The changing innovation landscape

Historically, economic development of nations has occurred in stages — from mechanizing agriculture to industrializing factories and developing post-industrial enterprises. Experts describe development as evolutionary in which economies progress from simple to intricate activities. Factor-driven economy is at the low-end, processing natural resources; investment-driven in the middle, focused on high-volume manufacturing, and innovation-driven at the high-end, offering value-added products. As nations upgrade from factor processing to innovation, their economy is deemed to emerge sophisticated and prosperous. The future economy will be more and more Innovation-led.

Let’s look at the changing landscape in which innovation is happening today. There is greater focus on innovation today than ever before. We see more entrepreneurs in their twenties & thirties today instead of in their forties or fifties as were the norm before.

Democratization of innovation during the last 15+ years has led to technology and technological platforms & tools becoming more and more accessible and affordable for a lot more people than ever before. As a result, DIY culture is spreading far and wide through the Maker movement. Maker Labs or public Maker Spaces are springing up in many metros, encouraging creative types to try their hands with innovation using 3D printers, drones, robots and other gadgets. The Maker movement has gained momentum and has been organizing Maker Faires in metros during the last few years. Many academic institutions are also organizing makeathons, hackathons at campuses encouraging students to innovate.

Companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook and others are providing cloud-based technology platforms, products, tools and marketplaces aimed at developers to spur innovations that can reach a billion people or more.

There is also greater opportunity and support for budding innovators to take their innovations to the market today. Incubation labs, entrepreneurship cells and business accelerators are increasingly supporting budding entrepreneurs through mentoring and seed funding support with a view to get innovators to start and grow their business venture. Entrepreneurship is the name of the game.

Innovation is happening at an ever faster pace. Established businesses are increasingly being displaced by upstarts. Sometimes, the pace of innovation is outstripping our ability to keep pace with it. Take the case of job market. Increasing automation (as a result of innovations) is rendering several jobs redundant today.

According to Brookings Institute of Washington DC, in 1980, to generate US $1 million in manufacturing output, it took 25 jobs. That output could be achieved with just 6.5 jobs in 2015. Further back in history in 1979, to generate US $11 million, General Motors needed 840,000 workers whereas in 2012 Google needed fewer than 38,000 employees to generate US $14 billion! Innovation and entrepreneurship caused those dramatic changes. And, it continues to this day.

In India, the major job providers in the IT industry are largely focussed on technology-led IT services, offering customized software development, testing & allied services to their clients. As a result, we have created a large talent pool of skilled IT engineers, proficient in various technologies and tools. Today, this is both a boon as well as a bane. It has been a boon over the last 3 decades during which time the IT industry grew leaps and bounds. However, today, the industry is facing new challenges. It is estimated that one-third of all jobs in the Indian IT industry will be taken over by automation in the next 3-4 years, and 75% of remaining IT jobs will require new skills by 2022. This has necessitated the need for re-skilling of employees in the IT industry. But, mere re-skilling will not be enough. We may re-skill, but we will still be dependent on western markets for delivering IT services. With stricter visa regulations and restrictions on foreign skilled workers in the US and elsewhere, we are now facing different kind of challenges that may impede our growth in the future. So, acquiring skills in emerging technologies and tools are good, but not enough. In addition to technology re-skilling, if we can train people on innovation related skills, we can create new type of jobs that thrive on creativity & innovation. We can build a bigger market for innovative products & services within India and reap a higher rate of growth. The next big innovation power houses can emerge from within India and Indian economy can leapfrog to the innovation-driven stage.

Take the case of academic institutions which can be hotbeds for innovation and entrepreneurship among the student community. True democratization of innovation requires that every student in every community in every location has an opportunity to exploit his creative skills to innovate. There are several academic institutions across India, which are forging ahead in this area. They have setup innovation centers and entrepreneurship cells helping drive innovations among their student population. However, more needs to be done since innovation hasn’t yet become main-stream among the larger student population. There are several reasons for this:

• Students don’t always find a nurturing environment, support or opportunity within their institutions or communities to foster innovation and creativity. Many are also unaware of various innovation support forums & resources available to them within or outside their institutions. As a result, these support forums and resources are not being adequately exploited by the student community.
• The concept of innovation can be completely overwhelming for many. When we talk about innovation, we often refer to “big innovation”, innovation applied and designed by experts or by the R&D departments to create game-changing products and services. This is considered the holy grail of success. Let’s call it "macro innovation". Too often, we put the weight of the world on our shoulders and believe we only have two choices: (a) world-shifting innovation, or (b) do nothing. With that kind of pressure, it's no wonder that most of us restrict our creative output.
• Innovation often takes us on the path of entrepreneurship. However, for many, entrepreneurship is a risky proposition. Many shy away from it because it entails: having big “innovative” ideas and giving all our energies to it; it entails making compromises in personal lives. Entrepreneurship requires big investments, requires specialized knowledge and skills to build a product, solution or services based on the idea, having the right connections and network to successfully take it to the market and win. In essence, for many of us, entrepreneurship is out of the question.