market research activity should be incorporated to get the real ground-level feedback so as to add or remove any features and bring an optimum product to the market. For an organization, which is trying to build an innovation ecosystem like TCS COIN

TM , during this

stage, its required to analyze whether the start-up’s offering is ready for joint IP development/fit for recommendation to customer. The necessary legalese for a formal partnership is drawn up and Pre-sales, Sales, marketing and delivery activities begin for the offering. During this phase, further emphasis should be given on chalking out the formalities on type of licensing model , the individual organization has to use in accordance with its partner groups like VC’s, academic institutes, startup companies to avoid future litigation and lawsuits. The range of licensing model varies from Bayh-Dole Act which states that Right to Ownership remains with the Academic institutes while Right for commercial exploitation remains with the sponsoring company/companies. With startups, a non-exclusive license model can be worked out which allows the ownership to remain with the organization partnering with the startup companies. All these models can help the innovation ecosystem to maintain a healthy relationship with each other and help in gaining more market value and RoI along with balanced profit-sharing with sustained momentum and to offset any curious wilderness from the participating partners.

4. Innovation Protection

The need to protect an innovation has much more priority than conceptualizing the innovation itself. As

soon, as the idea is conceptualized and filtered to be innovation-ready as per the various checklists

and measures leveraged by the intending organization, the idea should be filed for copyright protection

or Patent filing.


Any delay in this activity can result in incubating firm loosing the idea concept to a rival

company/organization which can lead to huge cost in terms of time and money with series of litigations

and counter litigations.

Corporate world has seen many such instances of epic proportions like Coke – Pepsi war along with

Apple-Samsung (most recent ones)

5. Branding and Sales

Branding, which involved marketing as well, is the final weapon which a product organization should

use very effectively to generate consumer interest and to provide momentum to the products sales.

Branding has direct impact on the product’s end lifecycle as it leads to:

a. Creates business credibility

b. Connects the customer to the product

c. Motivates the buyer

d. Differentiates the product from the competition

In addition to branding, in an innovation lifecycle, the net sales on a finished product can be attained

through Direct Sales, Retails Sales, and International sales and by Social networking enabled sales.

The innovator whether an individual or a startup or an innovation ecosystem like TCS COINTM

can get the

percentage share from the net sales based on the profit sharing model defined and signed as mentioned

in the previous modules.

5. Rewards and Recognition

In addition to the above mentioned activities, an organization involved in innovation lifecycle should

pro-actively recognize and award its employees who are involved in any stage of innovation lifecycle. It’s

a globally accepted fact that every employee no matter how senior or junior, each need a pat on the back.

Additionally, such rewards and recognition at enterprise level would foster a sense of competitiveness

and enable employees to proactively think about bringing innovation in their work and ideas.


STEP 3 – Technology

The step 3 of SPT process is technology. For any large organization it becomes prudent to have an in-

house Idea Management System (IMS) or Patent Management System (PMS) to :

1. Help innovators seamlessly file their ideas

2. Allow in-house Patent Management Group (PMG) to filter and evaluate the ideas

3. Promote the ideas for financial and operational sponsorship upon selection

The automated workflow based IMS or PMS will ensure each stakeholder starting from innovator till legal

approver has transparent view of their idea status and related activities being performed at each workflow

step.

From a company’s operational perspective, the automated IMS/PMS ensures that company leadership is

able to track and monitor the number of ideas submitted , products designed and manufactured, along

with associated sales, and post sales metrics thus ensuring seamless reporting and tracking.

For instance, TCS uses an in-house PMS (Patent Management System) to ensure that prospective

innovators are able to login into PMS and record their idea concept which undergoes a workflow process

and depending upon the various toll-gates, the idea can reach the legal cell for patent filing in patent

office of respective country in which one wish to file. This system can be accessed by employees across

the world and system automatically assigns reviewer based upon the business unit and geography, an

employee belongs to.

Conclusion:

For any innovation ecosystem to flourish collaboration is the key pillar. Along with that freedom in

thought process and clearly defined SPT (Strategy, Process, Technology) framework will ensure that

ideas are sourced, filtered, evaluated and materialized.

Furthermore, in any innovation ecosystem people is the key which needs to be educated, motivated and

encouraged to enable and promote innovation in any organization.

TCS has proved this by using COINTM

framework and by using cues similar to SPT framework. TCS has

significantly increased the number of ideas incubated and patents filed in last 2 years which in itself is a

case-study to ponder and base the innovation ecosystem upon.

Thus, by following a systematic, open and strategic path, organizations can surely strive to maintain an

innovation edge over their competitors in current economic scenario.


Acknowledgements

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Mr. Anupam Singhal (TCS Vice President), Mr. Deepak

Srivasthava (TCS Senior Consultant), Mr. Amol Khanapurkar (TCS Innovation Lab), Mr. Himanshu Mehta

(TCS IPR Group) and Ms. Apoorva Sharma (TCS IPR Group) for providing their overwhelming support

and guidance in completion of this white paper.

References

A) TCS COINTM :

1. www.tcs.com

2. http://www.tcs.com/about/tcs_difference/innovation/network/Pages/default.aspx

B) Ansoff Matrix

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversification_(marketing_strategy)

C) BCG Matrix

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth-share_matrix

D) Harvard Business Review

1. www.hbr.org

http://www.tcs.com/

http://www.tcs.com/about/tcs_difference/innovation/network/Pages/default.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversification_(marketing_strategy)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth-share_matrix

http://www.hbr.org/


Author Profile:

Nitin Kamal

Nitin Kamal is a Solution Architect and Business Development Manager associated with Tata Consultancy Services since 2004 and has overall 9 years of IT experience. He has primarily worked in Enterprise Content Management (ECM), Cloud, Big Data/Analytics and mobility solution consulting along with business case and strategy development. He has wide exposure to working in various geographies across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific and has architected solutions for major Fortune 500 clients, and along with that has authored multiple whitepapers based on technology and process. Additionally, he is the co-inventor for product design concept which has been filed in India, EU Zone ,US and Singapore

Name of Organization : Tata Consultancy Services Ltd


Venus Katela

Venus Katela is a Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse Architect with 8 years of Industry experience and associated with Tata Consultancy Services since 2005. She has primarily worked in Investment and Insurance Domain on the various tools such as Informatica, SAP Business Objects, Microsoft SSIS/SSRS, Pentaho etc. She has authored a couple of papers in TCS Architects conference and has a patent filing in progress on one of her technology concept designs. Name of Organization: Tata Consultancy Services Ltd

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