Vinay Dabholkar: (vinay@catalign.in)
(Address: 212 Benaka Towers, 16th D Main, 2nd Cross, HAL 2nd Stage, Kodihalli, Bangalore 560008)
I am a consultant, teacher, and author working in three areas: innovation strategy, design thinking, and mindfulness. As a consultant, I facilitate workshops and short (3 months) and long-duration (3 years) programs.
Innovation Strategy: For over a decade, I have been helping CXOs in the design and execution of innovation strategy (2006-present). My help revolves around an innovation dashboard containing parameters like pipeline, velocity, business impact, and participation. The interventions where I have played a role so far include co-innovation workshops, challenge campaigns, lab programs, innovation reviews, internal technology conferences, etc. I have co-authored a book “8 steps to innovation: from jugaad to excellence" – published in 2013 by HarperCollins. It won first prize in 2014 from the Indian Society for Training and Development (ISTD).
Design Thinking: I have been facilitating workshops on design thinking in which 3Es: Experience, Empathy, and Experimentation get emphasized (2011-present). The workshops typically involve empathic interviews, metaphor-based problem discovery, participative problem-solving, rapid prototyping of ideas, field testing, and team presentations. These workshops have been conducted for CXOs, managers, engineers, school teachers, and students. Along with Prof. Ganesh Prabhu, I have been conducting a 2-day open program on design thinking at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (2017-present). (see client list here).
Mindfulness: Since 2015, I have been facilitating workshops on “Mindfulness on the go”. In this workshop, we explore mindfulness as an investigation and something that can happen “on the go” – in the bus, while waiting for an elevator, in the grocery store, or even in the middle of an argument. It is not aligned with any teaching or religion or sect. My book "Mindfulness: Connecting with the real you" is published by HarperCollins (Oct 2019).
Teaching: I have been a visiting faculty at IIM Bangalore (2010-present) and IIT Mumbai (2016-present). I have been teaching the course "Strategic Management of Technology & Innovation" to PGPEM and PGP at IIM Bangalore (2019-22). And I have been co-teaching "Managing technological innovation" at Desai-Sethi School of Entrepreneurship at IIT Bombay in 2016-22. I co-taught "From jugaad to systematic innovation" at the Indian School of Development Management in 2021. As a visiting faculty,
Prior to my consulting career, I worked in Motorola, Austin and Sasken, Bangalore. I did B.Tech from IIT Bombay and PhD from SUNY Buffalo, both in Computer Science.
I am a regular blogger since 2007 and the blog is available here.
Hobbies: I have been a jogger for over thirty years. I enjoy learning and practicing Hindustani classical bansuri (bamboo flute) though I am a perpetual beginner. I like watching movies and plays depicting the journey from confusion to clarity.
