By: Sourabh Gargav
Foundation for MSME Clusters (FMC), in partnership with the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad and IKP Knowledge Park (IKP), Hyderabad organized an all India Business Plan Competition - “Metamorphosis” - a six month long attempt towards metamorphosis of inventions into innovations. The competition has concluded on the 5th of January 2011.
Metamorphosis has been conceptualized as an application discovery and business model contest. The contest is funded and co-partnered with the Foundation for MSME Clusters (FMC) and IKP Knowledge Park. Participants need to develop a business model for one of the 9 inventions.
The competition attracted 125 teams of students from 25 top B-Schools across India. Of these, 8 teams have been shortlisted to make final presentation on January 5th, 2011 at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
Contestants developed business plans to exploit opportunities arising from the technologies developed by inventors. Researchers/scientists, VCs, professors, healthcare professionals, business people and students from other B-Schools attended the event. Cash prize of Rs.2,00,000/- for winning team, Rs.1,00,000/- for runners up team and Rs. 50,000 as special prize were given away. Metamorphosis has been well-received as an excellent platform to showcase the entrepreneurship initiatives.
This event brings the business school students in touch with selected innovators, whose inventions (some patented) are already at advanced product development stages. The contest helps ‘discover the application’, unravel the market, define the customer, think ‘out of the box’ and bring out an independent, unbiased view of what the students think is the right business model that will truly bring the inventions to successful commercial exploitation. There are so many different routes to market. Selection of the optimum route requires diligent business research and planning and a cutting edge strategy. It is this thought process which separates an innovator from a market leader.
The inventions selected for the Competition are from the health and pharmaceutical sector – one of the sunrise sectors, which will define the future growth of India and the world.
Invention 1 Process for Preparation of Self Micro/Nano Emulsifying Systems (SMES/SNES) for Drug Delivery
Invention 2 An Improved Metallic Tooth Implant
Invention 3 A Vacuum Pump Suction Filter Meant for Collecting Impurities from the Operating Environment
Invention 4 Treatment of sub-lethal, chronic Arsenic poisoning by an Herbal Formulation
Invention 5 An affordable Augmentative and Alternative Communication Device for non-verbal
persons
Invention 6 A Universal Healthcare Model
Invention 7 SWARM – Swarup Robotic Arm
Invention 8 Holistic Oral Health
Invention 9 Herbal Health Drink
The shortlisted teams made presentations on Inventions 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9.
Metamorphosis-2011 Results
Winners: Rs. 2,00,000/-
Team Name: The Managers
Business School: Indian School of Business
Team Members: Gaurav Shukla, Manjot Kaur, & Namita Pant
Invention 7: SWARM – Swarup Robotic Arm
Inventor: Dr. Suresh V. Deshpande, Chairman – Swarup Laparoscopic Institute, Kolhapur
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About the Invention
Invention is named as SWARM – an acronym for Swarup robotic ARM. SWARM is a robotic arm used in laparoscopic surgeries. SWARM holds the camera and manoeuvres it based on instructions of the surgeon. SWARM responds to voice commands provided by the surgeon and this is the key improvement that SWARM provides over any of the incumbent products. SWARM’s voice recognition ability is almost flawless and this feature has been tested and validated by several renowned surgeons of India and some celebrated academicians and practitioners of the world. The use of SWARM eliminates the requirement of an assistant in surgery and also it provides more accurate results without any impact of fatigue. This leads to better surgical outcomes. SWARM is particularly useful to surgeons who practice in tier-2 & tier-3 cities, as hiring and retaining quality assistants is a major challenge to these surgeons.
SWARM has been invented and operationalized by Dr. Suresh Deshpande – a renowned laparoscopic surgeon from Kolhapur, Maharashtra. Apart from practicing as a surgeon since the last 26 years, Dr. Deshpande is also extremely passionate about making surgical innovations and SWARM is a result of one of his projects. Dr. Deshpande is the President of Indian Association of Gastrointestinal Endosurgeons (IAGES).
Recommendations/Strategy suggested through the B Plan (Business Model)
The business plan suggested approaching 3 categories of customers:
A. Surgeons practicing in tier-2 & tier-3 cities
B. Community healthcare centres (CHCs) promoted & run under the aegis of the Central Government
C. Medical colleges (for the purpose of training)
Each of these categories is distinct and peculiar and different marketing strategies would be required for each of them. Accordingly, the marketing plan was as follows:
1. Providing free samples to leading surgeons:
Teams’ research showed that peer endorsement is a strong source of publicity in the surgeon-community. The team also noted that certain renowned surgeons are considered opinion-leaders and any endorsement of a new product by them acts as a strong pitching point for proposed buyers. Accordingly, the team proposed that the innovator supply free samples of SWARM to some of the most renowned surgeons. The team reckons that giving out free-samples is sustainable based on the likely sales volume that is expected to be generated through this strategy.
2. Tying up with medical devices firms to distribute SWARM:
We recommend that instead of investing resources and time in building a nation-wide sales network, the innovator should tie-up with existing laparoscopic equipment manufacturers to market & distribute SWARM. Through this strategy, the innovator can leverage the existing distribution network of device firms. Distribution of SWARM by the device firms also acts as a strong endorsement of the product by the device firm.
3. Pitching SWARM to Health Ministry for procurement by CHCs:
After SWARM’s sales reach a minimum critical mass, it can be pitched to Union Health Ministry for the purpose of procurement by CHCs. India currently has approximately 6,000 CHCs and this market offers a vast opportunity for SWARM sales.
Recommendations for production & distribution were as follows:
1. SWARM only involves assembly and does not involve any production as all the parts are available at large in the domestic and international market. Hence, the turnaround time to deliver a finished product is less. Accordingly, the B Plan recommends that the innovator retains the assembly line with him.
2. Also, the B Plan recommends that the inventor needs to tie-up with one of the established existing laparoscopic equipment manufacturers to market & distribute the product. It is not practical to rapidly build a large nationwide distribution network, especially as a start-up company. Similarly, such a strategy entails large risks and costs. Hence, a distribution tie-up with a device firm allows the innovator to leverage the existing business relationships and sales network of the device firm – significantly reducing the time-to-market.
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Runner-up: INR 1,00,000/-
Team Name: iDreamz
Business School: Indian School of Business
Team Members: Konpal Rae, Shashwat Nigam, & Unni V
Inventor 3: A Vacuum Pump Suction Filter Meant for Collecting Impurities from the Operating Environment
Inventor’s name: Mr. Yadlapalli Kondal Rao, Founder & MD, Coroney Technologies Pvt Ltd
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About the Invention
An industrial product (Electrostatic Precipitator Filter for Industrial Vacuum Pumps) that uses a technology developed by Mr. Y. K. Rao, Founder & MD, Coroney Technologies Pvt Ltd. The innovator has filed for a patent and has started manufacturing the product for various industries. However, due to various constraints, typical for a start-up, he is too constrained with the strategic and roll-out plan commensurate with optimal exploitation of the invention potential.
Recommendations
Realising the potential value the product adds to the users and the constraints of resources, linkages and trust in the industry, the B Plan (1) identified the target industries and geographies, (2) advised him to price the product on a value based pricing than cost+mark-up pricing, (3) explore to partner with vacuum pump manufacturers as well as sell the filters to industries directly, (4) grow people resource of required skill set in the firm and (5) identified the risks, suggested ways how to mitigate them.
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SPECIAL PRIZE: INR 50,000/-
Team Name: CZARS
Business School: Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune
Team Members: Devesh Shukla, Bishwajeet Ghosh, & Andre Fernandez
Invention 5: An affordable Augmentative and Alternative Communication Device for non-verbal persons
Inventor’s name: Mr. Aswin Chandrasekaran, CEO - Invention Labs
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About the Invention
The invention is an affordable Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Device for Non-Verbal Persons. In simpler terms; there are millions of people who are conditioned with their ability to communicate in everyday situations. An AAC device like the "ChatterBox" will, through various methods, helps these persons to have normal conversations. Currently AAC devices in India are very few, and most of them are static. Dynamic AAC devices available abroad are extremely costly; costing more than INR 2,00,000. The ChatterBox is dynamic, and set a price point of only Rs. 20,000.
Recommendations/Strategy suggested through Business Plan (Business Model)
Product: Use freely available open-source software on the product. Outsource Manufacturing to low cost Asian OEMs.
Model: Don't go through retail channels; as the ChatterBox is not a buy and use product. It has to be used to gradually improve communication abilities. Reach the end-users through their care givers. This means using NGOs, Hospitals, Speech Therapists, and other Special Institutions as channel partners, so that the end-users receive continued care and support. Those who require it can also receive financial support from NGOs or institutions.
Feedback/comments on the event
“Great initiative to let students work on live inventions. It gave an opportunity to apply learning of the MBA course to real life projects, while including the perspective of the innovator. Besides, the sense of achievement is significant because we realise that our learning experience could also be of some value to the innovators, who can scale-up their business innovations. Given that most innovative ideas in India do not reach the market, this was a good attempt to change the trend.”
“The event is a brilliant initiative which will surely help the innovators, and was very well organized. The only hiccup was the fact that some innovators were all-in for working on the B-Plan and supporting the teams; while some provided a very minimal amount of support. Innovators should agree to actively work with the teams. It will benefit both, the teams and the innovators.”
“The event was extremely educative and covered 9 extremely cutting-edge and path-breaking inventions. The presentations and research carried out by participating teams was top-notch and provided extremely useful insights to commercialize the inventions. The platform provided the innovators an opportunity to interact with MBA students representing various top business schools across the country and enabled a healthy dialogue between the innovators and the future business leaders. The program was generously supported by the Foundation for MSME Clusters and IKP Knowledge Park. The work done by these organizations in supporting micro, small and medium enterprises is commendable. Metamorphosis is an excellent event that gives budding entrepreneurs the right platform to get noticed and get a chance to showcase their path-breaking inventions.”
The event has been handled extremely well and met the high standards. Scope, structure, methodology, contents and outputs of the overall program have been well-received and appreciated by inventors, contestants, industry, academia, VCs, and other pertaining stakeholders. The Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club of ISB put in commendable effort in making this event a huge success. The Foundation for MSME Clusters could successfully bring different stakeholders of life-science industry to the common platform to work towards the industry wide challenge of Making Innovation Happen.
