Recently, there have been some interesting innovations in the Life Science industry that promise a great deal of benefit to mankind.

STAP cells – a breakthrough in stem cell research

Stem cells are undifferentiated biological cells that have the ability to transform into any type of cell, depending on certain stimulus. The term “stem cells” was first used in 1908 by a Russian histologist named Alexander Maksimov. They are the building blocks of any biological organism; an embryo begins as a mass of stem cells that later differentiate into various specialized cells. It is this property that has interested a large number of researchers; the potential for developing a cure for many diseases and afflictions is enormous. The first instance of stem cell therapy was a bone marrow transplant between two siblings to treat a case of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID).

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Recently there was a landmark decision by the Indian Supreme Court on the issue of whether Novartis International AG, Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company, could patent their cancer treatment drug Gleevec. After a litigation suit that lasted for seven years, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Indian Patent Office and denied the right for Novartis to patent their drug.

Novartis had filed a patent for imatinib, which is the chemical name for Gleevec, in India in 1998, after India had agreed to abide by worldwide intellectual property standards under the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement). One of the key changes made by India as a result of this agreement was an amendment to its patent laws; prior to the TRIPS Agreement, products could not be patented in India but after the agreement was made, products could be patented if they followed certain restrictions. These changes were effective from 2005, which meant Novartis’ patent application was in limbo until then. In the meantime, Novartis has applied for Exclusive Marketing Rights (EMR) for Gleevec as per provisions under the TRIPS agreement. Novartis sold Gleevec at USD 2666 per patient per month, whereas generic companies were selling their versions at USD 177 to 266 per patient per month.

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Innovation is a word that one hears a lot these days.  In its truest essence all it means is how a process or product is made more efficient and easier to use with better results obtained. In recent years the focus of innovation has been very much on social media. First it’s important to acknowledge that the nature of today’s world is highly capitalistic. What this means in a nutshell is the primary goal in today’s world is to earn as much money as possible. Almost everything that is done has a bottom line goal which is to turn a profit at the end of the day. This has in fact affected the nature of innovation that is being carried out today.

Innovation was borne out of the necessity of making things easier and more accessible for everyone. It was driven by the need for more modern facilities. How things are made easier to ensure that it can fulfil the need of the regular consumers. The very need to make life easier was what drove innovation. The need for better quality of life lead to the push for better food production systems, better sanitary systems, better transportation systems, better accommodation systems and lastly a better networking system.

Social media today plays such a huge role in all aspects of our lives. The extent of which it affects us depends on the amount of exposure that we allow ourselves to have in social media. The need for networking and communication that we humans have is hardwired into our brains because we as humans are social creatures who were meant to live in groups instead of solitary living. This has led to the exploitation of our own selves. At a certain degree we have come to depend and rely on social media so much that we are starting to devolve in our basic communication skills.

How did this come to be? Prior to smartphones the regular mobile phones purpose was to be connected and reachable at all times. But the advent of smartphones changed the game totally. The smartphone lead to the creation of new product class called apps. The motivation driving the development of apps are, firstly to provides services on a new platform and secondly as a means to generate revenue. The aim is to get as many app downloads as possible by way of either offering a freemium app, a paid app or an ad supported app.

Having smartphones made social media more accessible than ever. The amount of focus, time and effort that is being poured into social media development begs the question is it worth it? Somewhere along the way the focus of innovation to create better things for use has shifted to creating things that can be monetized. Innovation on the improvement of the general quality of life has definitely slowed down. More and more focus is being put on the technology world and software development instead of general hardware development.

The key issue now is will we continue to remain on this path of focus on monetizing everything we can or will we eventually shift back to the development of humankind as a species to ensure our own continual survival. The example used above to illustrate the shift in innovation is not only limited to the social media field but it was used as it best describes what is happening at the moment. At the end of the day we need to ask ourselves where do we want to see ourselves headed and are we prepared to do what it takes to get there?

In the technology and business world we regularly come across innovative startups that have developed a new product or service that use ground breaking technology to address the market needs. Such startups get a lot of media coverage and attention due to their success in entering the market with a bang. But equally commendable (or in some cases it is even tougher) is the ability to maintain and grow the business for a few decades with the same core concepts for the company. One such example is Lego – a toy and play material manufacturer founded in 1932 – currently the world’s most-valuable toy manufacturer.

In the part I of this article we introduce the 4 key concepts which we believe contributed to the longevity and business success of Lego and if utilized effectively can be useful for other businesses also. In future parts of this article we will review further details of these 4 key concepts and how Lego used them effectively to achieve success.

Strong and consistent core values

Building and growing a company based on strong, well-defined and consistent core values will ensure a clear strategic flow for the decision makers and a consistent direction for the implementers and other decision makers. It will also influence the customers by accumulating the company’s brand presence over the years rather than starting fresh or creating a new brand image every few years.

Adaptable and flexible product line

An innovative or in-demand product in this decade might not be relevant in the future. And in the current dynamic digital world the time period of relevance might be even less than a year. Hence it is vital for the company’s success to continuously develop new products or re-align their existing product lineups to ensure relevance with the market needs.

Linking with and leveraging current trends

Every generation or time line has a set of popular trends based on the type of domain the business is operating in. For example in the entertainment domain movies play a major role in defining the trends and in the current timeline of the past few years superhero movies and specific science fiction movies (like Star Wars) have gained (or in some cases regained) a huge following. By linking to these movie franchises either directly or indirectly the business will be able to provide products that are directly aligned to the current popular trends and thus leverage the momentum of these trends to expand their market.

Diversifying into extended domains while maintaining the core values

Diversification is a commonly used and popular strategy to extend or grow the business and in some cases even to hedge against the existing business domain. In this current scenario we are referring to diversification to expand the business by growing into domains that are relevant extensions of the current domain. By expanding into domains that are related to and strategic extensions of the current domain the business can leverage the brand presence and the business infrastructure and know-how it has built over the years.

The recently released game GTA V sold over USD 1 billion in product over the first 3 days of its release. This interesting statistic brings to light the fact that the gaming industry plays an important part in the overall entertainment industry rather than just playing a part of an always forgotten younger brother. It also emphasizes the importance of the entertainment industry in the human ecosystem and its ability to compete with critical industries like the Food and Electronics industries in terms of revenues generated. Finally it shows the success of a product that ‘innovates’ incrementally and is well-aligned to the needs of the consumer.

Continue reading GTA V – Why is it a success? →

Consumer Technology World Brief

The advent of technology has led to it being used across aspects of our daily life from the time we wake up till the time we go back to sleep. Is has become so common that we now depend on the internet for storing most of the necessary data we require for our day to day tasks. One main concern that we need to take into account is definitely the security of our data. How vulnerable are we from hackers. One example is recently a British-based computer scientist has been banned from publishing an academic paper revealing the secret codes used to start luxury cars including Porsches, Audis, Bentleys and Lamborghinis as it could lead to the theft of millions of vehicles. We have come to depend on the remote for locking and unlocking our cars without realizing if it was ever hacked millions of cars are vulnerable to theft. This is definitely an incentive for criminals to try and pursue these modern methods of thieving. It is paramount that better information security is developed to help mitigate the risks that we are facing in the ever fact paced world of technology developments.

Continue reading Economic & Innovation World Review Report August – September 2013 →

Sometimes we assume that fancy Ivy League MBA’s and technology degrees are the prerequisite of building an innovative mind. Yet, people looking to shun college often point out that many of the business and technology world’s most innovative minds never attended college, or dropped out within the first few years. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Ted Turner are just a few of the world’s most famous people who have never graduated college.

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In this article we look at the concept of sustainable buildings, the key components in the domain of sustainable building, the key drivers in this ecosystem and the potential areas of innovations in this area. The concept of sustainable buildings refers to the use of environmentally responsible processes and sustainable materials throughout the entire life cycle of the building covering key stages like siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation and demolition. The goal is to reduce the overall impact of the building on the environment and in turn human ecosystem – in line with the global alignment towards environment friendly and sustainable processes, practices and products.

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In this article, a continuation of last month’s Innovation and Food Security article, we discuss a few more key factors contributing to the Food Security issues in the world and preview a few potential innovative solutions for these critical factors and explore international groups and organizations collaborating to address the issue of Food Security.

Continue reading Innovation and Food Security – Part II →

There are two key aspects to Food Security in the world – (i) the current high number of chronically undernourished people in the world, estimated at around 870 million people (ii) the world population growth trends resulting in a high rate of increase in global demand for food, expected to increase by 60 percent by 2050. The most affected regions are the developing and under-developed countries but due to the scale and scope of the food value chain its repercussions will be seen globally. Thus innovation in the food ecosystem is crucial to bridge the current and future gaps in the food value chain.

Continue reading Innovation and Food Security →