siliconindia | | April 20178INDIAN INNOVATION & ITS GLOBAL IMPACTBy Dr. Wilfried Aulbur, Managing Partner, Roland Berger IndiaMany corporate executives think of India in terms of `Jugaad' ­ ingenious quick fixes that use minimal means to solve real life challeng-es. A typical example would be a plastic water bottle that serves as a tank on a two-wheel-er or a tractor that doubles up as a motor for water pumps. Yet, innovation in India in the true sense of product, application or business model, is real, and is increasingly gaining momentum. Much like the country itself, innovation in India is multi-faceted. On one hand, we have transnational innovators. Large multinational companies such as GE, Honeywell, Siemens, Bosch, and Mercedes-Benz, that run research and development divisions in the India which are often the largest R&D institutions outside of the MNC's home country. Here, `India inside' happens, i.e., path-breaking devel-opments that have a major impact on prod-ucts and services that are being sold globally without the world knowing that the algorithm on an ECU was not developed in Stuttgart or Detroit but in Bangalore.In line with the large multinational com-panies, we have leading Indian companies that are using the inherent advantages of scalability, turn around times, competence and potential cost to drive their international competitive advantages. Companies such as Tata Motors, Bajaj, and Bharat Forge compete with their products and services successfully in global markets based on the R&D that is done in India.Other Indian stalwarts, the `Smart Spar-tans', use India's penchant towards frugal engineering to create products not for the top one billion customers of the developed world but for the six billion customers of the emerg-ing world. Take Godrej Consumer Products as an example; the company successfully lev-eraged product ideas from its acquisitions in Argentina and Indonesia for applications in India. Its frugal engineering approach, i.e. the relentless focus on providing the right cus-tomer value at the right price, drove re-engi-neering efforts along the value chain resulting in products that matched the wallet of India's aspiring masses. Rather than trying to fight a niche battle with MNCs in restricted market segments, Godrej was able to repeatedly cre-ate new mastige segments in which it ruled IN MY OPINIONHeadquartered in Munich, Germany, Roland Berger is one of the world's leading strategy consulting company that assists businesses in management issues ranging from strategy development and performance improvement, to restructuring and marketing.As countries develop, copying good ideas from other markets is necessary in order to leapfrog developmental stages
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