Designing Innovation for TVS

The TVS Corporate Design Innovation Workshop (10/06/2010)

Our last workshop as a part of this leg of SPREAD was the TVS corporate design innovation workshop held on the 10th of June, 2010, solely for the employees of TVS motors. This workshop was slightly different from the rest as it was specially tailored for TVS. We had around 25 participants from various departments and branches of TVS. There were people from the brand innovation team, sales team, engineering team and even the advertising and PR team, all from the Scooty division.

Here’s a little introduction to TVS motors. TVS Motor Company is the third largest two-wheeler manufacturer in India and one among the top ten in the world. TVS was founded by T. V. Sundaram Iyengar in 1911. It is the only automotive manufacturer in India to get the prestigious Deming Prize. This prize is given to organizations that have achieved distinctive performance improvement through the application of TQM in a designated year. TVS Motor Company has its origin in Sundaram Clayton Limited, Moped Division, started in 1980. The factory was started in Hosur, Tamil Nadu in southern India. The first product launched was a 50 cc moped, which appealed to the masses because of its capability to carry two people. In the same location, the same promoters started another company in 1984, in collaboration with Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan, for the manufacture of 100 cc motorcycles under the brand name of Ind-Suzuki Motorcycles. Subsequently in the moped division was bought by Ind Suzuki Motorcycles in 1987 and the company changed its name to TVS Suzuki Ltd. Even though the company started producing all kinds of two wheelers like mopeds, scooters and motorcycles, the collaboration with Suzuki continued for the motorcycles only. The collaboration with Suzuki Motor Corporation ended in 2001 and since then the name of the company changed to TVS Motor Company. The company now develops all types of two-wheelers through its own in house R&D facility and manufactures in three locations in India, Hosur in Tamil Nadu, Mysore in Karnataka and Baddi in Himachal Pradesh. It has recently started a new manufacturing plant in Indonesia to cater to the South-east Asian market. TVS also gave us the Scooty (launched in 1998) which was a scooterette aimed at women. It is now the 2nd largest selling scooter in India today.

Carlos started the day off at 10:00 am with a welcome note and had the participants introducing themselves. After, that we had a presentation by Mr. Srinivas which dealt with understanding a multidisciplinary approach and problem setting. He took us through a presentation of TVS (more specifically the evolution of Scooty through the years). Following this was a case study on mobility and transportation in the Dominican Republic by Carlos. There were other case studies on successful companies (like Samsung, Nokia, DesignTaxi and Smart) and their practices. The session also included an introduction to the design argument framework and rapid prototyping. All through the session. Jayesh and Kiran from Idiom made caricatures of everyone sitting in the room (shown above).

We also had a practicum session, where the group was split into teams of 4 and 5. Their aim was to come up with a transportation solution for today’s Indian woman. They were given the option to choose what type of woman (college girl, house-wife, corporate woman etc.) they would like to target and were given chart paper, photographs, designers (from Idiom) to help them visualize their idea and a host of other material. As usual, this resulted in some fantastic ideas. The teams presented their ideas one by one and there was an open house discussion and critique session following which there was a small presentation on Pixar (w.r.t how they think and work). Our final session, led by Carlos, was a comparision of Design management led approach.

This was our final workshop for the month of June and we were happy with the result. We hope to have more Design innovation workshops for various companies in the near future. Carlos flew back to New York the next day. He said he's be back soon though. For more information on our initiatives, keep watching this space. We will be back shortly.

 Posted by Rahul

Designing tomorrow's leaders - the Design Leadership Workshop

The Design Leadership Workshop

The 1st Design Leadership Workshop was held on the 3rd – 5th of June 2010. I am pleased to report that it was a smashing success. We had a total of 35 participants from companies like the Future group, TVS motors, EWDPL, Quetzel, Redlime (Sri Lanka), Bonnie & Clyde café, Oxylane (France), People Combine, TCS, 24/7, Life Spring hospitals, Ganjam, Orchard advertising, Frame of mind, Insight academy, Titan and a few others. It was a three day workshop followed by an after-party and networking session. Initially, we had limited the number of seats to 25, but due to the overwhelming response we received, the limit was extended.

The workshop was primarily aimed at entrepreneurs, marketing people, communication teams, key decision makers, senior management and other key people. This workshop was not aimed at designers; instead we wanted leaders and decision makers to train them how to use design thinking in mentoring their teams in the effort of developing new business opportunities and markets. Dr. Carlos Teixeira led the workshop, making it a fun learning experience for everyone.

Day 1 started at 9:30 am on the 3rd, with the participants meeting each other over breakfast. Carlos started the introductory session shortly after that, with a welcome note and a talk on design competence and leadership. After that, there was a case-study presentation by Idiom. Later on, the participants were divided into groups of 5 and 6. Their task (over the next couple of days as well) was to create an idea and develop it into a feasible business plan. They were given magazine cut-outs, sketch pens, chart paper, post-its and even assigned 2 designers per team to make their process easier and more fun. The ideas and plans that resulted from this were simply brilliant. We had also organized tours of Idiom so that everyone could get a feel of our wonderful campus.

There were 5 modules throughout the workshop.
1. Module 1 was mapping behavior, profile and needs.
2. Module 2 was Speculating ‘what if’ scenarios.
3. Module 3 was Project staffing: the borderless innovation enterprise.
4. Module 4 was Project planning: create, preserve and destroy.
5. Module 5 was Organize to innovate: connect and design.

Various aspects of design and business were covered in these modules across three days. Numerous examples, success stories, case studies, presentations and lectures supplemented these modules.

Through the workshop the participants learned the following:
• Language and strategies for developing and evaluating new business ideas.
• Techniques for understanding users and their needs in order to identify opportunities for business innovation.
• Collaborative techniques for defining the characteristics that make a product, service, brand, and business desirable and successful.
• Key phases, milestones, and decisions involved in designing new businesses
• Building up capacities to simulate and evaluate demands for new products, services, and brands.
• Improving “soft skills” in creativity, imagination and story telling.
• Developing “design habits” to become innovative thinkers.
• Developing abilities to implement a culture of innovation in their organization or teams.

Coming back to the business plans that the teams developed, we watched these plans evolve from mere, fun ideas into viable business options. I sincerely hope that some of the participants will meet again after this and take their plans forward. There were ideas like roti, kapda aur makaan.com which was a website that helps you set up your life. There was an idea for an airline that offers a whole bunch of services aimed at the first time flyer and many more fun ideas like starting a ‘green youth club’, taking city services (like a beauty parlor, fashion etc) to rural areas and even an organization to help house maids out.

The third day was a bit different. We were joined by the following business leaders for the afternoon session:
1. Mr. Kanwaljit Singh from Helion Ventures
2. Mr. Goindi from TVS motors
3. Mr. Srinivas from TVS motors
4. Mr. Rahul Balachandra from YLG
5. Mr. Rajasekhar from People Combine
6. Mr. Fernando from EXPO industrial group (Sri Lanka)
7. Mr. Nishanka from Redlime (Sri Lanka)
8. Mr. Kush Medhora from EWDPL
9. Mr. Arjun Baljee from Peppermint hotels

They were joined by Jacob Mathew, Sonia Manchanda and Girish Raj from Idiom to lead the panel discussion and critique the various business plans that were presented by the various groups. This session was a pretty energetic one with arguments and suggestions flying all over the room. The panel as well as the participants had interesting takes on the different business plans. Unfortunately, we were pressed for time, so every group was given 15 minutes to present their case and collect feedback. Following this was our open house session. We had a total of 15 speakers (business leaders, participants as well as our very own Idiom-ites) presenting various cases, success stories and information on the organizations they came from. The speaker were given a 7 minute speaking slot each (again due to the constraint of time, although we’d have loved to hear more). There were a range of topics like Pawan from the Future group presenting the Big Bazaar success story, Rahul presenting the YLG success story, Elisa and Guillaume sharing some information on Oxylane, Kush presenting the EWDPL case study etc.

We had a small graduation ceremony for all the participants at the end of the workshop. They were each presented with a certificate and a SPREAD stole. The after-party was a lot of fun as well. The participants along with people from Idiom danced late into the night. It was a great workshop with amazing sessions, delicious food and a killer after-party. We were lucky to have such an eclectic, energetic and diverse bunch of participants.

This isn’t the end of SPREAD. We have a workshop for children on the 9th of June and another one for the employees of TVS motors on the 10th. We hope the next workshop will be as successful as this one was. Watch this space for news on SPREAD and our future initiatives. So, until next time then.

Posted by Rahul