Innovations at Tata Group zoom to 761 in 2009

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Mumbai: The Tata Group has set up an innovation forum to identify and foster innovation within its 70 group operating companies and has said it has identified 761 promising innovations in 2009, compared to just 170 in 2008 and 102 in 2007.

"We are in the throes of a preparation for the decade beginning 2011," said R Gopalakrishnan, executive director, Tata Group. The Group, which had made large acquisitions including that of steel major Corus Plc, Ford's Jaguar Land Rover, British tea company Tetley and soda ash manufacturer Brunner Mond over the last few years, is also collaborating with the acquired companies in the area of innovation.

The number of companies within the Tata Group that has come up with innovations shot up from just 33 in 2006 to 62 in 2009. Innovation in the Tata Group can be classified into three different categories.

One is the innovations on the business models front, like the global delivery process of group company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Another is product innovations, as in the case of the Tata Nano. The third, says Gopalakrishnan, is on the social applications front, an example of which is the adult literacy programme that the group has undertaken.

Early this year, the group conducted a study of 13 Tata companies involving 2,000 managers to understand the state of innovation in the group.

Some key findings of the study were senior leaders of Tata companies are highly involved in initiatives on innovation; while executives surveyed believed the Tata Group was innovative, they felt their own company could do better in innovation; managers also felt that individual companies should have a recognition system to promote innovation.

Some of the most prominent innovations of the Tata Group from 1994 to 2008 include Tanishq, India's first branded jewellery, the Tata Council for Community Initiative, a corporate first to promote community service and volunteering, Indica, India's first indigenous automobile, the Tetley acquisition through India's first cross border leveraged buyout, Titan Edge, the world's slimmest watch, EKA, India's first teraflop super computer, the Nano and Roadside Romeo, India's first full length 3D animation film.