THEMES AND ROLES IN INNOVATION

B.V.L.NARAYANA

SPTM/RSC/BRC

Themes and roles

Innovation process in large firms: To establish and manage a systemic process of

innovation in firms requires a combination of specialized activities and coordination across these activities. Therefore, in firms, which establish and manage the systemic process of innovation, there are roles for specialists and coordinating managers. The process of innovation can be segregated into three distinct sets of activities -- invention, acceptance and implementation.

Themes and roles Three phases of innovation –invention ,

acceptance, implementation This necessitates roles for four types of people

(Sim et al 2007) – The inventors who focus on scientific and technical

invention prior to concept development Champions who are adept at selling the projects in

organizations Implementers who focus on facilitating the project

through the firm’s formal development process Innovators who operate across all the three

phases of innovation

Requirements for various roles

Characteristic INVENTOR CHAMPION IMPLEMENTER INNOVATORCore skillsTechnical Primary Secondary Secondary PrimaryMarket expertise Secondary PrimaryPolitical guiding Primary PrimaryImplementation Primary SecondaryPersonality

Creative ability TechnologyBusiness, political

Execution, coordination Multi faceted

Openness Introvert Extrovert Extrovert BothWork style Individual Group Group BothOrientation Task Communication Task and people Multiple

Requirements for various roles

Characteristic INVENTOR CHAMPION IMPLEMENTER INNOVATORPerspective

World view Life long learning Success Work to liveMake the world a better place

Identity source Technology Product Firm, family Customers

Knowledge base Technology

Some Technology, business, customer People and process

Technology, customer, business, market

Motivation Technology

Financial Success, reputation Earn a good living

Customer solutions

Attitude towards organizational politics Avoid Embrace

Find a rational answer

Accept—positively influence

Requirements for various roles

Characteristic INVENTOR CHAMPION IMPLEMENTER INNOVATOR

Process Invention only

Political acceptance, high level directing

Facilitate development after concept

Participate in all facets.

Type of innovation focused upon

Technological innovation

Market innovation

Incremental innovation

Radical innovation

Management implications

Reward for technical output

Need access to customers, rewards of prestige

Rational management, long term rewards

Maximum freedom to learn, access customers

Across firm Need systems of effective interaction, knowledge dissemination, and access

Innovation on Indian railways The process of innovation:

The systemic process of innovation on Indian railways is structured around the following components:

The technological pursuits of Railway Design and Standards organization (RDSO) (Inventor)

The implementation efforts of the divisional units headed by Divisional railway managers (Implementer)

The scheme of capturing innovative ideas and individualized projects being generated in the field by the Railway staff college (Collector)

The directorate of efficiency and research in the railway board, which monitors and coordinates these activities, which includes their interaction with other institutions. The Innovation promotion group does this job (Champion).

RDSO– inventor Time line of Pending projectsDirectorate

<3 4 5 6 >7Bridges & Structures 9 1 3 2 2 1Carriage 13 3 4 3 1 2Engine Development 6 0 1 4 1 0Electric Loco 9 6 2 0 0 1EMU & Power Supply 10 0 0 2 1 7Geotechnical Engineering 9 5 3 1 0 0Metallurgical & Chemical 3 0 2 0 0 1Motive Power 17 8 0 3 3 3Psycho-Technical 2 0 1 1 0 0Research 3 0 0 2 1 0Signal 5 0 0 1 1 3Telecommunication 3 0 0 1 0 2Testing 4 1 2 1 0 0Track Machines & Monitoring 6 1 1 1 0 3Track Design 11 0 0 0 5 6Traction Installation 9 0 4 4 1 0Traffic 3 0 3 0 0 0Wagon Design 11 5 3 0 1 2Total 133 30 29 26 17 31Percentage 1 0.22556 0.21805 0.195 0.128 0.233

No. of projects

Time line in years

RDSO --INVENTOR

Outlay on Research in RDSO XI th planin crores of rupees

Project areas

Adoption of high axle load 153.07 48.7 12 0.318Safety 44.9 14.9 10 0.332Reliability of Assets 83.5 45.5 13 0.545Upgradation and modernisation 853.13 287.58 47 0.337Throughput and speed 156.4 12.45 8 0.08Environment 9 9 4 1Passenger comfort 2.5 0.13 1 0.052Cost optimisation and efficiency 8.6 1 2 0.116Others 5 5 3 1Total 1316.1 424.26 100 0.322

Total cost

Project cost

No. of projects

Percentag

Outlay in tenth plan –110 crores; 2006-07 –61 crores

E and R directorate -Champion

The Efficiency and research directorate does not champion the projects for technology innovation nor for identification of potential innovation opportunities through market research. Innovation is one of the many subjects it manages. Perhaps it is a less significant one as the Chairman railway board (CRB) action plan monitoring format does not contain any indicators to assess generation and conversion of potential innovation opportunities at any unit level. There is also no significant output in form of reports as could be seen for benchmarking, CRB’s action plan, or efficiency parameter monitoring (This includes asset reliability data).

RSC --collectorMost common topics MDPMDP

out sourcingcontractual outsourcingbench markingcustomer satisafctionproject managementuse of ICT as aids

unit spares managementreview of existing processeseconomising traction costsMIS designscosting and cost benefit analysisbusiness process reengineering

Most common topics

AMP

out sourcing

contractual outsourcing

bench marking

customer satisafctionproject managementuse of ICT as aidsunit spares management

review of existing processes

economising traction costsMIS designscosting and cost benefit analysisbusiness process reengineering

RSC-collectornumber of projects done categorisation based on type of project

management development programmeCategory

1998 1999 2000 total average 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 total average

process 25 31 35 91 30.3 36 35 42 27 15 9 164 31new idea 0 5 5 10 3.3 14 5 7 11 8 4 49 9product 5 12 18 35 11.7 7 18 8 6 6 1 46 9total 30 48 58 136 45.33333 57 58 57 44 29 14 259 49

Management development programme Categorisation of projects based on functions1998 1999 2000 total % 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 total %

revenue driven 1 1 2 4 0.029 1 1 0 3 0 0 5 0.0195cost savings driven 29 47 56 132 0.971 56 52 57 41 29 16 251 0.9805

external orientation 3 5 12 20 0.147 5 8 4 6 7 1 31 0.1211internal orientation 27 43 46 116 0.853 52 45 53 38 22 15 225 0.8789

functional driven 17 36 43 96 0.706 48 46 53 35 23 15 220 0.8594integrated 13 12 15 40 0.294 9 7 4 9 6 1 36 0.1406

RSC -collectorAdvanced Management development programme

Category1998 1999 2000 total average 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 total average

process 19 25 24 68 22.66667 0 10 11 26 15 9 71 15.5new idea 6 3 4 13 4.333333 0 7 3 4 4 5 23 4.5product 3 6 10 19 6.333333 0 3 2 7 6 2 20 4.5total 28 34 38 100 33.33333 0 20 16 37 25 16 114 24.5

Advanced Management development programme Categorisation of projects based on functions1998 1999 2000 total % 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 total %

revenue driven 1 2 0 3 0.03 0 2 2 3 0 1 8 0.06957cost savings driven 27 32 38 97 0.97 0 18 14 35 25 15 107 0.93043

0external orientation 8 3 3 14 0.138614 0 3 4 8 5 5 25 0.21739internal orientation 21 31 35 87 0.861386 0 17 12 30 20 11 90 0.78261

0functional driven 14 24 23 61 0.61 0 14 10 29 19 11 83 0.72174integrated 14 10 15 39 0.39 0 6 6 9 6 5 32 0.27826

Innovation on Indian railways

Indian railways do not seem to focus on the external environment—external to the organization such as changing people preferences, changing customer needs. There seems to be no effort at even identifying different customer segments. There are no projects that focus on such issues. The entire emphasis of innovative activity seems to be directed at achieving cost reduction, ensuring asset reliability and capacity creation.

Innovation on Indian railways

This highly one sided functional orientation in all its activities indicates a predominant “Mechanistic” (Burns and Stalker 1961) orientation. Such an orientation indicates an organization that is used to operating in stable environments where demands exceed supply. Emphasis is on capacity creation and optimization for meeting demand. It also envisages a culture that is extremely function oriented with high levels of specialization and departmentalization and a hierarchic and bureaucratic control system.

Innovation on Indian railways Disconnect between intent and actions

The allocation for Research and development for RDSO has been increased only in the eleventh plan. Till the tenth plan the average allocation per year was not more than twenty crores (Approach paper to eleventh plan).

There are no technology projects, which look at Supply chain or logistic issues, nor they reflect projects to identify patterns of customer needs through segmentation. The innovation promotion group has not achieved any progress with regard to identification of customer centric opportunities for innovation. The mandate for this group does not seem to reflect this concern.

Innovation on Indian railways

The disconnect seems to continue in the way the roles for Efficiency and research directorate and Railway staff college are envisaged. The Efficiency and research directorate does not champion the projects for technology innovation nor for identification of potential innovation opportunities through market research. Innovation is one of the many subjects it manages. Perhaps it is a less significant one as the Chairman railway board (CRB) action plan monitoring format does not contain any indicators to assess generation and conversion of potential innovation opportunities at any unit level

Innovation on Indian railways

The Railway staff college uses parameters for selection of a project in AMP and MDP courses that constrain it to process and incremental innovations but do not constrain it to be highly functionally oriented. However the prevailing culture among officers in the field units, perhaps, forces selection of projects that are highly functionally oriented and one-dimensional. What happens to these ideas and opportunities identified is unclear but the fact that they do not find mention in the projects under the budgeting process indicates a dead-end for these opportunities.

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