Ideation & Program Design E-Cell Workshop

“Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises” These words by Demosthenes are relevant even today. To promote the same entrepreneurial outlook among the students of IIFT, Sprit, the Entrepreneurship Club at IIFT Kolkata organized an 'Ideation and Venture Designing' workshop-cum-certification course designed by Yash Saxena, IIFT alumnus (2008-10 Delhi batch) and founder of Openfuel - a consulting firm for Start-ups. It was a matter of great pride for the students to interact with the alumnus of their college who has helped to propel the spirit of innovation among the students of various leading engineering and management colleges like IIM A, SPJIMR , MICA and NIT Surat etc. 

The modules offered by Openfuel are on the same lines as those offered by Centre for Design Research, Stanford University and therefore offered a great opportunity to the students to be exposed to the limitless realms of innovation.

The workshop started with a presentation on the ideas of innovation. Yash explained how “Ideas are always copied” and almost every innovation starts with inspiration. Giving examples from life like how a book and computer led to the birth of Encarta and eventually it made way to Wikipedia. “Not accepting what is old” and the belief that the world is going to change is the basis of innovation. Great ideas are horrible at beginning and we should embrace the random stuff because the more random the connection, the greater probability of it not being seen by others.

                

Ideas galore !!

Mr Yash then enlightened us regarding the various startups that have furthered the cause of innovation in the world and upped the ante when it comes to ideation and entrepreneurship. Giving examples of Naukri.com, Zomato, Alibaba etc, he said that the idea of innovation is not new and has been the norm of life since earliest times. 
                              

The participants were divided into 16 groups of five each. He asked each group to choose a company and prepare an ‘Ideation canvas’ on it. Ideation canvas had various elements like the People, Activities, Situation/Context/Location and Props/Possible Solutions. We had to brainstorm as a group and deduce how we could innovate and 'ideate' regarding the company. We were expected to come up with experimental ideas to devise feasible avenues for innovation in the company and also provide our rationale behind the deduction. This was a very engaging discussion as we deliberated as to how to tweak an existing product to bring about a modification in the properties of the product and hence improve its functionality. 

   

The groups then had to present their ideas. All the groups gave lucid and interesting presentations focusing on the development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem associated with the particular company. Mr Yash was very impressed by all the teams and said that we all have pushed the envelope when it comes to innovation. He chose the top three teams based on their conception of idea, the level of innovation, out of the box thinking and feasibility of the innovation. The winning team had suggested innovations regarding Netflix and its concept of ‘Jessica’, an interface which would provide customized suggestions regarding the entertainment options according to the preference of the users, was applauded by all.                                    

   It was a very lively, dynamic and engaging workshop that led to a healthy exchange of ideas among the students. It also enabled us to gel as a unit and to think on our feet. It helped to propel the innovative spirit and initiative taking abilities among the students and promoted ingenuity and out-of-the box thinking. The event was hugely successful and we look forward to more of such events.

The credit for the successful workshop goes to all students at IIFT and the event coordinator Mr Rahul Sharma from the MBA 2013-15 batch. 

By Mohd Zeeshan