Polycom Co-Founder and Chief Evangelist Jeff Rodman met with some of India’s leading businesses to discuss how to accelerate innovation and idea creation in the digital transformation age. Considered one of Silicon Valley’s leading technologists, Rodman urged Indian businesses to reassess their workspace environments and workplace culture to unleash their true innovation potential.

He explained that the impact of digital transformation is making all of us rethink what we need from our workspaces as traditional offices are replaced with more open, technology-enabled environments. He believes that workplace design and technologies which support future ways of working will be key in helping businesses compete.

As India’s workforce grows younger, traditional hierarchical organisational models are slowly being redefined from the inside out. Indian employees are looking for ways to seek greater levels of privacy and more agile ways to collaborate with colleagues near their workstation or with larger groups in informal settings.

Rodman says, “Change is happening all around us and businesses need to adapt to succeed. While there is a real urgency, there is equally a real opportunity for business to rethink their collaboration strategies. This means migrating from artificial and inefficient workplaces to more natural environments that will boost ideas and innovation while also liberating people to excel, regardless of workplace location.”

Joining Rodman at Polycom’s Innovation Roadshow in India was Anand Jethalia, Director - Office Marketing (UC), Microsoft. 

Polycom and Microsoft have worked in tandem for more than a decade to make collaboration easier and more intuitive. Since Microsoft’s entry into unified communications, Polycom has developed the broadest portfolio of voice, video and content collaboration solutions that integrate with and are qualified by Microsoft. Together, the companies have worked on delivering collaboration experiences that transform the way people work. These experiences have been able to address the most pressing challenges in business to deliver a compelling, complete, and totally interoperable end-to-end unified collaboration solutions.

According to ‘Connecting Capabilities’, The Economist Intelligent Unit (EIU) and Telstra’s report on the potential for Digital Transformation within Asia Pacific, a company’s ability to compete is often impacted by the digital environment around them, including constraints in terms of legacy systems, processes and mindsets[1]. Rodman believes that as more people get access to collaboration technologies, there is increased expectation that the workplace experience should be as intuitive and natural as a personal interaction.

Jeff concludes, “I’m often asked what drives innovation; I truly believe that if people are given the flexibility to work how and where they feel most effective, it brings creativity and natural communication back into focus. So, whether it’s from an armchair or from a standing desk, an agile and flexible workplace is about creating the right environment for individuals and teams to work together to deliver great results. After all, no space is too small for great ideas and teamwork to happen.”