CEO Talk Series - FIREBIRD

Firebird Institute of Research in Management has invited Prof.Rajeshwar Rao, Founding Co-Partner, UNMITI Consultancy Services LLP, and a Senior Corporate Professional as the Chief Guest for the CEO Talk Series on 12-10-2022. Prof. Rao has 31 years of experience in the progressive management of global technology and business organizations at the CXO level. He is a Multidimensional Leadership Trainer, CXO-level Mentor, and Coach. Prof. Rao has served Infosys for 14 years and has been a member of the core Management team of the FS Vertical since its inception. He is also the visiting professor for IIMs and other premier institutions in the country. In his Morning session, he delivered a lecture on "Creative Thinking and Problem solving”.

His speech focussed on Innovation and Creativity. Innovation is not just about new ideas or products it is about the state of Mind and it’s the way one sees and reacts to a situation. The main driver for innovation is often the courage and energy to better the world. He quoted the cases of companies like Blackberry, pets.com, yahoo, ToysRus, Kodak, Atari, Motorola and Xerox who lost their market due to lack of innovation. He further elucidated it with the Technology Adoption Life Cycle using the Bell Curve. The use of Innovation/Creativity always gives a competitive advantage or a first mover advantage in the business. He discussed Mr.Ratan Tata’s strategic and innovative moves in this competitive environment, Mr. Nandan Nilekeni’s innovative business practices and also Steve Job’s thoughts on how Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. If you choose innovation, you can be the leader in the market or else you need to follow the leader as one of the market players.

According to social psychologist Teresa Amabile, there are three basic ingredients to creativity :

Domain skills which can be developed as one becomes an expert in a field.
Creative thinking skills include seeking novelty and diversity, being independent, being persistent, and having high standards.
Intrinsic motivation implies that the reasons for doing things come from within - from passion and pleasure, not as a result of external demands, pressures, or rewards. Creative people pay attention to their world, see things differently, challenge assumptions, take risks, are not afraid to fail, and strive to generate multiple solutions to problems. They are passionate about creativity and seek opportunities to innovate.

There are three steps to recover creativity :

Entertain the Non-obvious.
Consider situation before disposition.
Ignore what you know.

Now there might be a question about Critical thinking Vs Creative Thinking so he rightly differentiated that creative thinking is the thinking we do when we generate ideas and Critical thinking is the thinking we do when we judge ideas. In Creative Thinking we pose questions, imagine possibilities, brainstorm solutions, elaborate, improvise, chase inspiration, speculate, use intuition and defer judgements. In Critical thinking, we consider perspectives, identify pros and cons, determine causes, predict effects, consider alternatives, avoid assumptions, look for proof and draw conclusions. Both Critical and Creative thinking needs a process and a structure.

He concluded the morning session by mentioning the 7 key questions one should always ask for innovation.

What does innovation mean to your organisation?
How can it help your business to grow?
What has stifled innovation so far?
Have you spotted all avenues of innovation?
Have you made innovation goals?
How do you plan to reach them?
Is there a sustainable culture of innovation?

In the evening session, the speaker shared about the innovative best practices in Infosys and concluded the day by answering the queries of students.

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