IMI Centres of Excellence & Activites

Centre for Management of Innovation and Technology (CMIT)

Not many institutions in the country are engaged in investigating spectrum of issues which have a bearing on innovation, creativity and technology management. The Centre for Management of Innovation and Technology (CMIT) at the IMI has taken up this challenge.
CMIT is an institutionalized effort designed to support. and foster innovative solutions to challenges posed within client organizations. It also helps organizations integrate technology into their business strategy through building capacities for management of technology. Further it provides know-how for undertaking technology-based entrepreneurship.
Establishment of CMIT is a crucial step in IMI's strategy for upholding its vision of world-class institute of research and practice. CMIT is a network organization that works with government and business agencies in the field of innovation and technology management.
CMIT has a set mission of assisting the industry in building international competitiveness. They outline just how important it is in today's world to be effectively

capable of managing technology for growth and engender innovation for meeting the challenges. Although the activities of the CMIT will be relevant to the client organisation, the learning will be industry wide. The range of programmers and activities under the CMIT banner cover the following: research, publications and, database maintenance; capacity building through education and Training programmers; network building; consultancy services; creation of an innovation and technology management. The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) awarded a 3 year project on 'National Competitiveness in Knowledge Economy' to IMI with IIT Chennai, IIT Roorkee and National Productivity Council as partner institutions.

Centre for Social Sector Governance (CSSG)

Policy-makers, technocrats and economists tend to focus on sectoral changes and development that ensure economic growth and development. This approach is understandable when focusing on GDP alone, but not in dealing with issue of equity, access and social development per se.

Increasingly, international agencies, financial institutions and development banks have been investing in the social sector, in addition to the national governments which carry the major responsibility. Building capacities and capabilities for effective governance of the social sector has emerged as a key requirement.

While business schools usually deploy their expertise in research and consultancy for the benefit of the corporate world, IMI has taken upon itself the additional goal of making professional contribution to the society through a special thrust on the development and growth of the social and non-profit sector. This vision has encouraged IMI to create a Centre for Social Sector Governance (CSSG). IMI being a specialized management institution will be able to play a catalytic role and help in achieving the objectives through: Research in Social Sector, Policy Research and Advocacy, Partnership and Agency Development, and fostering national and international network with counterparts engaged in social development issues relating to rural development, poverty alleviation, health care management, family welfare and child development, ecology and environment, water resources, elementary education, gender issues, and informal sector.

Centre for Market Solutions to Poverty

If we stop thinking of the poor as victims or as a burden and start recognizing them as resilient and creative entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers, a whole new world of opportunity will open up. Prof. C.K. Prahalad

And the world will make lasting progress on the big inequities that remain— problems like AIDS, poverty and education—only if governments and nonprofits do their part by giving more aid and more effective aid. But the improvements will happen faster and last longer if we can channel market forces, including innovation that's tailored to the needs of the poorest, to complement what governments and nonprofits do. We need a system that draws in innovators and businesses in a far better way than we do today. Bill Gates

Nearly 4 billion people who survive on less than $2 a day stand isolated from the modern economic goods and social services. However, as Prof. C.K. Prahalad says, if we start recognizing them as resilient and creative entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers, a whole new world of opportunity will open up.

The above ‘base of the pyramid (BOP)’ with an estimated revenue potential of around $1.7 trillion represents an enormous potential for creating social and economic value. It could open up a new source of steady profit for corporations, which are close to saturating ‘mature markets’ at the top of the global economy. At the same time, it could have a high likelihood of empowering the poor directly by improving their quality of life (clean water, for example), providing them with productivity tools and services (cell phones, for example), or creating jobs. Goals of poverty reduction and economic profit can align well if a robust and equitable framework for the partnership is developed. This is the essence of ‘inclusive growth’ which is the moving force behind India’s Eleventh Plan (2008-12).  

There is an equally compelling case for public-private partnership in national development efforts aimed at poverty alleviation and human development. The role of the business sector in forging ‘backward linkages’ is equally important as their traditional role in forging ‘forward linkages’.

The Centre for Market Solutions to Poverty at the International Management School, New Delhi aims to provide an apex platform for coordinated response to the opportunities and challenges at the BOP. The focus would be on integrated business solutions, enabling public policy response, civil society action and development cooperation activities of the multi-bi agencies.  

Market Solutions to Poverty: Challenges and Strategies

Despite the profit potential, only a small number of businesses worldwide have tried to penetrate the base of the pyramid. This is because of the significant barriers:

• Limited market information

• Inadequate physical infrastructure

• Missing knowledge and skills

• Ineffective regulatory environment

• Restricted access to financial products and services.

But rapid transformation is underway. More and more companies are beginning to tap the potential of value creation at the BOP by placing the interaction with the poor as integral to the market potential assessment of a product line, a geographic market, a corporate division or the company itself.

A recent report by UNDP  highlights five strategies that private businesses have successfully used to overcome the most common obstacles to doing business with the poor:

• Adapt products and services.

• Invest in infrastructure or training to remove constraints.

• Leverage the strengths of the poor to increase labour and management pool and expand local knowledge.

• Work with similarly-minded businesses, non-profit organizations or public service providers.

• Engage in policy dialogue with governments.

A number of spectacular success stories showing the successful pursuit of both revenues and social impact are from India. Indeed, the rapidly changing socio-economic profile of India provides unprecedented opportunities for business firms and other service providers to partner with the socio-economic strata that was hitherto considered subsistence driven and of no interest to the organized business.

However, moving from a few pioneering initiatives to success on a grand scale requires a significant institutional effort. It firstly entails learning from the successful experiences as also from others that hitherto lie outside the purview of organized modern business (for example,  the value chain of  Non-Timber Forest Produce, health services, municipal services, micro-financial services etc.).

It also entails a significant transformation in public policy-both regulatory and promotional-so as to create the legal frameworks for rule-based and non-discriminatory markets that reduce the non-business risks in BOP markets. It calls for development of a host of new business strategies and instruments (e.g. micro-franchising, micro leasing, social franchising etc.

New models of multi-stakeholder partnerships are also required. Measures are required to minimize the risks to the poor segments, and to generally resolve conflicts that arise due to completion for resources such as land and water, as well as traditional unorganized markets. 

Most important of it all is the need to create a large cadre of mangers who can herald the above transformation. 

Centre for Market Solutions to Poverty: Service Lines

A. Business strategies  

The Centre acts as a one-stop shop for business solutions to enterprises venturing into BOP markets. The service lines include:

• Development of business strategies for engaging and energizing non-traditional   value chains, creating niche markets and addressing the common constraints discussed earlier.  

• Incubation centre for small and medium firms pursuing the inclusive business model/social enterprise model. 

• Service lines in support of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practice including strategy development, guidance on national and international CSR standards, training and other implementation support. 

• Case studies for business transformation by drawing on successful models of inclusive business.

• ‘Heat maps’ that identify opportunities by depicting access to water, credit, electricity or telephone service in a specific geographical area using color codes.

B. Public Policy

The Centre contributes to development of an enabling policy and regulatory framework for reducing the cost and risks of doing business in the BOP segment, as also for reducing the risks that the poor are likely to face in when being exposed to market situations. The service lines includes:

• Policy advisory support to the Central and State Governments as well as local bodies in establishing legal frameworks for rule-based and non-discriminatory markets.
• Support to the government for the development of integrated value chains in market sectors that offer the prospect of sustainable growth and employment.
• Design and implementation support as well as M&E services for relevant public programmes.

C. Other Activities Supporting BOP Markets

The Centre provides a range of services to other agencies in support of BOP markets and inclusive business. This includes:

• Advisory services and programme cycle support to international development organizations (such as UN Agencies, the World Bank, DFID,) for mainstreaming business solutions to poverty in their Country Programmes and projects.

• Management advisory services to other agencies on issues such as financial services as they interface with business strategies.

• Mutual collaboration with Management Schools to integrate the BOP/market solutions approach to poverty in course curriculum. 

The Centre is establishing strategic partnership with other apex institutions. It is also launching an knowledge management and solutions platform covering the above service lines.

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