Wednesday 6 March 2013

Collaborative Innovation Model by Prof. B. K. Chakravarthy



Collaborative and network driven innovation is the buzz word in this era of globalization and high competition. In light of this need of the hour, Shenoy Innovation Studio (SIS) is the latest facility added to the Industrial Design Center at IIT Bombay.

Core Value

SIS is an innovation studio aimed to aid industries in innovating continuously by designing methodologies tailored to their specific conditions and needs. SIS will create a balance between design and management thinking. Flexible Collaborative Model of Innovation, developed by Prof. B. K. Chakravarthy, will form the backbone of this innovation methodology. The design philosophy will be based on, Collaborative Design, that seeks a synergetic consideration of the three cores: user insight, new technology and creative ideation.

Philosophy

The core philosophy of SIS is innovation by humanizing technology.

Target

SIS’s attention is directed towards disruptive as well as sustaining innovation for development of new and futuristic products and services that will delight the users. The methodologies developed in the studio covers large industries in private and public sector, small scale industries, government sector and craft sector.

It intertwines the education system with the industry in a mutually beneficial collaboration. This helps to increase levels of excellence and relevance in learning, teaching and research. At the same time more refreshing and out of the box outlook for the industry can be generated by the academia.

Process – Flexible Collaborative Model

Flexible Collaborative Model for Innovation consists of three teams: the core team, the enterprise wide cross-functional team, and the networked external team. The function and composition of the three levels are diagrammatically explained on the next page. These three teams together form the innovation team of an enterprise.

This innovation team needs to work directly under the top management as representation of top management in the collaborative network is very essential for the creation of an organization-wide innovation culture.

SIS educates and trains the members of the core team and enterprise wide cross-functional team by conducting demonstration programs and pilot projects to accelerate methodology and technology development, advance research in product conceptualization, organize creativity clinics and practice collaborative design.
In order to handle all communications and knowledge developed by the interactions of the three levels of the innovation team, an effective knowledge management system suited to specific enterprise needs is drawn out. Identification and reduction of barriers and inhibitors to innovation from human resource aspect is also undertaken.

In short, SIS helps an enterprise in developing an efficient and effective innovation management system using the Flexible Collaborative Model.

Monday 4 March 2013

Sunflower Model of Innovation by Prof. B. K. Chakravarthy






In today’s realm innovation has to be multinodal. Innovation needs to consider all aspects of product development as represented by the petals of the sunflower model of innovation. The flower is complete only when all petals are in perfect order.

Wednesday 6 February 2013

Affordable Habitat Project



The Affordable Habitats project was initiated in 2011 in partnership with ACC ltd. Initial efforts were directed towards understanding housing scenarios in India. Subsequently, we have been trying to formulate an approach focusing on the role of design and technology. This presentation shares some of our ideas and is meant to serve as an invitation to collaborate with us to further this initiative.

ICoRD'13 presentation



'Conflicts in the idea of 'assisted self-help' in housing for the Indian rural poor'. The paper reports some of the findings of the research work done by us as a part of the Affordable Habitat project, presented at ICoRD'13, IIT Madras in January 2013.

Monday 4 February 2013

Foundations 14: January 2013


The latest issue of "Foundations" magazine featuring the activities of the Holcim Foundation over the past year. The issue also includes a short preview of the 4th Holcim Forum to be held in April 2013 at IIT Bombay.