Innovation Flow

I am speaking at the Nanotechnology Center, Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore) on 16 August. Nanotechnology is a fertile area of inter-disciplinary research and holds great potential for solving the World's most critical problems in renewable energy, affordable healthcare, water management etc. We often read reports on promising nanotechnology inventions that seem to have the potential to positively impact the lives of people. However a very small fraction of these inventions are commercialized and made available to the common man as affordable and valuable solutions.  During my years at GE, Dow and Honeywell, I had the opportunity to work with global teams of scientists and inventors who are some of the best in Nanotechnology. I lead many programs to bring their minds together and create innovative new products enabled by nanotechnology - I had my share of successes and failures and I got some very valuable learning out of these efforts. I intend to focus my tal...

Lead Question: How to create an Innovation Strategy that will lead to Differentiation ? I took up the role of Innovation Differentiation Leader at a Multinational Company two years back. Our team's focus was on growing the business in emerging markets through product innovation. I spent the first 30 days defining and getting acceptance from folks on (a) what should be the focus of our innovation efforts and the next 30 days on (b) if product differentiation is the purpose of our innovation, then how should we define and achieve sustainable differentiation ?. I share the general wisdom on this topic, my own experience and the key learning here. I realized that the first and most important step is to decide what particular kind of value we want to deliver to whom. Differentiation  When it comes to strategy, I would like to hear Porter's thoughts first. I came across three  excellent tips from Porter on differentiation - differentiate yourself, deliver v...