Design - Opportunities to Interact with the Consumers

What got me to write this article is my encounter with a company executive who had come home to deliver a candle(filter) for the water purifier. Basically, the water purifier is sold at a relatively low cost but it requires candle replacement periodically for which the company executive visits the customer premises. I am assuming in this article that the company has its own servicing team. The company that I am talking about is an Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) giant with presence in almost every consumer category.  They have a robust distribution network across cities, towns and rural areas.

That sounds great! But, the bigger question that kept ringing in my mind is that what a fabulous opportunity to Interact with the Consumers?

Having said that, I looked at exploring the following three opportunities:

1. Direct Selling
2. Sampling
3. Feedback

Why Direct Selling?

It offers a fantastic opportunity to cross sell. Let’s say the company creates a card on which they mention all the products available and the company executive who has come to deliver the candle hands it to the customer. Consumer ticks all the products required for a bulk purchase. This is delivered to the consumer on the next purchase of the candle (Assuming periodic replacement). This channel then becomes an additional point of contact for reaching the consumers apart from the regular retail channel.

Why Sampling?

Whenever the company executive is coming down to a consumer place to change the candle, he can offer FMCG products for sampling. This is a cost effective solution for sampling and the marketer can get instant feedback from the customer.

Why Feedback?

Since the company executive is interacting with the consumer directly, spontaneous feedback can be solicited from the customer on various products.

These suggestions are purely on the basis of the observation that I made while interacting with the company executive of one of the biggest FMCG player and needs to be proved through a pilot. Moreover, not all FMCG companies can implement it as most sell only through a retail channel.

- by Anuj Chaudhary

INNOVATIVE, INTEGRATED, INCLUSIVE BUS STOPS

Mumbai has one of the finest bus connectivity in the world. From the remotest locations to the highly dense localities, the BEST has done a commendable job of transporting people everywhere around in Mumbai.

However, with the exponentially growing population, some key improvements can be taken into account.

H₂I proposes the following infrastructural improvements for the BEST:

• A Centralised NOC (Network Operating Centre)
• SMART CARD RIDE
• ROUTE TRACKING KIOSKS

A Conductor generally issues tickets from within the bus. What if a passenger could issue a ticket from the vending machine inbuilt at the bus shelter, and proceed to aboard the bus.  This information would be sent to a Centralised Network Operating Centre (NOC) which could know the flow of passengers, and route the buses accordingly thereby, improving the frequency of buses on a set route as required.

The ticket issued could provide relevant information to the passenger regarding various other bus options. Hence, the passenger needs to only select the final destination and get all possible bus options stated on the ticket itself. This again, would reduce the number of people boarding a particular bus. 

The SMART CARD issued to the railways, could alternatively be used for bus rides itself, making the transport system in Mumbai more user-friendly and multimodal as well as making the entire system multifunctional and integrated.

The conductors could be employed within the NOC, to keep track of the buses. This facility would generate more employment from the operations.

- by Riddhi J Chokhawala 

Importance of Goal Setting in Innovation

"It doesn't matter where you are coming from. All that matters is where you are going." - Brian Tracy

Innovation is a journey of challenging one’s own limitations and finding new ways of approaching a situation or solving a problem. We believe that it is paramount to set impossible goals to innovate. By setting impossible goals we put ourselves into a challenging situation and only by challenging ourselves to find new ways of doing things can we truly innovate. I would like to share an example to demonstrate my point of view.

Example:

An Israeli inventor Mr.Gafni created the first commercially sold cardboard bicycle which costs $9.

His Goal – Why not make a bicycle out of cardboard?

His Inspiration – Gafni was inspired by the news that a man had successfully built a cardboard canoe.

Although he was told by many of his friends and peers that it’s impossible, he decided to challenge it. He bought the thickest cardboard to test for durability. Taking inspiration from Japanese Origami, he folded and bended each piece into the required shape. 

He kept on working on his prototype till he achieved his final goal.

Today, this innovation has become a game changer in the bike world as this bike is going to be cheap and available for any child in the world.

This example clearly illustrates the power of setting an impossible goal and following it up with relentless effort.

- by Anuj Chaudhary

DISCLAIMER: H2I has referred the following website to get the images. http://www.businessinsider.com/izhar-gafni-has-invented-the-first-cardboard-bicycle-2012-8?op=1

Innovation in the Radio Taxi Services in India

Cabs and Taxi services always existed in Mumbai. One could hire a private cab or avail the services of our popular black and yellow taxi, however; one fine day an entrepreneur sensed an opportunity in providing private cab services that delivers a new experience to the consumers. Started with Meru Cabs and the market is now stormed with radio taxis.

Objective of this article is to analyze opportunities for the radio taxis by uncovering the existing potential in the consumer base through segmenting.

Black & Yellow Taxi’s are not easily available for a door to door pick up nor are they (fiats) as convenient as radio taxis, plus we don’t trust the driver. 

On the other hand, radio taxis have managed to garner an imagery of comfort, convenience, trust and availability through phone.

Having said that, lets take and e.g. of Meru Cabs and lets see how we can innovate in-terms of the offerings they can have in the market.

What has Meru done to the consumers?

They have managed to establish trust in the minds of the consumer w.r.t their service and the kind of drivers they have. People are ready to pay a premium because they trust Meru and their drivers.

If we notice, a lot of parents do a car pool or taxi pool to send their children to school or sometimes they don’t have the car to send their children to certain places and they won’t send the child alone. How about Meru4Kids? An offering that caters to the kids, an experience design to take care of the kids and obviously Meru leverages trust through the drivers they hire and train.

Pushing it further, Meru4Emergency and Meru4Weddings/ Parties – Service is customized as per the offering. So the experience is inline with the need of the customer.

A lot of Business Professionals hop between one meetings to another, so we could have Meru4Businesss. Cab is equipped with all the things that a business professional might require e.g. a charging point, business magazines, etc.,

Lastly, this is not directly related with what Meru is offerings but is more to do with leveraging the TRUST that people put on Meru cab drivers/cab….. What if Meru offers driver on demand and driver on contract for personal cars.. These are trained drivers and are certified by Meru.

There are many possibilities when it comes to offerings, so i would request people to share their point of view on this topic.

- by Anuj Chaudhary

Disclaimer: Views expressed are solely from the perspective of stimulating a discussion on how Radio Taxi's can service the needs of different segments of their TG. It is not on behalf of any of the brands mentioned above.

Communication Device for Differently Abled

There are many challenges that differently abled people have to overcome when it comes to communication. H₂I^TM intends to discuss some of the possible solutions for designing and developing a device to facilitate seamless communication and interaction between them and rest of the world. Objective of this research is to open up the possibilities of upgrading gadgets made for differently abled people.

We have based the solutions on the simple concept of our sensory functions.

The 5 basic senses of human being as we rightly know are:

1)      Hear

2)     See

3)     Talk/Taste

4)     Smell

5)     Feel/ Gesture

The first 3 senses have been widely been explored in the communication field. The latter two are being developed to bring out futuristic communication possibilities.

Hence, utilizing each one of the above stated senses and applying combinations and permutations, we can surely facilitate easier communication methods for the disables with the rest of the world.

To facilitate seamless, uninterrupted, heterogeneous communication for less fortunate, and to provide entertainment, we would like to propose the following:

Proposed Salient Features:

Future scope:

The device provides the following possibilities:

Man – Man interaction

Man – Device Interaction

Device – Device Interaction

Man – Man Interaction:

• BIG SCREEN 
• COMFORTABLE GRIP 
• SEPARATE BRAIL INSCRIPED BUTTONS FOR NUMBERS AND ALPHABETS 
• SHORTHAND KEY BUTTONS FOR COMMON PHRASES 
• VOICE RECOGNITION 
• AUDIO ↔ TEXT CONVERTER 
• GESTURE ↔ AUDIO CONVERTER 
• FRAGRANCE ACTIVATOR AND VIBRATOR ALERT 
• EXPANDABLE TEMPLATES FOR PHRASES AND CONTACTS. 
• AMBIANCE

Man – Device, Device - Device Interaction

• FRIENDS LOCATOR
• TEXT READER WITH THESAURUSES, TRANSLATOR AND DICTIONARY
• OBSTACLE DETECTOR, OBJECT LOCATER
• MULTI-ATTACHABLE USABILITY

- by Riddhi J Chokhawala

Please download the entire report from the following link:

http://www.happy2innovate.com/consulting

The Importance of Correct Pencil Grip for Children of Age Group Between 2 – 3 years

ABSTRACT

The pencils available in the market come in varied shape and sizes. Broadly classified into triangular, hexagonal or circular shapes, these come in various grades. This study examines the effect of pencil size and shape on the pre-writing skills of children aging 2 -3 years. The children's pre-writing skills is tested while using a triangular shaped pencil, a standard pencil, and a large diameter pencil.

The results of the study indicate no effect of pencil size or shape on the quality of the children's writing. According to the study, ideally the pencil should be positioned in such a way so that there is equal pressure between the thumb, the side of the middle finger and the tip of the index finger. All fingers are bent slightly. This is called a "tripod grip" or "tripod pencil grasp". The eraser end of the pencil should point toward the shoulder. The underside of the forearm to the thumb should be a straight line. The hand does not hook back toward the body.

H₂I^TM intends to investigate the above issues and address the following common problems faced due to lack of proper grip of pencil.

These are:

• Child has difficult time manipulating a large or regular size pencil.
• Child moves entire arm while writing
• Child writes too hard or soft
• Awkward letter formation
• Poor posture
• Poor paper placement

- by Riddhi J Chokhawala

You can download the entire report from the following page:

http://www.happy2innovate.com/consulting

Power of Reduction in Innovation

Innovation is about doing something new, thinking something new or perhaps challenging the set decorum to design a new process altogether. Most of the time we think that Innovation is something very far off thing, good for people with a lot of grey cells.

Power of Reduction clearly challenges this by proposing that anybody can think different by just removing the obvious and the most important element of any process or thing.

Let’s understand this by an example of airlines booking. What if I remove the most important element of date from the airlines booking site?

Now, think, what would this website do?

If I don’t need dates for a holiday then what all could I do?

•  Lets say you gift a holiday to some one…
•  Corporate purchase of holidays for employees
•  Future booking at cheap cost
•  Meet new people Travel – once a set number of people signs up, you decide a time period. Itinerary is already pre-defined.

Point being, that the moment I played up with the most essential element for travel then it gave me a plethora of options to evaluate in terms of an innovative offering.

Having said that, I would urge people to apply this technique to come up with more ideas for a holiday without dates.

- by Anuj Chaudhary