Quote from one of the panelist at OXD (Open transformation thru design) event where Bangalore SAP Labs becomes the latest location to add the innovative Apphaus among SAP locations. Created this post, to recap this amazing start to innovation journey through design thinking.
What’s Apphaus ?
Flexibility is the key in office space for creating innovations, and watch this video from our apphaus from Dublin. New, exciting and fun !
What’s different in Bangalore AppHaus?
Bringing the same concept with an indian flavor, the Bangalore apphaus has been designed as a “Design Bazaar” – “Messy things are welcome” as put across by the person who designed it, Param Bedi, to bring in the indian touch to Apphaus. Bazaar is a place where people interact freely, without any structures, try out th ings and it’s a bit chaotic.
Few features for the Bazaar apphaus
- Completely open, no closed office for senior people, to allow a culture of junior staff to speak up
- Open ceiling -> to give a workshop feeling, where you can roll up your sleeves and work
- An atmosphere that nurtures innovation, experiments and where failure is allowed
- No corner office for seniors, designers or developers gets that
Sam Yen, Chief Design Officer, SAP and Bhuvaneshwar Naik, VP, HR, SAP Labs India inaugurated the Bangalore AppHaus, the Design Bazaar and this is going to be the next generation innovation hub, for building products for india and the globe.
What’s OXD ?
As we launched the bazaar apphaus, we also went into fun design event which was called OXD, Open Transformation through Design.
Unique format of the OXD event, reflecting a refreshing change from usual events that we attend, is getting design at the center and keeping the essence of Bazaar – where rangmanch (stage) is set for Big Talk, Small Talk and Big listen with unlimited adrak chai adda (ginger tea) served.
Big Talk –
Sam Yen kick started the event highlighting how design thinking has been at center of everything we do at SAP, with proven success examples like SAP Fiori (what is SAP Fiori?).He shared a recent article on 4 myths of design at Apple and explained why design culture is key for transformation."Design success does not come just by having designers, but having design culture that will have every developer thinking good design". He also shared a stat that there is an estimated shortage of 20k people with design skills in software. He also shared how "design thinking" movement took off based SAP's chairman Hasso Plattner reading an article on "The Power of Design Thinking"
Param Bedi, Architect of Apphaus Bazaar shared his experience of designing and said “Can’t change culture by changing floor plans, but confident in this case that new layout will lead to innovations”
Rana Chakrabati, designer at SAP Labs welcomed everyone to the OXD small talk sessions at Bazaar apphaus, and encouraged everyone to listen twice and nicely highlighted that the currency for this bazaar was “conversations”
Small Talk –
Small talk was a 10 minute quick sessions where different speakers speak about their experiences of transformation through design for 5 mins, followed by feedback for another 5 mins. While it was very short, there were opportunities for people to network with speakers later to learn more about it. Small talk was on range of topics – from how KKR, winners of IPL, worked with SAP in player auction analytics, to how SAP cracked Nestle, to how sap finance cracked 1-day reimbursements, to how SAP is helping cow farmers through aadhar project, to how SAP is transforming through design-driven teams. There was a whistle given to attendees and blow it as hard for sessions they enjoyed more.
Bazaar chai adda – and the breaks were with adrak chai or masala chai
Big Listen –
the best is kept for last, we had eminent disruptive innovators attending this event. There was panel with title “design can transform companies” and we were certainly blown away by the insights, which was facilitated by Sam Yen.
The Panel included the following and mentioned some of the quotes they had for design and innovation, and one of this made to title of this post:
Sonial Marchanda, Designer, Idiom Design and Consulting. Sonia and her company have designed some amazing places including the Mast Kalandar food chain in Bangalore, and she is going to design the metro is Rio, Brazil.
What inspires her on design that she shared “Future is not invented, so much to do and possibilities are endless”
NR Natarajan, Former COO & CEO of Jewellery Business, Titan (http://titan.co.in/ ). An automobile engineer who worked in companies such as Enfield and moved on to Titan, india’s leading watch and jewelery company in India.
He shared some key things which were very specific and helpful
“Imagination is key, as knowledge is available everywhere”
“Enrol people to innovate. Only if people are cared, they will respond ”
“Solution is available for every problem, innovation is to find out the solution”
“Think big, does not cost money”
Vinay Dabholkar, Avid Blogger, Speaker and author of book “8 Steps to Innovation”
Shared that the golden rule of design is to understand and make a human to human connect. He shared a story of how Kiran Bedi made the connect with the prisoners with the simple question “do you pray”. Watch this amazing story told by her in youtube.
Empathy is key to make the human to human connect and golden principle of design. Other insights he shared were
“To be successful in innovation, rigorous reviews are essential. Should not say ok to people ”
“Innovation can be democratized, need not come top down”
And finally we had a very different panelist, a chief of an indian government company, who is awarded as the Namma Bangalorean of the year, a prestigious citizen award.
Manivannan, Ex-chief , BESCOM, Bangalore Electricity company, a trans-formative govt company. Manivannan had very interesting suggestions for innovation and his first question was how many of the audience have questioned the status quo or rules of the company you work, and when no one raised their hands, he said none of us in the audience can drive innovation J
Favorite quotes from his talk track were:
“Innovations comes from indiscipline mind” (title of the post)
“Take away fear, fear of failure, this makes it simple to innovate. Innovation happens only when someone is ready to accept the risk”
“Leader should be willing to absorb failure or take the risk, to create a culture of innovation”
There were couple of questions asked to the panelist and one of them was about how design can be covered in education. The panelist answered “Empowering to dream” and “Experimental learning” should be enabled in education.
The big listen was certainly a real BIG LISTEN for all of us there.
Feedback – checked with few folks their feedback on the event and what they feel about Apphaus.
Jagdish, Associate Director at Colgate Innovation center in Mumbai appreciated the different approach to design and was excited to work with SAP labs in this new innovation journey.
Basan Gowda, Designer at Zynga Gaming company mentioned he found the concept to be interesting and felt that one of the key for design is decision making , as there are several options and we need to be trained to make the right decisions for success. We also had our own in house designers like Jayawant Tewari provide their perspectives on how “good design is good business”
Overall the Bazaar Apphaus opening and the OXD event was great wake up call for thinking different. Kudos and thanks to Rana and the team that pulled this of, a picture of them here.
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