Frugal Innovation


Book Description

Frugal innovation is a way that companies can create high-quality products with limited resources. Once the preserve of firms in poor markets, Western companies are now seeking ways to appeal to cost-conscious and environmentally-aware consumers at home. With an estimated trillion-dollar global market for frugal products, and with potentially huge cost savings to be gained, frugal innovation is revolutionizing business and reshaping management thinking. This book explains the principles, perspectives and techniques behind frugal innovation, enabling managers to profit from the great changes ahead. The book explains: How to achieve mass customization, using low-cost robotics, inexpensive product design and virtual prototyping software. How consumers and other external partners can help develop products How to implement sustainable practices, such as the production of waste-free products How to change the corporate culture to become more frugal




The Frugal Economy


Book Description

Humanity's pursuit of greatness meets the reality of finite resources In The Frugal Economy: A Guide to Building a Better World With Less, award-winning author Navi Radjou delivers an incisive and engrossing treatment of how human beings facing climate change can reconcile our built-in drive to “do more” and “be better” with our planet's finite resources. You'll discover how we can thrive within planetary boundaries while achieving sustainable growth for generations to come. In this groundbreaking book, enriched with over 100 inspiring examples, you'll learn how to create greater value with less and find: Practical strategies for doing more with less, benefiting both people and the planet Success stories of businesses fueling transformative megatrends like B2B sharing, distributed manufacturing, and triple regeneration Insights into reshaping economic systems to promote social and ecological harmony Whether you're a businessperson, professional, student, academic, policymaker, regulator, or entrepreneur, you can join the movement towards a sustainable future. Get your copy of The Frugal Economy today and become a catalyst for positive change!




The New Frugality


Book Description

As the recession deepens, with a downturn in spending, rise in defaulting mortgages and throttling of credit, a Go-Go economy has transitioned to a Uh-Oh economy. How did we get here and what does it mean for individuals and families? The New Frugality lays out how Americans have overspent-and offers a way out through consuming less and saving more-showing that living simply is not just living "cheaply." What is required is a paradigm shift. We need to learn to live more modestly by cutting back on spending, actually attempting to live within our means and increasing savings. Farrell outlines creative new ways of thinking that can help us to accomplish this, not just by reverting to earlier financial models, but by innovating new solutions that are appropriate to the times we live in. In some ways, The New Frugality is the fiscal equivalent of the green movement; and indeed, going green is also part of the project. In The New Frugality Farrell will show where the economy is going, how it will affect regular families, and how they can weather the storm.




Jugaad Innovation


Book Description

"Jugaad Innovation is the most comprehensive book yet to appear on the subject [of frugal innovation]." —The Economist A frugal and flexible approach to innovation for the 21st century Innovation is a key directive at companies worldwide. But in these tough times, we can't rely on the old formula that has sustained innovation efforts for decades—expensive R&D projects and highly-structured innovation processes. Jugaad Innovation argues the West must look to places like India, Brazil, and China for a new approach to frugal and flexible innovation. The authors show how in these emerging markets, jugaad (a Hindi word meaning an improvised solution born from ingenuity and cleverness) is leading to dramatic growth and how Western companies can adopt jugaad innovation to succeed in our hypercompetitive world. Outlines the six principles of jugaad innovation: Seek opportunity in adversity, do more with less, think and act flexibly, keep it simple, include the margin, and follow your heart Features twenty case studies on large corporations from around the world—Google, Facebook, 3M, Apple, Best Buy, GE, IBM, Nokia, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Tata Group, and more—that are actively practicing jugaad innovation The authors blog regularly at Harvard Business Review; their work has been profiled in BusinessWeek, MIT Sloan Management Review, The Financial Times, The Economist, and more Filled with previously untold and engaging stories of resourceful jugaad innovators and entrepreneurs in emerging markets and the United States This groundbreaking book shows leaders everywhere why the time is right for jugaad to emerge as a powerful business tool in the West—and how to bring jugaad practices to their organizations.




The Wisdom of Frugality


Book Description

Why philosophers have advocated simple living for 2,500 years—and why we ignore them at our peril From Socrates to Thoreau, most philosophers, moralists, and religious leaders have seen frugality as a virtue and have associated simple living with wisdom, integrity, and happiness. But why? And are they right? Is a taste for luxury fundamentally misguided? If one has the means to be a spendthrift, is it foolish or reprehensible to be extravagant? In this book, Emrys Westacott examines why, for more than two millennia, so many philosophers and people with a reputation for wisdom have been advocating frugality and simple living as the key to the good life. He also looks at why most people have ignored them, but argues that, in a world facing environmental crisis, it may finally be time to listen to the advocates of a simpler way of life. The Wisdom of Frugality explores what simplicity means, why it's supposed to make us better and happier, and why, despite its benefits, it has always been such a hard sell. The book looks not only at the arguments in favor of living frugally and simply, but also at the case that can be made for luxury and extravagance, including the idea that modern economies require lots of getting and spending. A philosophically informed reflection rather than a polemic, The Wisdom of Frugality ultimately argues that we will be better off—as individuals and as a society—if we move away from the materialistic individualism that currently rules.




Innovation Economics, Engineering and Management Handbook 1


Book Description

Innovation, in economic activity, in managerial concepts and in engineering design, results from creative activities, entrepreneurial strategies and the business climate. Innovation leads to technological, organizational and commercial changes, due to the relationships between enterprises, public institutions and civil society organizations. These innovation networks create new knowledge and contribute to the dissemination of new socio-economic and technological models, through new production and marketing methods. Innovation Economics, Engineering and Management Handbook 1 is the first of the two volumes that comprise this book. The main objectives across both volumes are to study the innovation processes in todays information and knowledge society; to analyze how links between research and business have intensified; and to discuss the methods by which innovation emerges and is managed by firms, not only from a local perspective but also a global one. The studies presented in these two volumes contribute toward an understanding of the systemic nature of innovations and enable reflection on their potential applications, in order to think about the meaning of growth and prosperity.




Frugal Innovation and Its Implementation


Book Description

This book discusses several product development strategies and tools employed by organizations around the world to implement frugal innovations. Over the past decade, frugal innovations have caught the attention of countless management scholars. This book comes at the right time for academics and practitioners alike, as it explores how the concept of frugal innovation has evolved over the past several years and is shifting its focus from merely featuring ‘cost’ driven innovations to being more ‘resourceful’ and ‘sustainable’ at its core. Furthermore, in light of the ongoing digital revolution and emergence of new business models such as sharing economy and circular economy, the book highlights recent and upcoming trends and their impacts on frugal innovation strategies.




Frugal Value


Book Description

We live in unprecedented times. Climate change and ecosystem collapse are altering our world beyond recognition, and a growing global population is exacerbating the pressure on the resources that power our economies. How should the private sector respond to the new risks and uncertainties of our Crowded Planet? Frugal Value contests the notion that companies can rise to the great challenges of our time by adopting so-called 'sustainable business' practices. Instead, the acute ecological crisis requires an all-round rethink of what business does, and how it does it. This book explores what business responsibility looks like today, and how it could be put into practice through far-reaching changes to companies, ranging from new approaches to product design and business models to reconfiguration of operations and innovative ownership structures. Frugal Value provides practitioners and scholars with the perspective and tools they need to design companies that help drive the socio-economic changes so urgently required for a sustainable and just world.




Frugal Innovation


Book Description

This book discusses the growing use and importance of frugal innovation in society. Frugal innovation looks at innovating in a cost-efficient manner by taking into account available resources. This book explains how frugal innovation is different to other types of innovation and how frugal innovation offers a creative solution to issues of sustainability and the circular economy. The book approaches innovation by taking into account the stakeholders and how companies can innovate efficiently in an inclusive manner. It presents successful cases of companies that have innovated frugally, making the book an engaging read for anyone who is interested to learn more.




Frugal Innovation


Book Description

In light of growing discourse on 'frugal innovation', this book offers novel approaches to innovation based on extensive empirical research. The study complements a decade of scholarly attention on frugal innovation by taking a research-based approach to innovation in resource-scarce and complex institutional contexts. The findings suggest that concepts such as frugal, reverse, jugaad, social, grassroots and inclusive innovation in fact represent heterogeneous assemblies of innovation for social, environmental and economic value. The conceptual framework invites attention to more plural sources and elements in the study of models of innovation to inspire further research in the fields of strategy, innovation, entrepreneurship, economic sociology and development studies. The design framework offers models, metrics and competencies for practitioners and policymakers to identify, evaluate and design frugal innovations. The comprehensive view of frugal innovation demonstrates how firms can implement globally competitive strategies by pursuing innovation for humanity to improve lives for everyone, everywhere.