Innovation Steps

Book Review-

 Name of the book- 8 Steps to Innovation: Going from Jugaad to Excellence 

Writers of the book- Vinay Dabholkar and Rishikesha Krishnan

2013 Harper Collins India

Reviewed by-

Engr. Md. Abdur Rashid, PhD Fellow

Director (Admin & Finance), NAPD

Email: rashid.eee.cse@gmail.com

URL- www.rashid-bd.info

Summary of the book review:

This book has 9 chapters in 3 parts. There are a total of 306 pages. Three parts are-

I.          Build an Idea Pipeline

II.          Improve Idea Velocity

III.          Increase the Batting Average

8 chapters represent 8 steps of innovation and the last chapter is the conclusion. These 8 steps are summarized in the following table.

Table 1: Three Phases and Eight Steps to Systematic Innovation

Step No	Steps	Activities	Examples	Success Factors
	Part 1: Build an Idea Pipeline
1	Lay the Foundation	Create an innovation programme for idea flow, buzz, and training in idea generation	3M, Toyota, Mahindra & Mahindra (Scorpio), Intuit India (SMS delivery of price info to farmers)	Encourage small and big ideas, effective campaign and tagline design, build creative confidence
2	Create a Challenge Book	Focus on pain points, track market trends, reduce waste	Gandhi (Salt March), Tihar Jail (Petition Box), HCL (questions portal)	Immersive research, customer inputs, broadbased research
3	Build Participation	Tap role models and catalysts, create CoPs, use R&R	Intel (Fellows), MindTree (CoPs), BMC (ideas contests)	Connect innovators, help idea generators communicate better
	Part II: Improve Idea Velocity
4	Experiment with low cost at high speed	Rapidly test business model aspects: need, technical, production, commercial	Phalke (first Hindi movie), Bank of Baroda (24-hour branches), 3M (PostIt), DuPont (Teflon), IDEO (Tech Box)	Treating failure as learning, leadership by experimentation, awards for daring to try
5	Go fast from prototyping to incubation	Idea communication & idea championing through innovation reviews	Konkan Railway, Tata Steel, Apple (build customer curiousity), Google (AdSense launch)	Involvement of customers, overcoming blindspots, making ideas sticky
6	Iterate on the business model	Refine offerings, target base, channel, price points	Shaadi.com (Shaadi Point centres), RedBus, Air Deccan, TCS (iON)	Form proper alliances, outpace copycats, validate via experiments
	Part III Increase the Batting Average
7	Build an innovation sandbox	Clearly define constraints, leverage platforms, open innovation	Tata (Nano), Aurolab (lenses), Biocon (oral insulin), P&G (Innocentive)	Active experimentation, external validation and participation
8	Create a margin of safety	Baseline alerts, scenario planning, pre-mortems, big portfolios	Apple (Lisa: optimistic bias), Suzlon (ice on blades), Zappos.com (shoe purchases)	Understanding leap-of-faith assumptions, liability insurance

 

Idea life cycle:

         The idea life cycle has two loops:

Loop1- > Idea to demo

Loop2->  Demo to Impact

FAQ:

Who will innovate?

•          Not only innovation team members of the organization but rather all of the organization's people.

From where do innovative idea comes?

         From itch to know curiosity.

What innovation team will do?

1.     Forming committee

2.     Workshop for making innovation plan

3.     Make the process

4.     Make a demo

5.     Observe the impact

What is resistance to innovation?

• We don’t speak at meetings especially when the boss is around. So the boss is passive resistant.
• Colleagues (Negative thinker, negative attitude)
• Not to recognize (Award, training, Financial benefit) innovators.

  Featured quotes from this book:

“Once your mind stretches to a new level, it never goes back to its original dimension.” – A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

“Learn to fail with pride, comfort and pleasure.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“The theory of business has to be tested continuously.” – Peter Drucker

“I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.” – Isaac Newton

“A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tsu

“Without computer clubs there would probably be no Apple computers.” – Stephen Wozniak

Conclusion:

The book is informative to learn about innovation. The innovation concept can be clear by reading this book. The innovation life cycle, steps and implementation techniques are there in the book. Inspiration for innovation is given in the book. The innovative program will be converted into an innovative culture.