Bangalore, January 20, 2014: Globalization Advisory and Market Expansion firm, Zinnov, has moved from words to action -- literally. It has followed up its annual reports on the technology R&D scenario in India and worldwide, with an initiative to help create 5,000 Senior Technical Leaders across the multi national corporation R&D Sector within 3 years.
It's called the 5K Architect Programme and aims to build a pipeline of 5,000 architects who can steer R&D in India to the next level. The intention is to broaden the funnel of aspiring architects, create excitement around the profession, channelize this excitement into an aspiration and institutionalize the creation of 5,000 architects by 2016.
Says Pari Natarajan, CEO, Zinnov: “For India R&D centers to reach the next level in driving value, the ecosystem needs to be focused on developing the next generation of leaders who can provide original solutions to problems, have deep knowledge in technology domains and are thought leaders for the technologist community. The 5K Architect initiative is Zinnov‘s contribution to create conditions conducive for these big technology bets and high-value innovation from India. As a country, we have the inherent capability to solve big problems; through this program we along with our ecosystem partners hope to groom individuals into leveraging their potential for the industry’s benefit.”

India has become an R&D hotbed with 874 MNCs having set up 1,031 centers and 45% of the top 500 global R&D spenders having a presence here. However, Zinnov reports indicate that the majority of product teams across these companies are still at an early stage of product maturity i.e. engineering support (22%), module leadership (44%), largely attributable to the fact that capabilities are currently skewed towards engineering delivery rather than product conceptualization and design skills. The reality is that in the area of hardware product development, just 2% of talent in India possesses conceptualization skills as compared to that of 10% in the Bay Area, US. Similarly, for software product development, just 5% of the talent pool in India has conceptualization skills as compared to 15% in the (US) Bay Area.

There is a pressing need to for Indian MNC R&D companies to take on big technology bets to drive innovation from here. Technical leaders – known as architects – play a critical role in driving these initiatives, especially in new technology areas such as 3D printing and big data, where India centers aspire to take the lead. Organizations, however, face several challenges in building a pool of qualified architects
The 5K Architect Programme will focus on tech-talks and the creation of role models. This includes highlighting success stories, evangelizing new-age role models, acknowledging the contribution of technologists, educating people on technical career paths and highlighting industry best practices. Zinnov has already received 40 nominations from organizations for technical role models, and eight individuals across India have been identified as evangelists in 2013 alone.
Tech talk sessions across the industry will focus on areas in which India is poised to take big technology bets. These include predictive analytics, data sciences, cloud computing, big data, internet of things, mobile internet, 3D printing, clean technologies and operational intelligence. Over 80 participants nominated by their employers have attended these talks so far. These forums are rapidly growing and Zinnov expects to see substantial traction in the knowledge interchange meets.
Zinnov in partnership with Jed-i, an organization that aims to re-instill the passion for engineering through structured engineering and business programs, has established an Active Learning Program. This extensive, hands on program covers technology skills, business skills and soft skills and is currently being delivered to 25 participants.
Founded in 2002, Zinnov – meaning Zeal in Innovation – is a leading Globalization and Market Expansion Advisory firm, with specialization in areas like Global Sourcing, Emerging Markets Expansion, Human Capital Optimization, Small & Medium Businesses, Innovation, Cloud Computing and Enterprise Mobility. www.zinnov.com