Project 4: Juggad Innovation.

What comes to your mind when I say “Juggad”? Quick Fix or work around. Juggad has a very negative connotation. Fellow toastmasters and guests today I am going to talk about Juggad Innovation which will change your perspective on this word. Today I will talk on two things structured innovation and juggad innovation. What I will also do is explain the six principles of juggad with six simple examples.

Structured innovation is the conventional form of innovation, implemented widely across industries. When we think of structured innovation we usually picture large organization with huge research facilities with lots of funding dedicated to develop new innovative products. The question is does the outputs of these research facilities justify the resources deployed towards it. Consider this; researchers in 3M were researching world’s strongest adhesive. What they come out with was the most temporary adhesive, and that’s how Posit was invented, 3Ms most sold product.

Structured innovation is a top down model of innovation. It is not a problem-solution model. Juggad on the other hand identifies problem and then provides easy yet robust solution. Key features of juggad solution are its frugality, flexibility and inclusiveness. These features are elaborated in the six principles of juggad which are as follows:

Ø      Seek opportunity in adversity

Ø      Do more with less

Ø      Think and act flexible

Ø      Keep it simple

Ø      Include the margins

Ø      Follow your heart

Seeking Opportunity In Adversity:

About twenty years back Gujarat was an energy deficit state, riddled with frequent power cuts and power shortage. A businessman from Surat involved in the textile industry wondered how he would manage his business with the inadequacy of power supply. In his search for alternative sources of power sources, his research leads him to renewable sources of energy. He realized that Surat being a windy city, it suited him best to start wind farms. Soon he got his facilities was off the grid. As the word of his success spread, businessmen from across India started approaching him for his services to install renewal energy plants suitable for them and their geography. This is the story of Tulsi Tanti and Suzlon. Suzlon today is worlds leading service provider of renewal energy solutions.

Do More With Less:

With international fast food restaurants like McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut etc. opening outlets in India, Samar Gupta saw opportunity providing these restaurants with exotic vegetables like iceberg lettuce, zucchini, avocado, olives etc. To produce these vegetable Samar needed farms, but in India laws are such that only farmers can own agriculture land. Since Samar was not a farmer he could buy farmland. What he did was the next best. He loaned farmland form small farmers. Ever since that time, Samar Gupta’s Trikaya Agriculture has grown from strength to strength.

Think And Act Flexible:

Have you ever heard of a potato cleaning washing machine? Haier is a Chinese consumer electronic company which has done just that. Haier kept receiving complaints from rural China that their washing machines kept clogging. After investigation Haier found that farmer after harvesting potatoes used washing machines to clean the silt from the potatoes, and the result was clogged washing machines. Thinking and acting flexibly Haier choose not to dismiss the complaints of the farmers and instead made modifications to there machines which could then clean clothes and clean vegetables with out clogging the machines.

Keep It Simple:

Remember the first Apple iPod that hit the market, none can be better example of keeping it simple than these iPods. It had a play and pause button to play or pause music. It had left and right arrows to shuffle through the playlist, up and down arrows to increase or decrease the volume of sound. The best part was its long lasting battery which could play high quality music for long time and also loads of space to store all your favorite music. Techno savvy or not anyone could pick it up and use it without the need of any instruction manual. Early iPod epitomizes design simplicity.

Include The Margins:

Vodafone was looking at ways to increasing its base in Africa. During there market research they found that majority of Africans were unbanked. To assist the unbanked Africans, Vodafone launched m-pesa in Kenya in 2007. Using m-pesa individuals could top up there prepaid mobile phones with cash and then transfer the prepaid cash to anyone’s mobile account. To redeem the cash all one had to do was to visit one of the many small mom & pop shops with which Vodafone had tied-up with. This proved a big hit Kenya; soon Vodafone launched the m-pesa in other African countries. Where once again it saw run away success. With m-pesa Vodafone created synergies for its customer and itself.

Follow Your Heart:

When venturing into the retail market, many advised Kishore Biyani to model Big Bazaar on successful models used by hypermarkets in western countries like Tesco, Wal-Mart, Target etc. But trusting his intuition, Kishore felt that the look and feel of the western hypermarkets would seem artificial façade of gloss and shine in country like ours. He believed that Indians loved the bazaar atmosphere and yet the stores had to be clean and organized. That’s why the aisles in Big Bazaar are narrow, so that people bump into each other, just like in a real bazaar. That’s also why most of the products like grocery for example are not packet but kept loose in large vats for people to touch and feel the quality before purchasing.

To sum it all up, juggad innovation is all about three key ideas being frugal, being flexible and being inclusive. Juggad innovation develops precise solution for problem at hand and fast. But this does not mean any compromise on the quality. Rather the emphasis is on delivering high quality in the fastest and the cheapest way possible. How does all of this relate to what we do as software engineers? We work in a product company like Oracle; our products are used by millions across the glob. The only differentiation between us and our competitor is innovative products that create value for customers. Let’s apply juggad innovation to create better products and enhance value for our customers faster and cheaper.

Here is the link to the book Jugaad Innovation. I have also included a few more books on innovation that might interest you.

Here's the link to the speech I gave on Jugaad Innovation at Oracle Toastmasters Club in Mumbai. I'd love to here you thought on it.