Rosabeth Moss Kanter Latest Release "SuperCorp" in India at Landmarkonthenet

Online, December 30, 2009 (Newswire.com) - 'When the climate is right, a thousand flowers can bloom.' With this adage begins a section titled 'Investing the values dividend,' in 'SuperCorp' by Rosabeth Moss Kanter @ Landmarkonthenet

"From the bougainvilleas in Brazil to the cherry blossoms in Japan, vanguard companies add new growth to classic innovation wisdom. They show that values and social purpose can produce more innovation enablers and suppress more innovation stiflers," she avers. (For starters, Wikipedia has a page on the former, with information that the genus of flowering plants native to South America 'was discovered in Brazil in 1768, by Philibert Cameron, French Botanist accompanying French Navy admiral and explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville during his voyage of circumnavigation.')

Interestingly, for the reader's closer home, the chapter discusses ICICI as one of the success examples, 'a profitable giant and a learning laboratory for the world.' When ICICI started, India had only 40 ATMs; the bank moved quickly, installing three ATMs a day, catapulting past state banks that had large physical infrastructure, Kanter narrates. "Its ATMs use local languages and include Braille and voice guides (talking ATMs)."

ICICI's success is the result of innovation, she notes. "The innovation comes from imaginative applications of technology and from tapping the technological prowess from India's renowned software industry to use data to understand customer needs ICICI is producing innovation well ahead of some of the supposedly most advanced places in the world, such as the US."

The author finds that the biometric approach adopted by the bank is an example of reaching the hardest-to-get consumers in rural areas through advanced technologies. "A consumer swipes a card, enters a PIN on a pad, and a fingerprint matching system is used to verify identity. This system eliminates intermediaries, increases collection while decreasing cost, and reduces frauds and losses."

Such technology developed for the poorest people in the most remote corners of the world will someday become the standard for transactions everywhere and is an example of bottom-up innovation in action, Kanter foresees. She traces ICICI's inspiration for the best models to be coming not from the US or the UK but from South Africa. "African banks are ahead of the pack because cell phone penetration there, as in India, has far outpaced nearly every other kind of infrastructure. Tough conditions force innovation on the companies that emerge as winners."

To reap the values dividend, companies have to place social purpose at the forefront, the author urges. Focusing the company on solutions for the world inspires people to work hard to find them, because the quest is more meaningful than seeking financial returns alone, she reasons. "This culture makes it more likely that people will generate important ideas, sell change to sometimes-reluctant stakeholders, motivate a team to work collaboratively, and diffuse innovation rapidly and effectively."

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