Jugaad Innovation explained at the Tech Impact Report Launch
Professor Jaideep Prabhu, Professor of Marketing and Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Indian Business at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School, delivered the keynote speech at the House of Lords on 27 Feb 2024, launching the 10th anniversary of Diversity UK’s Asians in Tech initiative. His address focused on “Jugaad Innovation,” a concept explored in his co-authored book of the same name, which delves into the world of frugal innovation.
Previously, Professor Prabhu’s research primarily looked at innovation within large Western corporations, such as pharmaceutical, banking, and consumer electronics giants. These companies typically operate with substantial budgets, large teams, and a focus on pushing technological boundaries.
However, Professor Prabhu observed a starkly different approach in India: frugal innovation. Here, innovators embraced a flexible mindset, relying on improvisation, ingenuity and lateral thinking to create solutions that brought individuals from the informal to the formal economy. Affordability was paramount due to the resource constraints.
Professor Prabhu used examples from his book to illustrate various “jugaad innovation” models. He explained that “jugaad” translates to frugal innovation, emphasising delivering the perfect solution within a specific context, making the most of limited resources. He noted the inclusion of “jugaad” in the Oxford English Dictionary, attributing it, in part, to the book’s popularity.
Professor Prabhu highlighted the universality of “jugaad,” pointing out its adoption by large corporations to compete with emerging market rivals and startups who can innovate at a fraction of the cost. He stressed its particular relevance in challenging times, where needs are greater, and resources are scarcer.
He further addressed the subtle difference between “jugaad” and “frugal.” While both concepts involve resourcefulness, “jugaad” in India encompasses elements of ingenuity, lateral thinking, and perseverance. While “frugal” can sometimes carry negative connotations of shortcuts and lower quality, “jugaad” possesses a more positive, innovative, and resourceful connotation. Professor Prabhu advocated for using “jugaad” now that it’s officially recognized in the OED! He highlighted the usefulness of jugaad innovation in healthcare with guests hearing from three healthtech entrepreneurs embodying jugaad concepts in their ventures.
Professor Jaideep Prabhu
Jaideep Prabhu is Professor of Marketing and Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Indian Business at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. He has a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and a BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He has published in leading academic journals and his work has been profiled by the BBC, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Economist, The Financial Times, Le Monde, The New York Times, and The Times. He is the co-author of Jugaad Innovation: Think Frugal, Be Flexible, Generate Breakthrough Growth, described by The Economist as “the most comprehensive book yet” on the subject of frugal innovation. His 2015 book Frugal Innovation: How to do Better with Less with Navi Radjou won the CMI’s Management Book of the Year Award 2016. His most recent book How Should a Government Be: The New Levers of State Power was published in February 2021. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2023.
About Jugaad Innovation: Think Frugal, Be Flexible, Generate Breakthrough Growth
Innovation is a key directive at companies worldwide. But in these tough times, we can’t rely on the old formula that has sustained innovation efforts for decades—expensive R&D projects and highly-structured innovation processes. Jugaad Innovation argues the West must look to places like India, Brazil, and China for a new approach to frugal and flexible innovation. In this seminal book, Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu, and Simone Ahuja show how in these emerging markets, jugaad (a Hindi word meaning an improvised solution born from ingenuity and cleverness) is leading to dramatic growth and how Western companies can adopt jugaad innovation to succeed in our hypercompetitive world.
Outlines the six principles of jugaad innovation: Seek opportunity in adversity, do more with less, think and act flexibly, keep it simple, include the margin, and follow your heart.
Features twenty case studies on large corporations from around the world—Google, Facebook, 3M, Apple, Best Buy, GE, IBM, Nokia, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Tata Group, and more—that are actively practising jugaad innovation.
This ground-breaking book shows leaders everywhere why the time is right for jugaad to emerge as a powerful business tool in the West—and how to bring jugaad practices to their organisations.
