Phenomenal growth in wealth predicted

"There has been a significant increase in wealth creation in the last one century, 80 per cent of which is on account of innovation. As we are stepping into the knowledge economy, the growth is going to be even greater as inventions of the knowledge economy will have a significant effect on innovation. Innovation is a necessary ingredient for an economy to grow," said B Ramalinga Raju, founder-chairman of Satyam Computer Services Limited and chairman of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom).

Delivering his address at Nasscom's 'Showcase of business model and process innovations' in Hyderabad on Tuesday, Raju said that the beginning of the last century had seen the world GDP grow to nearly $1 trillion, which later rose to over $30 trillion towards the end of this century.

"Driven by the innovation engine, this century may witness an increase of 30 to 40 per cent in the global GDP, translating into a wealth creation of around $1,000 trillion," he said.

Later, in a presentation on the business model innovations, citing the landmark agreement between Bharti Airtel and IBM that scripted the success story of the former, Jai Menon, director (IT and innovation), Bharti Airtel, said, "The idea behind the agreement was that IBM should provide all the technology that a telecom company requires to fuel Bharti's growth. The agreement made innovation all-pervasive in the entire Bharti organisation. This innovative business model later turned out to be the most comprehensive 'on-demand' agreement in the history of the Indian telecom industry."

Stating that the agreement created a single unified business intelligence, helping Bharti in scaling up astronomically to facilitate telecom growth at rates the world has never seen before, he said this business model innovation made Bharti 'future-ready' in diverse areas.

"And the world acknowledged it too," he said. "This innovative business model has bagged the MIS Asia award for two years in a row and the Harvard has written two case studies on it, while leading companies from around the world have come calling to learn the Bharti-IBM relationship."

"All these accolades are because what we have done is a powerful business model innovation that aligned IT and business completely. Besides, the model led the way in business and brand integration, with focus on 'how to do best' and 'what not to do', thereby making innovation all-pervasive at Bharti," he said.

The total number of entries for the Nasscom Innovation Awards 2006 is 160, of which 18 companies have been short-listed that include Bharti Airtel, IBM, Evalueserve India, Maruti Udyog and WeP Peripherals.

After Hyderabad, the short-listed companies will showcase their products in Bangalore on December 20, and the winners will be felicitated at Nasscom's India Leadership Forum, scheduled to be held in Mumbai in February 2007.