It is my considered belief that successful companies do business in all seasons. To survive organization must execute in the present and adapt to the future. Integral to this belief is need to innovate, innovate and innovate, especially in an increasingly dynamic world where change is only constant. I truly believe you can’t succeed in business until you reacting to the past and start creating your own future- seeing and seeking opportunities before others ad even creating them. A rear view mirror is useful while driving but you have to look out of the windscreen and focus on the road ahead.

In today’s competitive landscape, it is becoming increasingly difficult for corporate to differentiate themselves as they strive to attain and maintain leadership positions, in a ‘knowledge era’ where speed is critical. Restructuring, reorganization, re-engineering can only take you so far, as incremental thinking gives way to quantum shifts. Business creativity and innovative thinking is integral to success. Innovation is no longer the domain of one or few individuals that can be departmentalized or compartmentalized but needs to be embedded in an organization’s culture. The role top management has gone beyond strategy, structure and system to purpose, process and people. Knowledge is replacing capital as critical and scarce resource and management is being challenged to create an enabling environment for innovation.

So, what is innovation? Simply put, it is the key to constant renewal—the power of creating and deploying new ways of performing fundamental business processes, people, market, channels or any other element across  the value chain. In order to generate break through innovation, the walls need to come down, ensuring seamless collaboration between business unit, functions and products.   

India has always had a history of innovation and my combining this with the spirit of entrepreneurship; Indian industry can emerge as a formidable powerhouse. Take the example of the IT industry, where we delivered to the customer at quality and price points that no other country could offer. As a global power and automation leader, technology and innovation have been synonymous with ABB for over 120 years. Despite this rich legacy, nearly 70% of our business comes from products and solutions developed over the last five years. During the past few years, ABB India has traversed the path of constant innovation in its growth journey. Today, the wind may be in the sails with more favourable market condition, but only a few years back it was a swim against the tide, when the power sector offered more promise then real opportunities and industry was in capacity correction mode. Even during these times, we managed to attain and sustain significant growth levels. In fact, we use the opportunity to put our house in order, streamline our system, ramp up capacities and prepare for better times, through innovative ways.

However, building successful corporate through operational innovation is no easy task. It requires a great deal of buy in with-in organization. To bring in a culture of innovation, managers need to be held accountable for learning as much as for result. The performance of an innovative system can be assessed by its capacity to generate further innovation and to translate it to profitable growth. The parameter of success should go beyond the obvious.

The future belongs to those who will lead innovation, differentiate themselves and act with a sense of urgency. To those attain this goal, it is vital to overcome inertia and the inherent resistance to change, a part of almost every organization. Those who will fail to do so are the once that will become a victim of commoditization. As the saying goes, “the best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

Credit Rating

Karuna Chaudhary, MBA-II Sem.

The Indian capital market has been witnessing a tremendous growth for the last more than thirty years. The market has been extremely competitive and is offering a wide variety of choice to the investors. Majority of companies are relying on capital market to finance their new projects, including expansion.

As a lot of companies are raising funds through capital market and each of the companies proposes to raise the capital through different sources like equity and debt, it is very difficult for investors to judge which investment is safer and reliable, especially in the case of debt instruments.

Many companies which have raised share capital in the last couple of years have not paid any dividend. In case of companies who had issued debt instruments, default is committed by many companies in case of interest and principle capital. Therefore, there is a need for an independent credit rating agency which will assess the debt-servicing capacity of different companies.

In Jan. 1988, the ICICI and UTI came together to float CRISIL (Credit Rating Information Service of India Ltd.). CRISIL is the first credit rating agency of the country and subsequently, other credit rating agencies like ICRA Ltd., CARE Ltd., DCR Ltd., ONICRA Ltd. Were established.