Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, organised its business excellence summit from 13 to 15 September and the theme was ‘innovating business’. The inaugural ceremony was attended by Asit Kumar Tripathy, Chief Secretary, Government of Odisha; Anand Sen, President, TQM and Steel Business, Tata Steel; Fr Antony Uvari S J, Vice-chancellor, Xavier University; Fr EA Augustine, Registrar, Xavier University; and Dr Shridhar Kumar Dash, Academic Dean, XIMB.
Business and innovation
Tripathy said, “Unless you have empathy for the people at the bottom of the pyramid, it doesn’t make good business sense.”
Sen spoke what market leaders do in tough times that make them better than the rest. He spoke on the concept of total quality management (TQM) and how the robust deployment of TQM through policy management, daily management and focused methodologies transformed Tata Steel’s business. He emphasised how important it is for organisations to focus not just on the profits, but to cater to the needs of all the stakeholders with a view on sustainable growth and focus on cross-functional management.
Prithvijit Roy, Co-Founder and CEO of Bridge i2i Analytics Solution, spoke on business transformation and artificial intelligence”.
Invest and integrate
The theme of day two was ‘invest, innovate and integrate.’ Saurav Mohanty, Co-Founder and CEO, CDS Development Centre LLP; Aharnish Mishra, Co-Founder, BiziBean; Sujit Panigrahi, Co-Founder and CEO, Sequoia Fitness and Sports Technology; and Naveen Kejriwal, General Manager — Eastern India and Overseas, Lenovo, were the panellists. The moderator, Dr DV Ramana, posed the question of whether innovation could bridge the gap between rich and poor and reduce educational inequality.
Naveen Kejriwal, discussed how it is important to consider if the ideas are practical, radically new and sustainable and Panigrahielucidated the importance of investing in human capital, collaborations, relationships, and intellectual property. He talked about building cohesive innovation architecture and agility. Mishra, said, “Innovation is disrupting the curve and moving to a higher curve. Go bold, go big, and change your curve”. Mohanty, said, “The purpose of innovation is to simplify the tasks and believe that it would make things happen.”
The second half day’s focus was on glocalisation in business.
Prativa Mohapatra, Vice-President — sales, IBM, spoke about how businesses today have various facets, mainly globalisation, glocalisation, extreme glocalisation, personalisation and even reverse globalisation and how these facets are visible in the culture, values and even in the attire of the business.
Binny Mathews, Vice president & Business head — Utilities, resources and energy sector, Infosys, spoke how glocalisation is an age-old concept and described real-time business scenarios that exhibit how global traditions and products are localised to suit the needs of the people.
Debabrat Mishra, Partner at Deloitte, emphasised the significance of a global mindset to survive in the ever-changing business world.
Disruptive innovation
The final day’s theme was, ‘Is disruptive innovation the only way to create value?’
Stalin Mohapatra, Community Operations Manager and Head of Manual Fraud Investigations, Uber, Kamadeba Mohanty, Executive Vice-President and COO, Reliance Retail; and Harshit Vyas, Vice President, Oyo Rooms, were the panellists.
Mohapatra focused on how revolutionary innovation transitions into disruptive innovation and how it accentuates the ‘high 5’ policy responsible for disruptive innovation. Mohanty spoke about the significance of creating businesses and retail stores that are closer to the hearts of customers. He gave us insights on how process innovation has brought about a change in the retail industry. He said, “Developing price point should be as such that every customer is excited to buy the product”. Vyas, spoke of the challenges faced during scaling up a business. He mentioned how a fast-moving scaling-up process poses hurdles in maintaining sustainability and delivery of good quality services. He said, “To disrupt, you need to have an open culture as well as the will to perform in a highly growth-driven organization.”
Yeshwanth Nag, Co-founder, Thickshake factory, emphasised the importance of having an entrepreneurial mindset, irrespective of one’s profession. One of his key advice was to observe one’s competitor, analyse the gap and then try filling the gap. He said, “Making a big change in life is pretty scary, but what’s scarier is regret.”
The next theme was ‘how to tame automation sprawl’ and Sabyasachi Das, Director, Product Engineering and Digital Transformation Centres — Workplace and Mobility, DXC Technologies, said, “No tool is perfect. No tool will ever be. But it is this gap that leads to automation sprawl.”
Siddhartha Dash, EVP and Country Head for PSU Clients at UTI Mutual Funds, said, “Innovation is so much more than products, it is about relevance and acceptance.”