In these times of sobriety, should we prefer James Bond or MacGyver? On the one hand, a pompous and expensive secret agent, which employs the equivalent of an SME to build sophisticated toys that will only be used once, probably before exploding. On the other, a clever adventurer, saving the world by using only his Swiss knife and adhesive ribbon.
What is certain is that the second can do well with little. In this, the television hero of the 1980s is a pioneer of what is called in management “frugal innovation”. The concept, presented as a strategic imperative for companies, in a context of ecological transition, designates in innovation management the fact of doing the best … with as little as possible. The frugal innovator is often penniless.
This notion of frugal innovation also finds its origin in emerging countries, forced to compete in creativity to find their place in major markets, and more particularly India. It follows from the word familiar jugaad, meaning “diversion” in Tamil, and often assimilated to being creative or ingenious.
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The Franco-American entrepreneur Navi Radjou, born in Pondicherry (India), theorized frugal innovation in the early 2010s, based on the concept of Jugaad. It highlights that the “frugal” organizational product or organizational solution must meet a need as simple as energy, education or health, by acting on the existing value chain to adapt it to the targeted public.
For example, by developing the mobile M-PESA mobile payment system via a basic telephone, which allowed millions of Africans to access certain banking services, alternative to the last smartphone and its 1,754 features that were financially inaccessible to them.
The frugal product can be built through the reuse of materials: this is the case, for example, of the Jerry Do-It-Together, a computer made with computer components of reuse, assembled in a twenty-liter container, which aimed to reduce the digital divide in Africa in particular. In France, during the COVID-19, we can cite the “diversion” of Decathlon diving masks, converted into breathable for hospitals. This idea does not come out of nowhere: since 2016, the giant of sport in France has a project team which is devoted to frugal innovation and the jugaad, to respond to its desire to offer basic products that can reach the greatest number .
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