Guest Lecture by Mr. Sanjay Deshpande

It was a privilege for SIMSREE batch of 2012-14 to learn entrepreneurship lessons from Mr. Sanjay Deshpande, Chief Innovation Officer and CEO, Uniken. The topic for the session was “Innovating in India for global markets: Challenges and Strategies”.

Mr. Deshpande started the session with a brief description of his career growth from Tata Research Centre to Infosys and then to Uniken. He explained the work culture at Uniken and how they transform a new idea into reality. Through interactive discussion he pointed out the three buckets which act as hindrances for innovation in India – Underutilisation of talent, poor financial eco-system and acceptance of new products by the targeted population.

He emphasized that implementation and execution of any new idea is more important than just innovation. It is also very important to select which idea should be taken to the market and which should not. This decision depends on three parameters – frictionless sale i.e. how difficult will it be to sell, competition with a big brand and cost & time needed to commercialise the idea.

Some of the misconceptions, according to him, that an entrepreneur has are – “if you show the idea to a Venture Capitalist, you will get money” and “only techies can be innovators”. Then he threw some light on the term – reverse innovation which means to innovate for local market and then expand it globally. He also elaborated how important it is to have patience and stay alive than focussing on breaking even in shortest time. The he described the bureaucratic hurdles in the innovation process and how one needs to pick and choose his battle to avoid it.

The floor was then opened for questions and he satisfactorily explained the ways to be sustainable and survive the chance of failure. The session was motivating and inspiring and we expect many such sessions in future.