Yolynd Lobo

We launch a new interactive forum on innovation – what it is, how it can be learnt, and why it is an important tool in helping businesses to grow

Innovation? What is innovation? Who is an innovator? Why is innovation so important? What are the key drivers of innovation? What are the key sectors that need to be innovation driven? Can innovation behaviour be modeled? What are the key factors that can help create innovation?

Innovation has, is, and will always be about doing something different that creates value for the stakeholders involved. An innovator, as defined by R.A.Mashelkar, director of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), is one who doesn't know it cannot be done. Peter Drucker, on the other hand, looks at innovation as a discipline, a tool for entrepreneurs by which they can exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or different service. Furthermore, he goes on to state that it is capable of being learned, capable of being presented.

Clearly, the study of innovation has been a challenge for even the experts. Hence, the best way to discuss it is perhaps through examples. Corporatations such as Apple and 3M, for instance, are role models for innovators.

This forum is all about identifying the what, where, how, why and when of innovation. We urge you to send us your stories, examples, opinions and views on the subject; the more the participation from all of you, the more useful and vibrant this forum will be. Every fortnight, we will look at a different aspect of the prism that is innovation so that we can understand its many colours and use these insights to illuminate our businesses.

The first area we will explore is one where innovation matters the most -- the social sector. To kick off the discussion, we have posed a few questions. Send us your responses and we will analyse them in our next article.

• What are the main causes for failure to innovate in the social sector?
• What are the key drivers for innovation in the social sector?
• What role can the corporate sector and the government play in bringing about innovation in the social sector?
• Can the social sector act as a testbed/incubator for corporate innovation?

A good case study of the social sector acting as a testbed for corporate innovation is Project Explore undertaken by Bell Atlantic in Union City, New Jersey, USA. In addition to installing computers in schools, Bell Atlantic gave computers to 135 inner-city students and their teachers to use at home. Project Explore became a catalyst for increasing the use of technology to transform middle and high school classrooms, to improve students’ skills and to involve parents in their children’s education. What were the benefits for Bell Atlantic? Besides ‘feeling good’ about lending a helping hand to those in need, Grady and three other Bell Atlantic employees received a patent for a public switch telephone network for multimedia transmission -- a direct consequence of the innovations developed in Union City. The patent ultimately led to the introduction of Bell Atlantic’s new Infospeed DSL product line. More illustrations like this may be found in the article "From Spare Change to Real Change: The Social Sector as a Beta Site for Business Innovation" by R.M.Kanter in the Harvard Business Review, May/June 1999.

About the author
The author is an MBA from the University of Wales, UK, with specialisation in the management of innovation. Her thesis was on ''Intellectual Property Rights in the Age of the Internet".

Email the author at yolynd.lobo@tatainfotech.com

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