INNOVATION AND INFLUENCING

CHANGEABHISHEK SYAL

NITTTR, CHANDIGARH

ABHISHEK SYAL

About me■ MBA from MIT Sloan ■ Market Intelligence at EMC Corp.

■ Co-inventor to 4 patent pending tech

■ Founded and led my own social venture, ARISE– Differentiated offering: self-learning

for disabled– Innovative combination of online and

field volunteers

Agenda■Part – I: Why should you care to study innovation?

■Part – II: A framework to analyze innovation types

■Part – III: How to apply innovation’s best practices in your classroom?

■Part – IV: Key Takeaways

WHY INNOVATION?Part - I

Change is a part of evolution

■Four things: tools, physical attributes, brain function, lifestyle

Innovation and Change

■Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity – not a threat. (Steve Jobs)

■ Innovation is change that unlocks new value (Jamie Notter)

This change affects society..

■ Hunting and gathering – wheel, arrows, tribes ■ Farming society – agrarian, feudal – sickle, marketplaces,

cities ■ Industrial – printing press, assembly lines, transport■ Information – electricity, telephone, communication■ Knowledge – computers, internet, decisions■ Future ? – smartphones, social media, space travel,

quantum computing

Disrupts industries..

■Car disrupted horse as mode of personal transport

■Electricity disrupted kerosene lamps as personal home lighting

■Telephones disrupted postcards and mail

■Smartphones disrupted telephones

And topples governments and organizations..■Facebook and twitter and ‘crowdsourced traditional

media’ (Al Jazeera) toppled or changed governments in– 2009-2010 Iranian election protests “Without

Twitter the people of Iran would not have felt empowered and confident to stand up for freedom and democracy,” Mark Pfeifle, a former national-security adviser wrote.

– 2010-2011 Tunisian revolution– 2011 Egyptian revolution– Libya, Turkey, etc..

Innovate to influence the change

■Innovation has affected every component and organization of society, think evolution

■Embrace the change sooner than later, think to your advantage

■Best to innovate to influence change than be influenced by change

THINKING ABOUT INNOVATION?

Part - II

Innovation

■ Innovation is a new idea which, when implemented, leads to a more effective device or process. 

■ Innovation can be viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs, or existing market needs.

(Wikipedia)

Innovation by Application Type■Product related: new products, services or

technologies ■ Smartphone app platform disrupting Nokia and

Blackberry■ Uber or Ola cabs disrupting the cab/taxi industry■ Whatsapp disrupting texting and calling

■Process Related: new business models in businesses, government or non-profits

■ SaaS based businesses disrupting licensing■ Online government services disrupting traditional

bureaucracy, increasing efficiency■ Social Impact Bonds changing how non-profit impact is

measured

Innovation by Deployment Type■Radical Innovation:

– completely new, breakthrough research or a business model

– Needs fresh perspective, talent or even new customers

– High risk, high return

■Incremental Innovation: – Small changes, slightly better services– Use existing resources or users– Low risk, low return

2 x 2 Innovation Framework

New Features

New Products

Process Efficiency

Management

Innovation

RadicalIncremental

Product oriented

Process oriented

Key Takeaways

■2 x 2 innovation framework that you can use ■Don’t stereotype the four types of innovation■The value creation of the results are highly situation

dependent, this framework is just directional guidance■Diversify projects in all four types in the classroom ■Project activities, outcome and learnings to be shared

so that the students get the maximum learning experience

APPLYING INNOVATION

PART - III

Finding the Right Problem to Solve■Expressed user needs

– When you are very hungry, you want food– E.g.: dandruff oils, fan

■Unidentified Pain-points– When you are very hungry, you want delicious

food – E.g.: Uber or ola cabs, cars, telephone

Customers don’t always know what they want, but they know bad experiences

User Interviews to Find the Right Problem■Best done with a 360 degree stakeholders to

understand the ecosystem■Map the user’s decision making and product

experience journeys■Ask them pain-points or issues they face■Ask them how do they solve for these issues currently ■Go to the 4 or 5 whys ■Do a lot. A lot is not enough

Lean Startup Methodology for Innovating■Define the pain-point you are solving in users’ words

and then, find a new minimum simple solution that solves it

■Create a dashboard of final results and test out the customer landing metrics

■Pivot, if needed■Build Measure Learn■Final Product or Services Build and Launch

TemperatureApp■With Julian Struab, MIT Phd and Erica Swallow,

MBA, MIT■Idea: smart sensing of temperature through

existing smartphone tech ■Idea: Enable personalized temperature control at

workplace■Interviewed employees, facility managers,

professors, building admin, other temperature control startups like ecovent

■Pivoted our idea to smartphone thermometer – a great learning experience during our New Enterprises coursework

Difference in Engineering vs Design Approaches ■Engineering heavy focused on problem solving, analyzing,

and arriving at the right solution– Mostly single-shot– Defined by parameters and constraints

■Design and Architecture focused on problem identification, developing multiple solutions, rapid prototyping testing, arriving at optimal solution– Highly iterative– Defined by constraints; more variables to play around with

MIT / Harvard Classroom Experience■Focus on giving students methodologies to solve

the problem; latest case study method■Choice of software or own choice ■Let the students find their problems to solve■Focus on real world issues and existing user pain-

points■Focus on problems with big or bottom of the

pyramid impact■Teach teams about team norms, focusing on

collaboration, communication and divide and conquer

Applying Innovation Principles in Classroom■Projects should be as forward looking as possible■Problem Identification for the future – look for

current unsolved pain-points■Focus on high value creation / high impact rather

than complexity■Projects should be in teams having students with

different skillset

Applying Innovation Principles in Classroom■Project work should be shared in class with

feedback and questions from other teams ■Encourage students to develop global perspective

through understanding different market contexts and their local solutions

■Don’t reinvent the wheel but use latest available tech, especially open source

KEY TAKEAWAYSPART - IV

Key Takeaways■Innovation is everywhere,

influencing change■Focus on finding the user

pain-points■Encourage simple

solutions that improvise on existing research / hi-tech

■Collaboration of agile teams is key

THANKSabhishek.syal@sloan.mit.edu