BACKGROUND

“There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world and that is an innovation whose time has come.”

In today’s competitive world, to march forward there should be continuous quality improvement in product, services and processes to achieve total customer satisfaction, reduce costs and to increase company profitability.

Innovation is one of the tools, which facilitates to liberate the untapped creativity in the organization.

We believe that many useful innovation can come from our team members to meet our company’s goal. Moreover, the fullest involvement and contribution of each employee is imperative. However, many times language or communication problems of the employee may prevent them from giving innovative suggestions to the company.

WHAT IS INNOVATION?

According to Merriam-Webster, Innovation is:
Pronunciation: “in•no•va•tion”
1: the introduction of something new
2: a new idea, method or device

Innovation is a process of taking new ideas to satisfied customers. It is the conversion of new knowledge into new products and services.

Innovation is about creating value and increasing efficiency, and therefore growing your business.

"Without innovation, new products, new services, and new ways of doing business would never emerge, and most organizations would be forever stuck doing the same old things the same old way."

An innovation can be big or small. Brand-new or just a bit different, it doesn't matter. An innovation can be clearly complex or seemingly simple. Innovations are often thought of in terms of technical achievement, but can also be the creation of better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies.

So innovation can be creating a completely new offering, modify an existing offering, finding ways to extend existing offering to new market. However please note that for awards we shall be differentiating innovation from improvement in product or processes.

At Biostadt we are not only looking for break through ideas or Eureka moments but with this award and reward we want to create a culture of innovation at every step of business ultimately leading to better products, better processes and better services.

OBJECTIVES

• Improve on the existing processes
• To encourage new processes
• To propel people in the new thinking trajectory
• To foster creativity and innovation
• To break stereotypes and monotony
• To encourage participation of employees in development & growth of the company

AREAS WHERE INNOVATION CAN BE DONE

• Marketing – Innovative customer and farmers schemes, innovative marketing communication, innovative packaging, innovative products
• Sales - Productivity enhancement, forecast accuracy, reduce cost of business, innovative campaign, innovative farmers meetings, innovative demand generation activities etc.
• Finance - Cost saving, better and efficient payments, better financial reporting, timely settlement of claims, reduce bureaucracy and files movements
• Supply Chain – Better sourcing, efficient delivery, just in time shipment, meeting urgency, reduce shipment/delivery time, reduce time for new product launches, inventory rationalization, reducing damages during transportation
• Production/Packagaing - Reduction of production cycle time, machine setting, inspection or through-put time, process standardization, improvements of tools/fixture, reduce waste, reduce pollution, quality improvement and defect prevention, improvements in industrial safety, material handling, house keeping, operational efficiency, packing and transportation, efficient use of electricity, water etc.
• HR - Better PMS practices, better retention schemes, employee benefits/loyalty innovation etc.
• IT - Better information to users, just in time info, customized info to departments, new erp, new IT devices for better info, new solutions to reduce hardware costs of business

Any other innovation area as deemed appropriate.

WHY REWARD & RECOGNITION FOR INNOVATION AT BIOSTADT INDIA LIMITED

It has been found that our organization put lot incentive to planned job like Sales, Collection, Returns, Basic day to day activities in Supply Chain, IT, Finance, Manufacturing and R&D through various KRA's, but little incentive is provided for unplanned creative things or on the job innovation. The idea of giving incentive for innovation is from this perspective.

A fundamental insight from the company culture is that there is a conflict between innovation and the strength of incentives provided for the standard task: the higher the performance bonus on planned things, the less the employee pursues unplanned innovation. We want to discourage that and want to inculcate a culture of innovation and encourage employee to take risk and think differently & hence rewarding the innovative thinking.

In BIOSTADT context, innovation may be linked to positive changes in efficiency, productivity, quality, competitiveness, market share, new packaging, Customer schemes, PMS, New supply chain processes and hence departments like Finance, HR, IT, Development, Productions, etc. can also bring innovation apart from standard sales and marketing innovations.

We intend to spread a culture of innovation at every stage of business and hence incentivizing the same.

WHY INNOVATION AT BIOSTADT INDIA LIMITED?

Dear Biostadians,

In a dynamic market economy, company’s ability to innovate is essential for their competitive advantage, even survival. The success of Biostadt is primarily because of marketing and product innovation.

In business we are dealing with innovation is the catalyst to growth. BIOSTADT as a company have been trying to promote innovation at various stages yet there was no structured way of accepting the innovation and rewarding them. This award is to trigger innovation in the organization and aptly recognize the employees for that.

Over the last 10 years Biostadt has grown 5 times. Is this not fascinating and interesting? What is it that we have done that has led to such explosive and profitable growth? Let me enumerate and remind you all of the new and innovative initiative and action we have taken on so many fronts. They are as follows:

• Venturing into seeds business.
• Establishing InGene division focusing on Fruits and Vegetables.
• Establishing a Contract manufacturing business.
• Institutional Business
• Creating a New R & D facility to bring New Products across various divisions.
• Creating a Joint Venture in Vietnam for Aquaculture products which have seen its revenue grow 3 folds in 4 years.
• Establishing SAP across the organization leading to cost efficiency, process improvement, accurate and timely information.
• Building strong control system across Supply chain, Distribution and Sales bringing tremendous improvement in our working capital deployment and demand generation process.
• Establishing a strong performance culture and performance based reward and compensation initiatives.
• Initiative of Astha Rath and Astha Clinic.
• Overall building a strong Corporate BIOSTADT image.

As you will see a combination of New and Innovative Initiatives mentioned above, which has led to an all round growth of the organization. We cannot rest on our past performance and we need to constantly look for new ideas, new initiatives and innovations across all our activities.

No matter what your role is in BIOSTADT you can contribute to our company’s innovativeness, through creations of New Processes, services, devising more efficient method and looking at newer business model of delivery, production and services to our customers. Innovation is vital to our organization’s health and growth. It is a common perception that innovation can only be done and led by people at the Top or Senior management. This is absolutely a false myth.

Ideas can come from anywhere and everywhere. Organization hierarchy does not limit free flow of ideas from anybody. Every organization needs new and fresh thinking often challenging the status quo whether it be in the area of products, processes, systems, customers, suppliers, employees and environment at large.

To encourage, stimulate and sustain innovation in an organization we need to build a sustainable culture of Innovation, a culture of dealing with uncertainty, a culture of promoting, and accepting positive change at all levels. We should not have fear of failure because only through positive failure that we derive learning in an organization.

Biostadt therefore is embarking on a theme "EK NAYI SOCH... Building a culture of Innovation in Biostadt". To build culture it takes time, maybe 2-3 years. To kick start this process I am pleased to enclose detailed scheme which I am sure will provide a boost in our initiative in building a growth oriented innovative Biostadt, which will remain relevant now and in the years to come providing growth to all of us.

Let us all welcome and be a part of EK NAYI SOCH – Building a culture of innovation at Biostadt.

With Best Wishes
Juzar S. Khorakiwala
CMD