Premji on what enables innovation

The India information technology industry, including exports and domestic market and semiconductor industry, is gaining traction despite challenges, said Azim H Premji, chairman, Wipro, at the third Freescale Technology Forum in Bangalore on Monday. Excerpts from his speech:

"The IT industry will grow at the rate of 35 per cent year over year and semicon at the rate of 25 per cent y-o-y. The key driver going forward is innovation and it is fundamental for growth.

"Innovation is implementing creative thoughts. All employees, including top management, should embrace it. It should go much beyond just product innovation and R&D activities. Now one of the biggest challenges in the IT and semicon industry is the need to increase energy efficiency in all what we create.

"Apart from delivering product and services to the customers, what they demand is the key differentiator from the other organizations. The organization should have an open mindset to adapt to the changing needs, new technologies and innovate accordingly.

"Many top companies, which were listed in the Fortune 500 two decades ago, do not exist now at all. "The reason behind this is that the companies fail to adapt to the changing conditions and so they disappear

"No successful company should be taken for granted. A company to survive in this competitive world should change the rules of the game, be it its business model, technology, delivery model, supply chain that significantly affect the ongoing change of the company.

"Initially, changes and innovation jerks success but the entrepreneur should brush it off, as it is temporary. This is the story of every game changer in the market.

"In semiconductor industry the driver is the changing customer needs, expectations for fast and complex devices and changing volatile taste of consumers and needs of the customers. Consumption of semiconductor as surpassed other markets. Thus, the technology innovation bar is rising faster and higher.

"An innovative environment and entrepreneur spirit, welcoming aggressive commitment, understanding customers and changeling oneself are the key enablers of innovation."