DAV College Jalandhar under the aegis of Institution’s Innovation Council organised an invited talk on innovative thinking and design under the IIC calendar activity – Process of Innovation Development, Technology Readiness Level (TRL); Commercialisation of Lab Technologies & Tech-Transfer.
The expert talk was delivered by Mr. Shibananda Dash, Chief Executive Officer-NITJ TBI, Jalandhar. Mr. Dash is a multi-disciplinary person with his skills ranging from electronics and technology to human psychology and marketing. He has guided more than 100 startups and one of his flagship startup on marine navigation and tracking satellites has been nominated for innovation award by Prime Minister of India.
The programme started with the recitation of DAV Anthem. Prof. Punit Puri, Innovation activity coordinator introduced the guest speaker to the audience. The formal welcome to the guest speaker was given by Principal Dr. Rajesh Kumar, President of Institution’s Innovation Council, DAV College, Jalandhar Unit. In his welcome address, Principal Dr. Rajesh Kumar emphasized on the spirit of innovation & highlighted the importance and role of innovations in attaining the goals in life. He mentioned that if you decide to attain something in your life, then there is no barrier to it except one’s own mindset.
Mr. Shibananda Dash started his talk with the ideology of Buddhism, that emphasizes on attaining the balance in life. Lord Buddha observed the Tanpura – a musical instrument that sounds perfect when its strings are tightened properly i.e. not too loose and not too hard. He related this concept with living a balanced life.
Mr. Dash said that 90% of the start-ups fail just because of lack of knowledge, courage, and the homework that needs to be done before actually going in for a start-up. The key to success is the proper identification of the problem and thinking about the possible solutions that actually are going to work for that particular problem.
He quoted the success story of the popular energy drink Red Bull, which was finding it very difficult to penetrate the market that was already captured by big companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi. The red bull officials thought out of the box and made their reach to the youth mindset through the activities in which the youth was involved, and hence made their way to success. He also discussed the marketing strategies and the wrong approach of marketing the nano car which led it to be a total failure for the Indian market despite being the most economical car.
Mr. Dash discussed the innovation and design process and its stages viz empathise, define, ideate, prototype and test. The innovation and design are continuous processes where you can hop between the different stages to develop and improve your product. He also discussed the 5 why’s that need to be answered before any product is ready to be launched in the market. He also emphasised on creating the journey maps for the entire product life cycle. Mr. Dash concluded his talk by taking examples of Uber Ride, McDonalds, Apple, AirBnB, Corning and a few more successful organisations who changed their focus to the design process and hence became the most acceptable brands across the world.
The entire talk was quite interactive and the students enjoyed it a lot. The students had some queries which were answered by the speaker very well.
In the end, Dr. Rajeev Puri, Convener, IIC proposed a vote of thanks. He appreciated the speaker for the wonderful and interactive session. He also motivated the students to adopt the innovation process and be focused towards their goals.
The programme ended with the recitation of the National Anthem.
