‘To succeed one must innovate’

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: Forget, borrow and learn — that’s my mantra for companies in this globalised world. If you want to thrive, a breakthrough innovation is a must,” says Vijay Govindarajan, who is currently visiting India. Govindarajan, professor of international business at the Tuck School and founding director of Tuck’s Centre for Global Leadership, has taught many a company survival skills for the 21st century. The list of his clients includes Boeing, British Telecom, Chubb, Colgate, Corning, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, International Paper, JP Morgan Chase, Johnson & Johnson, New York Times, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Sony, and UBS.

Govindarajan offers cutting-edge ideas to people who are leading organisations. His area of expertise is strategy, with particular emphasis on strategic innovation, industry transformation, and global strategy and organisation.

He has been working with CEOs and top management teams in Global Fortune 500 firms to discuss, challenge, and escalate their thinking about strategy. In the country to promote his book Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators — From Idea To Innovation (Harvard Business School Press, Fall 2005), this management expert says, “The average lifespan of a company is 30 years, and if it has to survive beyond this period, it has to innovate, and that’s what this book talks about. A breakthrough innovation is what injects fresh life into a company.”

According to him, most managers focus on ideation. But execution of the idea is more important. “And that’s where we need to forget, borrow and learn,” the expert says.

“The first step is to forget the existing business model as it has become obsolete in the face of new technology — you cannot have Sony Walkman notching up sales with the I-Pod around. You have to accept that you cannot win with old technology,” he says. The second step, according to him, is the borrowing challenge, where the company establishes the link between the new idea and the old business resources. And finally, it is continuous learning as you proceed.

Govindarajan points out that the same holds true for Indian companies. “With the Indian economy opening up, the ‘me-too’ strategy will no longer work. Indian companies will have to innovate in the face of the global onslaught. And the innovations made by Indian companies to capture the domestic market will help them face the global economy.”