A look at Jugaad

Friday, December 18, 2009  |  By: Bernard Quancard

In the 12/14/09 issue of Businessweek, an article discusses the merits and drawbacks of a new management fad coming out of India, called jugaad. One of the elements of jugaad is the ability to innovate on the fly. And while it's often associated with cutting corners in India, the concept as a management tool is being employed by some very impressive companies.

Excerpt:

"U.S. companies are starting to put jugaad into practice. At Best Buy's headquarters, in Richfield, Minn., Kalendu Patel, the retailer's executive vice-president for emerging business, is holding jugaad workshops to help store personnel and managers come up with new products or services that could be added easily and inexpensively to generate more sales per store. Among the ideas: home health-care equipment."

This kind of thinking reminds me of one of the key concepts of Strategic Account Management--creating demand. A successful Strategic Account Manager will partner with his or her customer to develop new, scalable solutions. If done correctly, it can be scaled up to a global level or down to the local level. The partnership uses co-creation methodologies and techniques which allow the strategic supplier and the strategic customer to innovate business solutions directly relevant to making money and bringing growth to both partners. What's important to remember is that while this new fad may have some merit, there are already developed and proven methodologies that make SAM work.

Tags: SAM Theory , General

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