JBIMS hosts Mr. Pavan Soni, [/b]Innovation Evangelist, Wipro,[/b] for a session on “Innovations”[/b][/b]
JBIMS is a management institute known for providing its students with immense opportunities to interact with corporate magnates present in the industry today. One such instance was when the MMS -1 batch had an interactive session on ‘Innovations’ by Mr. Pavan Soni, Innovation Evangelist, Wipro. One distinct feature about this lecture was that it was full of wit, humour and dynamism, all of which seemed to be akin to the personality of Mr. Soni, who managed to charm the students from the moment he entered the classroom.
His main aim was to ensure that the students would be equipped with the necessary skills while entering the corporate world. He began by speaking about the importance of application of commonsense to real-life problems and how students as budding managers should think of new, innovative solutions rather than use bookish knowledge to solve those problems. He claimed that MBA graduates are the ‘new fresh blood’ that should change the rigidity prevalent in organizations and they will be expected to constantly rejuvenate the system. To illustrate his point, he played a game with the students wherein the different perceptions of each student were put on display based on the different outcomes of a common task given to them.
He then went onto state that in school everyone was taught ‘the one right answer’ to any question and any deviation from it was considered wrong. But, he stated, this cannot be applied in the world of business. To explain his point, he defined the term innovation as “the pursuit of finding the next right answer.” He stressed on the fact that the main difference between the West and the East in terms of innovation is that the West has multiple answers to the same question whereas the East has the same answer to a number of questions. Hence, the leaders of tomorrow must change this way of thinking.
Mr. Soni pointed out that in terms of innovation, the company which is a fast follower usually defeats the first entrant into the market as often the latter tends to focus only on its core business and hence its core competence becomes its core rigidity. To substantiate his point he gave the example of Xerox which had not only invented the photocopy machine, but also the Mouse, the Ethernet and GUI. Yet now Xerox was no longer the leader in those segments. For a company to become a market leader there is a need for constant innovation. This is because customers do not love a company or its products, they love the value they derive from the company's products.
Thereafter, he listed down companies which were ranked on three parameters based on the innovations that they had given to the society, namely peer perception, stock market preference as well as the financial stability of the company. Companies such as Apple, IBM, Samsung and Nike featured in the list, some of which he predicted may even become cult brands sometime in the future. He stated that every organization that plans to innovate must focus upon the creation of new markets which could be done either by the intersection of disciplines or even by applying the Blue Ocean Strategy. Innovation is a summation of art, science and craft. Hence, the conversion of an idea leads to an invention. This invention supplemented with commercialization gives rise to innovation.
Finally Mr. Soni concluded this highly interactive session with a lasting thought, "Real businesses do not run on B-plans... They work on Plan B." The thought provoking session ended with a resounding applause. The session concluded with everyone in the audience thoroughly satisfied and certainly more knowledgeable.