⚡ Get All Content for 20% Off ⚡

What It Takes To Become A Company's Innovation Officer Tata Trusts' Manoj Kumar said innovation officers' role is to keep companies updated and make customers understand their relevance in today's hyper-competitive environment.

By Sneha Banerjee

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

Tata Trusts and Mozilla

Traditional and new-age companies are aggressively trying to tap the latest technologies available to get an edge over existing market players. Business entities are no longer contented with a particular area of specialization, instead they want to spread their roots to a multitude of arenas, be it healthcare, real estate, enterprise companies, retail and others.

The Entrepreneur India spoke to Manoj Kumar, who heads the innovation, entrepreneurship and institutional relationships of Tata Trusts and Katharina Borchert, CIO at Mozilla, to understand the role of innovation officers in companies and the importance of hiring the right people for the job. It is important to note here that the two are from two different geographies.

Though CIOs are very common in the Silicon Valley, India is yet to see well-structured JDs to accommodate the role. Executives are often seen taking up multiple roles under one position.

Talking about the relevance of this role in general, Kumar said innovation officers' role is to keep companies updated and make customers understand their relevance in today's hyper-competitive environment.

The Role's Relevance

"An Innovation officer's job is to roll out new game-changing solutions that will create sustainable advantage for the company. It works wonders for small, agile, highly talented and productive teams, who are focussed about mission and incentives," Kumar said.

Tata Trusts runs incubator and accelerator programmes for innovators and provide them hands-on operational support and seed capital to build high impact, disruptive solutions to India's development sector challenges.

On the other hand, speaking completely from her experience from the Silicon Valley, Borchert said the work of a CIO demands breaking up organizational silos and creating a healthy atmosphere that encourages creative thinking to churn out fresh ideas.

"The CIO is an enabler who designs processes and introduces best practices. This will allow him or her to create a space for others to develop and drive novel concepts. The role often includes analyzing trends and identifying emerging new market opportunities to make appropriate investment decisions," she said.

"My team and I make a lot of effort in designing and implementing models that allow us to develop a diversified community of contributors and problem-solvers," she added.

Set up in 1998, Mozilla is a free-software community created by members of Netscape. On the other hand, at Tata Trusts, the company works for the underprivileged in providing livelihood, water & sanitation, healthcare, nutrition.

Sneha Banerjee

Entrepreneur Staff

Former Staff, Entrepreneur India

She used to write for Entrepreneur India from Bangalore and other cities in South India. 

Leadership

If You Want to be Successful, Become a Better Speaker — Follow This 7-Step Process for Effective Speaking

Discover the transformative power of mastering presentation skills with this 7-step process.

Marketing

Ever Wonder Why Certain Websites Rank Higher Than Yours? This SEO Expert Reveals The Secret to Dominating Search Results

It's often the smart use of SEO, now supercharged with AI, particularly in keyword optimization.

News and Trends

Rural Commerce Startup Rozana Raises USD 22.5 Mn from Bertelsmann, Fireside Ventures and others

The Delhi-based startup will utilise the fresh funds to fuel its expansion into new districts, upgrade its technology platform, and increase hiring in technology, product, and operations teams.

Career

The Best Paying Jobs in Finance and How Much You Can Make

Want to pursue a new, high-paying job in the financial sector? Check out our breakdown of the best-paying jobs in finance here.

Business News

AI Is Impacting Jobs. Here Are the Gigs Affected the Most, According to an Analysis of 5 Million Upwork Postings

The researcher said in the report that freelance jobs were analyzed first because that market will likely see AI's immediate impact.