Awards and recognition play an important role in encouraging
innovation. The government has been giving awards for several years now, but
with a focus on technological innovation. While these government awards were
decided by eminent juries, they lacked an in-depth assessment process. But, in
areas like quality (think of the Malcolm Baldridge or equivalent awards), an
important part of the selection process is the in-depth assessment carried out
by qualified assessors. So, when CII decided, after several years of internal
debate, to institute industrial innovation awards this year, such an assessment
became an integral part of the process.
Having been on innovation award juries before, I have found
that the challenge is to balance creativity, outcomes, and potential future
impact. It’s sometimes difficult to compare a very simple idea with huge
potential impact with a novel yet complex technological concept that could appear ahead of its time today but
revolutionise the industry later. Not surprisingly, such debates were an
important part of the deliberations of the jury for the CII Industrial Innovation awards that were announced a few days ago. A highlight of the jury
was its international composition and the enthusiastic participation of some
members who had flown thousands of miles to be a part of the process.
Knowing my penchant for writing on interesting innovations I
have seen, one of my co-jury members started teasing me during the
presentations that he “didn’t want to see all the confidential details splashed
on my blog.” I have taken his caution to heart and all the information given
here is based on what is available in the public domain!
I will restrict my comments to the two winners in the
manufacturing category. The applications for services innovation tend to be
dominated by IT, and I rarely see eye-catching ideas in this domain.
This Year’s Winners – Manufacturing
Bilcare, a Pune-based packaging solutions company won an
award for what it calls nonclonableID ™ technologies. These are used to prevent
counterfeiting and provide a validation of the originality of products across a
variety of industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to automobile components. In
India, the government has been particularly interested in these solutions
because of rampant counterfeiting and tampering. The Blicare solution creates a
unique material fingerprint for each product or component passing through a supply
chain and provides an end-to-end solution of verification and validation.
AP Organics, a Sangrur-based company, is a leading producer
of rice bran oil under the Ricela brandname. The company’s distinctiveness is
based on the patented physical refining process it has pioneered that preserves
important ingredients such as Oryzanol which has anti-cholesterol properties.
Today, the company has also effectively backward integrated, and through its decentralized
sourcing and processing, is able to source rice bran from multiple centres
across the country and use it before its short shelf life is over.
What’s Common to Both
The cases of both Bilcare and AP Organics underline the importance
of working on the “right” problems.
Counterfeiting and duplication erodes the brand value of
companies and poses significant losses to customers. It can be extremely
dangerous too in products like drugs. And counterfeiters are becoming more
sophisticated, so solutions have to become better too.
Not only is large import of edible oils a macroeconomic
problem for India, heart disease is becoming an important lifestyle hazard. Yet,
the Indian palate is unlikely to change in a hurry. Domestic production of “good”
oils is therefore a priority.
Both of these are good examples of the “pain-wave-waste”
criteria for problem selection that Vinay Dabholkar has stressed in our 8 Steps
to Innovation.
The Importance of End-to-End Innovation
Both Bilcare and AP Organics show that end-to-end innovation
has become necessary in many product categories. Of the two, AP Organics
appears to have been commercially more successful, possibly because it is
easier for it to manage the entire process. The Bilcare technology itself looks
to be sound, but involves system-level implementation which is not always easy.
Both Bilcare and AP Organics have shown the value of their
innovation in international markets though exports and international usage.
Both innovations have taken time to mature. In fact, Bilcare’s
technology is still not ubiquitous even though some customers like a Japanese
automotive component manufacturer have established its utility.
Surprises
I was both somewhat intrigued and saddened by the relative
absence of Indian pharmaceutical companies in the final shortlist. While my
fellow jury members were quick to explain this away by recalling the industry’s
focus on generics, pharma is even today India’s most R&D intensive
industry. And, not so long ago, we had several Indian firms undertaking courageous
drug discovery programmes. I hope this is just a blip and that we will see many
Indian pharma firms intensifying their efforts to discover new drugs or drug
discovery systems in the years ahead.
Tailpiece
Let’s hope that the new CII Industrial Innovation Awards
grow from strength-to-strength and become highly coveted awards in the years
ahead.
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