Jugaad Culture

One society defines Jugaad to be as clever, innovative, resourceful and flexible while others feels it as means of avoiding from your duties and finding a shortest path that is not reliable in long run.

If you have ever worked in India, then you must be aware of this word and have practically applied in your work life. For Instance – Under Mangalyaan Project, “The rocket was not powerful enough to reach Mars. Americans or British people would say, ‘Forget it. We need a more powerful rocket.’ But Indians thought, ‘How can we make this rocket, which is not powerful enough to reach Mars, reach there?’ They launched it and became the first country to reach Mars at such low cost i.e. Rs. 473 cr. But what does it tell you? Some feels they were right that they took the chances and was successful, but others feel does it really makes sense to risk such a big project and end up with nothing.

The famous book Jugaad Innovation: A Frugal and Flexible Approach to Innovation for the 21st century, co-authored by Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu and Simone Ahuja, also talks about how leading companies are practising jugaad to pioneer growth. But when you talk about running businesses in India, this jugaad mentality hurts. Many feels jugaad to be a corruption, bending the rules and beating the system.

Where Does this phenomenon comes from?

If you are from India, then your jugaad journey would have started it from adjusting your antenna’s and beating up your TV sets to get proper connection. We were so used to of this Jugaad that we are ready to touch antennas but can’t afford to get it repaired.

But does Jugaad always helps?

The Commonwealth Games are an example of bad jugaad. During that time, Commonwealth was more famous for how beautifully our government had covered the heaps of garbage with beautiful banners in their front. Then there was the incident of the stage catching fire during one of the Make in India events in Mumbai, a couple of years ago. But the worst form of jugaad can be seen in the Indian healthcare industry. There are thousands of medical practitioners in India who doesn’t have a proper degree to treat the patient. But this jugaad concept helps them to be a doctor.

So, at the end, its our choice whether we want a permanent solution for the problem or just a jugaad to fix to for time being.