Video: 10 Minute IT Jams - An update from Infosys Consulting

Innovation has never been more crucial for business transformation. 

This was the central view shared by Amal Jain, Managing Partner at Emphasis Consulting, during a recent interview where he discussed the evolving face of innovation in modern organisations. Emphasis Consulting, a leader in management consulting, has seen first-hand how the drive for innovation has become a cornerstone for survival and success in today's market.

"Innovation is definitely the key pillar for organisation transformation these days," Jain said, making it clear that the future belongs to businesses that embrace change and continually evolve.

Jain began by highlighting the role of innovation in helping organisations adapt to changing times and market realities. "The very core of transformation is transforming from one state to another," he said. "It could be in terms of how you operate in the market or in terms of new products and services that you might launch." He noted that companies must update not only what they sell but also how they deliver value—a point he illustrated using the evolution of Netflix. "Netflix started as a DVD distributor," he explained. "Today, they are the content creators and the pioneers of on-demand videos. That's business model innovation."

Jain categorised innovation into two main forms: disruptive innovation and business model innovation. Disruptive innovation, he explained, is about making sweeping changes that may even "cannibalise a part of your business" for broader efficiencies and future market opportunities. By contrast, incremental innovation focuses on small, continual changes that, over time, transform the business without shocking the system. "Incremental is least disruptive to your existing business, but it is also very slow and comes with its own set of challenges," he said.

The relationship between innovation and disruption is, according to Jain, often misunderstood. "Disruption is an effect of innovation," he said. "Innovation is the concept of translating an idea into products or services that create value for customers. Disruption is displacing an existing market. I don't think you can have disruption without innovation." Jain stressed that while not every change in a product or service constitutes real innovation, true innovation "questions the very belief of your past. It helps you change the way those products and services are delivered."

Organisations often strive for competitive advantage through innovation, but Jain believes that measuring the value delivered by these efforts is not always straightforward. "I always talk about value delivered," he said, sharing a favourite internal mantra: "Identify the problem you're trying to solve." Jain outlined five criteria for measuring innovation value: experience (improving customer and employee satisfaction), efficiency (doing things faster or in greater volume), cost (reducing expenses), revenue (finding new ways to generate income), and risk management (improving compliance and controls). "A lot of innovation value can actually be measured through your risk controls and measures. It's like an insurance—you pay the premium, but you don't want to ever realise the value out of it."

Discussion then turned to technology's role in business transformation. Jain pointed out that technology is now inseparable from modern business strategy. "There's no business transformation now that does not have technology at the core of it," he said. Far from simply expanding what is possible, technology has put immense power in the hands of ordinary users and organisations. "Today's innovation was sci-fi once," he observed, adding that this new accessibility has "given the power in everyday users to change the way they think, react, and operate in the market."

Jain sees the explosion of startups and new ventures in recent years as evidence of this phenomenon. Technology has made it possible for many more people to experiment and innovate, "which has changed the way we look at every single thing in our daily lives."

When asked about fuelling the acceleration of innovation, Jain was emphatic that success depends less on technology and more on organisational mindset. "The way to fuel acceleration of innovation or being the key to an organisation is the mindset. Innovation is not about technology—it is about the mindset of every individual in an organisation, about changing the culture," he said.

He argued that fostering a culture of innovation must be a grassroots effort, not simply dictated from the top. "We want every single individual to have innovation in their KPIs," Jain said, adding that fear of failure should not be a barrier. "They should be able to change the future, not perfect the past. They should be willing to experiment, fail, learn from it, stand up again, experiment again and move on." He summed up the philosophy by saying, "It's not minimum viable product, it is maximum value potential in an innovation that will lead to an innovative organisation."

For Jain, the future of business transformation belongs to organisations willing to disrupt themselves and rethink conventional wisdom. His message was clear: "Change the future, not perfect the past."

"It was great interacting," Jain concluded.