when I was a child my parents used to
say that I was born with Spurs in my
feet I didn’t understand what that meant
I just couldn’t sit still I was always
moving around from place to place
sometimes it was to just find a better
place to be and some other time it was
just to find better answers only later
in life did I understand that that
statement was so much more metaphorical
than literal that was the very
definition of innovation not to accept
status quo on everything try to find out
about things about the universe so today
I am going to talk about the process of
innovation the why when and how of
innovation if we have to get away from
accidental or random innovation or
jugaad as we keep hearing we need to
understand the process that drives
innovation we need to understand and put
a structure around making sure that hard
work and ideas come together more often
and success and the probability of
success increases we don’t depend on
luck anymore
I’m deeply influenced by the greatest
innovator of all times Leonardo da Vinci
I’m going to take three of his concepts
to build my thesis today the first one
is a very interesting italian word
called RTC Enza what does that mean it
is the art of balancing art and science
to understand the universe the second
word is connection connection means that
everything in this universe is connected
with each other and communicating with
each other and the third one is
curiosity’ it’s the curiosity to find
these connections so i’m in august
company today and i’m going to use these
three concepts and grade 8 mathematics
to outline the process of innovation i’m
sure you’re going to train on the five
slides of mathematics but trust me after
that i’m going to let your imaginations
go
so the first concept I’m going to talk
about is about innovation I did a lot of
studies and found that every study talks
about the fact that innovation doesn’t
happen in isolation it is always linked
with something that happened before it
is always linked with some invention
some discovery some intervention that
happened before and some change see so
you can write that if Y was innovation
we can say yn plus one which is the next
innovation is a function of something
that happened in the past yn plus C I
think we can depict that in mathematics
now if we write it over a long series we
realize that we are always trying to
find the why why did something happen
why did this phenomena happen why did
that event happen we are always trying
to find the Y and find patterns of data
and that Y is the past that is what we
are trying to link and once we have
found this pattern we ask the question
what next and then we find that our what
next answers are coming true we know we
have found a pattern this curiosity of
why and what next is the innovation
chain and we define what this innovation
chain is and each one of us have our own
method of finding this chain now I’m
going to introduce the second equation
so innovation is a complex construct it
is not just the hard work but it is also
an idea idea and hard work have to come
together idea is an abstract term hard
work is visible and it is real so we
need to read it mathematically so we
call it a complex number A plus IB is
the coefficient of the real number which
is a real action our work that we do and
I B which is B is the coefficient of the
imaginary number the idea the concept
right you can’t explain that it’s and
whenever math mathematicians had to
depict something complex they put an eye
there and I was the square root of
negative one if you remember your grade
8 mathematics so now we have got two
variables and one equation and lots of
durations so lots of answers are
possible right lots of places of a and B
the equation will converge and lots of
places it won’t converge so let’s see
what that would mean so we are plotting
the real action that we do and the
imaginary ideas or the ideas that we
have got and the set axis is time and
let’s ignore that for a moment it is
just a plotting of your mind and your
matter 1969 a French mathematician
called Mandelbrot who was solving a
totally different problem at that time
he was trying to find the circumference
of Britain he stumbled upon this
equation and he plotted it on an IBM
mainframe computer at that time he could
only do 1,000 iterations of this plotted
every possible combinations of a and B
and he found that this shape and that
shape is called the Mandelbrot outlined
how these two equations converge and
where the convergence happens now this
gave birth to a whole field of study
called fractals and I’m going to say
look at it in very different ways going
forward so now computers can do billions
of iterations and plot billions of
values of a and B and keep going down
and keep zooming in so we took a
computer algorithm plotted it over days
together and the visualization is what
you’re seeing on the screen right now
the colors on that graph on that chart
shows the time it took for the equation
to converge so when you look at
innovation there is a lot of things
going on and at the end of this billions
of iterations we come back to where we
started
there is something primordial about it
that you start go billions of iterations
later and you’re back again to where you
started right and that is the equation
and the visualization of in the
innovation equation so anything that is
a network which we showed how innovation
is a network anything that is a network
has fractal properties and that is what
we are trying to use for today’s
equation so what’s the definition of
innovation and discovery and an
invention
an innovation can be both a discovery it
could also be an invention discovery is
finding patterns that already exist in
nature things are happening events are
happening random events are happening
and we discover these patterns we
discover elements we discover gases we
discover fire we discover things that
already existed and we try to predict
what next and when we don’t like what
next when we want to change what is
going to happen we invent something we
said no I don’t like it I don’t like my
status quo today I want to change it and
therefore you invent something to change
what next that is invention and all of
these follow a fractal pattern so let’s
take a look at how discoveries are done
so there are random events happening you
know somebody is trying to do a flint
and finding fire after a lot of
movements of his thing he creates fire
they’re looking at gases and they
discover elements they discover all
kinds of similar gases and similar
elements and a field of study is born
chemistry is born the same events and
the same study with some small change
see can create a whole field of study or
a whole new field of study let’s take
the same elements and you can find
quantum computing and quantum physics
they are all looking at the same
elements of atoms right so that is how
discoveries and related discoveries are
done right when you look at invention I
mentioned that you are essentially
trying to solve a problem that is there
and you look at existing discoveries you
look at existing inventions and you say
can I combine them to solve this problem
and you come up with a new innovative
way right that also is always related to
some invention some discovery that
happened in the past so you can again
write it in the same way now innovators
take Elon Musk
doesn’t solve all the problems
themselves they take their idea and they
split it into lots of ideas so you take
this y-axis and you say you know what I
don’t want to deal with it all myself
I’m going to farm it out to lots of
people you collaborate and they let
others build
on their ideas they also are able to
bring together ideas from various fields
into their domains and this ability to
manage innovation this ability to split
your ideas to bring ideas together using
energies of the whole universe to help
you validate your ideas is what
innovation is all about it’s all how
this equation is going to work you bring
in the energies you bring in the ideas
of lots of people and make it work and
for innovation to succeed you need to
open source your ideas you cannot be
sitting on it and holding on to your
ideas you know you’ve got to let the
world know what you’re doing you need to
combine your ideas you need to bring it
together you need to bring paradigms
shamelessly from other ideas from
adjacent countries from adjacent
geographies from adjacent fields of
study you need to split your ideas and
you need to use the energy and the
actions of the universe to help you get
there and create something new that will
benefit society that is what innovation
is all about working to solve a problem
that is going to benefit society in the
long haul there was a time when
innovation used to happen in closed
rooms used to happen in secret if we
didn’t want the information to go out
but those days have changed there is
nothing that happens in this universe
today that is not validated by lots of
people different schools of thought
different people coming together
contributing to make innovation work and
that is all got to do with combining
equations of lots of people into one
gigantic wave form that is going to
bring about success that probability of
success goes up if we do it that way the
other thing that we need to look at it
what zone of this fractal space are you
working on are you working on the big
boring area where you have got
open-ended effort you don’t know when
the energy and action is going to
collide or you’re working in the little
boring area which is bounded efforts you
know when you look at work that is
happening in the industry they look at
this little boring area they have got
bounded effort they know that they have
to succeed in a short period of time and
then
innovation is happening at the edges
edges of these two then you can go deep
down we saw in the video how you could
go zoom in and you found that
convergence is happening a lot of ideas
are happening in the edges that is the
interesting part the last concept that I
want you to think about when you look at
this equation of innovation is the C yn
plus 1/4 C the C I said was changed but
it is also constraints you need to
understand the constraints of innovation
you can’t pluck an idea from one side
and bring it to the other side and make
it work without understanding the
constraints that you are putting it
under in the new geography in the new
paradigm and each paradigm has its own
set of constraints and then finally
certain geographies don’t allow that
cost parent to also look at to impact
what you are going to achieve so that my
friends is the whole equation and the
mathematics of innovation so in summary
we have seen how innovation follows a
fractal pattern you can engineer your
probability of success by knowing which
zone you’re operating by making sure
that you are spreading the energy and
action of lots of people to achieve
success thank you [Applause]
say that I was born with Spurs in my
feet I didn’t understand what that meant
I just couldn’t sit still I was always
moving around from place to place
sometimes it was to just find a better
place to be and some other time it was
just to find better answers only later
in life did I understand that that
statement was so much more metaphorical
than literal that was the very
definition of innovation not to accept
status quo on everything try to find out
about things about the universe so today
I am going to talk about the process of
innovation the why when and how of
innovation if we have to get away from
accidental or random innovation or
jugaad as we keep hearing we need to
understand the process that drives
innovation we need to understand and put
a structure around making sure that hard
work and ideas come together more often
and success and the probability of
success increases we don’t depend on
luck anymore
I’m deeply influenced by the greatest
innovator of all times Leonardo da Vinci
I’m going to take three of his concepts
to build my thesis today the first one
is a very interesting italian word
called RTC Enza what does that mean it
is the art of balancing art and science
to understand the universe the second
word is connection connection means that
everything in this universe is connected
with each other and communicating with
each other and the third one is
curiosity’ it’s the curiosity to find
these connections so i’m in august
company today and i’m going to use these
three concepts and grade 8 mathematics
to outline the process of innovation i’m
sure you’re going to train on the five
slides of mathematics but trust me after
that i’m going to let your imaginations
go
so the first concept I’m going to talk
about is about innovation I did a lot of
studies and found that every study talks
about the fact that innovation doesn’t
happen in isolation it is always linked
with something that happened before it
is always linked with some invention
some discovery some intervention that
happened before and some change see so
you can write that if Y was innovation
we can say yn plus one which is the next
innovation is a function of something
that happened in the past yn plus C I
think we can depict that in mathematics
now if we write it over a long series we
realize that we are always trying to
find the why why did something happen
why did this phenomena happen why did
that event happen we are always trying
to find the Y and find patterns of data
and that Y is the past that is what we
are trying to link and once we have
found this pattern we ask the question
what next and then we find that our what
next answers are coming true we know we
have found a pattern this curiosity of
why and what next is the innovation
chain and we define what this innovation
chain is and each one of us have our own
method of finding this chain now I’m
going to introduce the second equation
so innovation is a complex construct it
is not just the hard work but it is also
an idea idea and hard work have to come
together idea is an abstract term hard
work is visible and it is real so we
need to read it mathematically so we
call it a complex number A plus IB is
the coefficient of the real number which
is a real action our work that we do and
I B which is B is the coefficient of the
imaginary number the idea the concept
right you can’t explain that it’s and
whenever math mathematicians had to
depict something complex they put an eye
there and I was the square root of
negative one if you remember your grade
8 mathematics so now we have got two
variables and one equation and lots of
durations so lots of answers are
possible right lots of places of a and B
the equation will converge and lots of
places it won’t converge so let’s see
what that would mean so we are plotting
the real action that we do and the
imaginary ideas or the ideas that we
have got and the set axis is time and
let’s ignore that for a moment it is
just a plotting of your mind and your
matter 1969 a French mathematician
called Mandelbrot who was solving a
totally different problem at that time
he was trying to find the circumference
of Britain he stumbled upon this
equation and he plotted it on an IBM
mainframe computer at that time he could
only do 1,000 iterations of this plotted
every possible combinations of a and B
and he found that this shape and that
shape is called the Mandelbrot outlined
how these two equations converge and
where the convergence happens now this
gave birth to a whole field of study
called fractals and I’m going to say
look at it in very different ways going
forward so now computers can do billions
of iterations and plot billions of
values of a and B and keep going down
and keep zooming in so we took a
computer algorithm plotted it over days
together and the visualization is what
you’re seeing on the screen right now
the colors on that graph on that chart
shows the time it took for the equation
to converge so when you look at
innovation there is a lot of things
going on and at the end of this billions
of iterations we come back to where we
started
there is something primordial about it
that you start go billions of iterations
later and you’re back again to where you
started right and that is the equation
and the visualization of in the
innovation equation so anything that is
a network which we showed how innovation
is a network anything that is a network
has fractal properties and that is what
we are trying to use for today’s
equation so what’s the definition of
innovation and discovery and an
invention
an innovation can be both a discovery it
could also be an invention discovery is
finding patterns that already exist in
nature things are happening events are
happening random events are happening
and we discover these patterns we
discover elements we discover gases we
discover fire we discover things that
already existed and we try to predict
what next and when we don’t like what
next when we want to change what is
going to happen we invent something we
said no I don’t like it I don’t like my
status quo today I want to change it and
therefore you invent something to change
what next that is invention and all of
these follow a fractal pattern so let’s
take a look at how discoveries are done
so there are random events happening you
know somebody is trying to do a flint
and finding fire after a lot of
movements of his thing he creates fire
they’re looking at gases and they
discover elements they discover all
kinds of similar gases and similar
elements and a field of study is born
chemistry is born the same events and
the same study with some small change
see can create a whole field of study or
a whole new field of study let’s take
the same elements and you can find
quantum computing and quantum physics
they are all looking at the same
elements of atoms right so that is how
discoveries and related discoveries are
done right when you look at invention I
mentioned that you are essentially
trying to solve a problem that is there
and you look at existing discoveries you
look at existing inventions and you say
can I combine them to solve this problem
and you come up with a new innovative
way right that also is always related to
some invention some discovery that
happened in the past so you can again
write it in the same way now innovators
take Elon Musk
doesn’t solve all the problems
themselves they take their idea and they
split it into lots of ideas so you take
this y-axis and you say you know what I
don’t want to deal with it all myself
I’m going to farm it out to lots of
people you collaborate and they let
others build
on their ideas they also are able to
bring together ideas from various fields
into their domains and this ability to
manage innovation this ability to split
your ideas to bring ideas together using
energies of the whole universe to help
you validate your ideas is what
innovation is all about it’s all how
this equation is going to work you bring
in the energies you bring in the ideas
of lots of people and make it work and
for innovation to succeed you need to
open source your ideas you cannot be
sitting on it and holding on to your
ideas you know you’ve got to let the
world know what you’re doing you need to
combine your ideas you need to bring it
together you need to bring paradigms
shamelessly from other ideas from
adjacent countries from adjacent
geographies from adjacent fields of
study you need to split your ideas and
you need to use the energy and the
actions of the universe to help you get
there and create something new that will
benefit society that is what innovation
is all about working to solve a problem
that is going to benefit society in the
long haul there was a time when
innovation used to happen in closed
rooms used to happen in secret if we
didn’t want the information to go out
but those days have changed there is
nothing that happens in this universe
today that is not validated by lots of
people different schools of thought
different people coming together
contributing to make innovation work and
that is all got to do with combining
equations of lots of people into one
gigantic wave form that is going to
bring about success that probability of
success goes up if we do it that way the
other thing that we need to look at it
what zone of this fractal space are you
working on are you working on the big
boring area where you have got
open-ended effort you don’t know when
the energy and action is going to
collide or you’re working in the little
boring area which is bounded efforts you
know when you look at work that is
happening in the industry they look at
this little boring area they have got
bounded effort they know that they have
to succeed in a short period of time and
then
innovation is happening at the edges
edges of these two then you can go deep
down we saw in the video how you could
go zoom in and you found that
convergence is happening a lot of ideas
are happening in the edges that is the
interesting part the last concept that I
want you to think about when you look at
this equation of innovation is the C yn
plus 1/4 C the C I said was changed but
it is also constraints you need to
understand the constraints of innovation
you can’t pluck an idea from one side
and bring it to the other side and make
it work without understanding the
constraints that you are putting it
under in the new geography in the new
paradigm and each paradigm has its own
set of constraints and then finally
certain geographies don’t allow that
cost parent to also look at to impact
what you are going to achieve so that my
friends is the whole equation and the
mathematics of innovation so in summary
we have seen how innovation follows a
fractal pattern you can engineer your
probability of success by knowing which
zone you’re operating by making sure
that you are spreading the energy and
action of lots of people to achieve
success thank you [Applause]
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