Innovate by adapting to the environment

It is all about utilizing tools and ideas within new contexts and situations. Mc Donald sells vegetarian burgers in India, Pizza hut sells vegetarian Pizzas. Whenever any foreign car maker enters India, they adapt their car designs to make it suitable for Indian roads and families. Special types of education are adapted for children with special needs.

Kellogg’s failed miserably after it launched in India. They were the first to introduce branded corn flakes for the Indian middle class. With the increasing number of urban women going to work, it seemed Kellogg’s cornflakes are just the “right fit” for the situation, but it failed. What was wrong? Kellogg’s corn flakes were meant for cold milk, but Indians like hot milk. It is only after making a cereal suitable for hot milk that Kellogg’s started to get accepted by Indians.

If a product is not tailor made for the situation, it could lead to failures; at times innovative adaptation is needed to enhance acceptability of products. One American company tried to sell tables in Japan, the height of the table was 29-inch while the average table height in Japan is 21 inches because Japanese sit on the floor at the table and do not use chairs. General Motors introduced the Nova in Latin America.  Nova means, “it doesn’t go” in Spanish.  The car had terrible sales. GM finally figured out the problem, renamed the car Caribe and immediately started getting accepted.

Charles Darwin said “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”Human race has to innovative quickly to adapt to the changing global climate.

Some companies in India have started to go green. Bajaj Auto launched innovative eco-friendly auto rickshaws (Three wheelers used for public transport), Lipton replaced wooden pallets with “slip-sheets” to ship teas.  It is us who has to drive the change. Try to adapt, improvise and conserve in every possible way. Nation’s resources, natural resources are an imperative for our survival.

A hotel in Copenhagen found out an alternate way of producing electricity for the hotel. They designed an innovative free meal offer for any guest who is able to produce electricity for the hotel on an exercise bike attached to a generator.

You can go to Google and type – best eco practices, then find out how many practices you can adapt as your contribution towards a greener earth. 

Innovate by using Magnification as a technique

Anything magnified always catches our attention. We are mesmerised by the architectural brilliance exhibited by the Taj Mahal, the Egyptian pyramids and the Titanic. New benchmarks in innovation are created when people try to achieve such brilliance. Magnification can be used as a useful tool for creative thinking.

Roger Bacon magnified human vision through a magnifying glass, the innovation which paved the way for invention of instruments like telescope and microscope. Audio amplifier is an example of magnifying the volume of sound. Hearing aid is a great innovative device which amplifies sound for people having hearing problem. These great inventors used the concept of magnification to overcome the limitation of humans associated with sight and sound. Do you know about the bladeless fan? It looks like a circular ring mounted on a vertical rod. It’s a great innovation called Dyson fans which use air multiplier technology to draw in air and amplify it, with no blades or grille they are safe and easy to clean.

Have you tried putting thread into a needle? I tried it a few times during my hostel days and got frustrated trying to push the thread through the small, almost invisible hole. An innovative needle with an adjustable hole would be of great help for people like me. Magnify the hole, put the thread in, then close the hole and start sewing.

The concept of malls is amplification of a shop, multiplexes magnified the concept of cinema halls, and cricket matches were never as big as Indian Premium League. The modern concept of entertainment, luxury and lifestyle are innovative magnification of traditional concepts. Location is no more a constraint for getting education. The concept of delivering education has been magnified to reach a wider audience. Education through internet and distant learning programs enables students to acquire knowledge even from foreign universities.

Try to magnify a concept which you like – probably an International College Fest and imagine the way you can make it a reality. Thinking is fun, so just enjoy it.