Talking Innovation At The Bottom of The Pyramid

“In the
past, 'experience' was knowledge. But today you have to manage 'today'
with 'today' and have strategies for 'tomorrow' with 'today', said
Subodh Bhargava, chairman, VSNL delivering his keynote address at the C-Change
2006.

Held in Cairo, Egypt,
C-Change 2006, the annual mega event of the leading technology portal CIOL, in
association with Dataquest focused on the theme 'Leading Through Technology
Driven Innovation.'

The 2-day event
addressed about a hundred CIOs from the top Indian companies in banking and
financial services (BFSI), manufacturing and pharmaceutical sectors.

Key speakers at the
forum included Subodh Bhargava, Bob Hoekstra (CEO, Philips India Software),
Satish Kaura, Rajan Wadhera, KG Ananthakrishnan, Probir Mitra, Shyam Malhotra,
Prasanto Kumar Roy and Pradeep Gupta.

While C-Change 2004
focused on the CIO as a Change Agent, 2005 highlighted what it takes to become a
business strategist. A major highlight this year was the vertical sessions: a
special focus on the three burgeoning sectors-BFSI, manufacturing, and
pharmaceutical.

BFS CIOs getting down to business: Expect IT to play the role of an evangelist, bring comfort and quality service to the customer

Q&A spill over!

Grooving to the Arabian rhapsody

The parallel sessions
created a unique platform for peers from the same industry to brainstorm on
various issues affecting their industry.  The
delegates deliberated on various solutions to address common problem areas. The
sessions had a good mix of technology forecasts by industry bellwethers, case
studies, and interesting vendor sessions titled 'Innovation from the Labs'.
Heated discussions and pointed suggestions flying across the room proved
a huge challenge to timekeepers, cringing to break the sessions.

The speakers for the
parallel sessions included industry experts the likes of KG Ananthkrishnan-senior
director, Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer India; Probir Mitra, GM-IT, Tata Motors; Rajan
Wadhera-VP (Operations), Automotive Sector, Mahindra & Mahindra; Mario
Braganza, VP-Client Services & Underwriting, Birla Sun Life Insurance; Anant
Pundlik, director, Information Services, Wyeth India; Sanjay Sharma, corporate
head and technology officer, IDBI Group; and H Srikrishnan, Executive Director,
YES Bank.

Giving an insight into
the manufacturing industry's technological challenges, Rajan Wadhera, vice
president, manufacturing, automotive sector, Mahindra & Mahindra said that
de-scaling of operations is a big focus in manufacturing.

Representing the BFSI
segment, Mario Braganza, vice president, client servicing and underwriting,
Birla Sunlife Insurance, pointed at the many changes in the insurance sector
ever since it was opened for private players. “We expect IT to play the role
of an evangelist, bring comfort and quality service to the customer”, said
Braganza.

Evangelizing the need
for providing health system solutions, senior director, Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer,
KG Ananthkrishnan said, “Information technology must be an integral part in
providing health system solutions rather than just selling drugs.”

CyberMedia
editor-in-chief, Shyam Malhotra, in his keynote address on 'Technology
Innovations to Watch Out for in 2006' touched upon technologies that are
gaining momentum this year. Drawing references from Prof CK Prahalad's The
Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, Malhotra pointed out that technology
innovations are omnipresent and very often technology emerges in unrelated
areas.

Satish Kaura, CMD of
Samtel India, concluded day one with his audience hooked on to the idea of value
innovation. He said the primary challenge in evolving a value innovation
organization is the mindset, and trying to put together the fundamental cultural
shift. 

After an enthralling
evening-a cruise on the river Nile, amidst charming belly dancers, folk
dancers, and the eclectic Egyptian cuisine, day two commenced with Bob
Hoekstra's keynote on the 'Impact of Technology on the Nature of Products
and Services'.

He touched upon the
importance of making technology more humane and revealed how Philips with the
help of technology, experienced a “fundamental change in the business from
being a vertical integrated company to an intelligent trader.”

Wonder of wonders-the biggest pyramid
Getting jiggy with belly dancers	Enough of work-it's time to hit the dance floor
P2P Connect-Avaya	Gaurding the fort-the Sphinx

A major highlight of
day two was a panel discussion titled: Crossing the Functional
Divide-Expectations from the IT department, debated on the role of the CEO in
driving IT adoption across the organization. The panel included Bob Hoekstra-CEO,
Philips India Software; Sadanand Maiya-CMD, MTR Foods; Satish Kaura-CEO, Samtel
India; H Srikrishnan, exexcutive director, YES Bank; and  was moderated by Anand Sudarshan president, Adea
International.

Driving a point home,
Prasanto Kumar Roy, president, Publishing, CyberMedia and chief editor,
Dataquest said that the CEO needs to project himself as a role model or the
driver for technology automation.

Pradeep Gupta, CMD of
the CyberMedia Group, concluded the event stressing on the need for continuous
innovation.

The event drew a fine
balance between technology sessions and entertainment and was a remarkable
experience for the participants of C-Change, 2006.

Sigi Achappa

mail@dqindia.com