Planned Obsolescence: Taking a Closer Look at Environmental Aspects of Frugal Innovation

By: Rajnish Tiwari

Planned obsolescence is causing not only immense harm to the environment, it might even be regarded as a risky, and to some extent an irresponsible, business strategy in a world where consumption is growing exponentially owing to the rise of the middle class in the emerging economies like China, India and much beyond; and where natural resources are depleting even faster. Average prices of some commdities (e.g. iron ore) have increased over 300% in past 12-13 years. Maybe frugal innovations are both a means and a wake-up call for us as consumers and producers to “return back” to a greater individual and collective relationality.

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Aiming Big with Small Cars: Emergence of a Lead Market in India

A new book by Rajnish Tiwari and Cornelius Herstatt dealing with frugal innovations and the role of emerging market countries, published by Springer

  • Critical analysis of today’s dominant logic and extension of lead market paradigm
  • Delivers new assessment tools for identifying emerging lead markets
  • Explores opportunities for frugal innovations and their constituent characteristics
  • Detailed analysis of a sunrise industry in India​

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“Too good” to succeed? Why not just try “good enough”!

High-tech, German companies are facing a curious problem: their products are reportedly “too good” for the expanding global markets

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A new paper by Rajnish Tiwari and Cornelius Herstatt with the title >> “Too good” to succeed? Why not just try “good enough”! Some deliberations on the prospects of frugal innovations << (Working Paper No. 76, TIM/TUHH)

Abstract

High-tech, German companies are facing a curious problem: their products are reportedly “too good” for the expanding global markets. So in a way they get “penalised” for offering a superlative quality. At a second glance, though, this doesn’t seem surprising. For, succeeding in the emerging markets like India or China often requires developing market-specific products and services that enable an attractive value proposition without taking recourse to (excessive) over-engineering. Furthermore, the innovations should be able to cope with, and successfully circumvent, the given infrastructural restrictions ever so present in the rural and semi-urban areas in such economies.

[Read/download the full paper, PDF, 740 KB]

Innovieren für preisbewusste Kunden: Analogieeinsatz als Erfolgsfaktor in Schwellenländern

An artfical heart developed by IIT Kharagpur based on an analogy to a cockroach’s heart. Photo courtsey: Times of India

Neue Publikation vom Center for Frugal Innovation @TIM/TUHH: Ein neues Arbeitspapier von Rajnish Tiwari und Cornelius Herstatt (Working Paper No. 75, TIM/TUHH) untersucht den EInsatz von innovativen Produktanalogien in frugalen Innovationsprojekten und kommt zum Schluss, “dass frugale Innovationen aufgrund der hohen Bedeutung von Risikominimierung in Produktentwicklungsprojekten häufig eine größere Offenheit für externes Wissen und Analogien aus ihrer Umwelt aufweisen, und davon auch viel profitieren. Den interessierten (potenziellen) frugalen Innovatoren kann diese Methode daher zwecks Reduzierung von Entwicklungskosten und –risiken aber auch zur Steigerung der Prozesseffizient empfohlen werden. Nicht zuletzt zeigen die Fallstudien aber auch, dass der Analogieeinsatz in frugalen Innovationen wichtige Erkenntnisse fürs Management von Innovationsprojekten in nicht-frugalem Bereich liefern kann.”

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