Titan Innovation Bazaar

Titan Innovation Bazaar

Edison once quipped- "Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration." Looking at the recently held Titan Innovation Bazaar, I got to see for myself what perspiration means. The word 'Innovation Bazaar' was first used by Mohanbir Sawhney and Satish Nambisan in their HBR article titled - A Buyer's Guide to the Innovation Bazaar. Here the authors defined an Innovation Bazaar as a marketplace where one could trade raw ideas, market-ready ideas and market ready products. It reflects from the fact that often several brilliant ideas never see the light of the day due to lack of sponsorship or proper shaping. Hence it is an imperative to connect ideas with - capital and talent.

Inspired from here, I played with this Idea in the form of an Innovation Bazaar at Wipro. These would be two day events where engineers and creators from across Wipro would come over and display their creations. Co-Wiproites would walk-by and get inspired. Though the core intent remains to allow 'cross-pollination' of ideas, the Bazaar helps the leadership team to pick up bright ideas to be commercialized. Having hosted over half a dozen Innovation Bazaars, am convinced of its utility.

The Titan Innovation Bazaar was unlike any I have seen at Wipro. Apart from the scale and commitment level, what was really impressive was the roster of jury members. Imagine a panel consisting of ace designers; serial entrepreneurs; academicians; scientists; inventors; and leading practitioners; assessing and engaging with an enthusiastic lot of Titanians. To be specific it was- Prof. S Balasubramanian, Deepam Mishra, Michael Foley, Yogesh Dandekar, GS Sridhar, NM Bhatta, Ravi Arora, S Jayashree and yours sincerely. There were also audience poll to pick up choice of innovations.

A little bit about the Bazaar:

There were 380 innovations narrowed to 119 for the actual event. These 119 innovations were spanning across Manufacturing Process, Supply Chain, Services, Product Design, Marketing and Retail Innovations. There was a mixed bag of Implemented Innovations as well Work in Process Inventions. Few you can't cease wondering at! From 9 30 AM till 6 30 PM, both on 10th- 11th Sept, there were a battery of over 250 Titanians from across Watches, Jewelry, Eye ware and Precision Engineering that held their booths. Titan being Titan, there was no dearth of impressive displays, posters, videos, demos, live products and other essential artifacts. It was truly an incredible experience. The jury would vouch for it.

This apart, there was a special movie (in-house production) on innovation made exclusively for this event which kept delivering the message of 'why innovation' and 'how innovation' to all the hosts and guests. There were also some world famous innovations on display.

In all, a fantastic event. A true celebration of human spirit of sharing, learning and collaborating. While I was traversing though the booths, I couldn't stop admiring the dedication people had to share. They won't let you pass by unless you hear them thoroughly and also pose a few questions. Truly am amazing spirit.

I wish the same could traverse through other organizations, across India. If only we could adopt best practices from each other, we would be a far better nation. We have massive talent hidden in pockets, we need many such Innovation Bazaars to knit this talent.

Well done Titan!

EXTRACT FROM Mr. Pavan Soni's Blog