"Frugal Engineering" and "Inclusive Innovation" Serve the BoP in India

Abigail Keene-Babcock — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:42:32 -0500

January 29, 2008 - 10:00, Business Week

The Tata Nao Car Has Two Forms Of Innovation. Shall We Call It Nanovation?

Story Link: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2008/01/the_tata_nao_ca.html

Teaser:

If you go to the official Tata Nano website and check out the bottom left corner, it says "inclusive innovation." Click on that and you get to a discussion on the kinds of innovations that Nano represents.

One is called "frugal engineering" by Renault-Nissans’s chief Carlos Ghosen, referring to the simple and inexpensive way the car was developed. It is a methodology you see all over India—in health care, telecom, drug development and now car manufacturing. I prefer to call it "Frugal Innovation." And I expect India to be exporting this form of process innovation all around the world, just as the Japanese exported Quality Manufacturing.

The other is called "inclusive innovation" because the inexpensive process produces an inexpensive product that people, even at the Bottom of the Pyramid, can afford. Again, products sold as sachets, mobile communication service sold by the minute, cataract operations that cost a fraction of those in the West--all these are Indian business model innovations.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 2

If you go to the official Tata Nano website and check out the bottom left corner, it says "inclusive innovation." Click on that and you get to a discussion on the kinds of innovations that Nano represents.

One is called "frugal engineering" by Renault-Nissans’s chief Carlos Ghosen, referring to the simple and inexpensive way the car was developed. It is a methodology you see all over India—in health care, telecom, drug development and now car manufacturing. I prefer to call it "Frugal Innovation." And I expect India to be exporting this form of process innovation all around the world, just as the Japanese exported Quality Manufacturing.

The other is called "inclusive innovation" because the inexpensive process produces an inexpensive product that people, even at the Bottom of the Pyramid, can afford. Again, products sold as sachets, mobile communication service sold by the minute, cataract operations that cost a fraction of those in the West--all these are Indian business model innovations.

To continue reading go to "The Tata Nao Car Has Two Forms Of Innovation. Shall We Call It Nanovation?"

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"Frugal Engineering" and "Inclusive Innovation" Serve the BoP in India