Jugaad Innovation: A frugal and flexible approach to innovation for the 21st century

A book review by: Celia Pillai

Buffalo State College

Jugaad Innovation

What lessons on innovation can a small-time potter from rural India have for global corporations? Plenty, says the business book by Radjou, Prabhu & Ahuja called Jugaad Innovation: A frugal and flexible approach to innovation for the 21st century. ‘Jugaad is a colloquial Hindi (a widely spoken language in India) word that roughly translates to an innovative fix; an improvised solution born from ingenuity and cleverness’ (p.4). Using extensive examples from emerging and mature markets, the authors propose that organizations everywhere can and should learn from jugaad. The book builds on business paradigms focused on emerging markets like fortune at the bottom of the pyramid (Prahlad, 2005), frugal innovation and reverse innovation (Immelt, Govindarajan & Trimble, 2009).

The introduction starts with a remarkable example of jugaad by Mansukh Prajapati, a potter from Gujarat in India. Mitticool is a fridge made of clay, costs a tiny fraction of a conventional fridge, requires no electricity, is 100% biodegradable and produces zero waste! Essentially, Jugaad is ‘a unique way of thinking and acting in response to challenges…of spotting opportunities in the most adverse circumstances and resourcefully improvising solutions using simple means. Jugaad is about doing more with less.’ (p.5). It is in contrast to the structured innovation model which ‘is designed to deliver more with more – that is, firms charge customers a hefty premium for over-engineered products that are expensive to develop and produce’ (p.10). Whereas Jugaad solves the core problem with a good enough solution and is ‘bottoms-up, improvisational, fluid and collaborative while working within a framework of deep knowledge’ (p.24). Among the many examples in the book are that of some major corporations like GE, 3M, P&G, Facebook, Tata and Pepsi.

The core essence of the book are the six key principles distilled from studying jugaad innovations across countries, industries and organizations:

1. Seek Opportunity in Adversity
2. Do more with Less
3. Think and Act Flexibly
4. Keep it Simple
5. Include the Margin
6. Follow your Heart

The bulk of the book expands on these principles dedicating a chapter to each. Chapters begin by describing the principle in action. For example, chapter Principle Four: Keep it Simple starts with Dr. Sathya Jeganathan’s (a pediatrician in rural India) minimalist incubator. Made using inexpensive local material, it costs less than 1/100^th of a high-tech, high-end imported one. Yet it serves the core need – it keeps babies warm. Having drastically lowered the infant mortality rate in her hospital, it is now being scaled for wider use. Each chapter further delves on the principle highlighting relevant aspects of business climate, followed by recommendations to apply it and ending with an example of a major corporation’s success with it. The low-cost electrocardiogram-in-a-backpack by GE healthcare in India is a great example cited of a large corporation’s ability to include the margin through jugaad innovation.

The concluding chapters are on integrating jugaad into organizations and building jugaad nations. The authors caution that jugaad should not replace structured innovation but is ‘a useful complement to this approach’ (p.220). The companion website (www.jugaadinnovation.com) has visuals, examples and information on jugaad.

The central concept of the book is fascinating - human ingenuity in the face of scarcity is a phenomenon prevalent for ages across nations and cultures. It has a simple, easy-to-follow structure and is sprinkled with examples throughout, bringing alive the underlying dynamics of jugaad and its applications to organization. To date, this is the most comprehensive book on the subject and has helped bring the topic into mainstream business discussions.

It is interesting to note that the six principles squarely bring back the focus on creativity as the foundation for innovation (e.g. Amabile, 1988, 1996; Bharadwaj & Menon, 2000). All the principles are important aspects of creativity and related attributes of a creative person. For example, principle 1 and 2, Seek Opportunity in Adversity and Do more with Less, relate to the concept of constraints as an enabler to creativity (e.g. Finke, Ward, & Smith, 1992; Stokes, 2005). Principle 3, Think and Act Flexibly is cognitive flexibility, an essential creativity skill (e.g. Guilford, 1967; MacKinnon, 1978). Principle 4, Keep it Simple, reminds one of De Bono’s book called Simplicity (1998). It is the ability to break down complexity and focus on what is essential – the skill to Highlight the Essence (Torrance & Safter, 1999). Principle 5 Include the Margin is about serving marginal segments of the market, which uses the creativity skill to extend the boundaries (Torrance & Safter, 1999) of thinking and acting. Principle 6, Follow your Heart, connects to affect, empathy, intuition and their relationship to creativity (Barron, 1969, 1988; Burnett & Francisco, 2013; MacKinnon, 1978). Perhaps, these are the most critical creativity skills in jugaad innovators. Drawing a parallel, there are related dimensions of organizational creativity that support jugaad innovation.

Though the book is an easy read, it gets repetitive at times. Also, the study of jugaad innovations is based on anecdotal observations and lacks academic rigor and scientific enquiry. Given jugaad’s low priority for sophistication, some examples like 3M’s focus on visual appeal or Steve Job’s perfectionism in design don’t sound aligned to the fundamental notion of jugaad. Adding a few actionable tools and frameworks to help organizations diagnose and implement jugaad would have added depth to generic recommendations like ‘redesign the entire organization around simplicity’ (p.144).

Overall, as a first comprehensive study of jugaad, the book is worth a read for anyone interested in innovation. It brings forth a powerful concept of innovation - one that is frugal, flexible and humane. Jugaad has its share of critics, who argue that it is a short-term, work-around and non-scalable approach. Either ways, the buzz on jugaad is here to stay and it will be interesting to see its implementation and impact on organizations in times to come.

Reference: 

Radjou, N., Prabhu, J., & Ahuja, S. (2012). Jugaad innovation: A frugal and flexible approach to innovation for the 21st century. New Delhi: Random House India.

About Celia Pillai:Celia is a consultant, facilitator and trainer in the areas of creativity, innovation and strategy for organizations and institutions. She is also an associate of Tirian in India. Celia brings a diverse set of credentials and experiences, including design, strategy, management and creativity. Celia has a PGDM/MBA from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore, India and B.Arch (Bachelor of Architecture) from Bangalore University, India. She is a graduate of the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College, NY where she is also a candidate for an MS in Creativity and Change Leadership. She is based out of Chennai in India.

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inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity

A book review by: Gaia Grant

Managing Director of Tirian International

Buffalo State College

inGenius

Tina Seelig is truly inGenius, and her recent publication in the field of creativity which bears this title is testament to that!

Tina has come to the field from an unusually eclectic background. Starting with a medical Ph.D. in neuroscience, Seelig moved into engineering, management consultancy, and multi-media production before deciding to focus on the area of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. Perhaps not surprisingly, she has written books on a range of different topics, including popular science books on the chemistry of cooking, practical books on neuroscience designed to develop the brain, and a book of advice for young people on how to prepare for professional life. She certainly has an appropriately broad range of experiences to draw from in her current role.

Seelig is now Professor of the Practice in the Department of Management Science and Engineering (MS&E) at Stanford University, the executive director of the Stanford Technology Ventures program (STVP), and the director for the National Center for Engineering pathways. As well as teaching on creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship at the Department of Management Science and Engineering, she also teaches at the well-known Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (also known as the d.school) at Stanford. Seelig is a popular teacher who has been awarded for her ingenuity in the classroom and excellence in teaching.

inGenius, Seelig’s latest book, was her first popular work specifically focused on the creativity and innovation domain. The subtitle refers to the book as ‘a crash course on creativity’, and the resource does indeed provide a brief but illuminating overview of the area. What is most appealing about the book is that as you read it you feel like you have been invited to sit in as an observer of some of Seelig’s classes. There are plenty of interesting personal anecdotes from Seelig’s personal and professional life, along with a number of fascinating case studies. What is especially fascinating is that she also describes the sorts of unique exercises that she has devised to help teach about creativity. The result is a smooth flow of practical ideas delivered in a conversational style that draws in the reader in. The narrative interweaves both solid theoretical foundations and useful applicable ideas on how to develop creativity.

Even the title itself is ingenious! Seelig explains that she chose the title to reflect the fact that, “we each have creative genius waiting to be unlocked”. She goes on to explain how the word ingenius actually comes from the Latin word, ingenium, which refers to a natural capacity or innate talent. She asserts that we don’t need to look outside of ourselves to find creative inspiration (like the ancient Greeks), but rather that we all have the inherent ability to be creative. She is adamant that creativity can be taught and developed, just as muscles can be developed through exercise.

After introducing her philosophy on creativity as an accessible and limitless renewable resource (she says, “Ideas aren’t cheap at all – they’re free!”) and touching on the fact that our brains are wired for creative thinking, Seelig compares creative methods to scientific methods and concludes that creative thinking best applies when you want to invent rather than discover. She then goes on to introduce her unique model of creativity, which includes the ‘inside’ factors of Knowledge, Attitude and Imagination – along with the ‘outside’ factors of Resources, Habitat and Culture. The ‘inside’ factors are those that apply at the individual level, while the ‘outside’ factors apply at the organisation environmental level.

Having read a number of books in the field of creativity, I discovered that some of the stories and content were not original, which I would have hoped for in a book like this. Although designed as a ‘crash course’, I also came away with the impression that the overview was just too brief, and that a number of areas were touched on that could have benefitted from much deeper exploration. Also, a number of areas that I think are also important to creativity were omitted. Although there were some vague references to creative thinking skills, for example, there was no clear link to the model. This meant that although there was a general framework for approaching creative thinking, there wasn’t a specific guide on how to actively develop it. Some of the four Ps of creativity (Person, Product, Process and Press) are alluded to, but not all are covered consistently, which made it feel like the content was a little patchy.

Seelig says herself that she came up with the model after writing the main content of the book, and unfortunately that is the way it feels as you read the book. It feels as if the model is an after-thought, as if it is somewhat forced on the content, and it isn’t always a comfortable fit. I would like to have seen the main content of the book more clearly linked to the model as the book progresses so that the connections and theoretical flow is clearer.

Having said that, if the book was designed to be an introduction to the field and merely to incite interest and motivation it achieved this purpose very well. The model that Seelig introduces is definitely useful, and I found that the structure of the model (which shows an intimate interrelationship between the ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’ factors that impact creativity) quite fascinating. I was drawn to the book originally for this interesting integrated approach to the internal and external factors, and I will certainly draw from the model in my own work on how to build a constructive culture for creative thinking and innovation.

inGenius is a compact, accessible and easy-to-read book that would no doubt appeal to a broad audience, and particularly business people, who are interested to find out how creativity can apply in their lives and in their work. For the more learned reader in the field, there are still plenty of useful ideas and anecdotes that should inspire thoughtful reflection and motivation for action. The book is a valuable addition to the literature.

References

 Seelig, T. (2012). inGenius: A crash course on creativity. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Nonfiction.

About Gaia Grant

Gaia Grant is the co-Founder and Managing Director of Tirian International, an organizational learning and development consultancy which specialises in organization innovation and transformation (www.tirian.com ). Gaia is also the author of a number of books (including Who Killed Creativity?... And How Can We Get It Back?; Seven essential strategies for making yourself, your team and your organization more innovative (Jossey Bass, 20120)  www.whokilledcreativity.com ). She regularly contributes to international publications and has featured on international radio and TV and in several international news and business journals. Some of Gaia’s clients have included: BASF, Deutsche Bank, Four Seasons Hotels, Fuji Xerox, IFC World Bank, JP Morgan, Baker & McKenzie, Newmont Mining, Optus, and Visa.

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