Set the bar high. Keep the bottom line in mind. Identify the problems. Encourage from the top-down. Listen to your customers. Success or failure, celebrate new ideas. These themes echoed throughout this year's North American round of The Tata Group's Innovista competition - an annual event designed to encourage collaborative thinking and risk taking throughout the Tata group of companies.
At Tata, innovation is not just a side product of conducting business - it is a direct goal, with platforms, tools and processes in place to support and maintain fora for the experimentation and critique of ideas. Innovation has not only led to the expansion of Tata's global footprint, but it has allowed Tata companies to continue to grow and thrive through even the most unsteady of economic times.
Supporting Innovation from the Top-Down
In 2007, Tata Quality Management Services (TQMS), the group in charge of enhancing the global competitiveness and business excellence of Tata companies, set up the Tata Group Innovation Forum (TGIF). Comprised of 12 Tata company heads and led by Tata Sons Executive Director R. Gopalakrishnan, TGIF's mission was to design a framework to enable creative idea sharing platforms across all Tata sectors and geographies. The goals of fostering, evaluating and institutionalizing innovation served as the catalyst for the creation of the Tata Innovation Day - Innovista.
Innovista is an opportunity for Tata employees at all levels, in all regions and sectors to share their ideas with and to learn from their peers - with a splash of healthy competition in the mix. After the submissions are evaluated by TQMS, shortlisted entries present their innovations at a regional competition in their geography. Winners of the regional move on to the final global round in India. The grand prize is presented by Mr. Tata himself at a large function commemorating the birth anniversary of former Chairman J.R.D Tata.
The judging panel is comprised of business leaders and academics from various industry sectors and areas of expertise. The winners gain respect and attention from Tata leadership and their peers, and appreciation for the time and effort needed to execute these projects.
Submissions for Innovista are organized into three categories. The first, "Promising Innovation" is for ideas that have been tried and have succeeded, the second "Dare to Try" is for those projects that while promising in idea, did not succeed in action, and the third "Leading Edge" are for creative ideas that while not yet put into action, offer new opportunities for Tata Companies. "By structuring the competition into these three categories," says TQMS chief Sunil Sinha, "Tata creates an environment where no one is afraid to fail."
The success of Innovista is clear from the fervor of competition, the passion of the competitors, and the number of submissions themselves - 2010 participation in Innovista grew 53 percent - from 1,712 entries in 2009 to 2,618 entries in 2010.
The North American Competition
The 2010 North American regional round of Innovista saw 18 projects in the Promising Innovation and Dare to Try categories presented by employees from Tata companies in broadly different sectors - Tata Global Beverages (Eight O' Clock Coffee and Tetley Tea brands), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tata Steel International (Corus), and Indian Hotels (Taj Campton Place).While the topics of focus were broad - social media utilization, volunteerism development, marketing partnership creation, service delivery streamlining, customer service enhancement and more - each offered a unique solution to an industry, company, product or program issue. The byproduct helped to build employee satisfaction, gain market share, streamline efficiency, manage risk, reduce cost, or enable greater connection with customers.
Each idea was presented by 1-5 company employees, and each faced expert critique from judges Ravi Bhagavan, partner at Galileo Advisories, and Hank Zupnick, CIO of GE Real Estate. With a strong familiarity with Tata companies and extensive knowledge of the international business market, the judges provided feedback that pushed teams to think critically about their goals, tactics, and execution.
The winning programs of the North American Innovista competition were those ideas that showcased not just brilliance, but innovation - game changing ideas that are adaptable for future purposes. For the "Promising Innovation" section, this idea was Tetley Tea's unusual marketing of Red tea in Canada, which used the classic North American Halloween candy give away as a model for adult samples, and used word of mouth marketing to build a strong product launch in the Canadian market. For "Dare to Try", the winner was a group from TCS, whose idea "Lost Processing Tool for MSR's and Testers" designed to help Customer service representatives in handling the Loss/accident related queries of Insurance Policy
Holders accurately in lesser time. In July, these two teams will head to Mumbai, to compete against winners from eight other regions.
The Tata Ethos at Work
"For Tata," Sunil Sinha stressed in the event's closing remarks, "innovation is not just about R&D - it is about developing business while upholding Tata standards." Indeed, the entire Innovista program does just this. Keeping the Tata ethos of supporting community and ethical business in mind, many of these submissions focused on a key aspect of the overarching Tata ethos - from supporting and listening to employees and customers, to promoting sustainably and carbon reduction or investing in philanthropy.
From Eight O'Clock Coffee (EOC) came "Origin Columbian Coffee Buying", a project that simultaneously solved the problems faced by EOC from the increasing price of Columbian coffee, and forged a partnership with the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, a group that promotes social and economic development in Columbia. From TCS came a platform for global volunteerism and non-profit partnerships which also spurred growth in brand awareness in various regions.
For the Tata Group, innovation is a part of the business framework designed to both support new ideas and to bring them to fruition. Innovista is just one of the many platforms that TQMS is undertaking to promote the exchange of ideas across Tata companies. From the Tata Nano to the Tata Swach water purification system, Tata continues to experience successes that start with one goal, one problem, or one idea. Whether it be providing safe transportation in India, or making clean drinking water available in remote locations, Tata continues to invest in ideas that are changing the way global companies conduct business.