Innovation Flow

https://www.mycii.in/KmResourceApplication/39095.PascheemOctober2018.pdf  (Page 13 - 16) Are you worried about new technologies disrupting your Industry?   then, what you need is a DESI CTO Dr Shankar Venugopal Technology Disruptions – Friend or Foe for the CEO ? Imagine playing a game where the rules of the game are continuously being changed, or being at a familiar place where people around you start speaking a new language that you don’t understand or being taken on a multi-mode journey without letting you know the destination – you would agree that these are not   scenarios where you can perform at your best efficiency. CEOs, leading business enterprises in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world, very often face this kind of a situation when a new technology changes the ground rules of their business. You may remember how Kodak’s business was disrupted by digital photography technology, many of our traditional businesses are bei...

Disruptive Technologies - Friend or Foe of the CTO ? - Part 3    GAUGING THE POTENTIAL OF DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES While the CTO comes across a wide range of disruptive Technologies, he needs gauge their potential for disruption He brings a few of them into his fold for business attention in the short and medium term. He places the other Technologies on his radar and monitors how they evolve in the long-term. Readers who are familiar with Gartner hype cycle [ https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/top-trends-in-the-gartner-hype-cycle-for-emerging-technologies-2017/ ] will appreciate the importance of insights into these trends. The CTO’s job is lot more complex than monitoring the hype cycles – he needs to track the development at multiple levels - the sub-system, system and super system. In the case of the CTO of an Automotive OEM, gauging the potential of disruptors in the electric vehicles (EV) space, he has to gauge the potential of new technologies su...

CTO'S FRAMEWORK FOR SCOUTING FOR DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES SPECTRUM - CTO's Framework for Scouting for Disruptive Technologies While the CTO for ordinary times keeps track of the technology trends, the CTO for extraordinary times tracks many other drivers of changes and synthesizes a holistic vision of the future. The key drivers for transformation include social, political, economic, competition, regulation, universal, market over and above technologies. The SPECTRUM radar helps the CTO look at the drivers of transformation in a holistic way and take a proactive approach in responding to megatrends. In the case of the CTO of an Indian Automotive OEM the key drivers of transformation are: Social – sustainability, shared mobility, demographic divide etc – Hyper-connected millennials (Gen Y) have very different needs as compared to their their Gen X parents.  Automotive OEMs need to design their product in a way that appeals to younger people. Smaller, digitally enabled...

Disruptive Technologies - Friend or Foe of the CTO  Part 1 - The CTO's Challenges Disruptive technologies have the potential to transform life, business and the global economy . The exponential growth of new technologies makes it critical for the chief technology officer, CTO to stay ahead of the technology trends and be responsive to disruptions. The disruptive potential of these new technologies pose a threat to the CTO who is deeply immersed in current technologies and have a high organizational inertia to respond to changes. However, the very same disruptive technologies offer business growth opportunities for the CTO who systematically scouts for new technologies, assesses their potential, tracks their evolution and have a responsive organization. The CTO has a critical role to play in converting the disruption into a threat or an opportunity. He cannot go overboard with disruptive technologies – he has to strike the right balance in investing in sustaining vs di...

I spoke at the Global Intellectual Property Conference (https://www.iprconference.com/) - at Bangalore, last week - on the topic of crafting an Innovation & IP Strategy for Sustainable Mobility. There is a fundamental shift on all three dimensions - Technology, Innovation and IP - in the automotive industry with the emergence of electric, autonomous, connected vehicles and shared ownership models. Automotive industry has been disrupted in the past - it took less than twenty years (1900 - 1920) to replace horses by automobiles. The automotive industry is going through the second wave of disruption now - it is swifter and fueled by faster adoption. The technology innovation will involve many players across the industry - cross collaboration is the key strategy to success - need to synchronize innovation & NPD cycles. There is a shift in IP strategy also - some of the lead players are opening their patents - Tesla in EV and Toyota in Hydrogen Fuel Cell - the...

Recently I was invited to speak at IIT Madras for a Conference on Design Education organized by Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). I met some old friends like Prof Amaresh Chakrabarti (IISc) http://cpdm.iisc.ac.in/cpdm/facultyprofile.php?name=1 Dr Ramanan (Medical Stents Innovator and old GE friend) - http://www.lramanan.com/raise-rd/applied_research_-_benefits_to_industry_and_products and made some new friends (Prof Peer Sathikh, NTU, Singapore) http://research.ntu.edu.sg/expertise/academicprofile/Pages/StaffProfile.aspx?ST_EMAILID=PEERSATHIKH . I described four thinking skills that we need to train our young innovators on so that they can create abundance through their innovations. I spoke about human centered design first - cited the popular example - GE Doug Dietz and the MRI machine. Then I described the power of exponential thinking - introduced the 6 D Framework of Peter Diamandis - I went to talk about Systems thinking - cited the Aravind Eye C...