PRODUCT INNOVATION MANIFESTO LAUNCHED

Shubhadeep Choudhury, Bangalore
The TribuneInfosys boss Nandan M Nilekani was pulled up right here today in his very own city Bangalore by Rajiv Narang, an entrepreneur, whose mantra is “show positive irreverence to giants”.

The occasion was launching of an “innovation manifesto” for which Narang’s Erehwon Innovation Consulting had collaborated with two other companies, namely Marico Industries and Altair Engineering Products India Pvt. Ltd.

Nilekani, according to Narang, was quoted in the New York Times as saying Indian IT companies would always work as backroom operators for US software companies.

Narang cited Nilekani’s comment as an illustration of a mindset that hinders the growth of innovation by Indian companies.

Narang calls Nilekani by his first name but he was unsparing in his criticism of the latter’s “mindset”.

“The comment probably stemmed from kind of business activity that Nandan’s company is engaged in”, he said.

The manifesto, released here today by Narang and his co-collaborators after doing research in the field for two years, identified deference to giants, deference to the developed world, gatekeeper mindset etc, as major hindrances for innovations by Indian companies.

Narang said while innovations were tried by Indian companies for improving business process and marketing, product innovation is an area which is almost inevitably ignored by Indian companies.