We are lucky to be in the technology space—this is where you can begin small and make it big and what you build can have a significant impact. Google, Yahoo, Skype and many other companies began in a small way. Today, they are a big success stories. Each of them focused on innovation. However, as the organization grows the culture of innovation declines dramatically. This poses a significant challenge for the leaders. They need to put in extra efforts to foster innovation.

At Subex, we have instituted an ‘Innovation Day’ for the engineers. Every engineer can choose two days in a month, which are his or her innovation days. All that he or she does is work on whatever is close to their heart—it need not be company’s projects. That makes it 24 days a year. Innovation is not the domain of bright scientists. Infact, it is not only about technology. It can be practiced and must be practiced by everyone. There are innovations possible in everything that we do—the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you dress, and the way you hand over your business card.

It is by practising innovation in everything we do that we create a successful organization. We can’t put on our “innovation cap” for say from 8 am to 9 am in a day and innovate. Innovation has to be practiced 365 days, 24 hours and 7 days by as many people as possible in the organization, particularly at the top management level.

From an organisation’s perspective, innovation starts from day one. Innovation must be evident from the selection of the product or business to the sales methodology to the market entry strategy to marketing to human relations’ practices to every aspect of the business. It is when such innovation happens and it is when such innovations propel a company towards commercial success that great companies are born and get built to last.