“When your neighbor loses his job it is a slowdown; when you loss yours job it’s a recession; when an economist loses his job; it’s a depression.” —– said former US President Harry S Truman.
Over the last few months the global economy is a testimony to the fact of how fast the world changes. If you were greeted in early 2008 
with multiple in-campus and off-campus offerings, and 30% salary hike, in 2009 you are faces with the stark reality of minimal or no offers/hikes . If your “tag cloud” in 2007-2008 had the terms “short-term incentives” ,”Employee Stock-option”, “ executive benefits, bonuses”, “perquisites” etc. in March 2009 you are greeted with regular news of lay-offs, job-cuts, deferred joining dates. We keep ourselves glued to the TV watching in utter disbelief some of the so called “Fortune 500” companies declaring themselves bankrupt, Government launching bail-out packages. While most of us are seeing the darkness of the “recession” tunnel as we travel along there are few who has already started seeing the emerging light at the end of it. So is there a light really ?
In the words of Amartya Sen, the Nobel Laureate in Economics,
“A crisis not only presents an immediate challenge that has to be faced. It also provides an opportunity to address long-term problems when people are willing to reconsider established conventions. This is why the present crisis also makes it important (for us) to face the neglected long-term issues.”
Now thinking from a student’s perspective what is the key issue? Interestingly today most of us, exhibit similar traits as though we are in Stockholm Syndrome. We show loyalty to the same system which has helped us develop so many of our vices. We are happy with our existing beliefs, ideas and are not willing to change.
In the recent EmTech India 2009 held in Delhi, Prof M. G. K. Menon, a renowned physicist and policy maker in India summarized that “India has barely touched the tip of the iceberg as a knowledge economy, and must use “disruptive technologies” to drive markets such as healthcare and education”.
The key word for survival in today’s world is “To Innovate every day”. Speaking about Innovation it’s a broad area and may sound intimidating at first. However if we closely look at any child they are the born innovator. What are the steps to innovate? It follows 3 simple steps A-B-C.
Ask Question always; don’t blindly accept things the way they are.
Believe that you can change or add value to the process. Remember everything starts with belief in you.
Change the process. You can start with a small change and see the reaction of the change; gradually you can bring about a major change.
In today’s world there are lot of Management graduates passing out every day and one of the common chapters in their curriculum is “Entrepreneurship and Innovation” (E&I).
There are various tools to help students with coming up with creative ideas , Later Thinking, Six Thinking Hats are some of them. To get an idea you have a look at the 25 Greatest Business Ideas compiled by Economic Times last month.
Example of a creative painting: Look at the picture below and identify how many ladies do you see.
Common Lateral thinking Concepts as designed by Dr Edward De Bono are:
Alternatives: Use concepts to breed new ideas
Focus: Sharpen or change your focus to improve your creative efforts
Challenge: Break free from the limits of accepted ways of operating
Random Entry: Use unconnected input to open new lines of thinking
Provocation: Move from a provocative statement to useful ideas
Harvesting: Select the best of early ideas and shape them into useable approaches
Treatment of Ideas: Develop ideas and shape them to fit an organization or situation .
A simple tool to start generating ideas is “Alternatives”.
In “Alternatives” we define the context of the situation first and then we identify the problem in that particular context and for each of the problem in that particular context we try to generate possible solutions. (Outlined in diagram of ABC triangle below).
Let us take the situation as follows: Recession Impact to students.
If we take the context as: Getting good jobs. Let’s take one of the problem and work towards generating ideas
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Situation : Recession Impacts to students |
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Context : Getting good jobs |
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Problem : |
Simple /Alternative Solutions: |
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Less jobs in a particular position |
Create new jobs : for example multitask in two or more jobs ; remember the more different areas you have knowledge and expertise the more likely you are to get hired |
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Create your job : Try to make best use of your knowledge , for example, if you are a software engineer and also a good singer , you may search for jobs in video and sound editing which uses both your skills |
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Start your own business, if you have money and a startup idea. |
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If you are good at finances try to do market research and set up your own online businesses at home, it could be in stock market, or e -commerce, or m- commerce, animation etc. |
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Develop a eagle eye for a bigger problem, turn it as an opportunity and develop a solution and market your ideas. |
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Go for higher studies and wait for the good times |
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Learn newer technologies and search jobs in those technologies |
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Identify your old talents in your childhood which probably has gone “rust” sharpen it and try to reuse it. Search for a job in a different field or Industry where there is link to your skill set or competencies, for example the NGO sector. |
The above was just an example of the application of “Alternative” theory to generate ideas. In similar way we can change the context and generate more and more ideas.
Before I conclude let me give you some of the innovations going on in the industry which was showcased in the EM Tech India conference.
Top 10 emerging technologies
In this year’s EmTech India conference, Technology Review listed ten technologies it thinks can change the way people live and work.
Liquid battery: A battery that can store enough electricity to allow cities to run on solar power at night.
Traveling-wave reactor: A reactor that would run on depleted uranium, making nuclear power safer and less expensive.
Paper diagnostic test: Paper that can create easy-to-use medical tests, making it possible to quickly and cheaply diagnose a range of diseases in the developing world.
Biological machines: A wirelessly controlled beetle can one day be used for surveillance or search-and-rescue missions.
US$100 genome: A nanofluidic chip that can dramatically lower the cost of genome analysis. Combined with the right sequencing technology, this chip can allow doctors to tailor medical treatment to a patient’s unique genetic profile, map new genes linked to specific diseases, and quickly identify new viruses and outbreaks.
Racetrack memory: A new type of data storage that uses magnetic nanowires. This “racetrack memory” could eventually replace all other forms of computer memory.
HashCache: A new method for storing Web content that will provide speedier Internet access, at more affordable rates around the world.
Intelligent software assistant: New software that can act as a personal aide. This virtual personal-assistant software will help users interact more effectively with Web services to complete tasks such as booking travel or finding entertainment.
Software-defined networking: A new standard called OpenFlow allows researchers to tap into Internet switches and routers, to easily test new networking technologies with the click of a mouse–all without interrupting normal service.
Nanopiezotronics: Piezoelectric nanowires can generate electricity using tiny environmental vibrations.
Happy Innovating!
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