Tag: Innovation

Podcast

PBTO5: Innovation, Design Thinking and Solving Complex Problems

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In this episode, we host Lakshman, who heads the innovation practice for the consulting division of SAP, based in India and also a visiting faculty at the Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam, Germany.  In this conversation, we talk about the importance of defining the right problem to solve, as the first step in any innovation practice. Lucky also shares his views on how to build a practice capable of being able to innovate on a consistent basis. We also talk about Design Thinking, its history, the key components of this philosophy and how we can use this to solve complex problems. […]

Podcast

PBTO1: Launching “Pushing Beyond the Obvious” Podcast

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I had earlier announced that I will launch my podcast shortly. Today, is the day when I would like announce the launch of “Pushing Beyond the Obvious” podcast. This is the first episode of the podcast. In this episode, I talk about what this podcast is about and whom is it relevant for. This podcast is relevant to you if: You are an entrepreneur or a CEO You are a manager responsible for sales, marketing, innovation or strategy function in your organization. The podcast provide you insights and strategies on how to push the boundaries of the following functions: Sales […]

Innovation

A Good Example of Innovation in Retail Banking – Alpha Bank

It is very well known that one the best ways to come up with new innovations is to mix and match existing interesting ideas to come up with something unique. If there was an industry that needed to come up with innovative solutions, it was the Retail banking industry.  I cant even remember when was the last time that this industry actually came up with an innovative offering from the start of the internet banking era. Now, Alpha bank in Russia has come up with a novel concept of a Fitness Account. This idea already combines two existing needs of […]

Innovation

Reframing Failure as Iteration Fosters More Innovation

One of the biggest hurdles in fostering a culture of innovation in an organization is the fear of failure.  This is one of the most critical aspects of a culture. The fear of failure creates a lot of additional hurdles in the innovation process.  No Breakthrough Innovation: The biggest impact on the innovation process that the fear of failure can have is that this almost ensures that there will be no breakthrough innovation coming out of the innovation process. Any breakthrough innovation requires at some stage for the team to decide to follow an insight/idea that is unconventional or against […]

Innovation

The Curious Case of Amazon Coins

Amazon Coins debuted among much fan fare in May this year and have mysteriously kept a very low profile since the high profile launch. I am not sure if this is a deliberate strategy on part of Amazon or is it that no one noticed its presence (or maybe absence) in the past few months. The only time that i heard about Amazon coins is when they launched a promotion to give out 20 free coins if one downloaded a certain set of apps. Really? Are these coins being used at all? If yes, how much is their usage? Or […]