Innovation 101 – Mouse Trap? February 25, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Design Thinking, Illusions, Innovation, Innovation 101, Leadership Innovation, Perception.Tags: Albert Einstein, generalisation, Innovation, Innovation 101, JohnLennon, mousetrap, Next Practices, out of box thinking, Pied Piper
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Enough about money and the Oscars. And I’m still wondering why all the fuss about Slumdog Millionaire. Just like one swallow doesn’t make a summer, one event doesn’t make a nation. Sorry guys, but I’m getting sick and tired of diversions.
First it was Obama’s swearing in that we were waiting for. Come 20th January and we kept waiting for a miracle. Then came the Oscars and we’re all very euphoric that Slumdog Millionaire bagged 8 golds. Now we’ll wait for India to go to the polls and hope that the new government will right the economy. All we’ll do is wait.
The Pied Piper has driven out all the rats - now he’s after our children. And we continue to build better mousetraps while wondering why there are no takers. The ’smarter’ guys believe that if the mousetraps were cheaper, they would be able to sell. For me it is a no-brainer that a mousetrap is needed only if there are mice! Come let’s innovate they say. How about a GPS system that will show us where each mousetrap is located. Maybe some wheels to move it around. And a radio controlled wheelster on which to mount it. Gimme a break people - who’s going to ‘grow’ the mice?
We cannot solve the problems that we have created with the same thinking that created them. — Albert Einstein
The first law of holes: If you are in one, stop digging. — Anonymous (more…)
Leadership innovation – The beginning and the end of history February 16, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Companies of the future, Culture, Entrepreneurship, Heart Capital©, Innovation, Leadership, Leadership Innovation, Thought leadership, Wisdom of the leaders.Tags: Chinmaya Mission, Culture, Ethical issues, heart capital, Innova, Innovation, Jagjit Singh, Kirloskar, Leadership Innovation, Next Practices, Society and Culture, Thought leadership, Toyota, Valentine's day, wisdom
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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. (more…)
7 years on and still a startup February 13, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Business, Companies of the future, Culture, Entrepreneurship, Heart Capital©, Thought leadership.Tags: Business model, Culture, Culture of India, customer focus, Entrepreneurship, Ideafarms, Innovation, Next Practices, startup culture, Thought leadership, trust
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This post is based on a true story. The story of Ideafarms. We started among equally uncertain settings in the wake of the dotcom bust and 9/11. We had no funds. We had no product ideas. We didn’t know who we would sell to. All we had was passion and deep down conviction that we would make things work for us. Today we’re almost 7 years old and alive and kicking. Ready to take on the current gloom with renewed energy. We’re back to our start-up ways.
The most important thing then was - and I say this with the benefit of hindsight – that we had no past to weigh us down; nothing of a reputation either individually or collectively that needed to be protected. Both of which we have today. So we’ve decided to shrug the baggage off our shoulders. (more…)
Innovation 101: The business of Culture December 30, 2008
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Business, Culture, Globalisation, Innovation, Innovation 101.Tags: Brand India, Culture, Culture of India, Gandhi, India, Innovation 101, Next Practices
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This post is a modified version of an article I wrote. Some patriotic leanings are evident …
“A culture is an organization’s collective mind-set – its beliefs, intentions, and memories”, said Mark Youngblood in his 1997 book, Life at the Edge of Chaos: Creating the Quantum Organization. “Organizations that will survive and prosper in the twenty-first century will be fast, flexible, responsive, resilient, creative, balanced, and full of vitality.” He calls them [these companies] Quantum Organizations. “Quantum Organizations, in direct contrast with the machine-like design of industrial era companies, operate using the principles of living systems. They are organic webs of life: dynamic, interconnected networks of relationships that are constantly learning, adapting, and evolving.”
Quantum or not, an organizational model based on his prophetic understanding of the new millennium business world is urgently needed today. A key ingredient for building the firm of the future is the setting up of a culture that can evolve, sustain and grow. Relationships, learning, adapting, evolving – simple to use words – not so simple to understand or, for that matter, apply in a particular context. For one, the mechanistic worldview [what became the order in the Industrial era] suggests the need for rigid structures. Today’s realities are quite different. Relationships are being formed without any physical contact: very deep relationships are being founded on areas of common interest.
In my opinion, the Internet has promoted globalisation as a natural way of doing business in today’s world. It has also made “individualised” infrastructure ubiquitously available. Which means that ways of working have changed from mono to network. As a natural outcome, all monolithic organisations are morphing into networked enterprises; all solo endeavours are seeking interdependence.
I wonder if this could point towards building a business culture, especially valuable from my point of view, for small entrepreneurial ventures. Building a culture consciously, methodically and based on a value system that reflects India’s ethos, history and diversity. I come from a generation that has taken pride in the American ‘twang’ and has been celebrating capitalism, without quite understanding that it won’t work in its yankee avatar in India. Do we understand our own contexts? It’s high time we did. (more…)
