The India Immersion Program was an innovative program where a team from the Institute of Design (9 students led by 1 faculty member) worked with a team from Godrej& Boyce in India (9 interdisciplinary members led by the VP of Innovation) to develop solutions for a problem of strategic importance to Godrej. Through the tenure of the project, the teams immersed themselves in the emerging economy context of India through engagements with local people, place, and culture; interactions with eminent {government, design, business, and technology} personalities; as well as held design discussions with their counterparts.
The program was supported by generous funding from the Godrei group, a $3 billion conglomerate in India and the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology, a leading school of Design in the US. ID students only had to bear the cost of travel to India and any expenses outside the period of the 2 week program.
4 teams of ID students and Godrej executives came up with 4 innovative strategic directions for Godrej. The final presentation was made to the General Management Council of Godrej & Boyce which includes the Chairman, Mr. Jamshyd Godrej and the Executive Director & President, Mr. Phiroze Lam.
Here are some photographs from the sparkling new Innovation Centre at Godrej that the program was housed in.