By Papri Sri Raman
Book: "How Innovators Connect";
Authors: Rohit Agarwal and Patricia
Brown; Publishers: Himalaya Publishing
House; Price: Rs.950
The last two years have seen a flurry
of books on innovation. But what sets
apart this slender volume by Rohit Agarwal
and Patricia Brown is the ease with
which it showcases successful innovators
in Silicon Valley as well as India.
From Apple's Guy Kawasaki to Google's
Ram Shriram, the 40-odd case studies
in "How Innovators Connect"
are discussed without the usual jargon
of technology and enterprise writing,
which is what makes the book interesting.
There is an innovator in each of us,
say the authors at the start, simply,
directly and clearly, and, "the
book is about the experience of people
who have innovated".
It also examines how innovation, a
process of change, has been monetised.
TechTribe Networks CEO Agarwal needs
little introduction. Before venturing
into authorship and helping enterprise
start-ups, he steered Webify Solution's
business development. It was acquired
by IBM last year.
Award winning journalist Brown has
recently been senior executive editor
for InformationWeek's monthly Optimize
magazine. She is the co-founder and
editorial director of BizTechReports.com,
an independent reporting agency, and
is associated with CMP Media, the McGraw-Hill
Companies, Microsoft Corp and Access
Intelligence publications.
Their book begins with a sneak peak
and statements like "innovation
to me is a little bit like falling in
love, you really cannot programme it"
and "and I think it's really important
that people decide to be an entrepreneur
first and then figure out what they
are going to do".
The chapters too are enticingly titled
such as, "Is innovation for you?"
The book pitches for single-tasking
and staying focussed in an era of multi-tasking.
At the same time the book advocates
tremendous networking, bringing to the
reader examples like Emmet B. Keeffe,
III, the co-founder of iRise, a business
modelling software company. "The
network is the business," says
Keeffe.
It throws up Silicon Valley success
stories little known in India, like
Jerry Kennelly, co-founder of Riverbed
Technology, a wide-area data solution
provider, which had a market capitalisation
of more than $2 billion in 2006.
The book talks about connecting with
the environment like a mantra, "recognising
white space or pain points" within
the existing business environment, giving
the example of Rajeev Samant of Sula
Wines that is rocking even Indian cellars.
It talks about how the industrial engineer
recognised the potential of "gently
rolling hills and a large lake"
and became a farmer.
Getting the right people into the team
is another key to innovation's success
and the timing is important. The business
climate must be there, say the authors.
There must be a connect with the customer
too, they insist.
And finally, there has to be some spirituality
to make the cocktail of moneymaking
innovation and marketing "fall
into place", says the techTribe
chief.
"At techTribe, we've created code
names for each of the colossal mistakes
we have made in our lives. We use them
in conversations to highlight that we
do not want to make the same mistakes
again. It's fun exercise to keep the
lessons fresh," says Agarwal.
Interesting.
-Indo-Asian News Service
