Innovating for one’s own market

The name Ingersoll Rand conjures up images of a heavy engineering company. In a sense it is true. The $14-billion, predominantly B2B company, headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, USA, started life in the drilling and heavy machinery business, then moved into the air-compressor business. Today the group is a global player in supply of HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) and energy management systems under the brand names of Trane and Thermoking. In India for almost 90 years, the company is a listed entity on the BSE. During the decade of 2000–10 it sold its road-laying and heavy machinery business and acquired Trane. The company has a security business under a brand called Schlage.

Recently, it decided to enter the residential market by offering air-conditioning and security solutions. The solution comprises its Trane AC and home locking systems with which one can control all the ACs in the house as well as the front door. In Chennai recently for the launch of Trane, Venkatesh Valluri, Chairman, India Region, Ingersoll Rand, spoke to BrandLine on the brand and innovation . Excerpts from an interview:

On entering the residential market

We recently decided to get into the residential business in India as we had the technology and capability for specific solutions for emerging economies. This is the first time we are entering this market outside North America, to provide a converged solution to the Indian consumer, which offered comfortable living and safety, yet minimised the use of energy.

Innovating for the home consumer

The approach is to create a solution which allows the consumer to improve his living standards.

We didn’t want to create products which would compete on price with products from the Koreans, Japanese or other local manufacturers. We wanted to create new markets which allowed the consumer to experience a new living style.

Technology centres

Our innovations for India are done in India. Ingersoll Rand has one of the largest global technology centres in India which is spread across Bangalore and Chennai. About 700 people work there. These centres have been delivering new technologies and innovations for both emerging economies and global markets.

Reverse globalisation

Our engineering centres are now beginning to drive the concept of what we call ‘reverse globalisation’. The focus is simple — if we can innovate and launch a product in India at a price that is relevant to this market, we should be able to globalise it from here.

It still tends to be a one-way street from the developed to the developing world. The classic approach is to take the bells and whistles out from a product used in the developed world and position it in India at a reduced price. Our ability as a nation has been far from satisfactory when it comes to innovating for our own markets.

New products for the world

While we are developing new products, and validating it with Indian consumers, we are simultaneously networking with the Latin America and China markets and running the concepts by them.

In the first phase of development of these products, we spent six months listening to and deciphering the message. took the feedback. Then we went back, revalidated and came up with a product concept, on which we again got consumer feedback. We did this thrice. And in the final research, we checked on the product likeability. The purchasing favourability was 90 per cent — considered very high by any consumer research methodology.

New launches

We are evaluating embedding a camera into the lock of the door. This may redefine the security camera market as you may not need a separate tracking camera. But, it’s not simple — it needs technology and an organisational DNA that allows innovation at speeds we have not been used to. You need the best-in-class engineers to think, act and implement differently. That’s the ecosystem organisations in India need to create.

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