Business Commons^™

Cugar: A Model For Open Innovation In Science And Technology Parks, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

This paper reviews key elements of a Science or Technology Park in the context of open innovation. Insights into and recommendations on key issues related to intellectual property, licensing and venture capital that would be of interest to any Science Park are presented later.

Innova Technology (B): Growing The Business For Anti-Loss Devices, Desai Narasimhalu, Sarita Mathur

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

This case is the second part of a two-part series on Innova Technology, a technology start-up company based in Singapore. The two cases focus on: Case (A) – Developing, producing and marketing a product innovation Case (B) – Growth strategies and its related challenges for a young technology company The case is set in November 2012, two months after the launch of PROTAG, a new anti-loss device developed by Rick Tan and his partner, Jonathan Lim. Tan is the chief executive officer of Innova Technology Private Limited, the company that manufactures and sells PROTAG. After a highly successful product launch, …

Nurturing Innovative Entrepreneurs, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

The Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, or IIE, was set up at the Singapore Management University (SMU) in September 2009 to create and grow an entrepreneurial culture amongst students, staff and faculty through collaborations within and beyond the community. The Institute has various functions that help innovators commercialise their business ideas.

Innovation & Entrepreneurship has been identified as an Area of Excellence of SMU where multidisciplinary research, teaching & knowledge transfer, and outreach & collaboration are integrated to solve real-world challenges. The SMU Innovation and Entrepreneurship Area of Excellence focuses on building an array of programmes and expertise that …

Innova Technology (A): Seeking A Market For Anti-Loss Devices, Desai Narasimhalu, Sarita Mathur, Adina Wanjun Wong

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

This case is the first part of a two-part series on Innova Technology, a technology start-up company based in Singapore. The two cases focus on: Case (A) – Developing, producing and marketing a product innovation Case (B) – Growth strategies for a young technology company The case is set in May 2012, and begins with the protagonist, Rick Tan, chief executive officer of Innova Technology Private Limited, contemplating what his company’s go-to-market strategy should be. Tan and his business partner, Jonathan Lim, who is also the Chief Technology Officer for Innova Technology, developed PROTAG, a new anti-loss device, using Bluetooth …

Innovating Services In Science And Technology Parks, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

Science and Technology Parks are in the business of providing services to their tenants, a mix of large companies, Small and Medium Enterprises and startups. The service needs of each of these types of companies will be different. The quality of services can be improved by understanding the needs of the tenants both, prior to building the Science and Technology Parks as well as on an ongoing basis. This paper introduces the CUGAR model for Science and Technology Parks as well as Service Innovation Design framework. It then proceeds to discuss how the Service Innovation framework could be applied to …

A Tool For Designing Business Model Innovations, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

There is a steady stream of business model innovations created to deliver value to customers using new approaches. Famous examples of business model innovations have been Amazon, Dell computers and Starbucks. Several other examples of business model innovations have been created across industries and reported in popular and academic forums. Osterwalder and Pigneur had defined a business model canvas as a framework for analysing business models. They had defined nine key subcomponents of a business model. Companies and individual entrepreneurs who wish to create business model innovations are still deploying trial and error approaches to discovering new business models. There …

Designing Optimal Innovation Portfolio, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

There have been many approaches towards investing in innovation projects. There has been very little discussion about the need to align such investments with the mission, vision, goals, leadership style, value discipline and risk appetite of an organization. This paper reviews existing approaches to innovation related investments and suggests the setting up of a proper innovation portfolio management process along with three dashboards that will help make innovation related investment decisions in an informed manner. The resulting innovation portfolio will be optimal in its alignment with an organizations mission and vision. We expect this method to be used by all …

Quantine: Virtualising The Interview Process, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu, Adina Wong

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

The case is set in January 2012, and begins with Kenneth Yap, the founder of Quantine Pte Ltd, strategising on an effective growth plan for his company. Quantine was a job candidate pre-screening service provider, which specialised in asynchronous video interviews. In the three years since its inception, market forces and internal factors had necessitated a change in its original corporate strategy. The business had started out in 2009, focusing on competency assessments for testing technical skills for the information technology industry. It also provided aptitude tests for companies to assess candidate qualities such as numerical skills and the ability …

Innovation Rules: A Method For Identifying Disruptive Innovation Opportunities?, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

Innovation Rules or innovation evolution paths are described in this paper as a mechanism for identifying disruptive innovation opportunities. A generic structure of an Innovation Rule is first introduced followed by a discussion using specific instance of an Innovation Rule. The application of Innovation Rules for the discovery of disruptive innovation opportunities is presented next. Two methods that use Innovation Rules as the basis for identifying disruptive innovation opportunities are described next, one for market pull and the other one for technology push. A framework for dealing with Innovation Rules that represent both big and small disruptions is discussed next. …

Consumer Driven Innovation Management, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu, Shekhar Mitra

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

The evolution of human society leads to increased affluence and prosperity of certain populations, sometimes at the expense of well-established markets. Market leaders in products and services tend to be so focused on their current customer base that they are caught off guard with the changes in markets created by the evolution. These changes often go unnoticed until it is too late. The change in customer base often requires the repositioning of products and services through innovations, which address new and emerging markets. Some of these changes could potentially result in tectonic market shifts that force innovation managers to involve …

Jayaashree Industries: Revolutionising Sanitary Pad Use In India, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu, Christopher Dula

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

Arunachalam Muruganantham is a social entrepreneur dedicated to solving India’s menstrual health problems. He developed an unprecedented product as a solution: a low-cost, locally produced sanitary pad. In a paragon effort of frugal innovation, he reverse-engineered the industrial processes used to make sanitary-pads. The result was a small-scale, low-cost machine that could manufacture quality pads sold at a retail price 20% lower than the cheapest mass-produced brands. However, no one bought his pads until his wife began to sell them. After which, the two were unable to keep up with demand. This triggered his realization concerning the importance of including …

Science And Technology Parks As An Open Innovation Catalyst For Valorization, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

This paper sets out by reviewing the key elements of a Science or Technology Park in the context of open innovation. This is followed by a broad scan of Science and Technology Park activity in South and South East Asia. The paper proceeds to discuss Singapore’s continuous efforts to create new Science and Technology park models and presents a new approach the Singapore Management University has pursued for catalyzing valorization. Insights into and recommendations on key issues related to intellectual property, licensing and venture capital that would be of interest to any Science Park are presented later.

An Extensible Framework For Selecting Incremental Innovations, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

There are several innovation methodologies reported in the literature starting from simple concepts such as technology push and market pull all the way to Disruptive innovation. Almost all these methods do not provide for customizability and extensibility. The method described in this paper is called Quick and Dirty Innovation Method or QaDIM in short to represent the fact that the method can be used rather easily to identify incremental innovation opportunities. The paper will first describe the basic concept, and then proceed to give a sample framework before proceeding to describe the extensibility. The method allows firms and individuals to …

Innovation Rules: A Step By Step Approach Towards Identifying New Innovation Opportunities, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

No abstract provided.

A Quality Metric For Sustainable Innovations, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

Sustainability has become a major concern for nations and firms especially since the Kyoto Protocol was defined in 1997. While there have been several studies on benchmarks for national innovation systems and effectiveness of innovation management within firms there is as yet no reasonable metric for determining the quality of an innovation much less its quality relating to sustainability? Similarly, there have been several studies on sustainability but that such research groups have also not focused on developing a metric for denoting the quality of sustainable innovations. This paper offers a metric that defines the quality of an innovation, especially …

Agile Innovation Management, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

The volume and velocity of innovations are on the increase resulting in increased pressures on every company for attaining, retaining and increasing its market leadership. Many companies need to retool their innovation management processes to address two agility related objectives in order to survive and grow in such a rapidly changing innovation environment. The first objective would be the ability to assemble an innovation team within the shortest possible time. This can only be satisfied by companies that are capable of forming innovation teams rather quickly. The related second objective would be to reduce the I2M (Idea to Market) cycle …

Managing Successful Innovation Delivery, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

No abstract provided.

Strategies For European Ict Rtd Collaboration With Australia And Singapore, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu, Narayanasamy Ramasubbu, Alex, Tai Loong Tan, Eric Prem, Ian Morgan, Ashley Stewart, Emma Baron, Dana Sanchez

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

No abstract provided.

Innovative Entrepreneurs Workbook, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

The workbook provides a step by step approach to identifying innovation opportunities and the key aspects of Innovation development

Innovation Rules : A Step By Step Approach Towards Identifying New Innovation Opportunities., Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

This book is organized in three sections. The first section introduces twenty five innovation rules that reflect how innovations have progressed over time. The second section explains how the innovation rules can be used to identify possible innovation opportunities. The third section explains how to choose innovations for commercialization. Pay sufficient attention to each of the Innovation Rules when you read the first section. Each rule captures the introduction and evolution of successful innovations. Each rule is listed on one page and its description on the opposite page. Rules have more than one stage, the initial stage followed by one …

A Framework For The Integration Of Expert Systems With Multimedia Technologies, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

Expert system (ES) technology allows the capture and replication of expertise in an application domain. So far, the type of data that is used by an expert system for its reasoning process remains primarily alphanumeric. Image, graphics, and other dynamic data such as voice and video are part of an emerging technology generally termed multimedia technology. This article highlights the critical issues in building a successful application combining the two technologies. Based on these critical issues, it also provides a framework for the integration of multimedia technology with expert systems technology.

Management Of Technology Deployed In Service Innovations, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

Services form a major portion of the GDP of several nations, especially that of the first world nations. These nations also experience high cost of providing services of different kinds. This has resulted in the displacement of non-customer facing services to countries that can offer them at lower prices. Nations have to be concerned about sustaining their economies even as such off-shoring of services continue to grow. It is therefore important to understand how countries can create those service innovations that will help them retain the growth trajectory of their economies. We believe that the different types of service innovations …

Service Innovation Opportunity Identification, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Innovation Is Bright And Shiny As Never Before, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

This bright shiny future is due to several reasons including better understanding of opportunity identification and innovation management, significant advances in technologies, new economic realities and the shi ing focus to service innovation. Innovation was perceived as an art practised by an exclusive few sitting in an ivory tower of a corporate headquarters of a company. The availability of methods such as Disruptive Innovation, Blue Ocean Strategy and Innovation Rules has empowered ordinary individuals to identify innovation opportunities as never before. This is a sea change in the sheer number of minds searching for the innovation needles in other otherwise …

Innovation Engine, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

This paper describes a meta-model for innovation using an automobile engine as a metaphor. This innovation meta-model is used to manage a collection of innovation models. We develop an algorithm to identify innovations with potential for success using this meta-model. This meta-model can be used by corporations and individuals to identify plausible innovations at any given point in time.

Innovation Stack - Choosing Innovations For Commercialization, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

This paper describes a method for enterprises to order the innovations of interest according to a number of parameters including their own business strategy and core competencies. The method takes into account aspects such as ability to create entry barriers and complementary assets. Enterprises can now use this method to both filter out innovations that may not be of interest to them and then order the short listed or selected innovations according to their attractiveness.

A Method For Monetizing Technology Innovations, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

Technology innovations from most universities and research institutes are generally created with no clear path to commercialization in mind. This is largely due to the culture in academic institutions and research institutes whose mission it is to explore the creation of innovations that promise long term benefits. This culture of academic freedom leads to a stockpile of technology innovations at their technology transfer offices (TTOs). These offices are often in a dilemma on how best to monetize the technology innovations that are in their custody. While there have been many social science research methodology based studies on this subject under …

A Maturity Model For Innovation Management, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

No abstract provided.

Random Thoughts On Innovation, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

....We had to bring about an organizational innovation by reengineering the organization itself!!! The late 1990s saw us redefine the mission of the organization to be user and market centric aiming to produce solutions with a 10X difference. We had to create a program that will allow promising technologies and solutions created by engineers and scientists who were passionate to see their works utilized by the world. This required transforming a quasi-academic publicly funded lab into an engine that would generate new businesses. The transformation was not easy. This was also about the time when the dot com bubble was …

Re-Engineering Xid Technologies - From Enterprise To Consumer Markets, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

Several studies have addressed the process of taking ideas to markets but few have shared the experiences of start up companies that have reexamined their product strategies and repositioned their products and services for better revenues and profits. This paper reports the efforts related to repositioning of XID technologies, a start up company, into new markets while continuing to exploit its core technical competencies.