Frugal Innovation: How to do more with less (Economist Books)

Very happy with my new book!

I had earlier read the book “Open business models” by Henry Chesbrough, which was focused on the Open Innovation model. Frugal innovation is an interesting name to a cluster of business models emerging – whether it is through larger sharing model , open innovation models , resource constrained model or bottom of the pyramid model. It is the proliferation of the net which is playing a strong enabler in this. And yes, the driving ideology being - fail early, fail fast and fail often.This book is very contemporary and gives a good compendium of cases in each of the models. I am quite amazed to think about the amount of research which would have been undertaken to compile this. But given the models are very new and growing means that the research must have taken at a very good speed. I found so many cases which I wanted to highlight when I realized that I might end up highlighting the entire book !! So, had to curtail the impulse for that.While the case studies are in a way educative enough , Navi and Jaideep have tried to extract some six common principles driving frugal innovation. I found Engage & Iterate and Co-create with Prosumers to be very interesting . While I have interacted with Techshops, but the way they are getting adopted by big manufacturing corporates was very interesting. Surely, customers are the most powerful source for any innovation , and more so for frugal innovation.This book can tell you how to get around doing itMicro factories was another interesting case being discussed here. While it may not find application in major metal and petrochemical operations, but surely there are many other applications of this.Tarkett was a very good case study in Sustainability in true sense of ensuring growth of an organization, which is relying on resources which are not going to last long. Cradle to cradle being practiced at its best. Method was another good case in the same.It was also interesting to see how sharing business models (Airbnb, Relayrides, BlaBlaCar, Parkatmy house, yerdle, etc ) are forcing established manufacturers like BMW to innovate new business models. However, if such models proliferate, what will be the impact on the manufacturing economy also could have been spoken about.There are so many other cases that referring to all of them would amount to almost reproducing the book.So, if you are one of those in the larger 80% group of companies who are wondering what frugal innovation is all about and wondering how totally unrelated models have the potential to devastate an existing business, do read this book. It is almost like a guide to innovation – the last chapter actually helps one answer the question of why should one innovate. The book may have a slow start as the topics seem to be jumping frequently, but keep reading on and it gets very interesting. Yes, it could have been stitched better, but a stitch in time is more critical, so with this book.

I expected to find tools and techniques to apply frugal innovation. Unfortunately, the book provided various some good concepts. _

Great book.

In "Frugal Innovation," Authors Navi Radjou and Jaideep Prabhu expand on the concepts introduced in their first successful book, "Jugaad Innovation", and tease out a detailed roadmap for competing in an emerging global marketplace - one that demands speed and productivity by doing more with less, while creating sustainable value and reducing one's environmental footprint.The authors are keen observers of the "frugal" innovation movement and have organized this book around their "Six Frugal Principles":1. Engage and iterate. Start with the customer, observe, pivot, and engage in a rapid iterative product or service development process.2. Flex your assets. How to meet the growing demand for tailored products and services where and when they are wanted.3. Create sustainable solutions. Companies can develop waste-free and self-sustaining product solutions that benefit both businesses and the environment.4. Shape consumer behavior. Companies can influence consumers into behaving differently and feeling richer while consuming less.5. Co-create value with prosumers. Consumers, especially the tech-savvy millennials, are evolving from passive individual users into communities of empowered "prosumers," who collectively design, create, and share the produces and services they want.6. Make innovative friends. Collaboration with external partners can facilitate lean, flexibility, and speed to market."Frugal" is a contrarian approach to the ways companies organize today for innovation. Success requires cultural change for organizations committed to success in this new, highly demanding environment. Radjou and Prabhu address this by outlining the path to a frugal culture. It requires leaders to embrace and communicate: the "what" - dynamic goals with a bold commitment; the "how" - adoption of new business and mental models; and the "why" - why change management is crucial to survival. How these are communicated and instilled vary across companies.Frugal is not limited to product (and service) development as it applies also to production, supply-chain, distribution, marketing, and customer service. The authors give examples for each with case studies on:* SNCF: high-speed innovation* Saatchi & Saatchi plus Duke: agile advertising* Unilever: sustainable solutions* simple thank: shaping financial behavior* giffgaff: the mobile network run by you* Accor: hyper-collaborating without reservation* Aetna's frugal healthcare strategyFrugal innovation must be a serious consideration for all Western companies today. It is the model in developing countries where customers demand affordable and sustainable products, and product developers are resource constrained. This new class of companies is not focused on short-term stock market gains, maintaining legacy margins but on long-term adoption and through-put (See Ram Charan's "What Every CEO Wants You to Know." Producers in the West are vulnerable and must get into the flow of industrial knowledge coming from these emerging countries. It is no longer a one-way street.

Useful case studies, highly recommended book for anyone in business.

Good story about the mindset to create with minimal material - but the examples are all complex items like a 50% cheaper Renault car - I was looking for ways where 3rd world farmers could innovate to sell more to their fellow bottom of the pyramid peers - not much here of any insight or use.

Great thoughts, but I would have enjoyed a little more depth. One company is leasing solar panels to a community to provide street lighting or home use - but what size panel, what can they do with it, how long does the lease last before they own it, who repairs it. It was a bunch of great ideas, but did not disclose enough so that I could apply anything. (not that I could, but I buy books to stir my thoughts). What does a $2500 car look like? what is the difference between it and a $40,000 north American vehicle?But, overall, the writing was solid and I suppose if I felt like spending my time surfing on the web, I could likely answer my own questions.

Interesting book it' is really worth reading. The article did arrive in time and was ok. So nothing to complain.

Frugal Innovation is a book that offers a lot of inspiration to western companies on how not only to survive, but also to outperform in times of economic recession and limited resources. The book is an excellent follow up from the authors’ first book “Jugaad Innovation” in which they offer insightful lessons learned from entrepreneurs who were able to see the opportunity in adversity and create value from scarcity. If you have not read this book yet, I highly recommend you doing so.Frugal Innovation is particularly intriguing because it approaches the hardship many businesses face today, turns it into an opportunity and offers optimistic and inspiring solutions for it. The authors did an excellent job in presenting a quite complex phenomenon in an easy to understand and engaging manner. The examples they provide are extremely insightful and keep you interested throughout the book. The authors do not only raise a lot of interesting questions, but also offers some out of the box answers. Finally the book offers an extremely accurate picture of todays consumers’ needs and wants, which is necessary for businesses to understand if they want to compete in today’s competitive landscape. I would definitely recommend this book to academics, entrepreneurs as well as managers.