T-Hub, the Hyderabad-based incubation and innovation campus, organised a two-day Corporate Innovation Conclave in October 2022 in Delhi. The event’s objective was to spread awareness about open innovation and the power of co-creation. The panel discussions sought to transform how corporates perceive and accelerate innovation within their organisations.
Over 250 attendees and 20+ global thought leaders participated. Over 80 corporates and 30 startups, along with key government officials, industry associations, leading academic institutions and more attended the event.
The T-Hub platform provided startups, corporates, academia, industries and the government with an opportunity to discuss innovation and its growing importance for the future of work. It highlighted interactive innovation experiences, digital transformations and sustainability. It explored opportunities to leverage disruptive technologies and foster the culture of intrapreneurship. Startups like Anscer, DronaMaps, Perspect.AI, Techforce.AI, Devnagri, Deeploop, Flytta, and more could present case studies and showcase their ideas and business functions. Carrier Global, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., Amazon Web Services and others presented case studies on their corporate-startup engagement.
The conclave focused on the benefits of co-creation for startups and corporates. The panellists covered topics like corporate innovation – pivoting for the future, open innovation – a case study from a startup perspective, how corporates can leverage design thinking and the power of co-creation.
Benefits of co-creation for corporates
Adopting a co-creation strategy helps corporates gain a competitive advantage. It gives them access to disruptive technologies and innovative solutions without excessive investments in Research and Development. Corporations can leverage a startup’s agility to innovate and create opportunities to reach new market segments. Corporates also learned the importance of building an intrapreneurship culture and how innovative thought leadership is the way to prepare for the future of work.
Panneerselvam Madanagopal, T-Hub CIO, stated, “Corporates are beginning to grasp first-hand how open innovation can create new opportunities for their stakeholders, customers and the communities in which they operate. We witnessed our conclave extend the boundaries of corporate innovation while keeping collaboration at the core of the corporates’ strategy.”
While collaborating with corporates, startups benefit from the corporate’s access to capital and global markets, their technical knowledge and brand name. Through the conclave, startups have gained insights into the corporate mindset, innovation needs and required growth strategies. It has also helped them handle corporate clients as customers and get mentored in business and technical aspects from the thought leaders and CXOs.
Jayesh Ranjan (IAS, Principal Secretary of Industries & Commerce and Information Technology in the Government of Telangana), Chintan Vaishnav (Mission Director of Atal Innovation Mission), Dr Swadesh Srivastava (Head of Emerging Mobility Business Unit at Hero MotorCorp), and Srinivas Rao Mahankali (MSR) (Chief Executive Officer at T-Hub), many others attended the event.
T-Hub felicitated 30 corporate innovators like – Boeing, Citibank, Collins Aerospace, HCL Technologies, Hero MotorCorp, Meta, Pepsico, GMR Group, TVS Credit Services, etc.
During the conclave, T-Hub also made two major announcements, one of which was launching T-Hub Chicago. The second introduced T-Hub’s annual property and India’s first indigenous corporate innovation ranking mechanism.
Ranking corporate innovation
T-Hub’s corporate innovation ranking mechanism aims to encourage corporates to improve their innovation quotient.
The ranking mechanism titled – ‘Great Corporate to Innovate’ focuses on annual evaluations of companies’ performance in innovation strategies. A team of top global innovators and members from T-Hub will evaluate all the corporates.
Creating a positive competitive environment between the corporates will lead to co-creation and build sustainable and scalable business models to advance India’s growth trajectory.
Launching T-Hub Chicago
T-Hub is expanding internationally to help startups scale globally and leverage Chicago’s technology space. T-Hub Chicago will be at the forefront of startup innovation and entrepreneurship for Indian and Chicago-based startups and help them launch globally.
T-Hub Chicago, in alliance with US-based non-profit organisation Redberri Earth Foundation will assist startups with market research, business opportunities, end-to-end guidance, and access to clients in India and Chicago. This partnership will aid T-Hub in gaining a foothold in Chicago’s technology and innovation ecosystem.
