Innovation Evangelism at Wipro Technologies

The article depicts a practitioner's approach towards Innovation Evangelism in a corporate context. The case in point here is Wipro Technologies, one of the leading Information Technology firms based out of India. The author being an Innovation Evangelist at the firm shares the imperative of evangelism, the various vehicles deployed and the learnings there from. The need for Innovation Evangelism comes from the urge to spread awareness about innovation and enable it, especially at the grassroots level. Author defines an Innovation Evangelist in an organizational context as one who generates awareness of the need to innovate; builds a belief amongst people that anyone can innovate; and provides sufficient facilitation to enable innovation. At Wipro Technologies, Innovation Evangelism happens through a series of vehicles that include: Wipro's Innovation Camp, Innovation Bazaar, Story Book on Innovation, Systematic Creativity Workshops, and Inflection Point newsletter, among others. Each of these started as experiments and then through learning got institutionalized. Key learnings are: enrollment of the stakeholders; creating a semi-structure knowledge sharing environment; enabling a market of ideas, talent and capital; having a constant and consistent communication; transparency in operations; and taking a more scientific approach towards creativity; among others. One of the areas of further investigation is on measuring the direct and indirect returns of investment for each of these vehicles. The article would make a good read for researchers, academicians, professionals and students alike who study and execute innovations at the grassroots level.