Associate Professor, Ex. Program Chairperson MBA (Evening), Haryana School of Business, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar-125001, Haryana, India
Online published on 7 August, 2012.
While creativity is the process of generating new ideas, innovation relates more to the process of implementing new ideas for the benefit of the organization. Innovation is about creating and capturing value through non-traditional approaches. It is about executing path-breaking models that are both disruptive and sustainable. The term ‘innovation’ covers all the activities in bringing a new product or process to the market. It tends to be an expensive, time consuming transformation process, which is management and resource intensive.
Every new product or service results initially from an idea that then follows an innovation cycle of testing, implementing and marketing. It is generally accepted that that the key to competitiveness is generating and successfully exploiting new ideas. Generating new ideas is therefore an organizational must. Generating new ideas that lead to successful innovation is at a premium. Innovative companies are the ones who succeed by defining new economic models and create a more permeable sort of enterprise that aligns incentives across a broader network to creating and capture new value. Changes to the functionality of the product/service are nearly always where conventional innovation teams start. There is an important role to play for incremental innovation – refreshing a product or service on an annual or more frequent basis can keep customers returning and take advantage of continuing technology advances. The companies that innovated substantially on product performance started with a deep understanding of customer needs or industry shortcomings. They showed a willingness to look outside of the companies’ internal capabilities, and beyond their existing customer base. The financial service business unit of Tata Consultancy Service started out by striving to understand the banking requirements of the rural Indian. TCS used its robust innovation infrastructure - a combination of internal resources and strategic partners including Tata Group companies and other entities like emerging technology companies, academic institutions and others. An attempt has been made in this paper to discuss the success story of present Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services Mr. N. Chandrashekhran.
Innovation, creativity, Information technology, Chief Executive Officer
