bardinsight

Leading by scenarios: Learning from the kids

2008-03-08T00:28:00.001-08:00

I came across this exercise conducted by Sonali, a friend of mine who caringly teaches kids under 10, where majority of them are from rural background. Kids were told to write a story/essay on their village and then draw it out. Results were surprising. Story-telling, could be so telling...I knew but this was illuminating... Look at how vivid and clear imagery do kids carry, of their village-

Now look at the second one. This kid is from a village called Vashi, which actually has been gobbled up by the expanding city of Mumbai and one can see the multi-storey apearing in the picture. There is a train station in which three trains are standing.

These two images below, show how a village by the highway appears to a kid. Kid could see the jungle thick with trees beyond the village, and a highway divides the jungle and the village. Along the highway there are many restaurants....(you can see the chairs and the table)..even the milestones and direction boards are visible here.

This kid shows a temple which has lots of stairs to climb, as an important element of the village. One can see another temple in the background. Roads are more clearly marked and houses are relegated to side elements here.

This kid draws out her village as the one full of houses...no trees, only jungle of buildings ...one can see a church in the side. Houses are also multi-storied and not huts. There are no clearly demarketed roads like in the earlier cases. It appears to be more of a case of a 'slum' or some ghetto areas of city depicted rather thn a village.

What clicked in my mind is that the way child can be so illustrative about his/her imagery if once queued with words, the same way designers can pick-up better concepts, they can conceptualise better if brief is told as a scenario, rather than what many of us are familiar with.

I am sure some of the best leaders in the world also rule through 'scenarios' rather than 'instructions'.

Vision Monologues on Packaging and Innovation in India

2008-03-06T23:17:00.000-08:00

PACKAGING

Packaging is no more what it used to be. Nice wrappers are a passé. Beautiful ‘experience’ is the new world of packaging. ‘Out of Box experience’ is what is being talked from ‘Apple’ to ‘Nike’ to ‘Chyavanprash’ alike. That is the new economy in India.
From plastics to multicoated papers to corrugated sheets to natural materials, packaging is redefining itself. Finishes and printing technology that is available to all, however high-tech they be, become a no brainer very soon. With increasing access to this wide variety of quality packaging, consumer’s attention span is reducing and they seek fresher experience with every purchase.

Another important tweak in the game is the structural packaging that never went out of the fashion, yet new demands are being generated everyday because of changing lifestyle. Gifting becoming a big trend in India, will see the need for better small packaging soon. Postal department will soon see an overhaul of the packaging options in the lines of western countries. Retail revolution will bring along packaging for stuff that is never sold in the western markets and would need totally Indian thought i.e. semi cooked chapattis.

While ‘experience’ is defining the front end, ‘sustainability’ is on the tail-end now which could soon catch-up as a buzz word in the cluttered market. Indian consumers could soon be looking for ‘recyclables’ stamp as more of a necessity than a fashion statement. Indian culture is used to REUSE. This could become a great differentiator for a packaging company, if applied with a focused vision.

INNOVATION TODAY

When whole of India is talking volume and scale, one must gear up for the next challenge beyond volume delivery. Well the answer is ‘Innovation’ which actually is a no brainer today. But most of the time, innovation is sporadic, personal opinion based rather than based on sensing from the ground; very very ‘current situation based’ rather than futuristic; too much controlled by current technology rather then based on ‘insights and the need of the user’. This is usually the scenario in companies that have grown organically or have a traditional management set-ups. Have you ever wondered, when the bathrooms are becoming smaller day by day in the apartment system and they all are rectanglular/square, why the buckets, tubs, mugs etc, should still be circular? Just to save the mould cost?

‘Design Thinking’ is about infusing the thought of COMPREHENSIVE & CREATIVE thinking at every part and every level of organization (not just product design). From Design to Dealer, and from Plant to Product, every link in the chain should resonate with making things better. GOOD LOOKS of the brand, product, packaging etc. are just the very first manifestations of it.

Very recent example is Tata’s Nano car….it is not just the product design innovation…the innovation has happened across value-chain…from component design to supply-chain, to retailing plan…all have been creatively put-together to leverage the scale and economy. Pantaloon (Future Group) has trained several levels of top management in ‘Design Management’ in a pioneering effort. They really believe that Design Thinking alone can give them insulation against poaching and foreign brand invasion.

The Design Thinking is what Onio takes ahead in all its interactions and offerings, deeply grounded in ‘strategy’ based on ‘sensing insights’.

We believe that Indian brands can do wonders if they learn how to seed the future with insights into fast evolving social patterns and combined it with systematic innovation/design-thinking.

Alchemy of Innovation: Design Thinking At Onio

2008-03-06T23:14:00.000-08:00

Innovation is a complex phenomenon today, immersed in the deep web of market dynamics, individual preferences, regulations, technology, user contexts, cultural nuances, brand legacy and several other interacting factors. Designers and engineers who are fresh from college are severely trailing behind the preparedness needed for innovating in such a paradigm. Here is an elaboration of some criticalities as we experienced in last one decade of managing an innovation hub-

PRAGMATISM OVER PERFECTION:
Endless iterations, trying to accommodate every point of view (from boss to client to user) can sap out the essence of good idea. A pragmatic call on where to put the foot down; how to retain the essence of initial conception; how to articulate the process by which the concept has evolved so that super-boss does not wipe-out the work in a sweeping sentence etc. are some of the key learning that need to be inculcated in the new force that joins the team.

POLISH SEEKERS
We have seen that clearly there are two kinds of people, those who constantly upgrade their own knowledge base, skills and those who don’t. The first kind would always find ways and means to browse through the latest update in their field, be it a good looking design idea or a good piece of graphic They are the ones who would insist on subscribing to a new journal and would fret if that does not happen. They would have a personal network of friends who refer them tips and leads about what’s cool. They would have their strong opinion on the things around them and will express it through blog as well. This creed is the real life line of an innovation center. Other kind are usually driven by what is right- Boss could be right or the client could be right. They always put customer first, and rightly they won laurels for completing assignments on time. So a right balance has to be struck between these populace in the team.

DOCUMENTATION NIGHTMARES
Innovators, as a creed, hate documentation. This is one last useless piece of activity that always pushes them to an internal revolt. However, this is a step that no innovation center can afford to ignore from day one. The process that went by, new learning that took place, team that played a key role, new materials that were explored, finishes that work on particular surface and not on the other, how the client reacted to particular line of ideas, and what strategy worked in terms of presentation …..last but not the least, getting the final story together that would come handy selling similar assignment to the next client. These are the things that an innovation center should take up with an alert priority but usually not possible due to looming project.

DESIGN COMPETITIONS
Innovation ideas with a free-flow, open the flood gates of thinking through the design competitions. They are a good way to rejuvenate and synergize the sluggish teams. They can do what a great people manager can not, for an innovation team.

THINKERS & TINKERS
Structured and forward thinking is not everybody’s business. Some are naturally gifted for this, while others in the innovation team are more hands-on people. They revel in perfecting a hand skill and find all the ‘thinking part quite boring. Library and the workshop both have their own place in the innovation team. Inspirations and sense of achievement both would differ for these to kinds and should be treated differently.

RAPID-PROTOTYPING
There is a technical term of this kind. However, here I am referring to ‘ability to quickly give a physical/tangible shape to ideas’. Prototyping could be done on a paper through sketches or it can be done in a fabrication workshop or it can be done in a stereo-litho machine. Scenarios and prototyping is one big capability any innovation team requires. This, combined with story-telling capabilities become the power-drive for the innovation center. Nurturing the ‘prototyping’ capabilities is one of the key goals of managing innovation.

SENSING SENSE
Over the period we have realized that ‘design’ per se is a commodity i.e. once told what needs to be done, there are several qualified teams who can do that in a clinical precision. But today, WHAT TO INNOVATE is a bigger question then HOW. Ethnography, cultural trend reading, social psychology, user trip etc. are some of the key ingredients of a new age innovation team which give a highly gilded edge to the innovation team.

Perfection and Speed

2008-02-23T00:56:00.000-08:00

I read it somewhere long time back, but I reconfirm it-
" A common trap for design thinking is searching for perfect designs—the belief that there is a single right answer to a given problem, and a designer should be able to realize it given enough time. In many cases, the best possible design (if there is such a thing) isn't worth more than a good one, especially if it takes twice as much time to find it. "

However this quote does not discount the role of 'attention to details', only limits it in a pragmatic way. This combination is becoming rarer and rarer.

Learning to Liberate

2008-01-26T22:35:00.000-08:00

Basics of creativity are still the same. Young kids at Akanksha Foundation (working on making education a pleasant experience amongst less previleged kids at Pune) could learn the deft knife movements on car papers to create these beautiful paper bags. Sonali, the volunteer teacher at this center just showed them this once and kids could pick up the skill in no time. It was amazing to see then the body of work around Japan, kids could generate and learn. No amount of class roon teaching, not even digital lessons would have helped this unless they immersed themselves in creating charts and props and interactive games on Japan.

In a path breaking step, this foundation wrote to schools around the world to join this initiative make kids of their school to become pen pals of Akanksha kids. It was amazine to see schools world over responding with zest to this call. Soon the letters were flowing across the borders. It was not emails, mind you, but hand written real emotion filled letters. I think there are some basics which are not going to go away. Teaching and learning- education over all, has some basic goals- as Krishnamurthy says- "to liberate". Unless education liberates the mind, there is no education. When we were conducting design research on an education portal for a world software giant recently, we found that how Indian kids are passively busy with tuition classes, hobby classes (forced by parents), TV watching and home-works....there is not time for PLAY..no time for SYNTHESIS....Parents are busy, so are kids. Every one wants to be the topper of the class and at the same time, speak smartly in the gatherings....Race to the top begins early in the childhood, leading to very very fragile nervous system by the time child grows up to become the citizen of the country. Education system in India needs an overhaul. Overhaul towards a more open, playful, interactive and real experience based learning. When will schools learn this. When will parents learn this?

Organised Micro-Innovation is the Key to New India

2008-01-25T21:22:00.000-08:00

Micro-Innovation is not new. Several organisations are already in place trying to tap the rural innovation, individual innovation etc. etc. I am talking about institutionalised micro-innovation. Something like creating a super-computer using the networked millions of home-computer.
To be expanded....

Rejoinder to Tata Nano

2008-01-25T00:34:00.000-08:00

'पैसा आने से अमीरी नही आती, अमीरी की आदत डालनी पड़ती है"(Luxury is a habit, not a perk)- I heard this dialogue in a soap opera. India is yet to get used to the new found wealth. When I drive the car, I am not only careful about the way I drive, but I am also account for other's hap hazard driving (usually two wheelers). This creed of two wheeler owners who go criss-cross on road, will start driving cars on day (Nano) and soon they would understand the problems they used to create. I think it would be a win-win situation :).

Lighter note aside, I am dead serious about certain public best practices falling in place once a SYSTEM of good infrastructure falls in place. Vashi railway station in New Bombay is an example of this. It was one of the path breaking step in Station Building as far as India is concerned. People had not seen sparkling granite flooring in station buildings 10 years back. everyone was sarcastic about the concept "hmm...what about the paan-spitters, that plague India) ". Well, this station survived the paan-eaters. People behaved. It is no more about 'India is like this only'...it is just wealth, well applied... my dear.

Tata Nano

2008-01-24T16:24:00.000-08:00

One can call this a phenomenon of the year. The amount of media coverage and raging debates it has generated is unparalleled in the recent times. World is just about to understand the term '1 lakh'. I wont be surprised if it is inlcuded in the dictionary in the coming years like 'bazaar' and 'pyjama'.

Autorishaw drivers see the silver lining in it. It is an achievable dream. They can afford to buy it and replace the old rickety contraption they were cursed with, which saves them neither from hot and sultry climate and nor from rain. 8 million 2 wheeler buyers in India (one can assume that out of them at least 4 million would be just bike owners -without any 4 wheeler ownership), who dream of one day owning a car, can make this dream come true. I used to wonder and pity Indian traffic policemen, who themselves have never driven a car, usually make money on 2 wheeler owners. They rarely stop a car to check the papers and license. Probably there is some colonial remanents in that interaction which stops them from questioning the car drivers. I guess, Nano is going to level that off.

Auto-rickshaw should be called an inspiration for Nano. As a design student I have seen a million attempts on redesigning Autorikshaw for modern Indian cities. But none saw the light of the day. One wonders was Bajaj, the owner and maker of legendary autorikshaws, sleeping all this while on this gold mine? They could have easily made variants of this three wheeler that would be styled nicely enought to entice a family car-aspirant. Monopoly is the mother of lethargy in the orgnisation. Modern times where competition only survives on high adrenalin of innovation, such legands are doomed to go the Darwin's way.

There have been several voices of Indian roads choking to death with 8 million Nano on roads in next few years. When a rich man buys a hummer that guzzles the gallons on road, or keeps 4 cars for a family of three, is it not an atrocity on road? I think every one should have a fair chance of polluting and enjoying life :). As a reader of Trends I can assure that a counter trend would alreayd set in by the time Nano reaches its peak i.e. return to two wheelers. Those who want a bet, get in touch.

Last but not the least, I read reviews and reviews of this car. No designer was named for this styling/innovation. Mr. Ratan Tata was the sole designer and visionary. Styling/Industrial Design must have played a role here for sure, but it was rather puny in front of other innovations in supply-chain, engine design, engineering materials and distributions strategy it seems to have pulled off. 'Design myopia' can never get a better panecea than this. This is the begining of India thinking in design on a broader level. Indian sensibilitites in design relate to 'Indian usability' more than 'Indian aesthetics' (at least as of now).

That all for now!! I am awaiting an Indian luxury brand with as much curiosity!!

Manoj Kothari's Impressions from World Design Congress - Connecting 07

2007-10-31T23:46:00.000-07:00

I just came back from ‘Design Event of the Life time’ – as described by Bill Moggridge of IDEO. During 4 days of non-stop design discussions from 17th to 20th October, close to 2000 people from several walks of design and the world, huddled together in the busy precincts of Hotel Fairmont and surrounding areas in the bay area of San-Francisco. From founder of Frog Design Helmut Hesslinger to current CEO of IDEO, Tim Brown, futurist thinkers like Paul Saffo and Bruce Sterling, upcoming American designer Yves Behar and other usual suspects like Philips’s chief designer Stephano Marzano etc. all spoke at length on design and future of design. One could see a sizable Indian gathering with Dr. Koshy, Pradyumna Vyas, Uday Dandavate from Sonic Rim, Mookesh Patel, Surya Vanka, Poonam and Geetha from Srishti, Unmesh Kulkarni from Philips, myself and several Indian students who are studying in USA. Dr. Koshy, Manoj Kothari, Hari Nair and Unmesh were amongst the speakers (who were in the list of whopping 142 sessions which split the audience in 8 parallel sessions).My expectations were grand. I expected grand new dimensions of design, new articulations of the philosophy and new dimensions of practice across the world would be discussed. I was largely disappointed. Though it was enthralling to listen to some of the speakers like Sir Ken Robinson on creativity. He spoke withoutany Power Point for 45 minutes and people gave a standing ovation. It was refreshing to hear new point of view of Bio Mimicry (learn from the nature) to bring new concepts i.e. CO2 is not poison. It is poison if we do not learn from mollusks who convert CO2 dissolved in water into Calcium Carbonate shells. etc.IDEO’s presented the case of ‘DESIGN THINKING’ (they are done with product design…they have done thousands of them). Case of Aravind Eye hospital (I think Mysore), where they could reduce the cost of lens from 400$ to 4$ and able to conduct close to a 100,000 operations a year, was used to illustrate the design thinking. Several speakers made it a point to use work done for Indian (emerging) markets as a feather in the design cap. India was the hot favorite though the point of view appeared quite naïve to native Indians sitting there (us). Also, one expects that the design mature economies where three generations have worked on design (as an example Walter C. Teague’s grand son was felicitated there), are still groping for new directions and new articulation of what design and designers should be doing. If INTEGRATED and FUTURISTIC thinking is called ‘DESIGN THINKING’ then it is being practiced by all visionaries for time-immemorial. Design, to the common mind, still evoked images of ‘Beautiful Product’ and not of ‘Beautiful Solution’, as we expect it to be. Probably time has come to re-brand DESIGN. Its classical definition of ‘Creative Problem Solving’ or new definitions of ‘Exploiting Hidden Opportunities’ both have not touched the masses and already become clichéd.Another prominent theme of discussion was ‘INTERACTIONS’ apart from design for the third world. However, the speakers and case-study presentation sounded stale to me. They do not bring news anymore. I think Indian design community is moving faster than the world and it is about time that more case-studies from India start going out. The socio-cultural complexity that the emerging markets of China, India, Brazil and Russia (along with Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia) present can not be grasped fully by the approaches familiar to us now. My presentation was on ‘Intentiability, that speaks of new design research methodology for such market. However, no other such discussion happened. Although it was primarily a designers gathering as usual ( I did not come across many CEOs being quoted or being greeted), who do not like ‘portfolio presentations’ from fellow designers, but I think that is a very powerful way to propagate the cause of design. What is stale to designers may still be a fresh insight for rest of the world. I think CII-NID Design conference as well as Pune Design Festival should strongly focus on PORTFOLIO PRESENTATIONS from fellow designers. Ultimately the design community gains when media has more masala to quote from the individual design projects. Richard Seymour did present their work for Virgin Galactic (was far from inspiring). Yves Behars’ 100$ laptop was interesting, without being exciting. Philips’s case of revival through design was very professional and did account for overall business overview apart from usual ‘form’ and ‘function’ discussion.There was a mention of ICSID and ICOGRADA not coming together for even grand occasions like this one. For a change I was happy to see an Indian name doing rounds in ICSID board (Dr. Koshy). Kudos to Dr. Koshy, he has a great political voice in the international design circles that is badly needed in India, as much as the good body of work from the design community.There was a small informal meeting of all the Indian participants to discuss the agenda and structure of CII-NID Design Summit, coming up in Dec. Idea was to choose the good speakers from this conference to be invited there. While we need some international sparkle to woo the media, I think the time has come when REAL STORIES from the ground (SMALL and UPCOMING, design lead organizations) should get the limelight on the podium through design community. Trying to call all the usual suspects, who are jet-setting between conferences, presenting the same of old stuff in different settings, is a no brainer for anyone anymore. There are hundreds of new start-ups in India, lead by innovation savvy entrepreneurs who understand the new Indian reality of retail boom, educated consumer, socio-cultural nuances, anti-colonial mindset and Indian’s new mission to go global. Design community will win if they are made the AMBASSADORS of design. Not to forget that PORTFOLIO PRESENTATION should be made an essential part of such conferences (at least in India). I think a good strategy is to divide the speaker list this way- 20% foreign, glossy speakers, 30% Indian design community presentations, 30% Design led new age companies from India, 20% Education and Policy presentation.Overall, this experience did tells me that excitement is shifting to India and China for reasons beyond market reality. However, we, the design community, needs more mature articulation of ourselves in all the forums that speak DESIGN even remotely.

2007-07-14T22:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1528654,00.asp

By Jim Louderback
"Why isn't MP3 dead yet," complained reader Matt Bieschke to me in an e-mail. "I've been waiting a long time for MP3 to die, and it just seems to get more popular."
Are there better Alternatives? There are, and they solve the problems. Microsoft's WMA, MPEG-4 AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) used by Apple's iPod and iTunes, and Ogg Vorbis all create much smaller files that sound as good or better than MP3s. Ogg Vorbis is free for all, both on the encoding and the playback side. WMA includes built-in digital rights management (DRM), and Apple has appended its own DRM to AAC—which makes music sellers happy.
Why hasn't MP3 been unseated? Formats, once widely adopted, are very hard to change. MP3 has become a lowest-common-denominator format: A device simply cannot be successful without supporting it. Why? Because so many users have invested so much time in creating and downloading MP3 files, and they'll resist going through gathering and encoding all over again. There's simply too much material in MP3 format floating around for us to change over, even with all the benefits of newer formats.
I don't disagree with your assessment of the MP3 format...
MP3 will never die.
it's not about adopting new standards; it's really about making money.
What's it going to take to change? I've developed a law of technology adoption, which I modestly call Louderback's Law: Unless a new technology includes breakthroughs in at least two different dimensions—without adding hardship along the way—it will not supplant and older, established one.

The idea of "LOWest COMMON DENOMINATOR" is a strong idea. BIC has become LCM of the pens. MP# has become the LCM of music. VICKS has become LCM of cold-relief balm in India..and SURF has become LCM of washing powder....very very difficult to replace the first movers advantage. First mover, that went to the masses....

Power of LCM is a greatly unarticulated that defies the idea of value creation through premium branding and the language of 'desire through scarcity'. At least we can say that it works slightly differently for a mass-marketeer visionery. Trading products under one brand umbrella and creating a product that flows like water in the market is totally different ball game.

Contextual Enquiry Primer

2007-07-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

“Contextual inquiry is based on three core principles: that understanding the context in which a product is used (the work being performed) is essential for elegant design, that the user is a partner in the design process, and that the usability design process, including assessment methods like contextual inquiry and usability testing, must have a focus. … For example, interviewing during a contextual inquiry study usually does not include set, broadly worded questions. Instead, the partnership between the interviewer and interviewee is used to create a dialogue, one where the interviewer can not only determine the user’s opinions and experiences, but also his or her motivations and context.” Also see Contextual Enquiry – A Primer.

Interesection of Concepts, cultures and context

2007-07-14T21:32:00.001-07:00

Associative Barriers And The Medici Effect
The contextual objective of collaborative software is to create what’s called The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts & Cultures. “When you step into an intersection of fields, disciplines, or cultures, you can combine existing concepts into a large number of extraordinary new ideas.” In medicine for instance, inkjet technology is applied to develop layered pharmacuticals which time–release different medications in sequence.
Only through redesign of associative webs and barriers making up the stuff of context can information technology realize its potential, and avoid the ultimate context failure: groupthink.

Another good quote

2007-07-14T21:32:00.000-07:00

"He who innovates, will have enemies in all those who are well off under the existing order of things, and will find only lukewarm supporters in those who might be better off under the new"-

Niccollo Machiaveli- The Prince

Innovation Process

2007-07-14T21:14:00.000-07:00

“The nature of innovation — the inherent definition of innovation — has changed today from what it was in the past. It’s no longer individuals toiling in a laboratory, coming up with some great invention. It’s not an individual. It’s individuals. It’s multidisciplinary. It’s global. It’s collaborative.” — Sam Palmisano, Chairman, President and CEO, IBM

IBM chief makes my job easier :)...makes Onio's job easier and makes the design industry a wee bit closer to public education on design.

Another quote which attracted my attention-

“Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.” — Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO, News Corporation

and yet another one-
The report quotes CEOs as saying:
"partnering is “theoretically easy” but “practically hard to do.”…”having a few beers together is not collaboration. Collaboration is a discipline.”

Tips on Ethnographic User Interviews

2007-06-19T21:08:00.001-07:00

Key points for Ethnographic User Research

Keep the list of questions ready in your bag and in your mind (not in your hand).
Try rehearsing the entire conversation through one or two sample interviews. This would get you into the groove.
Always go in the team of two. Better if one person is a woman.
Take some time, especially in the case of home interviews, to make the person/family comfortable in talking to you.
If they are talking to you, never be in a hurry to ask the next question.
Idea should be about ‘broaching the topic’ and not ‘asking a question’.
Note all that is happening around. Do not focus the camera only on the person who is speaking. While the voice is getting recorded, camera can actually pan the surroundings.
Note the brands that are in use, around the subject.
Note the body language.
Take a round of the market, to see the environment, ads, messages, trends in that living habitat.
Never. Be too apologetic about the interviews. Some of the subjects are too keen to be interviewed.
You can prompt/help them for certain issues, if they are not the talkative kind.
Also note the people and their interactions around the subject.
Take a look at the architecture, interiors etc. and articulate in the report.
Carry visual concepts to illustrate the ideas, but use them after significant comfort has been approached.

Pick of the day- Defining Design in Indian language

2007-05-12T02:15:00.000-07:00

Here is some knowledge, I picked up from the discussions in yahoogroup, on what is the word in Hindi/Sanskrit for DESIGN-

"It is neither surprising nor sad that we are not ableto get an exact equivalence to 'design', an English word that during last eighty years has gathered layers after layers after layers of meanings, nuances and interpretations. The French who are at least ten times as fiercely proud of their language as we are ofSanskrit (or Hindi or Bangla, or Tamil or any of thefourteen Indian languages) have recenly settled downfor DESIGN with no change of spelling. Germany had alredy done the same while Russians (quite cleverly, Ithought) desided to add an entirely new word to theirlanguage, spelled DIZAIN"- H. Kumar Vyas

'Seeking Authenticity'- New Trend -UPolitical

2007-05-10T21:32:00.000-07:00

This comment caught my eye, aftermath the UP elections....a perfect case for 'Rootine' trend that Onio has proposed for the year 2007.

"Running a single-handed campaign, sans celebrities, catchy advertisements, audio-visual displays or any other vote-pulling antic, Mayawati only concentrated on her new social engineering experiment of wooing the once "untouchable" Brahmins to act as a catalyst to reinforce her strong base of Dalits in a highly caste-ridden Uttar Pradesh."

Maturity of Design lead Economy

2007-05-08T20:33:00.000-07:00

While design community in India is trying to gaze the shape of the the elephant, like the legendary blind men, some things are but predictable. Contexutal differences in applying the 'design best practices' is different from stages of maturity of the market or business practice. What would be maturity of the design business in India? Will it be just a replication of what Scandanavian countries are today? Will it just mean better looking products, thriving companies, improved infrastructure, ethnic craft based product boom and masses consuming more of thoughtful products? Will it mean that the way my carpenter works will change; they way maid mops the floor will change; the way bank treats me will change; the way goverment collects my personal data will change; the way buildings look in rural side will change; the way communication sweeps aross media will change? Probably all of them together....

Does it mean that a ditto copy of what has happened in mature economies+local needs, is the 100% projection of India as the design lead economy?

I see every country brings a tweak to the 'design' world from its own perspective. Recently I read that China is now one of the biggest manufacturer and exporter of cosmetics in the world. The world is guzzling what chinese aestheic senses are producing...China is shaping the beauty of the world (in a way). One can sense the chinese colour pallette in toys and plasticware already. World's kids are getting moulded to certain sensibilities through these toys and plasticware. There is democratised, more accessible and affordable to everyone, new toy on the shelf everyday for sure. So Taiwan, Korea and China have learnt the tricks of European design and mixed with their own sensibilities to evolve a new design language. India is yet to speak that language. Whenever that becomes visible there is going to be visual changes for sure, but there should be some thought level changes are but expected. I won;t be surprised if some of the thoughtlines create flutters in the design world across the shores.

Coming back to maturity stages, it appears to me that it is only a matter of time that cetain things will happen-
a) Design becomes integral part of corporate world
b) Design becomes a tool for SMEs for growth
c) Sensing paradigm takes root in market faced innovations
d) Disruptive processes are borne out of the shear madness that Indian market presents
e) 'Art' comes back in day-today objects
f) Multiple organisational bodies are formed to channelise certain efforts in this segment (Design council or not..
g) Industry shake-up happens as world wakes up to design service market potential in India (Kishor Biyani of Pantaloon is 'outsourcing' the IT needs to IBM in India...does it ring bells?)
h) 'Design' is broken up into more specific sectors. 'Furniture and Retail Design', 'Animation Design'...etc. Creative Services would be the overall gamut to address.
i) Boom in regional markets in the interiors of India will bring the crafts back..(it would be surprising..that craft revival will not be because of the Walmart sourcing from these people, but because of the own countrymen becoming conscious of their needs).

Current generation would be the 'speedy' generation who want things accomplaished all in their life time...next one would surely take a pause and reflect....:))

Appliances are brcoming a beautiful furniture

2007-05-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

Here is an example of this trend....

Design in India: The View From Within : Manoj Kothari writes for BusinessWeek

2007-05-02T04:54:00.000-07:00

The author, a strategist at Onio Design in Pune, says a big boom in innovation and design is coming http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2007/id20070501_955200.htm?chan=innovation_innovation+%2B+design_top+stories

India has a small, busy community of professional industrial designers (around 3,000 in total). And for them, things have never been so good. While we hear from the European design professionals and interns at my design firm, Onio, how hard it is to find a decent design job elsewhere, many young designers in India find companies lining up with lucrative offers even before they graduate.

The software industry needs designers to beef up its graphical user interfaces; brick-and-mortar businesses need more traditional corporate design; and product-led companies have started turning to serious innovation and design. But while the overall mood is upbeat, the country's businesses are nonetheless sharply divided when it comes to their ability to absorb or apply real innovation. Here's a brief, personal take on the different attitudes being shown toward design in India today.

Let's begin with startups. There are two types of startups in India—and you see them in all industries. The first is spawned by the second or third generation of a well-to-do business family. These chief executives are aggressive and more attuned to a Western model of experimenting with new ideas than their elders, and they have generally experienced the power of good design.

But these guys suffer when it comes to major decisions that involve large changes or expenditure. Their boards are invariably still made up of older, more traditionally minded family members who make pushing forward a design-driven agenda less than smooth sailing.

Software for the Indian Market
The other kind of startup is usually the child of a team of technocrats who left flourishing careers to give shape to an idea—in other words, the more traditional, Silicon Valley style of company. Increasingly, entrepreneurs who were embedded in engineering want to convert that knowledge to capitalize on India's booming gadget market. These startups are more open to innovation, ideas, and expenditure than are those in the first category.

Transtrite, for instance, makes GPS-based vehicle tracking products, which are gaining popularity because of newly constructed expressways across the country. I should note here that despite the media frenzy about the Indian software industry, software products designed specifically for the Indian market are still a rarity. So this is a fledgling group, but one set to have increasing impact in the coming years.

Next are the traditionally successful companies that used to rule the Indian market with their once-great products that may now be badly dated. These are feeling the heat of competition from local companies as well as from better-designed foreign products, and are far from visionary.

Owners cling to an attitude of "We know what works for us. We know the market. Give us a design to match that foreign brand, and we'll take care of the rest, we've done it before."

Big Businesses, Old School
Part of this attitude comes from the monopoly they enjoyed in the past, and part of it comes from ignorance of the reality of innovation today. Sporadic or incremental innovation does not accomplish anything, and these companies are heading for a disaster unless they do something radical—and soon.

Then there are the established Indian business houses. These are usually a part of bigger conglomerates with multiple business lines—making and selling diverse products such as soap and software and employing designers across all their companies.
In general, all have done well in understanding the language and worth of design. I'm talking here about companies such as BlowPlast in office furniture systems, Titan in watches, Onida in consumer appliances, or VIP in luggage.

But today, some in this category are suffering from a problem of having enough insight (the starting point of design) to decide the course of innovation, but not enough to implement it within the new market realities, which are changing at a faster pace than ever before

Another Round of Mediocrity
In one meeting with a TV giant that had better remain nameless, I asked them why, when they've ruled the Indian market for so many years, they had not managed to become the Sony of India? Total silence. Even though they have a full design studio (doing reasonably good work), their products don't differ much from other international players who are putting all their financial and design might into eating the Indian pie.

Once these companies understand that they have to innovate, they don't seem ready to take the riskier step of continuing to do so. It will take another round of mediocrity and failure before they understand that engaging with higher paradigms of design is not optional. These companies have the potential to become shining icons of Indian design, but they need a visionary leader to take them there.

The fifth category is the most recent—multinationals wanting to localize innovation for the Indian market. This one comes courtesy of the booming Indian economy and signals foreign awareness of the end of the Indian consumer's love affair with foreign products.
Once upon a time, everything with an overseas label sold well. For years, foreign companies operating in India considered Indian consumers "Third World" residents who would be happy with any foreign label, and who didn't have an idea of ergonomics, style, or evolved taste.

Getting to Know You
Products that had proved unfashionable elsewhere were introduced in India, but then the Indian consumer began to catch on. Traditional segmentation and economic capacity-based studies don't wash any more. Gone are the days when Indian consumers would buy whatever was presented to them.

With many choices and plenty of information on what is available—and what constitutes world-class quality—consumers know what they are looking for. So now companies planning for a longish stay in India are seeking more local insights into the minds of their users.
One of the companies we are working with is Volkswagen, which is using a mix of market statistics, ethnographic research, and trend research to understand the dynamics of the Indian mind. They still have design studios far away from Indian soil, but there is a sign of increasing Indian involvement in their innovation process—at last.

The last category is the large public sector companies, hitherto untouched by "design." They are the legacy of pre-liberalized India and still enjoy huge support from the government in terms of money and policies.

Design here is a not a mandate. Usually it is forced by competition—one of the senior managers decides to try it out. The problem they face is that it can take a long time before the power of design is truly understood by all tiers of a hierarchy. So they continue to struggle with good design, bad design, and no design all lumped together. But these companies are becoming bigger beacons of design. They are ready to experiment.

Excitement Ahead
So where does it go from here? Well, the Indian economy is booming. Consumers are showing signs of becoming discerning mature buyers and users. Companies are ready to spend money and take risks. The government even declared a National Design Policy (though the effect on the ground will take a long time to become visible) (see BusinessWeek.com, 2/14/07, "India's Designs on Innovation").

New design schools are opening every year (there are more than a dozen now). Design companies are getting their acts together to attract investors and grow (WPP invested in Bangalore-based Ray+Keshvan, Tessaract became Idiom with the help of Future Group, Onio got angel investment.)
Internationally acclaimed design houses like IDEO are on the prowl for their piece of India. Even the Italian government has seen the opportunity and is promoting the Italian design industry heavily on Indian soil. All of this points to an exciting road ahead for design in India.
There are hurdles for sure: the lack of a trained intermediate layer (design engineers and design managers) or a governing body for design practice, the lack of skilled supporting resources such as model-makers and prototyping companies, and above all, the lack of trained designers in the country may slow the big boom of innovation that can transform India. But it's coming.

Manoj Kothari is founder, director, and senior design strategist of Pune-based industrial design and branding firm Onio Design.

Europe Impressions:2007: more...

2007-03-25T00:02:00.000-07:00

Driving past many cities and observing airports everywhere, I found that all the advertising and communication in Europe is highly 'functional'. They don't show a 'happy family' for everything from soap to car. Finally consumers have understood that soap is a soap is a soap. It can do nothing to entice a boyfriend or to make a girl a beauty queen. Care for skin and removing the dirt is the work that is expected out of it...that is it. There are no long and boring stories to be told there. I see this trend coming in some of the product categories in India as well.

Stationery shops are my place of interest when I go to Europe. Though Pune also has exclusive super stores of stationery and one can find exclusive stuff here as well. But the kind of deep-ranging that can be seen in each product category is usually absent in India. I can see 5 different coloured corrguated papers. The regular brown paper my son uses to cover his notebooks is also available in several colours and exotic finishes like silver.....this ordinary craft paper has been turned into an object of desire. While sharpners and erasers have taken on a chinese look because of obvious reasons, notebooks, papers, high-end pens etc. have still retained the European flavour. I was delighted that Chinese onslought has not taken a toll there and quality is still respected.

Europe Impressions:2007: March Brands, People, Design and more

2007-03-24T23:07:00.000-07:00

I visited Europe 5th time this March, with all together new eyes. Agenda this time was to be there as a speaker for Insight India 07, the event that I ogranised with Genevieve of Style Vision and Axel Olessen from CIFS. But I combined this with a family outing to meet the Dutch and Austrian friends and thier families as well. It turned out to be a good idea that though in the short stay of seven days covering 4 cities, we had to skip entire Amsterdam city including Van-Gogh museam. Insights into the European living was tremendous this time where we met a young couple just starting their life, a well settled modern family with 3 kids and a family living with 3 generations together...it was all that a designer-trend-reader would look for.

I also took a tour of Stroget, the shopping street of Copenhagen with Genevieve. Luxury brand have come to a saturation of innovation. The accessories at Gucci or Louis Vuitton look drab and unexciting apart from the price tag and the brand equity they carry. A walk to Zara showroom was revealing. I had studied the rise of Zara and other new age companies like Skype a few days back. Zara is run by a spanish family and they change thier clothing products every 3 weeks. It is based on a strong local supply-chain (unlike IKEA which has a global cupply-chain). Zara offers affordable middle-end fashion garments with the tweak of 'new every time' one visits the showroom. At the same time, Zara sits next to Louis Vuitton and does not fill its showroom as if everything is under discount. I like the model and the feel. Visit to Ikea in Amsterdam (this was second time I visited IKEA...first was way back in 2000) was revealing too. The price tags on products suddenly appeared accesssible for an Indian buyer. A small wooden chair or stool that would cost Rs 4000 in India to make, were selling for for Rs 1500. IKEA has already announced thier plans to enter India. I won;t be surprised if Indian homes would be IKEAised and would lose the local identity. Even if local carpenters copy IKEA catalogues and make the furniture they surely introduce the 'stronger colours' or some 'decorative elements' on their own. Now that director of communication for IKEA attended our event (Insight India 2007), I see some ground breaking work by IKEA on Indian market (both on Product Design as well as Communication front).

Axel Olessen, the managing director of Copenhagen Insititute of Future Studies observed that not many Scandenavian companies had participated in our event because they are currently focused on China. According to him, Danish people are 'traders' and have a 'herd' mentality. Only some of them have noticed the changes in India and they are two years away from the Indian market. Copenhagen did appear to have the design consciousness more than Vienna or London etc. From telephone booth, trains, hoardings and day-to-day items did have a touch of thought. But then, it had no history of a city that usually glues me to a city. The kind of 'ancient air', Paris, Londond, Salzburg or Vienna exude, was totally missing from Copenhagen. It appeared to be a modern kid brought-up in luxury and good manners but rootless in culture. There was some sort of disdain for cultural harmony anyway...I felt (talking to Jessica and Genevieve and experiences from Sonali).

Living in Europe is costly? Stan bought a sort of row house with area approximately 3000 sq ft. with a garden attached, in Amersfoort. A sort fo luxury home when we think of Mumbai, Delhi or Pune, all 360,000 Euros. Any decent row-house in Indian cities would cost 1.5 crore rupees anyways. I took a taxi in Vienna from Barbara's home to Airport which is around 15 km distance. The taxi was a luxurious Merc and the charges- Euro 27 (i.e. Rupees 1600). I don't think we can get a Mercedez Benz for Rs. 1600 in Mumbai.... Mobile phones, cameras and refrigenrators and computers....cost the same in India and Europe....so where is the difference? A glass of water cost nothing in India (literally) compared to Rs.100 in Europe. One can get a decent one time food for Rs. 100 in India while you need to spend Rs. 1000. So food is extremely costly. Prakash had a good observation...wherever human touch is involved, things would be super costly in Europe...so true... a haircut would cost a bomb in Europe while it costs nothing in India...should we talk about massage? :)

more to come....lest I

Humane by Design?

2007-03-12T00:47:00.000-07:00

Many years back (when my salary was Rs. 4000 a month), one of the co-employees of Eicher Tractors who used to report to me, asked Rs. 50K loan from company for wife's heart operation. Company took out all the HR files of this person, checked for background records, deliberated for a month and said 'yes'..with a rider...He should not take it for granted..".it is a special favour company is doing to him...make it clear."...I was told to communicate to him.

I explained to him the company's position. He showed no emotions. He was my father's age. He heard me quietly. Then after 5 days he came and told me that he did not want the company's favour+money..he had arranged the operation free of cost in Sai Baba hospital in Andhra... :)

Interesting read on Riches of the world...:from Rediff

2007-03-12T00:46:00.000-07:00

Steel baron Lakshmi Mittal leads a pack of 36 Indian billionaires with a total net worth of $191 billion, according to the list of richest persons complied by Forbes magazine.
As many as 14 Indians have joined the coveted club, raising the net worth of the country's billionaires by around $90 billion.
Mittal, who heads the world largest steel company Arcelor Mittal, is the fifth richest person in the world with a net worth of $32 billion.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates continues to be the richest person in the world for 13th year in succession with a net worth of $56 billion among a record 946 billionaire pinned down by the magazine.
India's rich are marching towards the top the table with brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani, who split up their family's conglomerate, joining Mittal for spots among top 20 richest people.
India now has the largest number of billionaires among the 20 after the United States.
Mukesh, chairman of Reliance Industries, with net worth of $20.1 billion finds 14th spot and Anil is the 18th richest person commanding a net worth of $18.2 billion.
An interesting statistic that the analyses throw up is that Japan's 20-year reign of cornering highest number of billionaires in Asia has ended and it now has only 24 billionaires with combined worth of $64 billion.
The list has 178 newcomers including 19 Russians, 14 Indians, 13 Chinese and 10 Spaniards as well as first billionaires from Cyprus, Oman, Romania and Serbia.
Two-thirds of the last year's billionaires are richer and only 17 per cent are poorer including 32 who dropped below the coveted figure and out of the list.
The billionaires' combined net worth climbed $900 billion to $3.5 trillion which equates $3.6 billion apiece, the magazine said.
The average billionaire is 62 years of age and ingenuity, and not industry, is their common characteristic. They made money in everything from real estate to coffee, dumplings and ethanol.
Among those on the list, 62 per cent made the huge fortunes from scratch.
The United States has 415 billionaires which translate into 44 per cent of the total. New faces include Starbucks chief Howard Schultz, ranked 840th among the richest. It has 55 new billionaires and total net worth of its billionaires is estimated at $1.36 trillion.
Hind Hariri, daughter of slain Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, drops off the list and Germany's 23-year-old Albert von Thurn und Taxis replaces her as the youngest billionaire.
China's Yan Cheung, ranked 390, makes a history as the country's richest person and is one of the three self made women in China to debut on this year's list. They join the exclusive rank of self made women including Oprah Winfrey ranked 664, J K Rowling (891) and Margaret Whitman (754).

More thoughts: National Design Policy+ SMEs Insights

2007-02-15T22:48:00.001-08:00

Hi,

NATONAL DESIGN POLICY

As a sequel to my thoughts, I also think that we are misssing a point if we do not connect

'DESIGN' to 'ENTREPRENEUR' (noun+verb both). A successful entreprenur is well rounded as a 'design thinker'. He has a capability for going by 'gut feel', penetrating insights into market and society and hunger for making things happen through internal synthesis.

Similarly, there are numerous examples where 'designers' have turned into an entrepreneur (beyond starting a design consulting company, like me).

A country should be promoting 'design' and 'entreprenurship' at the bottom most level of industry and enterprise. This may encompass the technology start-ups, craftsmen and micro-suppliers to SMEs and multinationals.

---------------------------

SMEs

Two days back I attended and spoke at a SME conference in Mumbai, organised by Financial Express. I already knew that this sector is a sleeping giant for great Indian dream, but this seminar brought sharper focus on that. Here are the learnings, which all of us should know and add-

SMEs constitute-

a) 95% of Industrial production and 40% of the total export is through SMEs in India

b) Employing close to 3.5 Crore people

c) Producing over 7000 products

d) Adds to 7% of GDP (..point to be noted)

Last october a new category has been added to SMEs, called 'Micro-enterprise'. Government identifies them based on the investments in 'plant and machinery' i.e. for manufacturing sector - micro enterprise has max investment in plant and manchinery of 25 lakhs, Small scale <5 crores, Medium 10 Crores. Similarly, for service sector (like design companies), it is 10 lakhs for micro, 2 crores for small and 5 crores for medium scale enterprise.

This conference attracted around 100 odd SME owners and several SME business heads from Banks and Financial Institutions like RBI, CRISIL, SBI FACTORS etc. etc. I spoke on 'Life Beyond Balance Sheet' i.e. Innovation. I learnt that there is dire need to have a good standard presentation on 'WHAT IS DESIGN', which all of us can use. All of us (practising designers) have been making our own pitch presentations since olden days that changes according to the 'design literate' and 'not so literate' clients. It would help if under a national initiative, a lot of visual communication material can be made just to address that single question, in a simple language (no mega talk).

Secondly, coming from a design company, my presentation had some visuals of 'before design' and 'after design' images. They always make a good story. While everybody else has flat presentations (either verbal or too much text), such industry groups welcome the visual change in long events.

Thirdly, some of the basic things that we learn at design school like 'gestalt laws' and how to apply them in day-to-day corporat life, can provide a lot od interesting discussion. We do not need to always use 'iPoD' as a pivotal design prop.

Fourth, I also talked about how to get design help i.e. name of the institutions, design companies etc.... I listed them all...But there is no single point-of-contact I can refer...probably Prof. Kirti Trivedi is listening and he would spruce up the www.designinindia.net site to make it single authentic resource of design support.

Best regards

Manoj Kothari

NID-AED-PD-97, IIT Bombay B.Tech. 92

manoj@oniodesign.com

Onio Design Pvt. Ltd.

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