Co-authored by Vinay Dabholkar and Professor Rishikesha T Krishnan
Jugaad is old hat. It has done little for India in terms of innovation; India ranks 64th in the Global Innovation Index. In today's globalized market place it is increasingly difficult to survive with just quick fixes or creative improvisation. Indian companies have no option but to move beyond jugaad towards a more dependable and systematic process of innovation. This book is a "how-to" guide for innovation leaders undertaking this journey.
While the market is crowded with titles on innovation, this book offers a unique eight-step process for creating a systematic innovation capability, which can be transplanted across the board to any business or region. It doesn't assume anything about the size, sector, culture or strategy of your organization, or the leadership style and background of your management. No matter what level your organization is in the innovation chain, you will find this book useful.
The eight steps are built around three key themes. To enhance innovation output, you need to build an idea pipeline; improve the flow of ideas ('improve idea velocity'); and enhance your conversion ratio from ideas to successful innovations ('increase your batting average').
This book uses around eighty stories from India and elsewhere to illustrate the core principles and practices. As for the stories they range from the satyagraha movement of Gandhi, to the dialogues between Henry Ford and Thomas Edition, and the early days of Dadasaheb Phalke, Satyendra Nath Bose, CV Raman, APJ Kalam, E Sreedharan, JRD Tata, and several other pioneers, and of course the tales from Tihar Jail.
Drawing insights from successful large firms and upstarts, and standing on the shoulders of giants in the space of behavioral economics, psychology, strategic management and research on innovation, the authors weave a compelling story on the imperative and approach of managing a 'systematic and systemic innovation program'.
The authors maintain that innovation begins with curiosity, involves rapid experimentation, and calls for risk- taking, along with its assessment and mitigation. The main thesis of the book is that successful firms are able to hone a systematic approach towards managing innovation, which is characterized by an idea management process, ability to create buzz around the program, and appropriately skills development through training and development. However, resistance to change and disability to predict are the two impediments to such a program.
To overcome these impediments, the authors suggest that the firm create a 'challenge book', that would elucidate key challenges or problem worthy of solving as culled out from customer pain points, industry trends, and existing waste in the system. Equally important is to build participation and momentum, and here role models, communities of practice, and innovation catalysts are quintessential. These systemic enablers are useful to keep the cost of experiments low and their frequency high, and the process is further shaped by innovation rewards and an incubation structure. Drawing on the concept of sandbox from an earlier work of Prahalad, the authors highlight the importance of business model innovations and platforms, in addition to constraint driven ingenuity in pursuit of innovation.
There are two things that set this book apart from the hundreds on the subject. Firstly, the relevant and engaging stories, mostly about Indians and Indian firms; and secondly, the bias towards proposing simple metrics that executives could adopt in crafting a systematic innovation program. Two of these measurements include: number of ideas in the pipeline, and rate at which these ideas move forward. These are doable, and already being practiced in many leading firms.
All you need to benefit from this book is a burning desire to make your organization more innovative.