Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu & Simone Ahuja
Jugaad Innovation: Think Frugal, Be Flexible, Generate Breakthrough Growth
A Global Bestseller: Over 100,000 Copies Sold
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A groundbreaking book, that explores the “jugaad mindset” — a Hindi word meaning an improvised solution born from ingenuity and cleverness. The authors share previously untold stories of resourceful jugaad entrepreneurs and innovations in emerging markets to show how Western companies can adopt jugaad to succeed in our hypercompetitive and resource constrained world.
Jugaad Innovation shows how you can enable your entire ecosystem—employees, customers, and partners—to make significant contributions and drive hypergrowth.
— Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com; bestselling author, Behind the Cloud
Innovation is a major directive at corporations worldwide. But how do you drive innovation and growth as the global business landscape becomes increasingly unpredictable and diverse? Western corporations can no longer just rely on the old formula that sustained innovation and growth for decades: a mix of top-down strategies, expensive R&D projects, and rigid, highly structured innovation processes. Jugaad Innovation argues that the West must look to places like India, China, and Africa for a new, bottom-up approach to frugal and flexible innovation.
Building on their deep experience of innovation practices with companies in the United States and around the world, the authors articulate how jugaad (a Hindi word meaning an improvised solution born from ingenuity and cleverness) is leading to dramatic growth in emerging markets—and how Western companies can adopt jugaad to succeed in our hypercompetitive world. Delving into the mindset of jugaad innovators, the authors discuss the six underlying principles of jugaad innovation:
- Seek opportunity in adversity
- Do more with less
- Think and act flexibly
- Keep it simple
- Include the margin
- Follow your heart
To show these principles in action, the authors share previously untold stories of resourceful jugaad entrepreneurs and innovations in emerging markets. The authors also describe how forward-thinking Western firms like 3M, Apple, Renault-Nissan, Facebook, GE, Google, IBM, and PepsiCo are already applying these principles of jugaad to innovate faster, cheaper, and better—and to win.
Reviews & Endorsements
Jugaad Innovation goes farther than conventional business books that chart consumer growth in Brazil, Russia, India, and China. It explains how emerging economies are pioneering the art of ‘frugal engineering,’ then provides practical tips on how Western companies—from tech startups to multinational industrial corporations—can likewise do more with less. A provocative and entertaining read for 21st century business leaders.
— Carlos Ghosn, CEO, Renault-Nissan
Businesses must move away from the top-down organizational hierarchies that have defined the past and transform themselves into social enterprises built on bottom-up, agile models based on collaboration. Jugaad Innovation shows how you can enable your entire ecosystem—employees, customers, and partners—to make significant contributions and drive hypergrowth. An important book for anyone who wants to compete in the future.
— Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com; bestselling author, Behind the Cloud
CEOs tend to manage innovation like an orchestra conductor—with a traditional, hierarchical, and prescriptive approach. Jugaad Innovation shows how to innovate like a jazz band—with improvisation, creativity, and agility. Both styles are necessary on today’s global stage.
— Doreen Lorenzo, president, Frog
We are entering an age when humanity’s grand challenges are being solved by a new generation of ‘do-it-yourself’ innovators employing jugaad-style thinking. This compelling new book, Jugaad Innovation, articulates how you can start to accomplish amazing things on a shoestring. It is a vital read.
— Peter H. Diamandis, founder and chairman, X PRIZE Foundation
Jugaad Innovation throws cold water in the faces of CEOs, reminding them of the immense power of grassroots, do-it-yourself, cheap, quick, simple innovation. This is one of the most important lessons that emerging markets are teaching the West.
— George F. Colony, CEO, Forrester Research
The authors have it right: highly structured innovation processes can’t deliver all the breakthroughs required by today’s ‘speed of business.’ What’s called for are new practices that work with—not against—the forces that drive our hypercompetitive world. Jugaad Innovation lays out the new principles that you—and every forward-thinking leader in your company—need right now.
— Charlene Li, founder, Altimeter Group; bestselling author, Open Leadership
Image © gThrive
“The Western model of innovation has long been like an orchestra: top-down, rigid. But today we need an alternative approach akin to a jazz-band: bottom-up, improvisational, fluid, and collaborative. Jugaad represents that alternative.”