Page 1 of 4

CII & BMGI Presents Manufacturing Innovation Conclave

As the knowledge partner for Manufacturing Innovation Conclave, held in The Leela Palace, New
Delhi on the 20
th
June 2014, BMGI presented how Innovation differentiates between Innovator and
follower. The event was organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) that works to create
and sustain an environment conducive to the growth of industry in India.

The event comprised thought leaders from across the world with senior management
representations from reputed organizations like Maruti, Rolls Royce India Ltd, Siemens, HCL
Infosystems Ltd., Amtek Auto Ltd., Punj Lloyd Ltd, WNS Global services, Polaris India Private Limited
to name a few and representations from industrial & governing bodies like National Manufacturing
Competitiveness Council, Government of India and CII State Council

The event was organized into four sessions. While the inaugural session focussed on how innovation
acts as a key differentiator in organizations, the second session reflected how innovation how
Innovation and leadership are related. A panel discussion to discuss measuring the impact of
innovation efforts in Indian industries in the post lunch session and the closing session focused on
how innovation plays a critical role in manufacturing.

Mr Jayant Davar, Immediate Past Chairman, CII (NR) welcomed the audience and set context with
the example of the light bulb as innovated by Sir Thomas Edison. He introduced the speakers and
shared that while India is an entrepreneurial company only 1% or less its GDP being is invested in
R&D. He underscored that the philosophy of Jugaad does not work everywhere.

Mr Naresh Shahani, Founder & Managing
Director, Breakthrough Management Group
India (BMGI) focussed on the theme -
Innovation as key differentiator between
Innovator and follower. Innovation a key driver
of competitiveness, helps firms develop new
products and processes while impacting
environmental and social conditions. He
pointed that only 7 of the 30 BSE Sensex
companies from 30 years ago were still a part
of the index. He went on to emphasise that consumers are adopting technology much faster leading
to very short product life cycles. This demands building an 'Innovation DNA' by going back to
fundamentals and supporting new ideas. These views were echoed through the remainder of the
conclave. Mr Shahani outlined dimensions which are required for thriving innovation culture and
showcased D4 methodology, one of the most powerful structures to nurture Innovation.
Mr M M Singh, Co-Chairman, Regional Committee on Manufacturing Competitiveness, CII(NR)
shared how his team saved more than 100 million INR by through over 2000 innovative ideas from
shop floor. Mr Singh also stated that NPD of India has not grown significantly in last 30 years and
domestic strength will decide how much we will innovate in future.
Page 2 of 4

The chief guest of the event, Mr Ajay Shankar, Member
Secretary, National Manufacturing Competitiveness
Council, Government of India felt that success in
Manufacturing Industry without innovation is going to
be tough and manufacturing growth rate after 80s
have not been shifted. In his keynote he further stated
that our feudal culture often resulted in our delayed
global integration whereas China has gone ahead with
30% excess capacity across its manufacturing spectrum.
Despite this Mr.Shankar felt India has the capability to
be globally competitive, since most Fortune 500 companies continue to aggressively hire R&D staff
at their India centres. He suggested that Indian manufacturing needs to think big while keeping in
mind the capital constraints faced by most companies and thereby endorsed the concept of frugal
innovation.
Mr Sameer Gupta, Vice Chairman, CII Uttar Pradesh State Council summarized the inaugural
session and provided the concluding remarks, flagging the way for the second session that was
chaired by Dr Jitendra K Das, Director, Fore School of Management.

Speaking on the topic 'Leadership and Innovation' session Dr. Jitendra K Das, Director, FORE School
of Management astutely put the onus of identifying an efficient path of innovation on the top
management of companies. He also mentioned how to integrate technology with innovation and to
deploy innovation we have go much beyond our current efforts.
Bringing the customer into the innovation process, Subhankar Lahiri, Head, Manufacturing Vertical,
Ricoh India, was of the opinion that engaging customers in the process of product creation was
essential to brand building. He mentioned how 10 types of Innovation is required to build the
innovation culture. He gave examples of Walmart, Google, Quikr, OLX and Samsung as how new
different innovative models are used presently. He further noted how video games have changed
from small TV games to Play Stations.
Dr. Maghin Tamilarasan, Director Strategy and Business Development, Rolls-Royce India, stated
that staying in the ahead in the innovation game means investing significant amounts in R&D and by
partnering with research institutes. Sharing that the key is having a clear vision for innovation and
involvement of all employees in idea generation, he noted that innovations should be rewarded and
recognized more often.
Providing an engineering point of view, Rahul Sehgal, Director Business Consulting & Strategy,
Siemens Industry Software (India) Pvt. Ltd, shared that Siemens, a driver for Innovation in
Automation for decades, has been working on Cyber Physical Systems or machine to machine
(M2M) conversations that would be the way forward for the world as is being demonstrated by
Industry 4.0, a high-tech strategy project in Germany. He observed that it would only be imperative
to create an Innovation ecosystem jointly with suppliers and customers.
Speaking about Democratization in Innovation, Rajiv Bajaj, Country Manager Manufacturing
Solutions India and SAARC, Autodesk India PVt. Ltd, emphasized that innovation is about bringing
ideas and deploying successfully and Innovation clubbed with designs could do wonders. He talked
about how internet in aircrafts is changing lives with new innovations developed. . Mr Bajaj noted
that High-tech systems have more value when they are democratized as highlighted by The
Page 3 of 4

Innovation Genome Project that aims to make each person an agent of innovation. The spark for
innovation is to realise that there is a better way to do things according to Mr Bajaj.
Mr Naresh Shahani moderated of the
panel discussion on the topic
Measuring the impact of Innovation
efforts. Pankaj Dubey, Country Head
and MD, Polaris India felt lean
innovation is the core innovation. He
stressed that there is no better time
for innovation in the way of work, in
the equipment that we use; leveraging
the cost of capital to address the scale
to produce world class products.
Taking this thought forward Manoj
Kumar, Executive Vice President & CEO, Ricoh India Pvt. Ltd., insisted on monitoring innovative
products during the gestation period since not all are instantly successful. He warned that the real
challenge is scaling up and being more competitive in order to reach the next level that is inevitable.
Bringing the discussion back to the importance of the customer JV Ramamurthy, President & COO,
HCL Infosystems Ltd, maintained that innovation was essentially driven by focusing on the bottom
of the pyramid. He stated that how internet technology has developed and products and services
are ever changing from 2Gs to 3Gs. Vijay K Arora, Director, Amtek-Auto, provided the example of
how Apple innovates to lead and not for survival which should be the mantra for innovation. On the
prospect of India becoming a manufacturing hub like China, Mr. Arora felt Indias logistical
challenges hamper efficiency that prevents us from achieving this goal and hoped that the new
government will address these roadblocks and stated Acche din aane waale hain (Good Days are
ahead, in Hindi).
The concluding session focused on the
critical role of Manufacturing Innovation
Excellence and session chairman Ms
Shammi Pant, Sr. Director, WNS Global
Servi ces set the context and introduced the
speakers. She stressed the need to produce
more with less use of raw material and with
lower waste generation.

She found agreement from Dr. Zubin
Varghese, Sr. Director Innovation &
Advanced Engineering, Ingersoll Rand, who
stressed on the need to explore innovative
ways to ensure clean air, safe food and energy efficiency. He insisted on the need for discipline and
rigour in the process of innovation which includes validating ideas, prioritising and measuring them
through milestones. This discipline includes courage to kill a project that does not meet
expectations. He stressed on the importance of having innovative products & services that will make
difference in the market.

Page 4 of 4

Speaking about Product Innovation for New Product Development within this last session, Ajeet
Thakur, Country Manager, Creaform BU Ametek, India was of the view that as technology evolves it
adds value to the customer and brings down cost, part of this evolution is incremental advancement
which happens when companies add features to an existing product. He further stated, Technology
and innovation are powerful tools for change and as we begin to face up to the multiple
economic, environmental and social challenges of our time, innovation in technology offers the
solutions at the speed and scale required.
Answering a question about Indias ability to compete in aircraft manufacturing Ashok Wadhawan,
President Manufacturing Business Punj Lloyd believed on the urgent need for Indian companies
to form a consortium like China did for its new fighter jet since Indian companies lack the capability
to execute such large projects alone. In order for the right environment for innovation, it should
start from the top with leadership defining how much of the business should be a result of the
innovation. Dr. Varghese shared this thought when he said companies needed to collaborate and
invite other companies to view their products and innovation in reply to a question about making
open innovations. Thus the way forward for Indian innovation is through collaboration and
cooperation.

About BMGI
BMGI is a global consulting firm that specializes in providing management consulting solutions
in strategy, innovation, problem solving and business transformation. Headquartered in Longmont,
USA, BMGI has offices in 13 countries around the globe. In India, BMGI is located in Mumbai.
BMGI's business strategy consultants work with organizations to build and execute successful strategy
implementation and drive growth. BMGI leads in building a culture of innovation across the enterprise that
transcends from top management to the lowermost execution level. BMGI partners with organizations
in leveraging and promoting innovation. BMGI helps organizations solve problems harnessing the power of
cutting edge techniques. BMGIs Problem Solving capabilities have made it known world over as the best
operations excellence consulting firm.
BMGI with its deep understanding of changing trends in nature of markets, preferences of customers and
expectations from stakeholders offer the Business Advisory Services to its clients to help them align with the
right designing and execution of strategy for successful businesses transformations.
A few major clients BMGI has worked with in India include Volkswagen, John Deere, Fiat, Daimler, Bajaj Auto,
Reliance Industries, ITC, Vodafone, Asian Paints, L&T, Accenture, and Oracle.

For More Information, Contact:

Varun Chugh
Phone : +91-22-40020045
Email : press@bmgindia.com