Gone are the days of C-Suite leaders in their private jets and corner offices. Today’s corporate leaders must practice a more hands-on approach to build their organisations’ innovation capabilities in sync with AI and other emerging technologies, an approach known as Management By Walking Around (MBWA)
Words by Prof. Rajendra Srivastava
A little over two decades after Independence, while addressing more pressing concerns like food security and public health, India decided to also invest in science and technology, more particularly space exploration, by establishing the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). As the world celebrated ISRO’s successful lunar mission last year, what went unnoticed were the initial false starts, what I like to call ‘successful failures’ through which the team of scientists obtained important data that eventually contributed to the success of Chandrayaan-3 in September 2023.
When taking pride in ISRO’s achievements, it is not uncommon to hear fellow Indians say that our real-life space mission costs much lesser than many big-budget Hollywood movies about space, with Chandrayaan-3 costing approx. Rs 615 crore to cover the 3.8-lakh-odd km to the moon, on average of Rs16,000 per km. True as it may be, as a management teacher and consultant, I think today Indians must reflect more on the audaciousness of a young nation to dream of new growth opportunities offered by space exploration than to take pride in low-cost innovation.
The former helps us imagine a fearless future and deploy innovation to create that future, a process called ‘backcasting’ (as against forecasting), whereas the latter typecasts Indian innovation into the price basket only. An audacious vison of the future encourages deploying science and research to create true innovation. The purpose of the US investment in NASA during the 1960s to catch up with the Soviet Union’s Sputnik launch in 1957 culminated in America landing men on the moon in 1969. But the effort also led to the birth of the transistor (at Bell Labs) and microcontrollers that resulted in outcomes ranging from automated washing machines and garage door openers to semiconductors. Ironically, the value of most technological innovations is underestimated.
Changing Mindsets to Imagine Innovation
This visualization of strategic purpose-driving innovation to achieve targeted outcomes labelled ‘backcasting’ (Kim and Srivastava 2024) is different from forecasting, in which one extrapolates the past to predict the future. This strategic thinking requires several changes in mindsets:
From Tangibles to Intangibles
From healthcare to manufacturing and IT to banking and aviation, there is no dearth of case-studies in frugal innovation coming out of India. However, I have been arguing that to create and capture higher value from innovation, Indian enterprises need to invest in market-based assets as the real drivers of market capitalization. These market-based intangible assets like intellectual property, brands, and human capital now hold greater sway than traditionally depreciating tangible assets like factories and inventory.
This paradigm shift necessitates a corresponding change in leadership mindsets that values experimentation, learning, and adaptation over short-term cost efficiency. This change in mindset, and especially changing perceptions within global MNCs towards Indian innovation, is seen in the rising number of Global Capability Centres (GCCs) across the country. This is one of the main research areas at ISB’s Centre for Business Innovation (ICBI), and the insights from the application of this research across multiple sectors in taught in the Accelerated Growth through Innovation (AGTI) program, offered by ICBI.
From Vertical Integration to Managing Ecosystems and Partnerships
Today’s business environment rewards customer centricity and collaboration. Platform business models that foster collaboration across ecosystems are increasingly driving value creation and appropriation. Therefore, leaders must cultivate strong relationships with customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders to foster innovation and growth. This is especially true for innovation leaders in large enterprises and growth-stage startups who must critically evaluate the tyranny of organizational configuration, which can lead to rigid hierarchies and decision-making processes that stifle innovation.
Consider the number of knowledge partnerships and vendor relationships that ISRO manages for a single space mission. Now multiple those relationships with the number of applications that have spun off from ISRO’s space research. From weather forecasting and disaster management to GPS navigation and telecom, ISRO’s work impacts the lives of all Indians through a complex yet highly effective technology ecosystem. These partnerships enable ISRO to leverage diverse expertise, share resources, and accelerate innovation. By embracing a collaborative mindset, today’s corporate leaders can tap into the collective intelligence of their ecosystems, driving growth and creating shared value.
Process Management Capabilities and Leading Human Capital
There is global consensus today that it is no longer sufficient to adapt to new technologies (like AI) but envision a future with emerging tech, while simultaneously innovating to seize growth opportunities in that envisioned future. To navigate this evolving landscape, organizations must develop strong process management capabilities and invest in human capital. In the information-driven age, innovative organization will leverage human capital to accelerate growth of financial capital investments. Leaders must re-evaluate locked-in ways of doing things and encourage experimentation, learning, and continuous improvement.
The concept of ‘management by walking around’ emphasizes the importance of leaders being present, engaged, and accessible to their employees. By actively participating in the day-to-day operations of their companies, leaders can better understand the impact of technological change on their employees, enabling them to make informed decisions that support innovation and growth. Above all, leaders must listen to learn. Learn to learn. Teach (or lead) to learn.
From WHAT to Do and HOW to Do It, to WHY – Learning by Understanding and Implementation
Today, large enterprises operating in India must accept that innovation is not an option but a necessity to seize the opportunities that the Indian growth story offers. Organizations that fail to innovate in India and for India risk being left behind. Therefore, the AGTI program equips leaders with the tools and frameworks to articulate the financial value of innovation for their organisations.
The key highlight of this program is the Action Learning Project (APL) through which organisations can send their innovation problems and opportunities for resolution along with their cross functional innovation teams. These teams will work with BOTH academic and business mentors to solve these live projects or ALPs. Through a combination of case studies, simulations, and expert insights, the program helps leaders develop a growth mindset, build collaborative ecosystems, and manage human capital effectively in the context of AI and other emerging technologies.
I’d like to end with an example of successful ecosystem innovation in action. Consider how Tesla developed innovative business solutions that combine BOTH product / tech inventions with market and ecosystem development. We need to take ISRO to new horizons to fuel India’s growth in space-age applications – from telecommunications to image-assisted agri-tech and infrastructure development.
Prof Rajendra Srivastava is the former Dean and Novartis Professor of Marketing Strategy and Innovation at Indian School of Business (ISB). He has also held distinguished research chairs at Singapore Management University, Emory and University of Texas – Austin.
Dr. Francis D Kim is the Assistant Professor for Finance & Economics at the School of Integrated Innovation, Chulalongkorn University in Thailand
