Indian Court Issues Warrant for Porsche C.E.O.s Arrest – NYTimes.com

An Indian court has issued an arrest warrant for Matthias Müller, chief executive and chairman of Porsche, the German carmaker, and eight other executives from the company.

Another case of German high-handedness where they show little respect to Indian partners, knowing they can rely on their legal system to side with them.

Whether the arrests will happen or not, this action by the Jaipur court is a strong signal that Indian companies have come into their own and will not allow themselves to be walked all over.

Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
Matthias Mueller, chief executive of Porsche, posing inside a 911 sports car, at the company’s headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany on Jan. 9.

via Indian Court Issues Warrant for Porsche C.E.O.s Arrest – NYTimes.com.

Innovation, Now!

The continuing financial Tsunami has ceased to make waves. We ought to have seen it coming but were too scared to open our eyes. Like we’ve done in the past – all we’ve ever learnt to do is to solve problems based on ‘fitting historical patterns’ – we believe that we’re at the bottom of the economic downturn and things will look up from here on. Anybody noticed that the slide has been going on since September 11, 2001? And we’re satisfied waiting. The time for innovation is here and is urging us to do something – differently.

Talk to technology and business people and they will tell you that innovation is a tool. Therefore researching a need and then developing a solution to address it is called innovation. Then why call it innovation, why not keep calling it R&D? Are we simply using the word because it sounds nicer?

Innovation 101 – The Jugaad phenomenon

This post is meant for those of you who have set up automated alerts for the new magic word ‘Jugaad’, the most fashionable innovation thread about India these days. Several innovation ‘gurus’, management experts, authors have latched on. The common thread – they’re mostly based in the US and are of Indian origin. The more equal of us. Keith Sawyer calls it a ‘fad from India’ and that’s exactly what  it is.

Business Week* reports on a management fad from India, that goes by a Hindi slang word, jugaad (say joo-gaardh). It means “an improvisational style of innovation”. It’s “inexpensive invention on the fly”. It sometimes has negative connotations, like cutting corners. The idea is that it doesn’t have to be perfect or fancy; it’s just good enough to satisfy immediate needs.

>>*See the comments at the end of the article.

Don’t be fooled – Jugaad is jugaad and innovation is innovation. Jugaad is a dangerous mindset – you heard right, a mindset. You ‘fix’ things by simply putting together bits and pieces, never mind that they don’t fit or that the final product is unreliable, unsafe, whatever. When something goes wrong, you can always use the excuse of not having time, resources, skills, etc. After all you did achieve ‘cheap’, didn’t you.

Maruti Gypsy 2020?

Leadership innovation – The beginning and the end of history

Wow, what an amazing Valentine’s weekend! Thankfully “The Consortium of Red-faced, Jobless and Retrograde Men of India” ( male counter to the Facebook group ”The Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women”) was kept in check to allow India’s youth to celebrate Valentine’s day.

 

Vikram Kirloskar (left) – Launch of the new TOYOTA INNOVA.

But that aside, I had a blast. My friend Vikram Kirloskar, Vice Chairman of Toyota Kirloskar Motors, invited us to the most memorable evening with Jagjit Singh, the Ghazal Maestro. His satin voice had everybody spellbound for a riveting two hours. In Vikram San’s words – “It is Toyota India’s heartfelt gesture of gratitude to our customer ‘family’”. The event was fraught with simplicity and genuine warmth. I wish some people would take lessons from Toyota and especially from Vikram on humility and the natural way to live and work.

In concert with Jagjit Singh

 How business can ‘flow along’ with such warmth. And to top it, to be immersed in such soul-stirring music. What more could I have asked for. My take away was that the “Toyota way” goes far beyond shopfloor efficiencies and product quality. It is a statement of life and living.

Then came Spiritual Sunday at the Chinmaya Mission precincts on Lodhi Road in New Delhi. Before you start imagining yoga mats and a saffron-robed Godman, I must tell you that the event had to do with the launching of Anil Sachdev’s SOIL – School of Inspired Leadership.

Innovation – My forthcoming book

I’ve been getting this crazy urge to write a book. I’m hoping it will make me famous – isn’t that what a book is supposed to do for its author anyway. And I’m going to be innovative like the rest of them authors. The title? Innovation of course. It’s going to be a cakewalk I know, since I have all the basic ingredients.

Copycat

So here’s my book recipe. In the beginning I’ll talk about nebulous concepts and indirectly accuse the reader for being so ignorant. I’ll tell her what she already knows and hide behind some easy facades. To succeed at innovation, you have to be creative, I’ll tell her. Creativity, for as far as I can see, means simply to be different from the rest. Doesn’t matter if you create any value or not, you must speak with authority, wear something outlandish, pierce your ears and other parts of your body, throw sarcastic glances at lesser beings and have some pictures of you appear while at a fashion do. It’s really that simple.

In the next chapter, I’ll talk about the basic concepts of innovation. Patents, R&D improvements, process optimisation, software tools, collaboration, disruption – I need to do this to add credibility to my claims as the author of a book on innovation. If readers haven’t seen through other authors, I won’t get found out will I?

Having laid the foundations, I can now preach about the value of innovation and build some theoretical frameworks (read fancy graphical templates). I’ll  bring in business jargon to validate that innovation is the need of the hour and how it will be our saviour in these times. Words like Strategy, Culture, Processes and Growth will sound quite impressive to the readership. They always have!

And now for the best part of my book writing strategy. (Remember, I will need a publisher.) So here’s what I plan to do. I’ll spend a few months ‘compiling’ the references by surfing the Internet and put together a Bibliography citing from already famous authors and institutions. That way I’ll know which are the best ‘hooks’ to piggyback on. For example, if I slipped in references of Walmart’s innovative business model, Peter Drucker‘s quotes on innovation, Nandan Nilakeni’s future project and also requoted some famous innovation authors’ books, I would have a surefire formula to target the bestseller list. These days, to be original, you don’t even have to hide your sources. Sometimes it helps to be upfront about plagiarism because nobody would suspect you. How innovative is that?!

Context? Who said anything about my being responsible for context? It’s your context isn’t it? My job is only to write and it’s your job to figure out how to apply my thoughts to your contexts.

So dear readers, please point me to your publisher friends. Any publishers out there that are reading my blog may send me an advance to write yet another book on the hackneyed topic of innovation. Because I’m all ready to write a book. Minor issue that I have nothing new to add. Writing is all about style anyway!