Introduction to Jugaad: An Indian way of improvisation innovation
Jugaad is a slang for the Punjabi word "Jugaat" which has its root in Sanskrit word "Yukti", which means innovative solution to the existing problem or adverse situations. "Jugaad" means an improvised or quick-fix solution and inventiveness to the problem.
Jugaad literally menas an arrangement or a work around which has to be used because of lack of resources. In wider role it also refers to find the multiple uses of a thing which is meant for some specific use or purpose. In India a generator has been used as an engine on a vehicle(truck+pickup)made completely from
junk to transport humans,luggage & animals & it is even called by the name 'Jugaad'!! In South India a Jugaad vehicle made by the integration of bullet (Yezdi or Enfield) and trolley called "Meen body vandi" means fish bed vehicle. It is innovated by Tamil fishermen who needed the cheaper transport vehicle to carry dead fishes to the market in less time. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugaad)
In India Jugaad is also a colloquial Hindi word that can mean an innovative fix, sometimes of poor quality or of unaccepted standards used for solutions that bend rules or a response that can be used as such to solve the worrying issue. In essence it is a tribute to native genius and lateral thinking. But it is very important for the marketers to study the jugaad trends to imply it systematically in the business to create a wider scope in the organized market.
My definition for Jugaad
"Jugaad means cleaver tricks or innovative use of anything to compensate the scarcity of resources. It also means an innovative improvisation done at local level to utilize the available resources to get the desired results and solution to the current problem."
Why Jugaad
Necessity is the mother of all invention and scarcity is the father of all innovations. India is the country of best creative minds in the world. Real India lives in the village, approx. 70% of the total population living in India where scarcity of resources is a big problem. As we already discussed scarcity is the father of innovation and Indians are creative breed so these favorable conditions are behind the evolution of Jugaad in India. Indians always looking for cheap quick fix solutions of the problem. Maximum utilization of the available resources with creative inputs is in the blood of Indians. So if any marketer comes with the creative, qualitative and value pack solution in India it gets priority over all. This initiative from the marketer helps to penetrate rural market in India.
How it helps Marketer: In a recent survey by the Legatum Institute, 81% of Indian businessmen said jugaad was the key reason for their success (Source:http://swaminomics.org/?p=1877). Basically Jugaad helps marketer in two ways:
Jugaad helps marketer in two ways
To make profit out of it
·New product development
·Integration of two products
·To promote New uses/different usage (Marketing innovation)
Chakra(In Gujarat) a kind of Jugaad vehicle
A marketing innovation case
A close eye on the market and interaction with the customers helps marketer to know about the different usage of the their products. For example: Washing machine is used to wash clothes but in Punjab it is also used in making lassi, so company can come up with the new product with the facility or specially designed for the lassi making. I am also preparing one similar case study but different industry about the same idea which was commercialized by the marketer successfully.
Cost Saving from it
Purely a bottom-up approach to solve the existing problem where no rational thinking works only creativity and innovation helps to overcome. What it required:
· Bottom-up approach (To welcome the views from shop floor worker to each level of management).
· Open to creativity and innovative thinking
A famous case study of Soap industry given by Raghuraman sir (Management Guru) in Dainik Bhaskar (A daily Hindi news paper of India) is a best example to understand this:
A Case study of two different soap companies to the same problem:
A premium soap making company was in problem due to empty soap boxes packed in the container which supplied to its distributor. To find the solution to this problem company took the services of a management consultancy. After a research and lateral thinking they come up with the solution by fixing a weight reader machine at the end of the slider from where soap box goes into the container. If soap box is empty it will go out of the slider and if it has soap in it will directly go into the container. To solve this problem company invested millions of money on consultancy and machine.
In second scene a small manufacturing soap making unit is facing the same problem. The top management decided to take the opinion of every employee right from the managers to shop floor worker. After a few days a worker came up with the large fan and fixed it in front of slider, from where soap boxes goes into the container. With the pressure of air empty boxes blew away from the slider and boxes filled with the soap go smoothly into the container. Here company got the solution to the problem within the organization by spending some time and money on the big fan.
I wanted to contribute some of the matrix I have made to make it more clear and simple but due to some constraint right now unable to export it on the blog. I hope you enjoy this post.................
