India has for long be a fast-growing economy that has and is still having difficulties with coping with this growth. The immense population however, holds plenty of opportunities for India to be one of the next leading countries in innovation and to be home to the next Silicon Valley. In this blogpost, I want to highlight in which areas India still should show improvement to become this next innovation leader it promises to be.

Firstly, India should re-examine its own way of doing business and try to let the different industries breath innovation. Businesses must more than ever be aware of the technological changes around them. Too many times Indian businesses hold on to what they know and are afraid of what is to come.

Secondly, India should make steps in overcoming risk-averseness. Risk-averseness is embedded in the Indian culture and this can withhold innovation from happening. Indians are so risk averse since until recently there was almost no private capital market. This means that Indians who are started a firm practically always used their savings and this over course makes them more risk averse. So, the second step is to embrace taking risk and this can be increasingly done since the private capital market in India is growing (Kathuria, 2017).

Thirdly, firms that want to innovate must accept that they often need to adapt on every business level, and this means on management level as well (Rick, 2017). Often Hierarchy is still very important in Indian Businesses. Managers and CEO’s are willing to be more innovative but they do not want to change their way of doing business or managing their firm. This is one of the key components that stops India from innovating. It is thus, vitally important to adapt on every level of the firm and not only on entry levels. This will help shift the thoughts of innovations as a firm and consequently will deliver you with better and more structured ideas.

India still has a long way to go to become one of the lead innovating countries in the world. However, when they adapt fast and change their mindset to innovation it is almost certain that the next Airbnb, Apple or Microsoft will find its place in India.

References:

Kathuria, P. (2017). What will it take for India to accelerate innovation?. [online] http://www.livemint.com/. Available at: http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/L3zDW9CnCKygeZzmk5oCgI/What-will-it-take-for-India-to-accelerate-innovation.html [Accessed 19 Oct. 2017].

Rick, T. (2017). Top 30 key obstacles to innovation – Barriers to innovation. [online] Torben Rick. Available at: https://www.torbenrick.eu/blog/strategy/30-key-obstacles-to-innovation/ [Accessed 19 Oct. 2017].

Yesterday Boeing Co. announced that they are buying Aurora flight sciences. Aurora is a pioneer in making co-pilot robotics and software to sense landing tracks. With this this acquisition Boeing seems to be betting on the AI and robotics market for the future of the commercial airline industry (Johnsson, 2017a). This conjecture is all but weakened by the fact that Boeing is also backing the start-up Zunum Aero. Zunum Aero specializes in making aircrafts that are fully powered by electricity and can already fly 700 miles on a full battery pack. They are also experimenting with charging technology to let them “refuel” those battery packs within 10 minutes(!) (Johnsson, 2017b).

Aurora, is not only known for its co-pilot robotics. It has been in the news lately for a new air-taxi prototype which can take-off and land vertically. Aurora aims to deliver 50 fully electric self-flying aircrafts to Uber Elevate. Indeed, you read “Uber”. Uber is currently exploring new ways to let people travel and to make travel more convenient and faster.

Apart from the acquisition of Aurora and investment in Zunum Aero, Boeing is also improving their IT strategy by using the IoT and blockchain technology (Gutierrez, 2017). They are using IoT in combination with blockchain to improve almost all their operations along their value chain. Boeing is using IoT and Blockchain to improve their own manufacturing process. By connecting all their manufacturing equipment to the cloud and by placing sensors in their products, they can follow the entire manufacturing process neatly and analyse where they can improve and be more efficient. But it does not stop there. After the finalized product, in Boeing’s case often an aircraft, is delivered to the customer, they keep tracking performance of all the parts in the airplane by sending sensor data into the cloud. They analyse this data and predict when maintenance needs to happens. Because of this, Boeing now delivers the final product and the service to keep their product running all the time which adds value for Boeing but more importantly, for the consumer.
As you can see Boeing is on the cutting edge of innovation in the aircraft industry and it looks as if they are preparing for a new era in the airline industry.

References:
Johnsson, M. (2017a). Boeing Bets on Robot Pilots, Air Taxis With Aurora Takeover. [online] Bloomberg.com. Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-05/boeing-bets-on-robot-pilots-self-flying-taxis-with-acquisition [Accessed 6 Oct. 2017].
Johnsson, M. (2017b). Boeing-Backed Startup Sees Hybrid-Electric Flights in Five Years. [online] Bloomberg.com. Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-05/boeing-backed-startup-plots-hybrid-planes-with-nod-to-musk-787 [Accessed 6 Oct. 2017].
Gutierrez, C. (2017). Boeing Improves Operations with Blockchain and the Internet of Things – Cloud Foundry Live | Altoros. [online] Cloud Foundry Live | Altoros. Available at: https://www.altoros.com/blog/boeing-improves-operations-with-blockchain-and-the-internet-of-things/ [Accessed 6 Oct. 2017].