Vinoba Bhave carried an experiment for a year in 1916 in
Nalwadi, Wardha to check the earning productivity of charkha spinning1.
He concluded that the maximum earning per day of a person cannot be more than
two annas. Gandhi realized that this had to be significantly more. Hence, he
announced an open challenge to design an improved charkha in 1920. How was the
response to this challenge? What kind of ideas came? What was the outcome? To
study this, I spent some time going through the Young India issues of 1920 at
the archive section of Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad last July. In this article
I will summarize the story first and then review the process of managing the
challenge based on the 4 parameters Prof. Karl Ulrich of Wharton School has
articulated in the book “Innovation tournament”.
Catalyzing innovation capacity & culture, design thinking, and mindfulness
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Sunday, February 10, 2013
4 choices in the design of an innovation campaign
Whether it is the Charkha challenge of Gandhi in 1920s or
the Ansari X-Prize challenge
of 1990s related to spacecraft development, innovation campaigns have played
big role in fostering innovation. What kinds of choices are involved in designing an innovation campaign? Prof. Christian Terwiesch and Prof. Karl Ulrich of
Wharton School have presented following 4 design choices in their book “Innovation tournaments: Creating and selecting exceptional opportunities”.
Friday, February 1, 2013
4 characteristics of Einstein’s approach to theory building which I found useful
I don’t know why but Einstein’s approach to theory
building fascinates me. I have been going back to his biographies from time to
time for the past few years. I don’t understand the mathematics of relativity
or quantum mechanics. Hence, my understanding about his approach is limited.
However, I feel that certain aspects of Einstein’s approach to theory building are
accessible to more people. Here are 4 characteristics that I have found useful
in my research work which is done jointly with Prof. Rishikesha Krishnan.
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