India needs thousands of innovators like Suhas Patil and Anjan Bose

I love low-profile builders of technology-led and “psychological market share” businesses — hidden champions (Hermann Simon, HBS Press). Businesses and organisations should be designed for Deergha Ayush (long life), which connotes that business is a living entity. The metaphor of life appears in my 2017 book A Biography of Innovations — an idea gets “conceived” (foetus), the idea goes through “adaptation” (childhood), then a “prototype” (adolescence), before emerging as a “product” (young adulthood), which evolves with updates for continued success (maturity) over its life. 

On a recent trip to the United States (US), I reconnected with two contemporaries from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, both “hidden champions”. Their research and innovation accomplishments count as top-class. India needs thousands like them. 

Forty-four-year-old Cirrus Logic (originally Patil Systems, now publicly listed), an American fabless semiconductor supplier, specialises in integrated circuits. The idea (foetus) of a fabless chip emerged in the inventor’s mind around 1980, then got adapted and prototyped (childhood and adolescence). The product was launched commercially, and the company was listed on Nasdaq in 1989 (young adulthood). The company is now headquartered in Austin, Texas. Its revenue is $1.9 billion with a market capitalisation of $5 billion. Its founder is a Jamshedpur-schooled alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, Suhas Patil. He and his charming wife, Jayashree, were my gracious hosts at Cupertino. 

At Kharagpur, Suhas was studious, shy and an ever curious tinkerer. With the change in immigration laws in 1965, Suhas went to the US to earn a master’s, doctor of science, and a professorship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). By 1973, when computer software was transformed into an “industry”, Suhas challenged himself to design hardware to work without defect, just like software could be developed without having to debug it. He deployed a clockless array, whereby logic gates could open and close in a decentralised manner. 

Suhas recalls: “People thought that mine was too revolutionary an idea, not a comfortably evolutionary one.” Suhas was tutored in entrepreneurship by the MIT’s Amar Gopal Bose. I recall that Bose also influenced Ratan Tata in entrepreneurship.

Suhas gave up the MIT to move to the University of Utah, where he could access an existing chip-fabrication facility. In those days, semiconductor chips were barely known — chips meant potato chips! Within four years, Suhas built a semiconductor chip based on dramatically accelerating the chip design process and then outsourcing the manufacture to a fab, a breakthrough at that time. 

Seven years later, in 1981, Suhas had created a unique intellectual property, which could design large-scale integrated circuits in one-fourth the normal time, and get the chip fabricated. His technology for a fabless semiconductor was not known to even Intel. In fact, IBM became his customer! An IPO (initial public offering) followed in 1989.  Suhas came to be recognised widely as a fantastic inventor. Cirrus Logic became a powerful entity, endowed with its unique intellectual asset. 

What next? Approaching 60, Suhas desired to propagate and perpetuate the social value of enterprise. He cofounded The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) with Kanwal Rekhi and A J Patel to nurture the next generation through a network of mentors and advisors. TiE now has over 60 centres, including several in India. Indians account for one-third of the startups in Silicon Valley. This story is a testament to disciplined innovation, as also to the biological model for innovation. 

Later during my visit, I met another contemporary, Anjan Bose, Regents Professor. He recently received a lifetime achievement award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He was recognised for his pioneering contribution to automation and control of power-grid operations, training, and education all over the world.  

Anjan worked on the electric power grid for more than 50 years. When he was in industry, he pioneered the computerisation of the control centres that operate the grid, and when in academia, he developed the simulators for training grid operators.

He has been advisor to the US Department of Energy and to Grid India on power grid operations. Michael Baumgartner, member of Congress from Anjan’s home state of Washington, made an extensive mention of his work in the House of Representatives! 

These are “hidden champions” of strategic research and innovation. They are worthy of emulation within Indian industry, and maybe even a Padma!?  

The writer’s book, JAMSETJI Tata—Powerful Learnings for Corporate Success, is coauthored with Harish Bhat.

rgopal@themindworks.me