New Delhi, April 11 (IANS): The idea of how to do better with less – better known as “frugal innovations” – is popular in the West, where many companies have realised the importance of improving production by carefully using limited resources. In India, MNC's are warming up to this idea, whereas many start ups have already implemented the model to address community-based problems.

Thus, the concept of creating significantly more business and social value while minimising the use of diminishing resources such as energy, capital and time is what “The Frugal Innovation” (Hachette; Rs. 599) is offering by chronicling the rise of frugal economy in the US, Europe and Japan and sharing case studies of corporate giants like Renault-Nissan, PepsiCo and Unilever to showcase how they have achieved great success by embedding frugality into their business model.

Written by the authors of “Jugaad Innovation” - Navi Radjou and Jaideep Prabhu –the book, divided into six chapters, throws light on best practices across various MNCs, which are reaping the benefits of this engineering.

Prabhu feels India is at the cusp of economic change, and implementing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's “Make in India” mission would become the “age of opportunity” for the growing Indian population.

“The concept of frugal has very much been a part of the Indian economy. It is just that we have given it the local name 'jugaad' that serves the purpose of the community. But to effectively understand and implement this concept in bigger organisations, mental make-up is necessary,” Prabhu,the director of the Centre for India and Global Business at London's Cambridge Judge Business School, told IANS while on a visit here for the book's release.

“There is skewed implementation of frugal innovations in India and are limited to specific areas. On the demand side, there is a huge population in India whose basic needs aren't met so the challenge for these companies is to rethink and produce radically low-cost products with
compromising on the quality,” he added.

Though the cultural changes the company has to incorporate in their original set-up require mental makeup of its employees to ensure the objectivity of the concept is met.
However, US-based Radjou, an innovation and leadership strategist, said that companies starting from scratch
have more appetite and flexibility to adapt frugal engineering because of economic reasons.

He also highlighted how Indian companies can also benefit by leveraging on the established business and seek solutions to cater to a larger consumer base.

“The recent tie-up between Flipkart and Mumbai's Dabbawalas is a perfect example of how, without investing in infrastructure, one can leverage on an established set-up. There are greater chances of leveraging on such opportunities in India,” Radjou told IANS.

They also mentioned how ordinary people are innovating to cater to a community and address their needs. This
socio-economic model, developed to benefit a community, should be encouraged more as it perfectly serves the needs.

In the book, the authorsalso explain how important it is for companies to co-create a product by engaging with consumers and how the success of frugal innovations lie in shaping consumers behaviour and delivering best products at cost-effective prices.