innovation playground Idris Mootee

It Is Time For India To Think Big And Stop Their Obessions With Jugaad. What They Need Is Bigger Asipirations And Design Thinking Competencies.

I wrote a blog post about two years ago titled “Is the Age of ‘Indovation’ and ‘Chinovation’ Becoming Real?” and it was very popular piece and I’ve got a few publications calling me including Knowledge@Wharton and others seeking out my point-of-view. Two years later and I am writing this post in India and will be in China next week, perhaps it is time for an update.

Let’s start with the question around innovation in India and is it really happening? Or happening enough? Well the answer varies depending who you talk and what industry sectors you’re referring to.  For the Indian pharma industry, it is not without trying but there were no commercial or very little success so far. For the auto industry, there are moderate successes but I won’t call it breakthrough innovation. For IT mainly software, there are hardly any effort and it is not because of there’s a lack of money or talent. These tech companies understand the risks and it is easier to just write codes and make money. 

Was this due to a lack of aspiration, unwilling to commit or was it due to the lack of ability to execute successfully?  In my opinion, India doesn’t really get innovation and seriously lacking robust innovation capability. And I don’t mean R&D. Their world-class engineering capability was not put to use solving problems that yet to exists – unknown and unmet needs of customers. 

They need to stop thinking innovating only at the bottom of the pyramid but start to build aspiration for innovation for bigger ideas.  Instead of engineering down products to fit the needs of the limited buying power constrained mass markets, they need to start thinking engineering up for products that shape industries in the developed markets.

India needs to develop high value industries and actively transform itself from a low-cost software and outsourcing economy to global innovation test bed. How can India learn to overcome the fear of failure? And how do they move away from thinking small hoping it will grow big?

Conversations about innovation in India with anyone always start with jugaad. Jugaad is a Hindi word that loosely translates as "the gutsy art of overcoming harsh constraints by designing an effective solution using limited resources." For them, Jugaad is an antidote to the extreme complexity of Indian societies: a country with pervasive scarcity of resources and infrastructure and good policy. Over the years it has developed a way to fixing things that are broken and mashing up different products for different usage.

Jugaad is not unique to India and they should stop putting that at the core of innovation for India. The future of innovation in India is solving bigger global problems. India can help the world to search for new solutions that do more with less for more. That is to say, they should provide more value using less energy, material, effort or time, and serve more consumers.

To be fair, it’s not just the Indian companies that are grappling with this issue. Companies in UK, US, Canada, Finland, Japan and Korea all grappling with this. Every country has a different need for innovation and needs a different strategy for innovation and not everyone needs to look at frugal engineering. Some have a steeper climb in brining design into the engineering process. By bringing together different sectors of society to think and talk about innovation in a structured manner, India can bring about a new and higher threshold for innovation thinking and practice.

Reinvention Lessons From Karl Lagerfeld That They Don't Teach You In B-Schools Or D-Schools.

How many other people do you know with teddy bear replicas of themselves? Karl Lagerfeld is not only the creative force behind some of the top names such as Chanel. He is constantly reinventing with each collection he creates – something that gets harder, not easier, with time. What he did for Chanel with tweed is incredible, his explorations in sable fur were stunning and his creations, for example that signature unfinished trim is endlessly copied and replicated. Sometimes you wonder how can someone reinvent himself season after season and still good at it. Here's a few lessons.

The man’s an art-making machine and his public persona is unequivocally all about making women look radiant. Working quickly and creatively, he enjoys the exploration of art as much as he does the execution. Last year, after a TV appearance with Lady Gaga that ended in an impromptu photo session, the king of couture sent the queen of pop culture a signature Chanel bag featuring portraits of the two of them embellished with Crayola-color.

Growing up in Hamburg, Germany, Lagerfeld learned to speak French, English, and Italian as well as his native German language fluently. At 14, he moved to the fashion mecca of Paris, and by 17, he confirmed his unparalleled talent by winning first prize in a sketch contest organized by the International Wool Secretariat. In 1983, Lagerfield became the art director for Chanel, and launched his debut clothing line, Karl Lagerfeld. With the assistance of Gilles du Four, his Chanel ready-to-wear collection was an instant hit. At the time, Chanel was losing steam, failing to attract young customers with their tired line. They needed a glamorous re-haul,—nothing short of a brand reinvention.

Lagerfeld’s magic touch transformed the conservative fashion line into a timeless label with contemporary style, while preserving all the glamour that Coco infused in her classic pieces. In the studio, Largerfeld is an artistic powerhouse and hands-on with every step of the design process. It’s no wonder that the press refers to him as Kaiser Lagerfeld.

He does everything from designing to shooting the fashion ads and commercial campaigns. In the fashion industry, it’s not just the clothes that go out of fashion with every season. Hyper-competitive designers are always trying to claw their way into the business, and with little to no guarantee of customer loyalty, it’s harder to stay ‘in style’ than get your foot in the door. So how does someone like Lagerfeld reinvent himself every season for over 50 years? Here are four lessons that you can apply in your work:

Lesson One: ALWAYS FOLLOW YOUR INSTINCTS “I’m not a marketing person. I don’t ask myself questions. I go by instinct. Be politically correct, but please don’t bother other people with conversation about being politically correct, because that’s the end of everything. You want to create boredom? Be politically correct in your conversation.”

Lesson Two: CREATIVITY CAN BE AN UNLIMITED MACHINE “People who do a job that claims to be creative have to be alone to recharge their batteries. You can’t live 24 hours a day in the spotlight and remain creative. For people like me, solitude is a victory.”

Lesson Three: DON’T OVER ANALYSE “I never analyze my collections. I do eight collections for Chanel each year — they overlap. Sometimes I work on two collections at the same time. But I can separate my mind, I’m very organized. In fact, I’m a computer. Also because I don’t use cell phones and computers. My computer is my brain.”

Lesson Four: INVENTION IS LIVING “I like to reinvent myself — it’s part of my job.”