Everyday we come across judgments, opinions and reports about how Indian companies should focus on innovation to overcome the challenges they are facing today. They say how you should invest time and resources in research & development, how you should innovate the way your company, its employees and its business functions are managed but none of them stress enough on how to manage the knowledge, both internal and external, to enable you to achieve this. How to gather, arrange and apply your domain knowledge in inventing a new product/service/solution which is customized for an emerging market, or the managing expertise you have gained all through this years running your business in a dynamic economy like India to overcome the challenges while expending to a new geographic area or new market segment is never emphasized up on.
When we say we want to build a culture that is flexible and dynamic enough to respond to ever evolving market needs we actually have to build a workforce which can look out for and identify each and every opportunity to evolve your business and a practice of sharing the knowledge it gain through everyday activities vide the organization so that synergies develop between fragments of knowledge leading to innovation which could be a new product or a new approach to business or identification of an untapped opportunity. When organizations continuously develops and enhance such capabilities among its employees it leads to fulfillment of the ultimate objective of making innovation an integral part of its DNA to move forward, reorganizing and adapting to changing market needs.
Today companies all over the world realize the importance of managing the intellectual capital of the company and that is why they are in constant effort to figure out precisely what their customers want and how to get it to them before the competition does. Many companies in the West have reaped the benefits of appropriate Knowledge Management in the past but copying what they have done may not be the ideal solution in Indian scenario because of two main reasons. First, people being the core asset of any business there is an inherent difference in the way business functions are carried out and organized in India and in the West. Second, when we say about managing knowledge to innovate and reorganize from the expertise you have gained in the past through customization and service of foreign products/solutions we need to go one step further than the present concept of knowledge management. Other challenges Indian companies could face are the poor IT infrastructure both within and outside the company, attitude and lack of awareness of employees, lack of successful existing model in India and hurdles management may face implementing knowledge management as an enabler for their business goals.
The future lies in the knowledge-intensive processes. When you go to a customer, the biggest challenge is dealing with the perception of risk. It’s not only price, technology, or attrition of people – it’s also whether the customer feels comfortable. So you have to come through with deep credibility. No longer should India be just a source of cheap code/commodity/service, the country’s corporate should rapidly move into more complex operations at a fast clip.
Today I happened to attend a seminar at which Mr. Prakash Gupta, Partner, Mckinsey & Co delivered a speech on Implications of Global Crisis on India. I thought I will reproduce the highlights of the speech in this post for the readers. I have subdivided the topic into different areas and have focused on bullet points rather than paragraphs. 
“Advani for PM”; it will be highly improbable that an average net user has not come across these words in the last two months. Yours truly sees it everyday at places ranging from news websites to education websites to technology websites. So how and why the octogenarian is doing this net campaign. According to Economic Times newspaper BJP is targeting 2.5 Crores of net users in India who are above the age of 18. The campaign is powered by Google and it is believed that BJP has bought more than two lakhs keywords which also include words which are not even remotely related to politics and India. Anybody can tell you from whom his or his party’s campaign managers’ inspiration has come. It is none other than American President Mr. Barack Obama. His success with the online campaign is encouraging many around the globe to imitate him or as they say ‘do an Obama’.
An IIM A graduate, who wanted to join Ponds, ended up joining Citibank but quit the bank after 15 days and then worked for two years at Enfield before he decided to start on his own. His first venture, a financial services company called Viswapriya brought him money but he was not satisfied as he was not occupied with work the way he wanted. This obsession for being occupied led to Subhiksha, one of the largest retail chains in India. He became the poster boy of Indian Retail as another of the retail tycoon, Kishore Biyani of Big Baazaar, preferred to stay away from the all the clutter. 
Oscar is over. I’m happy for Rehman and Resul. They deserved those awards. But what changes have happened to the life of those children in the slum who are supposed to get hope from the movie. What is this entire gag about the movie giving hope to them? Come on; first of all we cannot expect them to see the movie. Second, even if they get to watch the movie you cannot expect them to be hopeful saying ‘you people keep on struggling in your life, beg on streets, get mal-handled by nefarious gangs, sold in the market, engaged in drug deals or abused in brothels: one day you may win a bloody lottery’. Friends if you really think there is truth in what Danny Boyle has shown in the movie, if you really want to make change in the life of those children who doesn’t get education; instead of debating how the movie is giving hope to the children in slums and how this is the best thing that has happened to them ever, do something for them.
IIT Bomaby campus has something special about it. Don’t know whether it is the natural beauty of the campus and the lakes nearby or it is the energy radiated by each person you meet there. May be it is both. So while I was on my way to meet some of the brightest minds in the country in the E-Summit I was sure it was going to be an enriching experience and it did bring a smile on my face. As any other program in IIT Bombay this also was well organized and started right on time. I reached early and took a seat in one of the middle rows in the hall were first session was to be held. I could hear, all around me, entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs explaining with lot of enthusiasm and energy what they have started and what they were going to start. As always all present including yours truly was ready to give instant tips to anyone who came across during the summit.