Frugal Innovation Forum:Setting the Context

Jaideep Prabhu

BRAC Center for Management DevelopmentMarch 30, 2013

Three Frugal Innovation Challenges

More innovation or more scaling up?

Is scaling up always a good thing?

Is being frugal always a good thing?

More innovation or more scaling up?

What is Innovation?

The successful application of new ideas

Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950)

Innovation is More than Invention

“Solutions to many of the world’s most difficult social problems don’t need to be invented, they need only to be found, funded, and scaled.”

Judith Rodin, in Steve Davis’ Social Innovation: A Matter of Scale

What is Frugal Innovation?

Dramatically minimizes costs by reducing the use of resources in development, production and delivery, or leveraging resources in new ways

Dramatically reduces prices for customers

“Our Frugal Future: Lessons from India’s Innovation System,” Kirsten Bound and Ian Thornton, NESTA Report: July 2012

Thinking Outside the (Ice) Box WHAT IF your fridge

can operate without electricity?

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Person 2 Person TransferAirtime Top-Up

Bill Payment

Merchant Payment

ATM Withdrawals

International Transfer

Cash In Cash Out

The Proposition Is Simple

Social Payments

Dr Mohan’s Mobile Diabetes Clinic

Source: http://www.worlddiabetesfoundation.org/composite-2731.htm

Source: http://www.drvmohan.com/

BRAC HRLS Property Rights Initiative

Why the World Needs Frugal Innovation

Why the World Needs Frugal Innovation

Is scaling up always a good thing?

Harish Hande and SELCO

Microfinance in Andhra Pradesh

Rapid scaling: the McDonald’s model

A bubble

A crash that set the whole industry back

Is being frugal always a good thing?

Three Phases of Innovation

Get the idea

Develop the solution

Implement/scale it

Design for America and Swipe Sense

To solve problems in health care, education, and energy in the US

Hospital acquired infections: 2 million people

100,000 deaths each year

$2-4 billion dollars in costs to the healthcare industry

Penny-Wise and Pound Foolish?

Dan Pallotta in Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential

The nonprofit sector denies itself critical tools that the for-profit sector uses without restraint

Donated dollars for nothing but program costs

Not True of BRAC Though!

Invested in human, physical and organisational infrastructure

Selecting and training, monitoring, research and evaluation, and learning

Huge salesforce and distribution infrastructure

Being Frugal is a Mindset

Market back rather than technology push

The need and the context determine the solution

Which in turn determines when to be frugal

Tata and the Nano

Source:http://www.examiner.com/road-driver-in-national/world-s-cheapest-car-the-tata-nano

Conclusions

Implementation is more important than invention

Scaling up is hard and sometimes counterproductive

Many ways to be frugal but only some are appropriate

Thank you!