पुस्तक(Title):-Jugaad Innovation जुगाड इनोव्हेशन
भाषा(Language) :- इंग्रजी (English)
लेखक(Authors) :- Navi Radjou (नवी राजू),
Dr. Jaideep Prabhu (डॉ. जयदीप प्रभू),
Dr. Simone Ahuja (डॉ. सिमॉन अहुजा)
Innovation
is buzzword these days. May it be IT industry, automobile industry agriculture
business or even Governance; the innovations and innovators are constantly
sought after. But is innovation the need of today’s world only? Has it become relevant only recently? No; it has been
there from the day one of mankind. Even our old Vedas said “नित्य नूतनः
सनातनः (Nitya nootanaha sanaatanaha)” i.e. one that is
constantly renewing itself is the everlasting.
In all
the industries this penchant for novelty, new ideas has been there with goal to
become market leader, to have edge over competitors, to carve niche market
segment and so on. Multinational companies and industry giants had given the
responsibility to generate new ideas, new prototypes to “Research and
Development- RnD” department. It was a top-down approach where thought leaders
generated ideas and drove markets.
Then we
saw a major change – startups, new products from newbies, ideas from common
man. These events shook world (“disrupt” as they call it) and shaped the world.
Market leaders and MNCs have also took due cognizance of this phenomena and started encouraging their employees to generate ideas, share ideas and be innovative.
It is a down-to-top approach. The book
“Juggad Innovation” talks about this type.
About word Jugaad
Book says that “Jugaad” is a Hindi word which has origin in Punjabi, which describes makeshift vehicles. Word does not have an exact English translation partly because it is derived from common Indian experience of frugal, homespun and simple solutions to the myriad problem that beset everyday life in India.
The word is also applied to any use of an ingenious way to 'game the system'. Hence the word carries some negative connotation for some but by and large entrepreneurial spirit of jugaad is practiced by crores in India simply to improvise clever - and completely legitimate - solutions to everyday problems.
About authors
This book is written by trio – Navi Radjou, Dr. Jaideep Prabhu, Dr. Simone Ahuja.
Navi Radjou is independent thought leader and strategy consultant at Silicon Valley. He is fellow at western universities and faculty member of World Economic Forum.
Dr. Jaideep Prabhu Jaideep Prabhu is the Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Business and Enterprise at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, England. He has taught and consulted with executives from many big MNCs.
Dr. Simone Ahuja is the founder of Blood Orange Media, a marketing and strategy advisory company with digital media capabilities, as well as special expertise in innovation. Ahuja has served as an advisor to the Centre for India & Global Business at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge and as an Associate Fellow for the Asia Society, NYC.
About book
Indians find out ways to make their life
simple with whatever resources they have e.g. Empty soft drink bottles are used
in refrigerator, bigger cans are reused to store rice, lentils etc. Thus
“Jugaad” is a different way to approach problem. It focuses what one has in hand & how best it can be used; how to pursue growth in difficult circumstances.
Authors
aptly point out that this attitude is not only limited to Indians. It is seen
in every community and every country. Even many languages have different word for it.
Brazilians call it “jeitinho”, Chinese call it “zizhu chuangxin”, Kenyans “Jua
kali” etc. Similarly jugaad
attitude is not only meant for individuals. The way some bigger companies
have navigated business in stormy weather can be also termed as Jugaad.
Authors analyze
further and put forward six characteristics of jugaad approach viz.
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
Every
characteristic is devoted a separate chapter and is further discussed theoretically.
Interestingly every chapter is full of examples from across the word to
showcase that these are not mere bookish theories. There are practical, working
examples.
I will just
enlist few examples to give you a glimpse of it.
1) A potter from Rajasthan has developed
a refrigerator named “Mitticool” from simple clay. Fridge needs no electricity ,100% biodegradable and produces zero wastage over life time. It is boon to villagers for whom electric supply is still a distant dream.
2) Story of “Suzlon” from textile unit
in Surat to large wind energy solution provider. Its head Mr. Tanti had
initially bought wind turbines for his textile business. He saw the
“opportunity in adversity” and turned to new business.
3) In Kenya only 10 percent population
has access to banking service yet mobile penetration is more that 50%.
“Safaricom”, a local telecom provider, launched service called “M-PESA”- an SMS
system that enables people to send, save and transfer money using phone at a
fraction of cost of traditional ways.
4) In 2000 Airtel was short of both
capital and technology. It needed to scales up its business. Chairman Anil
Mittal used jugaad approach “getting more with less” he decided to outsource
all but key marketing and branding
activities to partner companies like IBM that had capital, technology or both.
5) “Haier” is a Chinese consumer goods
company that is making giants like GE, whirlpool nervous by its growing market
share in washing machine, AC and other coolers. Haier got call from a farmer
compaling about clogging of drain pipe of washing machine. The technician found
out that farmer was using it to wash potatoes J. Instead of disowning the problem
the company saw followed “Think and act flexibly” principle. It modified its machine that could handle even
vegetables. The product was very popular in farmers.
6) As per a survey carried out by
“Phillips” its consumers felt intimidated by growing complexity of technology.
30% home networking products were returned as users did not know how to set
them up; 50% people postponed their decision to buy its digital camera,
deterred by its complexity. Philips
decided to follow principle - “keep it simple”. Entire organization was
restructured. It even extended its simplicity to its corporate communication :
no PowerPoint presentation was allowed to exceed 10 slides. Company launched a
rebranding campaign themed “Sense and simplicity”- which has become
corporation’s motto. It began to proactively infuse end user’s view in every
product.
7) Jugaad entrepreneurs recognize that
even low-income consumers have high
aspirations and are eager to climb up hierarchy of needs. In early 1990s, Heloisa
Helena Assis- known as Zica – recognized the basic need of underprivileged
woman to look beautiful. One need was to straighten hair which costs a lot to a women with meager incomes. After several
experiments on her own curly hairs she came up with right formula to straighten
hairs. Zica opened her saloon in Rio De Janeiro. Formula and saloon was hit.
She did “include the margins”.
8) Jugaad entrepreneurs “follow their
heart”. They are regularly exposed to harsh conditions in which their fellow
citizens live. It arouses empathy of jugaad entrepreneurs to improve their
conditions. Another reason why jugaad
innovators follow their heart – more than their brain is – they are forced to
think on their feet all the time. Confronted daily with do-or-die
situation, jugaad innovators have
learned to make decisions on the fly. That is why when Kishore Biyani saw signs
that westernized model of retailing for Big Bazaar was faltering, he quickly dropped it embraced & new one – without waiting for opportunity to do market research.
etc.
Having read
this elaborated explanation of principles and success stories; it is no wonder
that organizations will like to adopt or imbibe jugaad approach in their working style. The chapter “Integrating Jugaad into your organization”
thoroughly discusses this process. It also lays out some guidelines for this
adoption. There is case study of GE – “How GE successfully integrates Jugaad
and SixSigma”.
Jugadd should not be limited to organizations
or few individuals. It should be an ecosystem. Larger institutions in the US and Europe – such as
governments and universities- are actively supporting the emergence of such
ecosystem and contributing to its sustainability. DIY (do-it-yourself) trend is growing. The
last chapter “Building Jugaad nation” highlights different aspects of current
status and ways to develop this ecosystem.
My view about book
This book throws
light on different aspects of innovation and many user stories. Book is full of
details – theories, principles, examples, names, numbers etc. So while reading I
felt like taking break to digest content read so far before moving ahead.
You understand the principles quickly but reading
so many examples sometimes makes boring. I felt like – “why are you harping on
same point again and again? Move ahead”. I skipped few pages and started reading
from next subtitle. Thus I did not finish it
in one go. I skimmed through important points then revisited few example once and
few examples later.
I think they could have structured the book differently; short topics explaining each principle followed
by every case study separately.
All in all
this book is worth reading by everyone – professional or not – to kindle the
spark of innovation. It will also give confidence to common man that he/she can do
far more than just complaining about circumstance or government. It will
motivate us to think that problem may be complicated but solution can be
simple.
So do read it.
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मी दिलेली पुस्तक श्रेणी :- आवा ( आवर्जून वाचा )
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जवा ( जमल्यास वाचा )
वाठीनावाठी ( वाचलं तर ठीक नाही वाचलं तरी ठीक )
नावाठी ( नाही वाचलं तरी ठीक)
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