Frugal Innovation: How to Do Better with Less

Frugal Innovation: How to Do Better with Less, by Navi Radjou and Jaideep Prabhu. The Economist &HachetteIndia, 2015, 256 pages, hardback, ISBN: 9789350099858. Frugal innovation takes the bottom-up approach involving the geeks’ next door, or people habituated with Do-ItYourself (DIY) stuff for co-creating innovative products, solutions, or services for the start ups as well as big corporations. In a globalized knowledge economy, frugal innovation is projected as a new model for the business success, where entrepreneurs are encouraging co-production by consumers, who have become ‘prosumers’. As the sub-title of the book suggests, the frugal innovation is a result of the ability to do more and better with fewer resources. In the book, the authors suggest a measurement of the intensity of frugal innovation. Intensity can be measured in terms of a simple formula: “Greater Value (for customers, shareholders, and society)/ Fewer Resources (natural resources, capital, time)”. The communitydriven innovation ecosystem primarily addresses the societal needs, sustainability, and cost-efficiency. Other business considerations come much later. Innovation is made a key constituent in the 2030 Global Development Agenda, while Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are set to achieve by the year 2030 as envisaged the member countries of the United Nations. Goal 9 (SDG9) is set to build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. In this context, frugal innovation helps in achieving the mandate of fostering innovation in developing countries.