Yes, that's not a typing error, that's a Hindi term, Jugaad. A commonly used term referred to the act of finding low-cost simple solutions in a street-smart way without giving away much from your pocket. The word has become popular among the BRIC nations and a lot of other countries with respect to entrepreneurship. The connotation resulting from the word according to the Westerners depicts the spirit of entrepreneurship. The strategy which the younger sets of entrepreneurs are adopting and innovating new products on, new styles and new markets, in the Schumpeterian style!
Old economist Joseph Schumpeter believed innovation to be the mantra guiding economies and the base of all the industries. Innovation for him was the rebirth of capitalism in an evolutionary form. Each of us has to Jugaad in life. Why? We live in the world with scarce resources and each of us if nothing else at the least has to manage our own life and choices we make along with that. The choices determine the strategy of your life, in terms of how you desire to achieve your set goals, by when and how. Similarly, small entrepreneurs, big entrepreneurs, medium or small scale business, all have to take decisions about what they want to produce and how they want to produce. That strategy requires a Jugaad innovation; an innovation that will reduce the cost and add value to the potential or existing businesses and profits that will create new markets leading to even newer market innovations continuing the chain of product development.
Jugaad is an embodiment of the six major principles that educate the managers and budding MBAs which include some strategic pointers to search for opportunity in the diversity of markets, to make the most of the scarce resources, be adapting and flexible in approach, make business simple, think clearly about the margins along with following the direction of where the heart takes you. These simple principles are the pillars of strategic management in the new age of competition that are likely to get more intense over time and further innovations. What is this innovation going to do? It is going to increase the operational efficiency of a said business and alter solutions or refine them to offer higher production levels, larger capacities and strengthen profits.
Thus, Jugaad innovation is the new mantra for young and budding entrepreneurs that can be brought together for mutual benefit through common portals where one can learn from another experiences and acquire knowledge about the newly innovated solutions. After, all Jugaad as a base school of thought is not bad idea at all. Any guesses of a Jugaad business? Yes you got it right, the TATA Nano car, and the world’s cheapest car!
