By Michael J. Silverstein, Abheek Singhi, Carol Liao & David Michael

How an innovative business strategy, first developed in India’s market stalls and street bazaars, is starting to spread from East to West as companies search for ways to deliver value for money in an era of austerity. It is an idea driven by the consumer’s search for value and exposure to higher-quality goods—and a global consumer view that there is a need to acquire the best goods at lower prices.

By Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu & Simone Ahuja

Jugaad is a Hindi word that roughly translates as “overcoming harsh constraints by improvising an effective solution using limited resources”. Jugaad innovation is a powerful approach to innovation that is most active in emerging markets such as India. It has the benefits of being frugal, i.e. enabling innovators to do more with less. Further, it is flexible, supporting improvisation and iteration, and it is inclusive or democratic, bringing in the knowledge of diverse swaths of customers and employees alike while addressing the needs of previously marginalized consumers. Similar to frugal innovation, we found through our research that jugaad innovation is becoming increasingly active in the West, where it complements the structured approach to innovation to deliver the agility, speed and efficiency that is so crucial in today’s complex economic environment.