Prakash Khanzode, Co-Founder, Onio:

Prakash Khanzode started his career focusing on practicing innovation and design at Onio Design Private Limited. Inherently curious by nature, Prakash honed his design interests while undergoing the postgraduate program in Industrial Design at the National Institute of Design Ahmedabad. Combining his creative and analytical abilities and his engineering talents, he ventured into his first entrepreneurial service venture Onio Design soon after.

In a span of these 15 years of design practice working predominantly in the domain of product design, he has been acclaimed for designing 400 innovations and products for international brands, SMEs and start upventures, in domains of mobility, consumer electronics, military equipment, healthcare and social innovation.

In the year 2001, he and his partner went on to founding Iternia a branding and communication design company. Currently with his expertise in product design and a reputation as a serial innovator and innovation entrepreneur he has ventured into playing the role of business mentor for inventors. He has been an active participant in making people aware of the role and contribution of creative design especially amongst the grass root and micro level inventors. Acting as a mentor and guide for informal innovators and design students, he has taken opportunities of working with the Ministry of Science & Technology (India).

Mr. Prakash Khanzode was been elected for ADI (Association for Design in India) as a part of seven-member pan-India team in 1994.

Manoj Kothari, Co-Founder, Onio:

Onio’s joint founder, Director and Principal Strategist, Manoj Kothari is a Mechanical Engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India (1992 batch) and PG in Industrial Design from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India (1996 batch).

Manoj started his career in 1992 in New Product Development & Quality Assurance at Eicher Tractors where he was instrumental in the launch of Eicher’s first water-cooled 30 HP tractor. He was also part of the team that implemented the ISO 9000 standards at Eicher Tractors.

Manoj Kothari, in his role as the Director of Onio, is focused on offering consulting services in Innovation Strategy. Innovation strategy in consulting companies refers to a plan made by an organization to encourage advancements in technology or services, usually by investing in research and development activities. For example, an innovation strategy developed by a high technology business might entail the use of new management or production procedures and the invention of technology not previously used by competitors.

Read More:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/innovationstrategy.html#ixzz2BJugY0Up

With more than fifteen years of experience, Manoj has led innovation consulting assignments for Indian and global clientele ranging from nimble start-ups, growth-oriented SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) to Fortune 500 companies encompassing domains like brand strategy, product innovation, strategic innovation and scenario consulting.

A thought leader on innovation, foresights, scenarios and blending design with business strategy, his writing can be accessed at http://bardinsight.blogspot.com.

Manoj is frequently quoted in the Indian & international media for his forthright views on how design-led innovation is the way ahead in business strategy. Manoj has been a speaker on various platforms like - CII-NID Design Summit (2005, 2006 & 2007), Pune Design Festival (2006 & 2007) and Design for BRICs at Korea Institute of Technology (2007), World Design Congress, USA (2007), FICCI Design Conclave (2008,2009), India Summit, Aalto University, Helsinki (2008), CNBC Young Turks Transformers (2010), SIAM Styling & Design Conclave (2010).