The Laboratory for Innovation, Venturing and Entrepreneurship (LIVE) at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode has signed an MoU with the National Design Business Incubator (NDBI) of National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, recently. The MoU brings together the two institutes from diverse domains — design and management — to collaborate and create offerings that will boost innovation and the venture support ecosystem in the country.
This is the first time in India that an incubator hosted at a business school has struck an alliance with another at a design school, the institute said. This may further encourage diverse stakeholders to connect with each other to create a more vibrant start-up ecosystem needed for superior innovations and successful new ventures.
Bringing innovative products
Announcing the strategic tie-up, Prof Debashis Chatterjee, Director of IIM Kozhikode, said: “IIM Kozhikode has always emphasised the importance of liberal arts in businesses. Innovation is not just about technology, the aesthetics of the solution is equally critical for the success of a new product.”
“In countries like India, technology and the arts have largely existed in isolation from each other. Through this collaborative initiative of the two business incubators, new-age entrepreneurs will be sensitised to combine them to bring innovative products and solutions that benefit the society,” he added.
Prof Keyoor Purani, Executive Director, IIM-K LIVE, said: “In our experience, we find that the start-ups generally undermine the role of visual and functional aesthetics, as science and technology have been traditionally overwhelming in the product development process. Indian start-ups particularly need to realise how both design-thinking and design experience play a significant role in developing and launching successful solutions. Under the MoU, a series of interventions are being chalked out to leverage the strengths of the respective host institutes.”
Joint workshops, publications, resource sharing, co-incubation, and task-based mentoring are some of the areas that the tie-up is likely to facilitate.