Innovative Business Ideas

According to a report by the country’s software lobby group,"Nasscom and Zinnov Consulting, India houses the third highest number of start-ups in the world. The total funding of these start-ups is estimated to be $5 billion. With such compelling numbers on its side, entrepreneurship in India is booming like never before.

Innovation is the root of any great business. An innovative idea has the power of transforming and giving birth to a business. After all, it is neither the sword, nor the pen, but the ‘thought’ which is the mightiest.

The ‘Hollow’ Business Model (Goli Vada pav)
Goli Vada Pav is an ethnic food chain started by Sh. Venkatesh Iyer and Sh. Shivadas Menon in Mumbai in 2004. Today it has around 300 stores in 100 cities across 20 states in India. History is history and success is success. What we are interested in is ‘innovation’. So the upheaval here is the ‘hollowness’ of the Goli Vada Pav’s business model. It is a one of its own kind ‘completely outsourced’ QSR chain. Having outsourced much of its supply chain and operations, they focus on building the brand! In the words of Sh. Venkatesh Iyer (Co-founder), “With this level of outsourcing and investment in technology, we had addressed our three big problems; wastage, pilferage and standardisation in a single shot!”

Don’t Scratch Your Head
DSYH (Don’t Scratch Your Head), found by Mr. Swaraj Vazirani, is quite an innovation in the E-commerce market place. Logistic reconciliation is the biggest problem of the E-commerce industry. It is an E-seller’s nightmare especially if he sells his products through many different E-commerce websites. DSYH’s online ERP management provides solutions to this problem by providing multiple modules like inventory management, reconciliation management, multichannel selling etc

‘Contestification’
It is perhaps the most comprehensive and economical way of ‘discovering innovation’. ‘Contestification’ is like ‘hiring the whole world’ for your purpose. An extremely effective tool being used by top class businesses like Google, Toyota and Fritolay already, contestification can help you and your business in the following ways:

• Find complete range of possible solutions
• Find Solutions for other problems
• Audience interaction which serves as great feedback system
• Market your brand prodigiously (the most important)

3D Printing
3D printing or additive manufacturing is an innovation in ‘creating objects’. From education, to medicine, to industrial manufacturing, 3D printing has the widest range of possibilities when it comes to creation of concrete objects. The technology has already created a buzz in the field of organ transplant. Yet, it is a field where we need even more innovation to increase its penetration in the areas where it can be used effectively. Hindrances in the game are complexity, size and costliness of 3-D printers. Despite these problems, 3D printing is believed to have a huge future potential.

Sitting is the New Smoking
In the words of Brian Brown, a workplace strategist, “Sitting is the New Smoking!”

It has been proven that long hours of sitting are detrimental to your health. With the ever increasing emphasis laid on employee health by the HR policies of corporate organisations and the ever increasing disease rates in employees of these corporate organisations, this new innovation at the workplace becomes even more crucial. Workplace designers today are increasingly offering sit-stand desks that allow one to change positions while working.