Innovation Flow

   New Inventions, Discoveries and Business Models have flourished during Crises. The famous physicist, Isaac Newton, was in his early 20s when the Great Plague of London hit. Cambridge University sent their students home. Newton used the time to work on his theories that revolutionized physics - he introduced calculus into physics, developed the principles of optics and proposed a theory of gravity. Newton returned to Cambridge in 1667, theories in hand. Within six months, he was made a fellow; two years later, a professor. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/03/12/during-pandemic-isaac-newton-had-work-home-too-he-used-time-wisely/ Versatile inventions like blood banks, sanitary pads, zippers, stainless steel etc were invented during the first world war. And it was during the second world war that  innovations like ATM, Superglue, Instant Coffee (Nescafe), Ball point pen etc were created. https://www.history.com/news/world-war-i-inventions-pi...

Paul Romer, a co- recipient  of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics  (shared with William Nordhaus) said , “ a crisis is a terrible thing to waste ”. During a crisis like the COVID – 19 pandemic,  it is natural that we tend to focus our efforts on the immediate challenges inherent in the crisis. But this is also the time for us to look for the opportunities. Anand Mahindra, Chairman of the Indian Conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra, advised his employees to use the time available to come up with new ideas and innovations; and taking advantage of the crisis "to dream bigger dreams about the future and raising ambitions once the crisis has passed". How to use the downtime to reboot, reinvent and reignite through introspection and innovation. Can we reboot our personal and professional way of life along two dimensions – (a) Sustainability and (b) Balance. Can we reinvent our business processes so that we halve the time we...

Venu has been on a long flight from Boston to New Delhi and he did not like the idea of having to wait  for more hours at the airport. He cursed the Corona Virus for the (n+1)th time and proceeded to the lounge and wait for his chance to be tested and cleared. All that he could think was getting back to Chennai and lay his hands on his favorite thayir saadam ( ts - rice and curds). By force of habit, he checked his mailbox and found an email from a sender he could not recognize – it was quite cryptic – dg-csir – whatever it means! He has to represent his company in a meeting called by the Director General of CSIR – which means one more day at Delhi and away from his home-made ts. The meeting was about brainstorming on how to create social impact through scientific research in India and build a roadmap. He was eager to share his industry insights and was also excited about meeting other experts on the Committee. He saw that he was not alone – there were a few other tir...