I spoke at the eleventh edition of Shaastra , Shaastra 2009 at IIT Madras. It was a good feeling to come back to your alma mater after a gap and speak on “ Adaptive Organization” .How organizations can be designed to face increasing volatilities and behave in sense and respond mode  rather than the conventional  predict and control  modes. Gave examples of Fortune 100 companies. Explained  the advent of molecular economy following the maturity of information economy. Molecular economy revolves around bio technology, nano technology,material science and cognitive science. Compared to our ability of magnification of 100 X in 1930s – just enough to see a bacteria ,Watson and Crick’s deciphering  DNA  in 1953 , today we can magnify objects by more than  10 billion times.This provides us a greater understanding of molecules that control chemicals and biological functions and super-miniaturization of manufacturing. Thus we have today  the ability to see ,simulate and manipulate matters at molecular levels.Towards the end of information economy we have a highly connected economy with multiple autonomous entities adding to volatility of the environment we live in . With the progresses in molecular economy , we can successfully design an adaptive organization that can operate in sense and respond mode offering guards against such volatilities.

The talk was received well . Obviously I chose to speak on  a subject of business in a technical summit !  Who wants to get caught  at the techy’s conference ?

This year Shaastra saw great participation from industry , most prominent one this time was Boeing . As robotics was the theme  in  Shaastra 2008 , aerospace or air show was the theme this year . Met Dr Bala Bharadvaj ,Director of Boeing Research and Technology in Bangalore. He made a nice  presentation  and reinforced Boeing’s commitment to the institute and passion for aerospace engineering . You would feel proud to know India is one of the three countries outside of US to host Boeing’s  research and technology centre. IIT Madras’s centre of innovation was another  highlight. Hope Shaastra 2010 will revolve around molecular economy !