An Eye for an Eye and Lunchtime Logistics

In my ongoing tryst with innovation, I was fascinated by the companies that are repeatedly cited for being innovative, especially in the last 25 years - Apple, Toyota, 3M, Intel, IKEA, Disney, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Sony and Dell, to name a few from core industries and of course, Google, Amazon, EBay, MySpace (NewsCorp) and UTube from the times post-Internet invasion.

While the stories of these American/European companies have been well documented and their innovations well imitated by their competitors to become BAU, I was wondering if any Indian companies could be part of this elite group.

Though companies like Infosys, Wipro, TCS and myriad other start-ups are the first ones to cross my mind, I wonder if their success was just a natural by-product of pre-existing economic conditions and HR abundance in India that resulted in cost-effective product/services development rather than through truly innovative products like those developed by some of the companies that are mentioned above. Since that would be a debate that I would like to take up on a different day, I have decided to focus on non-tech companies in India that have developed truly path-breaking products/services/operations.

The two organizations that I chose to be the most innovative - one from health care and the other from an industry it created out of its product - have both developed their systems out of the economic and cultural scenario in India, rather than use it as an excuse for stymied growth.

Aravind Eye Care System in Madurai, India: Founded in 1976, by the charismatic Govindappa Venkataswamy, M.D (or Dr. V as he was fondly addressed), grew out of the need for an eye care system that would be appropriate to and supported by the economic conditions in India. Dr. V's vision of providing quality cataract care to the masses of his country resulted in his brainchild that has evolved into a world leader in eye care, ophthalmic education, and the development of appropriate technology for cost-effective surgery. Its model has proven to be one of the most effective programs for addressing the enormous backlog of blindness in India. Designed to be self-sustaining while providing high-quality care to an underserved population, the fledgling hospital relied on fees paid by about 30% of patients to subsidize free care for the remainder, plus a formula based on low costs and high volume. The success of the system is also due to the non-regulatory nature of health care in India and the limited legal intrusion into health care as evident in countries like the US. The system has been widely acknowledged by many management gurus as one of the truly innovative services, none more so than C.K Prahalad in his book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.

Dabbawallas of Mumbai: This is innovative services at its best. Born out of the cultural preference of home cooked food over cafeteria cuisine, the dabbawalla system overcame the logistic hurdles posed by a growing Mumbai in the 70s, and is widely recognized as one of the most innovative logistics systems by management gurus.

So what makes the dabbawallas so unique? And how do they work? I stumbled upon this Deck that explains the organization, their system and even their P&L.

As India continues to churn out innovations in IT, these two organizations have stealthily set the bar so high for services and operations innovation that it will be tough to reach, let alone beat. But hold your thought there; after all Wal-Mart is coming to India, and that can only be the beginning of a new era of innovation in India that could break new ground.