New
age of innovation focusses on individual consumer experience
V4U
News Service
A lively
discussion on a new approach to value creation, based on
individual consumer experience provided the backdrop to
the global launch of C K Prahalad's new book, 'The New Age
of Innovation', co-authored with M S Krishnan, in New Delhi.
The book was released by the Union Minister for Science,
Technology and Earth Sciences, Kapil Sibal. Tarun Das, Chief
Mentor, CII and President, Aspen Institute India; Venu Srinivasan,
MD, Sundaram-Claytond; and the two authors were present
at the session.
Both authors are professors at the Ross School of Business,
University of Michigan. Mr Prahalad's previous book, 'The
Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid' transformed Indian
industry's view of the poor as consumers.
In his introductory remarks, Mr Das described Mr Prahalad
as a 'visionary thinker' who talked of India in the G7,
Indian multinationals in 1989 and 10 per cent growth when
India's growth was only at 5 per cent in 2001.
Describing the essence of the ideas in the book, Mr Prahalad
said that globalisation and connectivity, digitilisation
and social networking is leading to a new approach to innovation,
where individual consumer experiences are co-created (N=1).
Resources and talent are delivered from multiple sources
(R=G). This, he said, is a 180-degree change in the concept
developed by Model T, where the focus was on products for
undifferentiated consumers.
He provided a glimpse of this future through two examples
from India: health insurance for diabetics, where pricing
is based on compliance to a healthy lifestyle and there
are many players instead of a single firm; and emergency
management in several Indian states. The latter example
shows how every emergency is a unique situation, but the
new approach could potentially save one million lives a
day.
Mr Krishnan also elaborated on the concept of the book,
providing an example of partnership between India-based
IT firm Ramco Systems and PHI Helicopters, a US-based Fleet
management Company to elucidate how the concepts of flexible
and resilient business processes and focussed analytics
could lead towards a N=1 and R=G transformation.
He said understanding the consumer, and value-based pricing,
was the key. India has the advantage in this new approach
to business strategy with centrality of IT and human resources
and insisted that 'India must seize the opportunity'.
The Minister for Science spoke about how the concept of
N=1 and R=G could be successful in the government. He felt
that outsourcing is not about saving costs for the MNC,
but about importing competitiveness.
Highlighting the fact that this concept could be extended
to addressing the problems of agriculture, Mr Sibal said
every farmer, every piece of farmland is unique, so a solution
would need to involve various partners.
Indeed, a database of individual farmers across the country
was being prepared with the help of geo-spatial mapping,
which could provide the basis for solutions to greater productivity.
He stressed the need for new technology-based solutions
for such solutions.
