Have a Break, Grow Your Ideas: AB Group to Staff
TO NEW BEGINNINGS
Aditya
Birla Group plans to start an intrapreneurship programme; looks at partnering
with companies in Israel and Silicon Valley for its Bizlabs programme
In an attempt to tap into
the entrepreneurial ideas of its employees, Aditya Birla Group plans to kick
off an intrapreneurship programme soon. Under the programme, called Innolabs,
the company will allow its staff to take time off from work and pursue their
entrepreneurial ambitions.
In August 2015, the
conglomerate had flagged off Aditya Birla Bizlabs, a programme to collaborate
with start-ups in the retail, financial services and telecom businesses, where
the group has a dominant presence.Over 1,200 startups applied for the
programme, out of which 20 were eventually chosen to “scale up“ with the
conglomerate.
“When we were doing all of
this (Bizlabs) for startups outside, our employees joining us from IITs and
IIMs started asking: what is there in it for us? So, we have started working on
something for our employees called Aditya Birla Innolabs,“ said Umesh Adhikary
, president, corporate strategy and business development, Aditya Birla Group at
a ETNasscom roundtable, last week. “If your idea is great and we see conviction
and passion in you, we are going to help you create a company of your own. At
the same time, we are going to give you a six-month or one-year sabbatical
where you are going to go, develop the product, create your own team... and in
case you fail, you can come and join back,“ added Adhikary , who also added the
programme was still in a nascent stage and the fine print is still a work in
progress.
Adhikary also revealed that
the company is looking beyond Indian shores for partnerships in the startups
space. “We visited Silicon Valley and last week, we were in Israel,“ he said,
adding that there was a lot of exciting health technology related work
happening in Israel.
The group is also
partnering with startup incubators to identify startups it can collaborate
with. “We are forging partnerships with Nasscom 10,000 startups, Microsoft
Ventures, Techstars, 500 startups,“ said Adhikary , who says the group would
prefer to work with slightly older startups which are looking at geograp hic
expansion. “One of the value propositions we can put forth to these markets is
the access we can provide. We can also provide customer acquisition at a low
cost. These two value propositions are very enticing for any startup outside
India,“ said Adhikary .
As technology-driven
startups continue to disrupt the industries they operate in, large
conglomerates have adopted a two-pronged strategy to get a “front seat“ in the
flourishing startup ecosystem -other than just bankrolling in them. For
instance, the Mahindra Group, the Aditya Birla Group, is banking on
“intrapreneurship“, a model that encourages staff turn into entrepreneurs.
RIL, on the other hand, has
set up GenNext Innovation Hub, a startup accelerator programme which it runs in
partnership with Microsoft Ventures. Industry watchers believe that such moves
allow these large enterprises to get a piece of the action from startup scene.
“It's a healthy development,“ says Sharad Sharma, cofounder of iSPIRT,
commenting on Birla's move. “It's a playbook that Indian conglomerates have
companies from tech companies globally and it's a proven one,“ he adds.
ET17FEB16
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