Frugal Innovation: Being smart not cheap!

While many companies are spiraling into some stage of THE reboot, a trend that prevails is – cuts. Cuts in budgets, cuts in spends, cuts in future investments. Just as an apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, the cascading effect of this has been seen in the R&D & Innovation space.

As Transformation & Innovation leaders, many of us would argue that, NOW, more than ever, is the “right time” to go all-in for R&D & Innovation instead of to pull out. Right time to come up with innovative solutions, models and propositions, that will help us prepare for the next unknown before it arrives, help us be more flexible to the dynamic environment when it does arrive and help us minimize the negative impact while it prevails. But truth be told, “When your house is on fire, first you do everything you can to douse the fire and care about having a roof above your head instead of thinking about the rest of the architecture”.  Times such as today especially put a spotlight on frugal innovation.

Even Tom Hanks gave us lessons on frugal innovation through many of his Hollywood movies (All you Tom Hanks fans out there know what I mean right??!) When Cast Away, using an ice skate to knock out that abscessed tooth. When stranded at The Terminal, returning luggage carts for quarters to buy food. When going BIG, turning a robot into a transformer toy.

But how does one achieve innovation amidst frugality? Doesn’t it contradict with the traditional norms of ‘Bigger is better’ in R&D world? I will attempt to answer this through 6 anecdotes.

In 2014, the world witnessed overwhelming success of Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called Mangalyaan. It was India’s maiden attempt and interestingly so the least expensive Mars mission to date, costing approximately a total of mere US$ 73 million (about 1/10th of other peer missions). One of the most significant attributing factors being the small payload, but one that addresses some of the biggest questions at the Red Planet such as measuring methane in the atmosphere. A resounding testament of frugal innovation with emphasis to “Do more with Less”.

Time and again, the rural world have shown us how resilient mindset can “Transform adversity into opportunity”. Take Mitticool, a clay fridge that consumes no electricity, is 100% biodegradable and produces zero waste during its lifetime. A truly ingenious invention born out of an earthquake devastation in a desert village, where fresh vegetable and dairy are only available intermittently.

Allela from Kenya was driven to “Follow the heart” and had this great urge to communicate with his 6-year old niece with speech impairment. Sign-I0, a pair of smart gloves, was born. An amazing invention that translates sign-language into audio, thus, enabling those with speech challenges to communicate effectively with the world.

In the year 2013, the same Nokia Company that was enjoying a 50% share in the mobile phone market dropped to less than 5%. A major reason for Nokia’s failure was attributed to not adapting to change. Owing to technological advancements, traditional phones had shifted to smartphones. But Nokia failed to adapt and keep up with the pace, while competitors flooded the market with affordable and advanced smartphones. A classic reminder to “Think and act flexibly”.

With consumers and companies putting purpose first, there is a need for inclusive capitalism, one that makes profits while improving lives. Procter & Gamble recognized the need for “Inclusion of marginal”, to build a whole new business model by tapping into un-served and under served consumers. In 2010, it released its first dish washing soap offered at a bargain price and since then has been successfully serving the bottom of socio-economic pyramid globally.

And the last one, but my personal favorite - “Keep it simple”. Last month, we saw many organizations welcoming back their employees into the work spaces with stringent health & safety measures. While still battling the spread of corona virus, simple inventions such as the hands-free door opener make us all believe that innovation can be purposeful, valuable and frugal at the same time. The 3D printable design files became available globally in no time, thus allowing a small fit-in-a-pocket innovation accessible to all and solving a complex problem, simplistically!

While the intention of this article is to introduce a sense of urgency and flexible approach to frugal innovation, I recommend you all to read the book, Jugaad Innovation by Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu and Simone Ahuja. The book not only makes a compelling case for frugal innovation in an increasing resource-starved, volatile and unpredictable world, but also explains these six guiding principles to consistently drive radical innovation with this bottom-up approach.

Keep innovating!