INNOVATIVE IDEAS

The Department of Mechanical Engineering of Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon organized a talk on “Innovative Ideas” by Mr.Vijay Sethi, CIO of Hero MotoCorp Ltd. on 3rd September 2014. The talk was attended by the 2nd year students and faculty members from Mechanical Engineering Department.

Honorable Principal of the College Prof. (Dr.) B.M.K Prasad presided over the event. Sh.Vijay Wakhlu, HOD (ME) delivered the welcome speech and gave a brief introduction of the speaker.

Mr. Sethi is an alumnus of NIT Kurukshetra and NITIE, Mumbai. He has a 25-year work experience with companies like TCS, Ranbaxy and Hero MotoCorp. He also serves as a Director on the Board of M/s HMCMM Auto Ltd. (A joint venture of Hero MotoCorp and M/s Magneti Marelli of Italy).

Mr.Vijay Sethi, started his talk on the topic “Innovative Ideas”. He explained the process of innovation in a very simple way. He briefed about his organization, Hero MotoCorp and its transition after separating from its partner Honda Inc. He discussed the different processes of innovation that were adopted by the company to globalize the brand. He said that today the world has become uncertain, complex and unpredictable. Therefore innovation has become the foremost necessity for organization. He highlighted on the contradiction that customer taste is not always the necessity for an innovation and cited the example of Apple Inc. The company has created an entirely new market by itself by the introduction of iPads. He presented his examples through slides to make the participants understand what “innovation” is and how innovative ideas can be generated by anyone. He further discussed that innovation is not just a new idea but it is a combination of a number of factors such as

1. better implementation of an idea,

2. creating a new market or a product,

3. changing a product owing to varying customer tastes,

4. cutting costs,

5. a new business model.

Mr. Sethi ended his talk on the note that innovation is a cycle; so the need of the hour is to keep on innovating otherwise the product becomes banal. He said that organizations need to introduce a culture which appreciates even failed creative ideas of the people as long as they lead to new learning because IDEA is the Base of INNOVATION.

The event concluded with an interactive session where the queries and doubts of students were answered. It was a very enriching and learning experience both for the students and the faculties.