Actions that Encourage a Culture of Innovation

• Doing things right • Doing the right things • Do away with unnecessary tasks • Improve existing tasks • Replicating best practices • Doing things not done by others • Breakthrough ideas must be welcomed • Appropriately disseminating knowledge and information • Encouraging cross-functional team work • Rewarding and recognizing efficiency • Providing constructive performance feedback • Appreciating gender, race and diversity • Investing in new technologies • Communicating directly and consistently with customers • Rewarding risk taking • Investing a lot of energy on creativity

IMPACT ANALYSIS

It is now time to prioritize problems to be solved. Make sure no time is wasted on non-critical problems. Team members can critique and analyze each problem ruthlessly. Put them up on white boards in your Innovation Centre so that people live amidst them, feeling free to add their thoughts. Choose problems which are high value, big ticket items for the company. The four key issues which you may like to consider are – increasing revenues, reducing costs, improving customer satisfaction and improving employee participation. Analyse each of the problems using the following format Impact Analysis - Outcome Time Increasing Revenues Reducing Costs Improving customer satisfaction Increasing employee participation 1 Month 3 Months 6 Months 1 Year 3 Years 5 Years Reflections and actions  Motivation of employees and innovation complement one another.  Organize a movie screening.  Have a long term goal and stick to it through difficult times.  Kick the old coffee habit. Have a glass of fresh fruit juice instead.

Revisit the problem bank

Consider the following types of problems in addition to the obvious ones. • Problems that might arise in future in each of the 6M areas. • Problems that can be avoided if identified. • Problems which can be prevented with condition monitoring. • Problems which may arise when there is a change in any of the 6M areas. Create problem banks around the initial problem statements you identify. A good company maintains a problem bank on its intranet to solicit comments from its workforce. As problems keep getting solved, they can be replaced with new unsolved problems. Reflections and actions  The lack of collaboration between departments stifles innovation  Have a well-decorated office.  Throw out negative emotions like you do thorns in the flesh  Go on a ‘juice diet’ for a day. Start with vegetable juice, and sip fruit for lunch and dinner.

6M Map for Problem Analysis

Every problem can be analyzed by looking at the 6 Ms – Men, Materials, Machines, Methods, Markets, Money. Get the team to study all 6 aspects of the problem past, present and future. If the group is working on new ideas for marketing a product, say, they could review the past and draw up an action plan for the present and future on a three year scale. The 6M Map provides an elegant format to help understand the underlying structure of your company together. It enables you to dissect all parts of your organizational anatomy. ‘Men’ for instance, involves employees, suppliers, customers and encompasses all stake holders. Markets could also include internal customers. Each of the 6 Ms should be thoroughly studied for problems. It is important to involve everyone in identifying the real problem. What is a problem for the worker need not seem like a problem for the manager. Mr.Ramesh, H.R. Director of Hyundai, once recounted the case of an absentee worker. He was constantly absent because of backache. Everyone thought he was malingering, until it was found that he was shorter than the other workers, and was straining his back by stretching it. Increasing the height of the platform on which he stood solved the problem and eliminated his absenteeism. Reflections and actions  Vision and leadership are necessary to inspire a widespread commitment to innovation  Eating together during lunch, especially for a weekly treat. A monthly moonlight, pot luck dinner with families or colleagues can be planned.

Problem Analysis

Take a look at the outline of problem analysis below. Let the team discuss the problem in depth and make sure that everyone understands all the aspects of the problem. Ask the team to answer the following questions for better understanding of the problem a. What is the present situation? b. Why has the problem arisen? c. Why should it be solved? d. Why it is problem for me personally? e. What thoughts have I already had, or what efforts have I made, to solve the problem? f. Why are these thoughts/efforts in sufficient or unavoidable? g. What kind of action can I initiate towards solving this problem? What would be the ‘ideal’ solution?  ‘Innovation should be part of everyone’s job description’.  Organize a joint shopping expedition for a limited value.  Visualize success and joy  Eat only freshly cooked meals, not refrigerated leftovers

Creative Problem Solving

Study all the problems identified in the problem bank together. And then ensure that each one is turned into a problem statement in the form of a question. Identifying and formulating the problem is the most difficult part of creative problem solving. Very often we state symptoms of the problems and end up wasting scarce resources chasing the illusionary ‘golden deer of the epics’. Management then becomes so emotionally committed to the wrong path that we can end up moving faster and faster along the wrong road. It is like a man who drills an oil well, in a bad spot. More and more money is spent with no resulting strike. But those involved, refuse to fill up the unproductive well and move on to a new location. They continue throwing good money after bad, because they do not want to admit that a mistake had been made initially. Problem as first stated: How to improve the brakes supplied to the car maker? Creative analysis: Why do we want to improve the brakes? Answer: To stop cars at a shorter distance Creative Analysis: How else can we stop a car at a shorter distance? Why do we want to stop the car at a shorter distance? Answer: To increase safety of occupants of the car. Restatement of problem: How might we improve safety in a car’s stopping system? Result: This is much broader than the original challenge and opens a wider door to novel ideas. At one of my early creativity laboratories for mothers, twenty-two years ago, one of the participants said, ‘My problem is how I get my son to eat eggs for breakfast.’ A rigorous analysis of the problem uncovered the real quandary, ’How do I get my son to eat a nutritious breakfast?’ The restatement of the problem enabled the mother to give the child a variety of foods ranging from cheese and idlis, to cutlets and samosas, instead of forcing the child to eat the hated eggs. Redefining the problem statement is the challenging part of the process, as all of us who have struggled with the task of arriving at a hypothesis know. Stating and understanding the problem correctly is the key to the Innovation Initiative.

Idea generation

‘For every problem there is a solution that is simple, attractive... and wrong’. Beware of obvious solutions!’ Arthur Clarke It is worth remembering here, that the rules for thinking are totally different from the rules for doing. You can set up a 100 million dollar factory in your mind, study the mathematical implications and destroy it without losing a single dollar. However, as soon as the first brick is physically laid, or the first employee hired, you start losing money. Do not analyze your thoughts during idea generation. Remove all boundaries. Apply analysis only in the fourth stage of the creative thinking process. It is ideal to train trainers in the thinking tools and then encourage them to deliver training to the teams.

Product Development – in the marketplace

When you take the germinal product into a protected test market observe the way it is used by the customer. Try different versions of it, if possible. For example, Godrej are carrying out hands on experiments with customers in different retail formats whilst developing furniture that customers can accept as easily as the furniture made by the local carpenter. Use the following map to recreate your product. This map can help you identify key elements in product development. Use existing facilities to refine products in the market place. Once a new product idea germinates, it needs time and space to grow and develop that idea. Insist that unfamiliar, strange, unusual elements are developed. Support the Champion, tone down the attackers. Work on taking it to market fast on a small investment with the possibility of a profit. Don’t try to create the perfect product in the lab. The immediate reaction is often to remove all elements that make a product new and different. Most groups will rush to protect familiar aspects of the product and if it is wild idea there will be a concerted rush to domesticate it and retain its old and familiar attributes. Fiercely protect the wildness of the idea by enclosing it in a sanctuary. Allow it to roam free in the sanctuary for a few days. Don’t touch it. Remember if everyone loves an idea, it is probably 200 years old!

Test Product Specifications in the Competitive Marketplace

Let your teams use this map to help create an experiment in the market place. Carefully calibrate the product creating a careful balance between what the customer wants and what the competitive market will bear. On a new product, make small investments. Change and react to what happens in the market place. Like a potter uses his hands to shape wet clay, refine your product as it makes its way tentatively through the market place. Remember, a kite can only be tested when it flies. Don’t keep your product too long in the laboratory, launch it, test it and improve it as you go along. Be hungry for early profits. Let the product evolve to achieve customer delight.

Greenhouses and watering Cucumbers

‘A cucumber a day keeps the doctor away!’ believed the Roman Emperor Tiberius. The Roman gardener produced a cucumber a day, right through the year, using an early version of a greenhouse. Cucumbers were planted in wheeled carts, which were wheeled out into the sunlight daily. They were taken inside to keep them warm at night. The cucumbers were stored under frames or in cucumber houses glazed with either oiled cloth or sheets of selenite. Imagine growing what you want right through the year. Conquering the seasons, while saving water, energy and other resources. That is what a greenhouse does. A greenhouse or a glass house is made of transparent material like glass. Greenhouses in hot dry climates are called shade houses. In the 13th century greenhouses were built in Italy to house exotic plants from the tropics. In 1438 we read of mandarin trees being grown in a greenhouse in winter. This is found in the records of the Joseon dynasty. Sanga Yorok, written in 1450 AD Korea speaks of a greenhouse where temperature and humidity could be controlled. The concept of greenhouse appeared in the Netherland and England in the 17th Century. These early greenhouses required a lot of work to close up at night and maintain temperatures. Today Netherlands produce millions of vegetables and flowers using greenhouses. The French used their first greenhouses to protect orange trees from freezing and called them orangeries. Pineries or pineapple pits became popular. In 17th century Europe, the palace at Versailles had a greenhouse that was 490 ft long, 43ft wide and 145 ft high. In England during the Victoria Era, botanists became involved ushering in the golden era of greenhouses. Botanist Joseph Paxton, built the Crystal Palace in London. The New York Crystal Palace and the Royal greenhouse of Laeken were built in Belgium for King Leopold. In 1880 the first greenhouse was built in Japan by a British merchant who exported herbs. It is fascinating the way ideas spread across the world. Sailing across oceans with commerce and sometimes religion. The 20th century saw the geodesic dome. Polyethylene filter became widely used for greenhouses. Today commercial glass houses are filled with equipment including installations for heating, cooling and lighting. Computers are often used to control the conditions for optimum growth. Food supplies depend on greenhouses in high latitude countries. In Andalusia, Spain, greenhouses cover 49,000 acres. They can be seen from space. South Korea is the Asia’s leader in reducing its greenhouse gas emission by 30%. They plan a low carbon economy to accelerate economic growth. Incidentally the country is one of the top 10 carbon emitters. The country is full of greenhouses on both sides of the highway. The greenhouse of Gosan completed a massive turnkey project for growing green peppers. The stunning new nursery is on a scenic mountainside, it measures over a hectare. It has a sustainable heating system with a pump which can cool and heat. Greenhouses all over South Korea grow exotic vegetables and flowers like roses and orchids. From simple greenhouse to multilayer cultivation systems, they use revolutionary multilayered water and energy saving systems to conserve resources. There is less loss of light radiation, or water evaporation in these. Today the Netherlands has some of the largest greenhouses in the world. A major producer of food these structures occupy10,256 hectares. Today, we also see floating greenhouses. Cornerways nursery in UK, uses waste heat and carbon dioxide from a nearby sugar refinery. The refinery has a novel way of reducing its carbon emission through a good cause. One can easily foresee greenhouses on the Moon or Mars or even distant planets where Earth colonies may appear! Regards, Dr. Rekha Shetty Water Warrior

Service is the differentiator

Whilst the product or service may be quite similar it is possible to differentiate your product by offering a unique service. Airlines may be the same, but Kingfisher Airlines differentiates itself with the way helpers take care of your luggage -- the way the passenger is treated as a ‘guest’. Hospitals may be the same, but ‘Our working is an offering to God’ motto at the Satya Sai Hospital in Whitefield Bangalore differentiates it from more commercial institutions. Use this diagram to revisit existing product service packages and explore how you can further differentiate your product or service. Action: Explore services that can make your product unique.

Relationships – Revisit, Review, Relate

Building relationships, with suppliers, customers, press and other stake holders, is key to the success of your innovation initiative. They cannot be built overnight, only when we need help. Relationships have to be a carefully nurtured 365 days a year exercise. The web of relationships creates the networking required for success in problem solving. Great relationships with your stake holders make the process of achieving ‘stretch’ goals interesting and exciting. So make this day for the 3 Rs - Revisit, Review, and Relate. Revisit the mission statement of your company and review the progress of the projects with special reference to building and enhancing relationships : • Within the commando teams • Between Innovation spirals • Between the steering committee and the spirals Make sure that there is no turf protection.

Know the customer: Face to Face

Knowing the customer is a long term process. Keeping your finger on the pulse of customer trends can ensure consistent profits. Here are some of the systems that could help build and understand lifetime relationships with the customer. Encourage the teams to go out and meet customers. Let them get a hands on experience of how customers really think. Let them organize in-house interviews and focus groups with customers. Interviews and focus groups can give a lot of information. They can help customer’s participate in reinventing processes and products. Management by walking about (MBWA) is the hands on way to find out what the customer feels day to day. Research and surveys give you information. But customer aspirations and fashions change. Those who are not in close touch with their customers may be too late to react to new trends. Barrack Obama became President of the United States by contacting 5 million people on the internet. He collected far more funding than powerful old timers like Senator Mc Cain and Hillary Clinton. Raw data needs to be interpreted in terms of customer needs. The way McDonald’s responded to change in the attitude to health and concerns about obesity by providing low fat and salad meals shows a proactive attitude to change in customer needs and tastes. This naturally leads to protecting profits. The concern for the environment is another issue where the auto industry has to take customer focused decisions. During an economic down turn does a big gas guzzling car become almost vulgar? Are people ready for electric cars? Is the Rs. 1 lakh Tata Nano poised to grab world markets? Study the needs hierarchy. Is it true that on the brink of the economic precipice, people are more concerned about surviving, than about impressing the neighbours? There is a whole new economics of recession. Study the emerging trends and get advice from experts. Reflect on your findings. Study broad demographic changes and question where a global major should invest? In India with its largest number of young people or China with its aging population? How should Indian companies change their strategies to deal with the explosive youth power? Will inexpensive luxuries become more popular?

Keep in touch with Customers

Customer creativity enables the company to negotiate new products with customers. It is the kind of process that reinvents the future. For instance, customers were not even aware of the possibility of a Walkman. Only an intense negotiation between top management, manufacturing and customers could have created it. Customer interaction can be induced by the following: • Management by Walking About (MBWA) is the most appropriate way to ensure that the customer’s voice is built into products and processes. • Advisory committees of opinion leaders can be an effective method of keeping one’s finger on the pulse of public opinion. • Focus group interviews to enable customers to explore ideas with skilled facilitators, trained to go below the surface of suggestions and complaints.

Innovation Blog - Innovation mind bytes

 Be willing to test ideas in the market and correct them in the market place. Don’t wait for perfection on the drawing board. An idea is like a kite. Fly it, to test it in the wind.  Keep a low key. As the Zen thinkers say, be like an underground stream, not like a rocky mountain face. Competitors are alerted and more likely to attack a mountain.  Co-operate instead of confronting.  Keep initial budgets small.  Reach out for low hanging fruits. Be hungry for results.  Be impatient for profits.  Learn in the ruthless university of the marketplace.  Reach for the untouched and the unreached. As first mover, make full use of your advantage.  Be patient with teething problems. De-bug as you go along.  Good is the enemy of Better.