This article has been contributed by Aastha Mahawar, Chief Operating Officer (COO), Skill Bud.
The world is going through rapid transformation, and technology is at the centre of it. Especially with the ongoing developments in the field of information technologies, innovation, leadership and opportunities are being reconceptualised, and women are actively involved in it. Women are not only active players in this technological era but are also deeply involved, from founding a startup to joining a boardroom meeting.
In the past, women had limitations to certain opportunities, especially when it came to technology and management. Today, they are removing these barriers and trying to open a place for themselves in professions that have long been in the hands of men.
Women in the Digital age are redefining Leadership by being at the top positions in the world’s biggest firms, being startup market innovators, and creating products that change the world. Their journey is not only about achieving the goals, but here we are getting to learn about the kind of spirit one has to display, the kind of vision one has to envision, and the power of inclusion.
The global era is driven by innovation, leadership, and opportunities, and women are at the forefront—taking charge and making bold strides in the digital revolution. While they were left in the cold with regard to important roles, they are now inventors and transformers. Their journey is not just about achievements but about vision, resilience, and inclusion—qualities that are shaping the future of leadership.
Women as Leaders: A New Approach
Ironically, leadership is not strictly about the strict rules and following a structural pattern. Women in the digital age lead with flexibility, teamwork, and emotional intelligence. Some of the leading influential women have demonstrated this innovation in leadership through the use of digital platforms, such as Sheryl Sandberg, Susan Wojcicki, and Whitney Wolfe Herd.
There is evidence that the presence of women in leadership positions in a given organization increases its profitability and efficiency in making sound decisions. Most of them possess strategic thinking abilities accompanied by people skills, which fosters working relations based on trust.
Leading technology-driven businesses, starting innovative startups, and transforming industries—women are first in digital transformation. Their impact is indisputable in several fields:
Tech Startups: Women are spearheading this surge of new businesses in the fields of AI, banking, and health technology.
Reshma Saujani started Girls Who Code using artificial intelligence and coding, therefore helping young women into the computer industry.
Women are bringing about reforms in data protection and cybersecurity, therefore ensuring safer digital settings.
Finance & Fintech: Female-led fintech startups are offering more readily available financial services, especially in underdeveloped areas.
These advances, despite certain challenges. The STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) sector still lacks female representation; finance is still a key challenge; just a small fraction of venture capital funds go to women entrepreneurs.
Overcoming these obstacles will mostly rely on mentoring initiatives, educational programs, and more financial availability. Still, women repeatedly prove that a diverse and inclusive digital ecosystem is more creative, successful, and innovative.
Changing Work Culture for the Better
Modern technology enables work transformation, which provides women with increased scheduling opportunities. Female workers benefit from remote employment opportunities alongside digital teamwork and self-employment because they need better flexibility to balance their work and household responsibilities. Through modern technology, women now have the freedom to work beyond office structures in various roles that suit their changing schedules, life conditions, and family needs.
Corporate organizations demonstrate their commitment to work-life balance through implemented programs designed to assist parents and their children. Gender-inclusive organizational policies foster better employee satisfaction and stronger talent retention and they deliver increased productivity to organizations. These organizational changes create benefits for women although they primarily enhance business competitiveness and innovation.
Overcoming Challenges
The current situation shows gradual improvement, yet success requires additional efforts. There still exist substantial problems in the workplace because men earn 18% more than women, and women experience discrimination in promotions and rarely occupy executive positions. The tech industry shows that women earn 18% less than their male colleagues, while executive leadership positions in the Fortune 500 companies amount to only 10% female presence.
Several organizations, together with government institutions, have established initiatives to solve these gaps. The governments of Iceland, alongside large organizations such as Salesforce, dedicate funds to remediate gender pay differences through structured equal-pay initiatives. Additional companies should establish open salary information alongside formal mentoring activities and leadership candidate searches that aim to attract female candidates.
A Future Led by Women
It is not often that women wait for an opportunity to be given to them—they make it on their own. They are shattering ceilings and walls in offices, tech spaces, and firms, showing that the future is at their fingertips.
This is not only evolution but a revolution in the sphere of technology. The future is technology and it belongs to the non-conforming and non-traditional women of the world more than anyone else.
In a recent Rajya Sabha session, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jitin Prasada revealed that Uttar Pradesh (UP) has become a notable state, home to about 9% of all startups in India. To encourage creative business endeavours and strengthen the startup ecosystem, the Uttar Pradesh government has contributed INR 1,000 crore to the UP Startup Fund. Paytm, Paytm Mall, India Mart, Moglix, Pine Labs, Innovaccer, InfoEdge, and Physics Wallah are eight of the 108 unicorns in India that are based in Uttar Pradesh. With firms dispersed throughout all 75 districts, the state has surpassed its initial 2025 target and established 10,000 startups by mid-2023.
Growth of Startup Sector Reflects State’s Proactive Measures
This impressive expansion of UP’s startup scene is evidence of the state’s proactive efforts to create an atmosphere that is conducive to business. The Uttar Pradesh government has put in place a number of laws and initiatives to assist entrepreneurs and position the state as an innovation hub because it recognises the potential of startups to spur economic growth and job creation.
Through the creation of strong infrastructure, guaranteeing policy support, and encouraging innovation across industries, the state’s extensive StartInUP program seeks to create a world-class startup ecosystem. Creating one million square feet of incubation and acceleration space, supporting the growth of 10,000 companies (achieved before the deadline), building eight Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in high-potential regions, and constructing 100 incubators—one in each district—are just a few of its ambitious objectives.
Supporting New Businesses in Tier 2 and Tier 3 Cities
With almost half of the state’s startups originating from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, UP has concentrated on empowering entrepreneurs in these areas in an effort to decentralise startup growth. The state is facilitating economic growth in all 75 districts by encouraging innovation outside of large urban hubs. Around one lakh jobs have been created in the state as a result of this expansion, demonstrating the important role entrepreneurs play in fostering livelihood possibilities and enhancing local economies.
UP is working to create agri-tech companies that tackle issues including low agricultural yields, poor food processing, and waste in rural areas. To assist businesses in cutting-edge fields including artificial intelligence (AI), drones, medical technology, blockchain, 5G and 6G, quantum computing, additive manufacturing, and space technology, the state government has donated ₹1,000 crore to the UP Startup Fund.
Drafting Policies that Further Fuel the Growth
In order to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship, the state has implemented regulations that provide incentives like tax breaks, seed money, and infrastructure support. The Mukhyamantri Yuva Udyami Vikas Abhiyan (MYUVA) plan was introduced in early October 2024 with the goal of empowering young entrepreneurs by offering interest-free loans up to INR 5 lakh, with the goal of developing one lakh young entrepreneurs yearly. Similar to this, the Uttar Pradesh government has given the IT and IT-enabled services sector industry status in an effort to draw in multinational tech companies. This will allow these businesses to purchase property at industrial prices and strengthen UP’s standing as a major IT hub in North India.
The state’s industrial potential has been highlighted in large part by events like UPITS 2024, which give business owners a chance to connect, look for collaborations, and enter new markets. An agreement to build a semiconductor production plant in Jewar, Uttar Pradesh, was inked in September 2024 between the United States and India. An important turning point in India’s technical development will be reached with the opening of this state-of-the-art facility, called “Shakti,” which will be the first of its type in the nation.
Innovation is a part of moving forward. It can be summed up as the process of coming up with something original or updating anything. We have come a long way from drawing on caves to using PowerPoint presentations for the art of storytelling, using CDs and cassettes to just plugging in our earphones into our devices to listen to music. Smartphones serve as yet another good example; you can do anything with them, from watching movies, clicking pictures, to playing games.
Innovation is the only way forward and has long been a part of our society in every aspect, and it is a very crucial part of a business, helping it stand out and attract the right opportunities to thrive.
With innovation, you are always one step ahead of your competition. It gives you the advantage of staying relevant with the times by keeping up with changes and adapting to the environment. It can also help you to keep pace with the ever-changing wants and demands of your consumers and the market.
Disruptive innovation involves creating a concept, product, or service that disrupts an existing market or creates a completely new one. Additionally, you can do this by targeting consumer segments that have been overlooked by established companies for so long.
Radical innovation
Radical innovations open the gates to new markets. With the introduction of new technology, business models, services and more radical innovations are considered rare.
Incremental innovation
As an incremental innovation, existing technology is used to enhance existing offerings by adding novel features such as revamped packaging to existing marketing.
Architectural innovation
The innovative architecture includes tapping into new markets with your domain expertise and skills.
Doblin’s 10 Types of Innovation Framework
There exist so many innovation frameworks that have been introduced and discovered by well-known personalities like McKinsey, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, Kelley and company.
These frameworks have evolved from simple linear, sequential models to more complex models today. We have open innovation, blue ocean strategy, ally vs acquire, three horizons, and more. But the innovation frameworks that are widely accepted and commonly used in today’s times are “10 innovation frameworks” that were identified by Doblin.
He observed that all innovations are built upon the foundation of some same basic elements. These ten elements were then grouped into three main areas, which were mainly classified into three categories, Configuration, Offerings, and System.
Configuration
Furthermore, under configuration falls everything that has to do with what transpires inside the business along with the systems that form its foundation.
1. Profit
The profit-making business model is as simple as the word suggests itself. It is about when you wish capital to flow into your business. This model allows organizations to make money continuously. As a company, ask yourself, “How does your company generate income?” or how it can generate additional income.
How can you use it?
Assess what are the core activities that get the money in
Evaluate the existing and latest innovative models that generate revenue for your business
See what you can do differently when you desire to generate more profit
Focus on where you are getting your money from?
Find out what is the product or the line extension can help to give a boost to your sales
Create a value offering for your consumers that no other competitor’s brand can give by creating a unique USP (Unique Selling Point)
Challenge your assumptions and find creative perspectives to look at the way you do things in your company
For example, Chupa Chups leveraged their product by introducing candies with a new package design to fit the occasion of Halloween and practised moment marketing to make additional revenue.
To create value through networking, you must know who and how to deal with it. Maintaining relevance and staying connected is a key component of collaboration. You collaborate with others, work with them, establish a common ground, and aim towards achieving both organizations’ common goals/objectives.
How can you use it?
Consider the internal capabilities of your company, evaluate and see if there are any areas that provide the opportunities for a successful collaboration.
Identify the common aims, objectives, and goals of the other organization that you are collaborating with.
Connect with others to create value.
Find the right networks that will be assets to your company.
Remember when Stranger Things collaborated with Nike, Adidas, Baskin-Robbins, Levis, H&M including 75 more other brands because these brands apparently aligned with the 90s theme of the web series.
Levi’s Stranger Things Collaboration
Ashish Chanchlani’s latest collaboration with Amazon’s mini-TV is yet another stellar example. In the video, there was a staged act in which Ashish Chanchlani’s number was revealed. That led to many people calling on the number to speak to him.
Ashish Chanchlani collaboration with Amazon mini-TV
Almost 3 lakh calls were made on the number, where they were met with a pop-up from True Caller showing Chanchlanis ID and a pre-recorded voicemail that successfully delivered the message of raising awareness for the newly released Amazon mini-TV. This is a perfect example of both channel and customer engagement innovation frameworks.
Structure
This framework has to do with managing companies’ assets, and here assets include both tangible and intangible assets that a company may have.
How can you use it?
Examine your assets, intangible, and tangible, such as companies’ capabilities, incentives, brands, facilities, resources, etc.
Keep an eye on the design and structure of your assets.
Monitor the structure continually to get effective results.
Find ways to align your talent with your assets.
Construct a distinct and sophisticated structure for your business that cannot be copied by your competitors.
Take the example of Google. The 20 percent rule is what made the company famous in 2004. The employees were allowed to spend 20 percent of their time working on side projects. That, they thought, would help Google thrive. This led to the origin of Gmail and Google News. As a result, they were able to train their employees and create value from an intangible asset (their talent).
Process
Process innovation framework aims at optimizing the process of producing the final product. By making changes in the technology and equipment that is used to design, develop and manufacture your products. Which helps you save time and money and provide better customer service.
How can you use it?
Innovate novel processes and techniques.
Try cutting-edge software and equipment in areas like production, delivery, support services etc.
Use process innovation to produce or deliver original or significantly improved products.
Upgrade to the latest and advanced technology and equipment to design, develop and manufacture your products.
For example, boAt does this by manufacturing its products in China. The company’s origins lie in India. In any case, manufacturing the product in China solves a problem that reduces production costs. In addition, it makes the product affordable, helping the brand to remain competitive in the market and meet customer demands.
Offerings
In the category of offerings, innovations are directed towards the firm’s core products and services, or both. What a company can offer to a customer regarding value and experience.
Product Performance
Product performance innovation overall involves product and process innovation. Here, changes are made to a product regarding its features, quality, price, etc. It is necessary to keep the product up to date with the changing demands and wants in the market. Or the product will be considered outdated and soon be forgotten.
How can you use it?
Think of creative or interesting ways to upgrade your product.
Play with the price, quality, feature set, capabilities, or functionality of your products.
Devise packaging that stands out,- e.g., doves packaging.
Have distinguishable functionality and features of your products.
A prime example is the unveiling of BMW’s colour-changing car, using electrophoretic technology to change its shade on the surface in an instant using electronic ink.
BMW Colour Changing Car
Product system
Pen and ink, car and petrol, a smartphone and a SIM card. These are just some examples of complementary products. They are often purchased together or offer added value when used together.
When using the process innovation framework, the primary goal is to combine products, services. Or any other main offering/ the core value proposition of your business. Rather than handling one product or service and more when you group them, this framework allows you to make it easier to manage them together.
How can you use it?
Identify potential opportunities to innovate.
Develop systems that are robust, scalable, and modular.
Try bundling and complementing your products/services.
Ensure that you build ecosystems that satisfy your customers.
Create extensions that work with existing products. Keep in mind that you may not necessarily have to manufacture these extensions.
For example, one of the very well-known brands in the grooming sector that falls under the umbrella of P&G is (Procter and Gamble’s) Gillette employs this framework very well. They cater to two segments of the market, men, and women. Their product systems include complementary products like disposable blades, blade refills that go with their razors.
The experience is more focused on the consumer. All that the consumer experiences interacting with your company’s products, services, or overall, in any way with the company itself.
Service
The way you treat your customers speaks volumes. They rely on you to get what they want. A business-to-customer relationship involves not just a relationship between a buyer and a seller, but also a relationship of trust. So, if a consumer is getting something from your brand, they are trusting you to deliver that value.
How can you use it?
Add value to your service, come up with original and creative ideas on how you can make the How can you stand out from your competitors?
Make the purchasing process easier for your audience.
Keep your landing page simple with an easy-to-navigate design.
Give them all the information that they might need to reach you.
Have a call to action to make their buying process more convenient.
Enhance and support that surrounds your offerings.
Just in the case of Domino’s, their value lies in their very smart and creative service. That is, to deliver their pizzas to their consumers in just half an hour all over India, or to offer it for free if it wasn’t delivered in that time frame.
Another example is Starbucks, which is using technology and experiential methods to innovate its customer service. They have created a whole culture around their product which makes the space so friendly, comfortable and delightful for the customers.
Channel
It is extremely valuable for consumers to know that your brand exists to provide them with the product or service that they are looking for. Channels are a great way to be discovered by consumers, both existing and potential consumers. Thanks to booming technology and the rise of smartphones, brands are now making it a priority to stay relevant with the changing times. And connect with their consumers not only through offline mediums but also online.
How can you use it?
Look at the data of where your audience is and which is the platform that you are comfortable using
Revisit and review your landing page. Does it have a simple user interface? Does it give all the necessary information that your consumer needs to connect with you?
Ask how you are delivering your offerings to customers or users.
Evaluate your audience’s preferences, see if they are okay with using digital platforms, or if they would like or want to visit the store and buy your products.
Have a call to action. Always make your organization easy to reach out to. For example, chatbots are available on many pages to answer questions and more.
For example, Plum recently opened its doors to its first-ever store at the R- City Mall, Mumbai. And it aims to open more than 50 stores by the year 2023. As part of its strategy to create an Omnichannel approach, the brand is seeking to create a platform to connect its consumers not just online but also through retail stores.
Plum First Retail Store
McCafe gave a novel twist to the billboard and used actual smoke to replicate their hot steaming coffee.
Brand
Every brand has its core values. Consider the print ad campaign by Cadbury to thank the people working in the unorganized sector. The print ad itself spoke to what Cadbury as a brand stands for.
Their vision statement also includes caring for both the well-being of the people and their planet. This obviously shows that they value all the people associated with them.
The integrated value into their marketing message and clearly stated that they stand against bullying. And they see and care for the people, even if they work in unorganized sectors’
Likewise, its Purple Heart campaign entailed standing up for your friends who face bullying by trolls. It involved a lot of celebrities fighting hate online with purple hearts under the #heartthehate hashtag. Again, showing how they present themselves as a brand and create a strong position.
Cadbury Purple Heart Campaign
How can you use it?
Revisit your core values and beliefs as a brand.
Integrate your core values, mission, vision with your audience’s values, and beliefs in your marketing strategies.
Focus on how do you present yourself and your offerings?
Customer engagement
Customer engagement enables you to get your hands on one of the things that are valuable to every company: consumers’ data, which can help give you insights through their feedback. Consumer engagement innovation is about how you connect with your target audience (TG), which includes both your existing and potential customers. As a result, your customers become loyal and feel connected to your business.
How can you use it?
Try different marketing tactics.
Understand your audience.
See which marketing strategy suits the situation with your current goals and time.
Keep the strategies relevant and find common ground with your consumers.
Try distinctive ways in which you can foster interaction with your consumers.
Coca-Cola plays with personalized and experiential marketing strategies to get their consumers engaged and have better brand recall and increased brand loyalty, and even drive up their sales.
With their Open Happiness campaign, based on data analytics, they helped migrant workers in the U.A.E. connect with their families. By allowing them to use the bottle caps of Coke bottles as currency to operate the telephone booth set up by the company.
The 10 types of innovation frameworks by Doblin can help increase the overall efficiency of your business. Understanding your company’s needs will allow you to use the correct innovation framework. These innovation frameworks can also be used in combination if required to get the desired results. Innovation is an imperative aspect of a business, and one cannot thrive without innovation in society.
FAQ
What is the Doblin framework?
Doblin framework is a set of structured easy-to-use cards divided into different types of innovations.
What are innovation frameworks?
Innovation framework is a structure designed to help businesses evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, take an informed decisions and build strategies.
What are the types of innovation frameworks?
Profit Model, Network, Structure, Process, Product Performance, Product System, Service, Channel, Brand, and Customer Engagement are types of innovation frameworks.
This article is contributed by Mr. Anirudh Kala, Co-founder, Celebal Technologies.
When we talk about modern technology, one of the biggest inventions has to be Artificial Intelligence (AI). With its undeniable effect, AI is actually taking over the world. In an unbelievable way, it has become a part of our daily lives and is continuously on a mission to change our future. A decade ago, the Sci-fi movies that we used to watch are now unfolding in front of our eyes and are turning into a reality.
Just like the whole world, India is also experiencing the same reality, in fact, such as the impact that, the 2021 Deloitte State of AI report found that Indian enterprises intend to increase their investments in Artificial Intelligence, based on the returns they have seen on their existing AI investments. Any kind of business can benefit from using AI and innovation in their organization. Becoming data-driven will level the playing field for such enterprises, therefore, allowing everyone to leverage all their data to build better user experiences and increase business agility. Artificial Intelligence is not just in the realm of buzzwords and hyped-up technologies anymore. It has gone from a good-to-have to a must-have part of every organization – big and small alike. The pandemic spurred on rapid digital transformations, leading every enterprise to establish a culture of continuous innovation to become more resilient. These digitalization journeys have led to a boost in AI adoption with many enterprises setting up data and analytics infrastructure as the foundation to build AI projects.
In this article, we will find out how Artificial Intelligence can bring enterprise innovation. Let’s take a look.
How AI Can Unlock Hidden Opportunities for Businesses?
Artificial Intelligence has a wide range of applications in the business world. From process automation, and tailored customer services to conversational analytics and predictive analytics, the use cases for AI touch upon all the departments of HR, Finance, Operations, Manufacturing, Marketing, and others. Organizations can use AI to grow their business, increase revenues and business agility, and enhance operational efficiency.
In the financial sector, machine learning algorithms are being designed to improve fraud detection, supplement the risk assessment process, deliver tailored customer recommendations and services.
Artificial Intelligence is also empowering the manufacturing sector with demand forecasting, inventory optimization, supply chain analytics, production planning, and many more diverse use cases.
With the ability to continuously learn and adapt itself, AI technologies can also help businesses make better decisions that will help predict market changes and help your business be competitive and resilient.
Personalized virtual assistants, recommendation engines, predictive analytics are also some of the ways enterprises are leveraging AI to craft lasting customer experiences and stem customer churn.
Infusing AI will not only fuel a culture of innovation but also cause immense benefits of reduced expenses, automated processes, faster insights, and improved business continuity.
Need of AI-Powered Enterprise Chatbots and Cognitive AI
Artificial Intelligence is showing its mettle in every form, down below some reasons are stated regarding the need for AI-Powered chatbots and Cognitive AI.
AI-Powered Enterprise Chatbots
AI-Powered Chatbots and Conversational Voice Bots are essential tools for all brands that want to deliver hyper-personalized experiences, they provide exceptional customer services. Engineering these experiences using conversational AI can boost customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and increase customer lifetime value. AI-driven Chatbots bring flexibility and versatility to the conversation to understand and even learn from most client queries in multiple languages. AI-enabled Chatbots are important assets for organizations dealing with a massive number of daily customer support queries or having limited customer support staff. One can also leverage chatbots for improving employee collaboration within an enterprise, bringing together business processes and people on a single platform.
Accelerating Automation with Cognitive AI
Cognitive AI applications involve embedding AI into cognitive tasks that traditionally require huge amounts of manual effort like scanning invoices and documents, extracting information from an unstructured pool of data, or analysing thousands of images. Face detection, social media sentiment analysis, speech recognition and analytics, risk assessment, knowledge mining, fraud detection, vehicle damage detection are just some of the many ways that AI can assist in improving manual and routine tasks.
Adding intelligent automation into an enterprise has the benefit of not just replacing manual processes but will help add a dimension of process intelligence. This would involve aiding decision-making with insights into maximizing your process efficiency and predicting organizational changes that could affect your business.
Conclusion
Going into 2022, many organizations are going to increasingly move towards AI and integrate it with their business functions. Numbers of enterprises irrespective of their size and expertise will use the power of AI for cost-savings and productivity boosts of their organization. Low code platforms are also making it easier for enterprises to tap into the potential of AI. A proper AI implementation strategy is a must for anyone who wants to partner up with this technology. Partnering with the right technology and software solutions provider will ensure that you remain in the right direction to achieve excellence and a competitive edge.
FAQ
How AI will Affect Business?
AI will mainly save time, costs and will make all the tasks easier, which are quite hard in an enterprise.
Is AI the Future of Business?
Undoubtedly, AI will be the future, if it’s not already one. 86% of industries state that AI is becoming the ‘mainstream technology’.
What will AI do in the Future?
AI will create 58 million new artificial intelligence jobs by 2022.
Kinnary Nensee
