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

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 29

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.

I think the term "Frugal Innovation" actually captures both ideas. Let's start calling it that, unless you have a better term.

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://blogs.businessweek.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/

Reader Comments

Harald Felgner

January 30, 2008 10:51 PM

I am unassertive on why I want to blend those two - but I have to; a right brain thing.
Bruce Nussbaum reflects on the Tata Nano again and it's inclusive innovation, frugal engineering, frugal Indian business model innovations. Whereas Seth Godin argues against brand management - to be replaced by tribe management.

Harald Felgner

February 5, 2008 09:44 PM

http://www.felgner.ch/2008/01/frugal_innovation_and_tribe_management.html

sus

February 20, 2008 03:31 AM

Dear,Friend
The Tata Group's other two announcements this week have been related to a joint venture

with major aircraft manufacturer Boeing to produce aerospace components in India and a

contract with US-based Sikorsky Helicopters to build cabins for S-92 helicopters.
Please Visit For More Detail
http://desievite.com/blogs/Default.asp

Post a comment

 

About

Want to stop talking about innovation and learn how to make it work for you? Bruce Nussbaum takes you deep into the latest thinking about innovation and design with daily scoops, provocative perspectives and case studies. Nussbaum is at the center of a global conversation on the growing discipline of innovation and the deepening field of design thinking. Read him to discover what social networking works—and what doesn’t. Discover where service innovation is going and how experience design is shaping up. Learn which schools are graduating the most creative talent and which consulting firms are the hottest. And get his take on what the smartest companies are doing in the U.S., Asia and Europe, far ahead of the pack.

RSS Feed: NussbaumOnDesign

BW Mall - Sponsored Links