Raj: Disruptive and Frugal Innovation

Question 1

How does disruptive innovation start?

Answer 1

A disruptive innovation starts by offering a low performance product that often offers a unique feature.
It is adopted by a very niche market group who are happy to live with the low quality product with this different feature
- As time progresses the quality of the product increases hitting more markets and can be disruptive to other companies who havnt innovated their product

Question 2

Give an example of a disruptive innovation

Answer 2

computer processors in the type writing market:
initially computers were very slow, had very little processing power and couldn’t keep up with the speed of professional type writers. However this product appealed to the low end market because it had the unique feature to be able to delete mistakes in written text.
Eventually as the processor developed the computer keyboard disrupted the whole market making type writer redundant.

Question 3

What is frugal innovation?

Answer 3

Frugal innovation involves cutting costs and unnecessary features while providing equal value to a larger customer base
- Doing more with fewer resources for more people

Question 4

Give an example of a successful frugal innovation

Answer 4

• The GE Mac 400 miniaturised ECG device. This was an ECG device with all the excess features cut out so it was cheaper, smaller and weighed 1kg rather than 7 kg. Originally designed to target less developed markets this product took off in Europe as its small size and weight meant it was portable and a great addition in ambulances

Question 5

Give an example of failed frugal innovation

Answer 5

• The Tato Nano, was a cheap car designed for teh less wealthy population in India. Features such as power steering, air con and powered brakes were removed. Despite this because of the lack of demand it was discontinued

Question 6

when can a product be labelled as a disruptive innovation?

give a modern example

Answer 6

once the product has completely out-competed the previous technology that existed in the market place
for example digital photography was a disruptive innovation to film cameras.

Question 7

What are the 2 categories of frugal innovation?

Answer 7

• Complementing and simplifying existing technology
• Jugaad innovation: which is innovating solutions using the resources that are available, eg, simple mechanism to spread rice seeds from a wicker basket.

Question 8

What effect does digital technology have on frugal innovation and give an example?

Answer 8

Digital technology boosts frugal innovation:

For example a microscope attachment to a phone