DESIGN INNOVATION CONCLAVE: Integrating Design in Business Strategy

29 November 2012, Federation House, New Delhi

DESIGN INNOVATION CONCLAVE: A REPORT

By Indrani De Parker

Design as a key element of modern business strategy is still far from being adopted widely across Indian industry. In an extremely competitive market, crowded with ever increasing number of players with similar and comparable products, design is fast emerging as one of the most critical, and in some cases, the sole differentiator among competing offerings.

Design Innovation Conclave

Design Innovation Conclave was conceived through the recommendation of FICCIs National Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation, to promote excellence in designbased product innovation practices in Indian industry. The event, took place in the capital on November 29, 2012, brought together design experts, industrial researchers, corporate leaders, marketers, policy makers and consumers to engage in a high powered conferencing and networking platform to decipher strategies for Indian businesses to create competitive advantage through aggressive adoption of design excellence in products, services and processes. The theme for the conclave was Integrating Design in Business Strategy. Design as a key element of modern business strategy is still far from being adopted widely across Indian industry. In an extremely competitive market, crowded with ever increasing number of players with similar and comparable products, design is fast emerging as one of the most critical, and in some cases, the sole differentiator among competing offerings. Irrespective of class or category of product/service, integration and adoption of design-driven innovation is imperative for most enterprises to capture consumer mindshare, drive growth and create long-term business value. While traditionally, scientific and technological innovations had brought highest returns for enterprises, the future seems to be with them who are not only advanced in terms of technology but also posses the best and highest capabilities in designing their products. Advanced economies have had such realization long back and had been investing heavily in making design as an integral part of their innovation ecosystem. Some of the most valuable corporations of the world, namely - Apple, GE, Sony, Samsung, Microsoft, Google, Bosch, IKEA, Wal-Mart and host of such others from global corporate Ivy League have created their niche by bringing exemplary design innovations in many of their products and services, which not only helped them reap enormous business returns but also established their leadership across the world.

The emphasis in most business, which was heretofore on science and technology, is now on design.

Design Driven Innovation Is Imperative For Most Enterprises

Shalendra Porwal, Co-Chair, FICCI National Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation and the CEO of Battelle (India), opened the forum by addressing the importance of design driven innovation. The emphasis in most business, which was heretofore on science and technology, is now on design. Design is the key element in modern business strategy and it is still far from being adopted across Indian industry and we tend to look for only functional things so far. It is an extremely competitive market and often what distinguishes products and technology is just the design itself. Design is emerging as one of the most critical and in some cases the sole differentiator among competing products and competing offerings. Irrespective of class or technology or category of product and service, integration and adoption of design driven innovation is imperative for most enterprises. If India has to make a global mark, then they have to integrate good design with good innovation. Mr Porwal pointed out that while traditionally the focus has been on scientific and technological innovations, the products that will bring higher returns to the industry, will be those that combine design with innovation. Advanced economies have realized that it is essential to incorporate good design elements in their products. The formation National Design Policy 2007, the India Design Council 2009 and the subsequent introduction of the India Design Mark as a national standard of design excellence are all testaments of the progress towards this direction. Better synergies are expected to evolve in future among design and scientific/technological sectors as we move towards adoption an all encompassing a National Innovation Policy. It is noteworthy that design as a discipline has multifaceted character, intricacies and inter-linkages which are quite often complexed. Design practices can transcend from soft artistic creativity to hard innovation. It can be a source of competition or comparative distinction among products and services. Realizing the dire need for promoting design-based innovation in Indian industry and increasing its awareness among all stakeholders, particularly the SMES, was how and why FICCI Design Innovation Conclave was conceived. The event aimed to bring together industrial design firms, design experts, corporate leaders, marketers, policy makers and relevant thought leaders in the forum and at the end of which the questions like What policy initiatives can be taken to combine design and innovation should be addressed.

Innovation Is Now Linked To Growth And Economic Progress Of The Nation

Neeraj Sharma, Adviser & Head of the Policy Research Cell, Department of Science & Technology, Govt of India, in his opening address, spoke about Promoting Industrial Design Innovation in India. He said that in spite of the fact that Design

Innovation is different from invention. Invention is creating something new; whereas innovation is making incremental change or improvement to products or activity or process.

Innovation was not his domain area, he would however be addressing industrial design innovation in India as Innovation will be the key pillar in the policy. The Govt of India is about to bring out the Science Technology & Innovation Policy where he hoped to include deliberations of the forum to explore good policy initiatives and new thoughts. This policy would be more of a general policy rather than any specifics. He hoped that the forum would come up with a one liner, which would be more of a philosophical statement and not direct program or activities that need to be implemented in future. Innovation is different from invention. Invention is creating something new; whereas innovation is making incremental change or improvement to products or activity or process. Innovation is doing things differently. Innovation is nothing new and has existed since mankind. Using the example of the wheel, Mr Sharma illustrated that when the wheel was invented, innovations have been continuously been taking place to improve the efficiency of its function. Innovation is now linked to growth and economic progress of the nation. Today, Innovation has become a buzzword and is now seen as the prime mover for the growth and economy development of nations. Mr Sharma pointed out that it is now important that Innovation be given the due importance and due recognition in our society in India, because if one has to move as a nation, growing economically, hand in hand with other developed nations, one has to focus and emphasize on Innovation. The Science Technology & Innovation Policy would be brought out, and launched by the honorable Prime Minister of India during the Indian Science Congress in early 2013. This policy draws a clear focus on Innovation. Scientific knowledge converts money into knowledge and innovation converts scientific knowledge forward into economical and social values. These are the thought processes which policy issues and activities are based on. Innovation implies a S&T led solutions that are successfully deployed in economy of society and today innovation has assumed a centre stage in the developmental goals of the country. So the nation should be inline as a country and should not be left out as far as innovation is concerned. Innovation has always been there as its a dynamic process. As a nation we have been innovating for many years, but now the focus is more on this innovation policy. Some key elements in the new Science Technology Innovation Policy are going to be:

Promoting scientific temper amongst the society Enhancing application of science amongst the youth Making careers in science research and innovation attractive for talented and bright minds Establishing world-class infrastructure for R&D. Thus it will not only be a government initiative but would require the participation of industries as well. Linking science and innovation systems into the course. The growth has to be an inclusive growth, and any system that is to be developed should be linked to the said growth. Facilitating a S&T based high risk innovations through new mechanisms. Design could be one of the new mechanisms that could carry forward this innovation. Combining excellence with relevance. The strong STI policy goal would be to bring out is a strong and vital science and research and innovation system for high technology path for India.

Mr Sharma urged the participants of the Design Innovation Conclave to deliberate upon what policy initiatives can be incorporated. As a national policy it acts as a directive for all industries, all societies and NGOs.

Great Opportunities in the New Knowledge Economy

Pradyumna Vyas, Director, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, in his keynote address, spoke of the Changing Paradigm in Design Innovation Science & Art of It. He defined Innovation as successful exploration of new ideas. It is the process that carries through new products, new services, new ways of running or doing business. Innovation and design cannot be separated. Innovation is an idea in a particular context and the context is very important. To create a product, service or system, a vehicle is required; and that vehicle is design. Design is the process that converts an idea into a tangible product, service or system therefore design plays an crucial role in innovation which converts into tangibles. Mr Vyas divided Innovation into 3 categories 1. Technology break through which requires tremendous R&D, investments and better ideas. 2. Incremental Innovation, making thing cheaper, better, faster or more convenient 3. Future Focus: Understanding society well (people, sensitive issues, etc) The paradigm shift that has occurred, according to Mr Vyas from manufacturing base (Material & Manufacturing Society) to information base (Information or Knowledge Society). Innovation is certainly focusing on better, cheaper, faster, more options and convenience. Mr Vyas claims that this convenience has turned out to be the biggest enemy. It has given designers the advantage to develop new products and create induced need in the system and provide product, service and system that may not be required and push it in the use it and throw it market. While it has created convenience, it has after effects, which are both environmental and social. While on one hand it has improved the quality of life but on the other hand, it has affected the quality of life. Mr Vyas urged all to rethink the design approach and define design thinking in the coming times because of the issues of environment, issues of inclusive development, issues of sustainability etc, which can certainly be addressed with design. It can be addressed by merging organic, scientific and technological approach where all stake holders come together to co-create solutions. This multidisciplinary approach where the social scientist, technocrats, designers, science experts all sit together where design is not considered as a form of beautification or just dealing with the superficial but where design begins with a seeding of an idea. According to Mr Vyas, the paradigm shift, which has occurred from the industrial society to information society, and this knowledge economy, has given us a great opportunity. These opportunities which will shape the future certainly, if one looks

into it in a collective way. And also pave opportunities for many jobs or many services or many products for the future. Mr Vyas elaborated this by comparing the design scenario in Asia quoting statistics in China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan and established the need for India as a nation to catch up. He began with the examples of two cities; Seoul and Beijing. In Seoul, in a 3 year old survey, recorded 1,600 design companies and Beijing has 20,000 design companies. There are 10,000 designers in Seoul and 250,000 designers helping the economy in Beijing. There exists 15,000 design related patents have been filed in Seoul in one year and around 3,000 plus in Beijing. There are 80 design schools in Seoul and 112 in Beijing. There are 25,000 design students in Seoul studying design and 30,000 in Beijing. In just about 30 years, Mr Vyas pointed out that in China, from 1980 to 2008, the design industry has grown 2,000 percent. Comparing statistics of two countries, that of Japan and Taiwan, Mr Vyas continued to establish the rapid growth of the design industry. In Japan there are 170,000 designers and in Taiwan there are 26,000 designers. There are 150 design institutes in Japan and 52 in Taiwan. Considering the population of Japan is 128 million and that of Taiwan is 23 million, the number of design students in Japan is 32,000 and 14,000 in Taiwan. The number of design patents registered per year in Japan is 9,000 and 4,000 in Taiwan. In India, with a population of about 1.2 billion, there are about 30 design institutions with about 1,500 design students graduating per year. Taking into consideration industrial, communication and environmental designers, there would be only about 10,000 in number in the country. India as a nation, Mr Vyas pointed out is way behind in design education and design practice. With this background, the Govt of India has announced 4 new national design institutes (Jorhat, Kurukshetra, Hyderabad and Bhopal) based on the recommendation of the National Design Policy to benchmark design education. India Design Council alongside is focused on design awareness, design education, design promotion, design protection and design investment. It aims to establish that design is a sound investment for any enterprise as it ensures multifold returns on it. A major sector that IDC is concentrating on is the micro small and medium scale industry. This is the second largest employer of the country after agriculture and is also the most vulnerable. There are innumerable entrepreneurs working on product development depending on their own capability and who require professional approach in improving their products or services. The Govt of India and the Ministry of MSME has made NID a nodal agency to promote design concepts in these sectors. There is upsurge in design activities in India, but when compared with other countries, it is nowhere near the per capita investment nor the designers in this country and this a definite challenge. The design movement has started in India and the policy makers must take design and innovation seriously to contribute productively towards the nations economy. Designers need to be an integral part of the nations innovation system and be part of the multidisciplinary team that undertakes any project.

Industry-Academia Collaborations in Design Innovation

Prof. GG Ray, Head, Industrial Design Centre (IDC), IIT Mumbai, is also an honorary professor at the School of Biotech Engineering of the institute and a specialist in the field of ergonomic design and largely contributed in this field through teaching, research and many prestigious industrial projects. His areas of expertise are product and consumer ergonomics and design for physically handicapped. He has a large number of publications to his credit, presented both at national and international forums. Prof Ray, in his theme address, divided his deliberations into 2 parts. The first part of the presentation had a wide range of successful projects from IDC, which integrated technology, education and industry. Projects spanned from Rocket Science, which was not shared because of confidentiality issues to a simple needle for the elderly and simple implements for construction laborers. He emphasized the importance of technology, without which Prof Ray felt neither design nor innovation can succeed. He began by sharing the Indian rupee symbol, which was designed by a PhD Scholar, Uday Kumar Dharmalingam whose thesis was on typography and attributed the success to a strong research background. He demonstrated a large collaborative team endeavor in the project Incorporating behavior of people in ATM machines (NCR Group) in collaboration with upper middle scale manufacturer where the team worked with an existing global technology and adapted and modified it to a local context. The brief was to design a low cost ATM machine interface grounded in Indian context and Prof Ray emphasized that the project required a strong understanding of society and human behaviour in design. Other case studies that was shared were as follows:
Integrating work postures in the tablet making machines in collaboration with upper middle scale manufacturer. The brief was to design human machine interaction for the tablet producing technology. Innovation by Design: Learning from Postbox design in collaboration with middle scale manufacturer. Stove design inclusive to vision impaired people in collaboration with electrical engineering small-scale manufacturer. Walking aid for the elderly in collaboration with electrical engineering small-scale manufacturer. Fitness for the elderly interdepartmental collaboration with electrical engineering department. Ghemela, a small container used by workers in the construction industry in collaboration with basic research, small-scale manufacturer and local blacksmith.

The second part of the presentation highlighted the pros and con of both the industry and the academic arenas and how they need to merge. Prof Ray addressed why industry and academia must join hands by pointing out the following:
Design: A process for improvement in performance/efficiency with cost reduction. Industry: More concerned about actual deliverables. Academia: More concerned about the process to arrive at the details of the deliverables.

INVOLVEMENT OF THE TWO GROUPS: ACADEMIA & INDUSTRY Academia Finding a gap in the market Developing a product brief including the timeline and cost Understanding the requirements-defining the product brief Understanding the user- User study Design research, stimulation concept development/ evaluation Manufacturing/marketing Feedback * Industry *** *** **

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*LOW **MEDIUM ***HIGH

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THE STATUS TODAY Industry: Competitive Market Incomplete product brief Fast time line As much cost reduction as possible Hardly any investments in research Ill equipped with design understanding Hardly any research mindset Academia: Hardly concerned about market Develop complete product brief Slow time line for research Cost reduction requires technology Development & research multi disciplinary approach Time consuming Highly equipped with design understanding Mostly inclined to iteration for perfection, missing time line

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE Industry: Think ahead in terms of future design Research is essential for survival and taking a lead role Research is exclusive and expensive investment Personnel must have exposure on creating design mindsets Make collaborative approach with academia on consumer awareness Academia: Think ahead in terms of future technology Understanding industry requirements and formulate future research direction Enroll more research for frontline research Conduct program on manpower development for industry Join hands with industry on consumer awareness

Designing Systems of Engagement - TCS Perspective

K Ananth Krishnan, VP & CTO, Tata Consultancy Services, in his theme address, focused on information technology which he felt was relevant to the conference because of several factors. The key factor being size, scale and penetration of information technology today which has reached critical mass. Something like 60% of the worlds population today has access to information technology either through the mobile phone or some other technology based interface and therefore it is relevant to explore the role design can play in this revolution. In the Indian context as well, the IT industry is close to 5% of GDP and it employs almost 2 million people. IT from India has become a bit of a global brand. When TCS started in 1968, information technology in India was unknown. Software in India meant undergarments and IT was income tax. IT has come a long way and as an industry it needs to pay more attention to this. The IT over the years, has been designed for a very small and restricted consumption audience. This can be understood from the fact that the industry itself is probably about 60 years old and computers in the early days were very expensive. It was practically rocket science to use a computer and very few people had access to these machines. Functionality was the predominant design element and the computer had to work in a trustworthy manner. So for the first 20 to 25 years, the end user had to be an expert in many ways and therefore very little attention needed to be paid to the right brain aspects of design. Everything had to be the left-brain, logical, functional, engineering capability that was the focus. So much so that design, while it was an integral part of software engineering, had a very special connotation in IT. It was a phase which came right after requirements which is what an end user would articulate and design would turn that into a technology plan, implemented in the form of a programming language or database. Design would essentially be very functional regarding what needs to be done rather than what the nonfunctional characteristics like consumerability, usability etc should be which was indicative that design was much about engineering. The change that has happened since the personal computer revolution, in the mid 80s and now with the internet in the 90s and the mobility revolution in the last decade means that the usage pattern of information technology has changed dramatically. They are no longer designing systems for experts; they are no longer designing for restricted audiences in companies, government or back offices. They are now designing applications and systems, which are meant for everybody. Those who use mobile phone or tablets or laptops or ATMs or any kind of activity, which is technology-intermediated, would know a good well designed system from a boring ill designed system. When one sees a movie, which has computer-generated images one recognizes quality immediately. The perverseness of consumption is now the frontier, which has suddenly made information technology industry realize that there is a huge opportunity. Products like the ipad has set the

bar very high giving rise to questions like what is it that a very well designed information technology product (hardware and software) can do for customer experience. This change in the Indian IT industry has started happening in the last 4 years. It is now time to make a mindset change from building systems of record, systems of transactions, which has been the system for the last 40 to 50 years to building systems of engagement. The IT systems now need to engage with the end user in their personal space. The IT system is no longer used in a very isolated way but which is integrally part of peoples lives and therefore this is where the mindset change has to happen. This means that there is a tremendous need for the predominantly left brain kind of capability that the IT industry in India has today which is based on software engineering, technology skills, programming, databases etc, which built the 100 billion dollar industry and which is clearly still required and needs to continue. But it is equally urgent to engage with the design community. In India its time to think about how is it possible to make the IT systems an integral part of peoples lives. People will now be using applications at home, in hospitals, on trains, at passport offices and so many different areas of usage that it is now essential on the IT industry to start thinking of systems of engagement across peoples lives rather than single standalone good-looking application with some good screens. If there is something that I would like to highlight as potentially something a global advantage teacher leveraging of course the brand of Indian IT is this junction of IT and frugality. India has thanks to products like the Nano, which the Tata Motors created, Swach the water filter, which TCS and Tata Chemicals have invented, a surprising brand that India is very good for frugal innovation. We create products, which are meant for a very large mass market and are designed extraordinarily well for cost and ease of production and potentially disruptive price points. People are even writing books on this, Jugaad Innovation has become a buzz word that a lot of people expect to see in a lot of jugaad innovation in India. People who visit India often want to drive down the old Delhi Agra Expressway to see Jugaad at work, namely he super modified tractor trailer which has got a pump set engine. The combination of Indian IT and Jugaad/Frugal innovation will give us the leverage to very rapidly build the kind of skill that Mr Vyas mentioned. Europe is well known for a brand in design. In Asia we have China Japan and now increasingly have Singapore as emerging brands in design. In India we are starting off on our journey. We have 12 thousand designers in the community; this is where the Indian IT industry was in 1985. Today the IT industry has into a community of over 2 million. We have the opportunity to combine these factors, the brand that we have, the information technology and the capability that this technology brings to millions of people through mobile phones and computers. And frugality, a brand that is building up, is giving us a competitive advantage. This can be achieved through Co-innovation, which as a business model brings together different capabilities and skills from different participants, from

the industry, the academia and design specialist. TCS is looking at creating a Global Design Eco System by looking at design as a co-innovation opportunity. So to summarize
The role of information technology as an important part of systems of engagement with very large sections of the population, running into millions and billions. Leveraging that opportunity with what the Indian IT industry is today which has reached certain critical size and mass as a brand. Combining that with frugality, which is again an opportunity set, which is in a global context, is relatively unique. Lastly to use the power of co-innovation to bring these parties together.

The Rest of the Sessions Included:

Session I: Success by Design Local & Global Case Studies Chair: Prof. G G Ray, Head, Industrial Design Centre, IIT Mumbai Narendra Ghate, Head-Innovation Labs, TATA Elxsi Suresh Sethi, VP-Global Consumer Design, Whirlpool Ravi Kaushik, Director-Marketing, GE Healthcare Ratna Chatterjee, Chief Consultant, Automotive R&D Management Consulting Session II: Unlocking Business Value Through Design Best Practices Practitioners Perspective (Panel Discussion) Moderator: Narendra Ghate, Head-Innovation Labs, TATA Elxsi Amit Kishn Gulati, Managing Director, Incubis Consultants Manoj Kothari, Director & Principal Strategist, Onio Design Niladri Mukherji, Founder & CEO, Glue Design Lipika Sud, Principal Designer, Lipika Sud Interiors Pvt. Ltd. Ektaa Aggarwal, Creative Director, Landor Associates Neha Modgil, Director, Techved Consulting India Pvt. Ltd. Session III: Making Difference Through Design Business & Social Innovation Case Studies Chair: Dr. Sumer Singh, Asst. Professor, IDDC, IIT Delhi D D Kapoor, Jt. Managing Director, Korus Engineering Solutions Anshul Aggarwal, Director-Operations, Design for Change Anuj Prasad, Director, Desmania Design Sudhir Kumar, Director, SKM Design Expert Address: Aspiration of Indian Design Industry Manoj Kothari, Director & Principal Strategist, Onio Design Expert Address: Managing Intellectual Property of Product Design Vikrant Rana, Managing Partner-IP Practice, S S Rana & Co. Forum Objectives Establish the concept of design as a creative element of innovation among industry players Reinforce the rationale of design as a significant factor of

competitive distinction in local and global markets Create industry appreciation for design as an essential tool for planning and problem-solving Emphasize the importance of design as an approach to systems thinking Advocate and influence policy makers to create progressive design policy to spearhead growth of domestic design industry Encourage public and private investment in design education and capacity building Showcase local and global case studies in design-based innovation Create a vibrant platform for free flow of ideas and inspiration among design practitioners, experts and industry leaders Understand emerging opportunity landscape for design-based innovation Assess current business environment for growth of design industry in India Learn best practices in design strategy and leadership Exchange local and global case studies in design excellence Foster industry-academia partnerships in design projects Network with design professionals, senior experts and practitioners Meet new clients, customers and benefactors