- / N2N / –

Rohit Talwar, a UK-based futurist, strategist and change agent, was kind enough to carve several minutes out of his busy schedule for an interview with Logipi’s Dustin Mattison.

As a veteran watcher, Rohit has watched communications evolve to the point where we are all more aware of global trends — population growth, environmental trends, new sites and new technologies, the rise of China and India, and the gradual economic shift from west to east — it is all part of our everyday vernacular. Equally important, is the fact that we are more aware of how to use trends for fueling innovation.

Rohit believes the key to leveraging trends is allocating time to think about how the larger trends, and some underlying trends, around technology, behavioral change, the way people are using innovations like social media to communicate, even attention spans, will effect business. “All of these things are changing,” he says, “and it is essential to allocate time to think them through and really understand what they will mean for the customers you serve, the markets you target, the way in which you train and develop your people, and the way in which you engage with the marketplace.”

Innovation Incubation

Innovation, Talwar Rohit says, requires a 360 degree perspective. You want to generate ideas within your organization, but you also want to bring your supply chain partners and customers into the mix — really look across the entire supply chain to see who can provide ideas to help you address specific challenges. Today, it is not uncommon to find companies using the Internet to source ideas for their businesses, to make themselves magnetic, and to float new ideas.

Once you have attracted new ideas, Rohit advises, the next step is to create a streamlined process inside your organization to incubate and test those ideas with an eye toward turning them into practical change for the business. “It is a process that requires time and the allocation of resources, but most importantly, it requires very clear focus on why you’re doing it, so that people don’t just see the innovation as a ‘nice to have’ activity that can be put aside when real work gets busy,” Rohit said, “We’ve got to make sure that people understand that innovation is about creating the future of the business and securing the next round of revenue, profit, growth and employment opportunities.”

When people understand the importance of innovation they are more likely to pay attention — then, Rohit says, it’s about having dedicated champions to make sure those ideas evolve into practical change that has been tested, refined, and eventually fully implemented.

The final piece of successful innovation incubation is to make certain people understand the rationale behind the idea by communicating it both internally, and externally, to you customers and partners across the supply chain. It is essential, Rohit said, that everyone understands the benefits and how it will effect them.

From a big picture perspective, Rohit Talwar said, “I think another critical enabler to this process is to really encourage people to think and give them permission to think, to allow people to have radical ideas, to have rules around the idea-generation process that say anything is allowed; you can put any possibilities on the table and particularly those that might challenge the current ways of doing things. The more open you are, the more you encourage that kind of thinking, the more likely it is that you’ll bring in some ideas that will bring about real groundbreaking change in the organization.”

Supply Chain Trend Watching in the Middle East

According to Rohit Talwar, “There has been a huge amount of wealth generated through oil revenues in particular, and that has led to an investment boom in the Middle East. At one point last year, the figure was over four trillion dollars of investment going into different types of projects in the region.” And while Rohit acknowledges that the boom has waned some, he is still seeing a push by key players, particularly Saudi, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, to diversify and ween their economies away from oil dependency.

For example, in Abu Dhabi, we’re watching the Masdar energy city being built, which will be the world’s first waste-neutral, carbon-neutral, energy-neutral city. Right now, Rohit says, there are people developing new models and processes that will power buildings with renewable energy — they have also recently piloted fully electric driverless taxis — if they are successful, these innovations can be rolled out across the world. Saudi Arabia is pouring hundred of billion of dollars into high-tech cities driven by a whole new set of economics with a very real focus high-tech infrastructures and industries, as well as the industries that support them.

What we’re witnessing in the Middle East, Rohit says, is the beginning of countries moving up the wealth ladder, along with rising income standards of the people, which equates to the consumption of more goods and services. That, coupled with elaborate construction projects, Rohit believes, will have an enormous impact on the logistics industry. “These countries will require a very effective supply chain to deliver a very broad range of goods and services in an efficient manner. That, in turn, is creating a demand for the skills of supply chain management, so the Middle East is really on the radar of the entire supply chain industry”.

Meet Rohit Talwar

Rohit Talwar is an award-winning speaker on future insights and strategic innovation, and has addressed leadership audiences in 40 countries on five continents. Profiled in the UK’s Independent newspaper as one of the top ten global futurists, Rohit Talwar’s expertise has been sought by 3M, BBC, Bayer, De Beers, DHL, IBM, Intel and many other multinational organizations.

Popularity: 1% [?]

This post was submitted by Anna Kurghinyan.

Popular Incoming Search Queries

• india