New Delhi: Large corporates need to get over the fear of failure, said Suresh Narayanan, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), Nestle India, during a fireside chat on ‘Leadership - The force Multiplier for Innovation in Organizations’ at the Innovation Summit- Creative Disruption and Creative Resurrection – organised recently by the industry chamber FICCI. “This starts with the leadership,” he said, speaking on innovation in the context of big organisations.

Narayanan said that leadership, irrespective of geography and economic reality, must look at 5Cs – Context, Culture, Construct, Commitment, and Calibrate – concerning innovation. He said that innovation must have a context, whiHe said that Nestle is innovating at three times the pace it was about six years ago.ch must be interwoven with the purpose and values of the organisation. Further, companies must have an innovation culture embedded in a construct where people, processes, and the reward mechanism are in place.

“We launched 90 to 100 new products in the last couple of years. It would have taken us a couple of decades to launch,” he said, and added, “Nothing has been updated, same processes, brands, propositions and testing mechanisms, but teams have been recalibrated. What we have tried to do is to walk the talk, and I do it personally.” 

“Authentic behaviour means to say what you mean and mean what you say,” he said, adding, “leadership is not leading others; it is being increasingly confidNarayanan said that leadership needs to be authentic.ent in yourself.” He added that innovation requires a long-term commitment and the ability to calibrate based on evolving realities. 

Speaking on occasion, Ranjan Kumar Mohapatra, Chair of FICCI HR Committee and Director HR, Indian Oil Corp Limited, said that disruptions provide us with an opportunity to respond differently. He alluded to the Covid-19 crisis where the three As – agility, adoption of new technology, and alignment of purpose led to Indian Oil Corporation delivering despite the challenges. 

“None of us knew how to supply LPG cylinders to your residences during Covid-19. Can you believe that Indian Oil delivered 33 lakh cylinders to homes on a day,” he said, adding that it was made possible because the workforce was agile,” Talking about the role of the HR fraternity during the pandemic, Manoj Sharma, Member, FICCI HR Committee and Joint President and CHRO, Aarti Industries, said human resource professionals have innovated quite a lot of practices during this time. 

 Speaking on occasion, Anuradha Razdan, Co- Chair, FICCI HR Committee and Executive Director, HR, HUL and CHRO, Unilever South Asia, said, “You can invent alone but you can’t innovate alone.” An Industry Compendium on ‘HR Best Practices’ was also released on occasion. The compendium is a result of an industry survey and outlines innovative and forward looking HR policies. /BI/