16 ms·

Jugaad, an Indian Delivery Methodology

ggeorgovassilis 6y ago
Jugaad is an attitude towards delivery which originated in India and consists of three simple tenets: Humility: use whatever works without prejudice Openness: keep your options open Frugality: small expenses keep regrets small
- Scapeghost 6y ago
  I'm from a country where "jugaad" is the dominant mentality and frankly, it results in a hell for anyone who wants shit to be done right or things to work long term. In practice, it actually becomes: Impatience: Don't waste time trying to follow best practices Dishonesty: Milk the customer for as much as you can Cutting Corners: Small expenses result in bigger ones down the road Which ends up with everything from light bubls to street transformers and vehicles and even medical implants blowing up, breaking down or falling apart at least a few times every year. Diluting milk with water is a common idiom for dishonesty here and such minor instances of corruption are rife at the grassroots level.
  - karmakaze 6y ago
    That's interesting as I was reading the "system that generates, stores and sends receipts via email to customers" example, the jugaad solution looked like tech debt from day 1. It doesn't 'store' the receipts anything lost in email is simply lost.
    - p1necone 6y ago
      That depends on the email system you use doesn't it? Sure if you're just using a gmail account you're playing with fire. But if you back up the inbox then it's no more likely to get "lost" than a database.
- flarg 6y ago
  I work with Indian delivery teams on a regular basis and I think focus on things like frugality, which certainly exists, comes at a terrifying price on terms of lack of long term quality and security issues. I've seen the same approach in Polish and Spanish teams. Spend less now so we can spend more forever.
DanBC 6y ago
This is a good article that talks about the reality of jugaad. Here are some radio programmes about Jugaad from a while ago: India's quick fix solutions: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ng09d https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ng09d Innovators - the secret of jugaad: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cstydc https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cstydc There's been a bit of discussion on HN about jugaad before. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1597509 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1597509
jagannathtech 6y ago
Realistically, most of the time everything ends up in frustration and sub-standard I really wish we Indians embrace professionalism esp. in services as we are not very resource constrained as before.
- nirav72 6y ago
  yep. the whole "chalta hein" attitude needs to die.
  - OJFord 6y ago
    चलता है? (Not a native speaker, learning, just curious) as in walk/do/operate something? The attitude being (having read जुगाड़ means lifehack/bodge) just do it quick and dirty, don't worry if it's 'right'/high-quality sort of thing? (I don't mean any offence, please don't take it that way, just trying to understand the terms and attitude ypu refer to.)
    - neeleshs 6y ago
      चलता है literally means walks/moves/works. But in this context it means tolerating mediocrity and not complaining about it. GP is alluding to this widespread mindset.
    - vram22 6y ago
      Loosely: Literal translation (syntax): It walks, or, it moves. Meaning (semantics): It is acceptable, or, it is accepted (by people, so no need to do better).
    - quadrifoliate 6y ago
      Directly translated, it means "It walks", or "it'll walk" – a rough translation of the meaning into English would be "Eh, it'll work". In fact, I could swear I've heard the phrase "I'm gonna let this walk for now" as in "I'm gonna let this infraction pass unpunished" in American English in a movie or something, but Google doesn't seem to be throwing up too many references for that. But you could imagine it in the same way too, as "let it walk".
OJFord 6y ago
Not helped by the vehicle analogy in the opening paragraphs, I at first thought we were talking about physical goods delivery! It seems it's जुगाड़ (IAST jugāṛ) meaning 'lifehack'.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- Arnavion 6y ago
  जुगाड़ is just "kludge" / "hack" / "cobbled-together solution" / "half-baked method" in general, not "lifehack" specifically. The submission makes it out to be some amazing cultural thing, but I've more commonly heard it used with a negative connotation.
  - OJFord 6y ago
    धन्यवाद, I'm learning Hindi and was just curious about what it actually meant. 'Makes it out to be some amazing cultural thing' is I suppose quite common (or substitute 'amazing' for anything broad) - 'curry' is an obvious example, it presumably comes from कढ़ी, in turn from the leaf/herb, which is one very specific (very delicious, IMO) dish, yet used over here like it just means (Indian) food. I digress. I can see why it's useful to cling to a term to discuss a phenomenon or even a non-unique idea in the context of a particular place, but really, imagine (as a non-Indian) reading this with <country> in place for 'India', and Agile (or something) for 'jugaad'. Egh. I'm all for intercultural learning or whatever, but as part of that we surely have to look at what's 'a thing' to learn and what isn't.
    - kranner 6y ago
      Curry and कढ़ी are false cognates, AFAIK. According to Wikipedia [1]: "Curry is an anglicised form of the Tamil word kaṟi meaning 'sauce' or 'relish for rice' that uses the leaves of the curry tree (Murraya koenigii). The word kari is also used in other Dravidian languages, namely in Malayalam, Kannada and Kodava with the meaning of "vegetables (or meat) of any kind (raw or boiled), curry". Kaṟi is described in a mid-17th century Portuguese cookbook by members of the British East India Company, who were trading with Tamil merchants along the Coromandel Coast of southeast India, becoming known as a "spice blend ... called kari podi or curry powder". The first known appearance in its anglicised form (spelled currey) appears in a 1747 book of recipes published by Hannah Glasse." Another theory suggests the same root, but a longer journey via Portuguese settlers: Tamil 'kaṟi' -> Portuguese 'carel' -> English 'curry' [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry#Etymology
clumsysmurf 6y ago
The first time I heard of Jugaad was in Katherine Eban's "Bottle of Lies". The book goes into the ethically dubious shortcuts taken by companies like Rambaxy to make profits, in the name of Jugaad. The broader question was whether it was just one company, or this was a cultural thing involving multiple companies. Podcast if you would like to learn more https://peterattiamd.com/katherineeban/ https://peterattiamd.com/katherineeban/
- tacon 6y ago
  That was also my first contact with the concept. That podcast episode is infuriating, shocking, outrageous, riveting, and in certain parts so funny I laughed out loud. Highly recommended. By the way, near the end of the (long) episode, they discuss how a generic drug consumer might mitigate the worst effects of the Indian (and Chinese) drug companies. I thought that would be an interesting startup, to track the scandals and reputations of every drug company and map to each drug they manufacture. Apparently this is a DIY endeavor at the moment. This information has recently become even more useful as the worldwide pharma industry ramps up for COVID-19 drugs, vaccines, etc.
kang 6y ago
Jugaad is just hindi for hack.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
Karupan 6y ago
The jugaad mentality may help coming up with innovative, low cost solutions to problems, but isn’t the best way to actually deliver it to a mass market.
quadrifoliate 6y ago
The less widely known and palatable truth is that jugaad is simply a way of adapting to a few hundred years of colonial exploitation [1]. Indians have built precisely engineered monuments like the Taj Mahal [2] and the Konark Sun Temple [3] in eras before India was engineered to be a vast source of raw material for the British Empire, designed for optimum extraction. Bygones are bygones, and we need to move on. However, I would urge all people who identify as Indian to reject this sense of "jugaad" as a uniquely Indian thing – it unnecessarily paints a picture of us as consistently turning out shoddy and half-baked work that will fall apart eventually. -------------- [1] http://www.nilejournal.net/politics/britain-exploited-india http://www.nilejournal.net/politics/britain-exploited-india [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konark_Sun_Temple https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konark_Sun_Temple
- jojobas 6y ago
  Oh come on, half of the world (US included) was colonized and optimized for resource extraction, mostly because of how far ahead British manufacturing was at the time. India as been independent for a while now, just own the half-bakedness already.
  - abalaji 6y ago
    I would posit that the level of exploitation of the Indian population paled in comparison to the colonies. [citation needed] But, you are right in a sense.
    - felipelemos 6y ago
      Everything south of United States had the same or if not worse level of exploitation as a European colony. I sort of agree with parent poster, specially because most of these countries are independent for a bit longer and maybe because of that they tend to blame less the colonization (but blame still), but also because keep blaming the past (even when it is true) holds you to look forward.
ponker 6y ago
Well look at the development outcomes for India and Germany and jugaad doesn’t seem so great.
Ballu 6y ago
I used to be a fan of Jugaad concepts, but ended up (opposite end of spectrum) critique. The reason was, the concept was used by corporations as well as SME domain for cost cutting and throttling the innovation. The reason they become successful in doing this, too much focus on cheap labor. Hopefully, the concept of using the technology what we have (basic foundation of ITIL v4) to start the project, work iteratively with improvement in cycle with core focus on achieving the targets (again, core philosophy of ITIL v4) and get the product whats the need of hour. There is core similarity of JUGAAD mind set and Agile as well as modern dev-ops. Hopefully, world will take Jugaad what it was. Brief history of Jugaad (as one mentioned, means life hack): With explosive growth in '90s (and before that, controlled production of commercial vehicles in India), local mechanics started using small diesel engines or totalled vehicles engines/front body and attaching that with locally available carts. Haryana roads were full of these vehicles (before that there used to be 3 wheel tempo, which was called Jugaad as people were using that for people movement instead of freight), This thread has some good examples of Jugaads :) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commercial-vehicles/117066-jugaad.html https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commercial-vehicles/117066-ju...
draw_down 6y ago
> use whatever works without prejudice Does anyone else’s spidey senses start tingling when they read such “common sense” directives? If you’ve been around a while you know how these formulations play out, the dominant group gets their way, and don’t bother contesting it because hey man, we’re all pragmatists here! Don’t bring your dogma around here. Call me crazy but I imagine the ultimate emphasis is on the third precept, frugality.
macropusmacro 6y ago
Wasn't it Boeing's jugaad that ultimately killed 600+ people? Wasn't it ultimately due to jugaad that security breaches occur because the company wasn't willing to pay extra for good quality software? Isn't my (non-Indian) manager doing jugaad when he asks me to do the bare minimum to get the work done, so that he can complete maximum number of features so that he can get his yearly bonus?
rramadass 6y ago
A lot of the comments here are unnecessarily negative. The author has actually worked with Teams employing "Jugaad" strategy for a decade and knows what he is talking about. I will wager that most people commenting here do not have that experience. "Jugaad" is a great concept and strategy to adopt in real-life scenarios where you have to make do with what you have got. In these scenarios almost everything is lacking; not enough money, resources (human and capital), education nor Time. "Quality" is always a function of "Cost" which is a function of the above mentioned variables and thus the outcomes will vary based on the project/customer etc. Looked at in this vein, "Jugaad" makes perfect sense. Your expectations have to match reality. The trouble only happens when this mindset is perverted and you start cutting corners everywhere to the detriment of the end result.
- riantogo 6y ago
  I have employed “Jugaad” for multiple decades. And the comments here are correctly negative. Jugaad is what good people have to do to work a shit system. It leads to utterly unprofessional environments and is a tremendous drag on the overall system.
  - superasn 6y ago
    In my opinion jugaad isn't always bad. See this for example (1), this is 100% jugaad IMO. It's only bad when you have the resources to do something and yet you choose the shit way to do it. (1) https://mothership.sg/2020/09/cd-zoom-hack-camera-teacher/ https://mothership.sg/2020/09/cd-zoom-hack-camera-teacher/
  - rramadass 6y ago
    I disagree. That is a perversion of the principles and not true "Jugaad". As an example see the success of the "Generic Drug" pharmaceutical industry and how it came to be. https://blogs.deloitte.co.uk/health/2020/03/the-indian-pharmaceutical-industry-the-pharmacy-of-the-world.html https://blogs.deloitte.co.uk/health/2020/03/the-indian-pharm...
    - riantogo 6y ago
systemvoltage 6y ago
Having audited over 200 suppliers in China, I feel like the Chinese have mastered the art of "Jugaad". Absolutely brilliant, wreckless and dangerous violations/innovations I've ever witnessed in my life. Commonly known in the west as Redneck Engineering and Jerry-rigging. I think every culture has some sort of a "Jugaad", this isn't something specific to India besides the etymology.
- rramadass 6y ago
  This is exactly right! What the author has done is to distill some principles from practice so as to build a possible "methodology".
- BrandoElFollito 6y ago
  In France we call it a "temporary solution" to highlight the greatness of the permanent one. My children go to the temporary school I attended 30 years ago.
Brajeshwar 6y ago
I like Jugaad as the quick prototypical research tool. Cliché but it has its place as the pirates' way. It is a means (not an end) that needs to graduate to the ways of the Navy. I also love to leverage the straight-forwardness of the west, and the finesse, artistry, and craft of the Japanese culture. Here is a book about the slow rise and success of Bigbasket[1] in India - Saying No to Jugaad: The Making of Bigbasket[2]. 1. https://www.bigbasket.com https://www.bigbasket.com 2. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52560378-saying-no-to-jugaad https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52560378-saying-no-to-ju...
kjsingh 6y ago
Jugaad == patchwork?

Jugaad is an attitude towards delivery which originated in India and consists of three simple tenets: Humility: use whatever works without prejudice Openness: keep your options open Frugality: small expenses keep regrets small

Scapeghost 6y ago
I'm from a country where "jugaad" is the dominant mentality and frankly, it results in a hell for anyone who wants shit to be done right or things to work long term. In practice, it actually becomes: Impatience: Don't waste time trying to follow best practices Dishonesty: Milk the customer for as much as you can Cutting Corners: Small expenses result in bigger ones down the road Which ends up with everything from light bubls to street transformers and vehicles and even medical implants blowing up, breaking down or falling apart at least a few times every year. Diluting milk with water is a common idiom for dishonesty here and such minor instances of corruption are rife at the grassroots level.
- karmakaze 6y ago
  That's interesting as I was reading the "system that generates, stores and sends receipts via email to customers" example, the jugaad solution looked like tech debt from day 1. It doesn't 'store' the receipts anything lost in email is simply lost.
  - p1necone 6y ago
    That depends on the email system you use doesn't it? Sure if you're just using a gmail account you're playing with fire. But if you back up the inbox then it's no more likely to get "lost" than a database.
flarg 6y ago
I work with Indian delivery teams on a regular basis and I think focus on things like frugality, which certainly exists, comes at a terrifying price on terms of lack of long term quality and security issues. I've seen the same approach in Polish and Spanish teams. Spend less now so we can spend more forever.

DanBC 6y ago

This is a good article that talks about the reality of jugaad. Here are some radio programmes about Jugaad from a while ago: India's quick fix solutions: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ng09d https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ng09d Innovators - the secret of jugaad: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cstydc https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cstydc There's been a bit of discussion on HN about jugaad before. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1597509 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1597509

jagannathtech 6y ago

Realistically, most of the time everything ends up in frustration and sub-standard I really wish we Indians embrace professionalism esp. in services as we are not very resource constrained as before.

nirav72 6y ago
yep. the whole "chalta hein" attitude needs to die.
- OJFord 6y ago
  चलता है? (Not a native speaker, learning, just curious) as in walk/do/operate something? The attitude being (having read जुगाड़ means lifehack/bodge) just do it quick and dirty, don't worry if it's 'right'/high-quality sort of thing? (I don't mean any offence, please don't take it that way, just trying to understand the terms and attitude ypu refer to.)
  - neeleshs 6y ago
    चलता है literally means walks/moves/works. But in this context it means tolerating mediocrity and not complaining about it. GP is alluding to this widespread mindset.
  - vram22 6y ago
    Loosely: Literal translation (syntax): It walks, or, it moves. Meaning (semantics): It is acceptable, or, it is accepted (by people, so no need to do better).
  - quadrifoliate 6y ago
    Directly translated, it means "It walks", or "it'll walk" – a rough translation of the meaning into English would be "Eh, it'll work". In fact, I could swear I've heard the phrase "I'm gonna let this walk for now" as in "I'm gonna let this infraction pass unpunished" in American English in a movie or something, but Google doesn't seem to be throwing up too many references for that. But you could imagine it in the same way too, as "let it walk".

OJFord 6y ago

Not helped by the vehicle analogy in the opening paragraphs, I at first thought we were talking about physical goods delivery! It seems it's जुगाड़ (IAST jugāṛ) meaning 'lifehack'.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
Arnavion 6y ago
जुगाड़ is just "kludge" / "hack" / "cobbled-together solution" / "half-baked method" in general, not "lifehack" specifically. The submission makes it out to be some amazing cultural thing, but I've more commonly heard it used with a negative connotation.
- OJFord 6y ago
  धन्यवाद, I'm learning Hindi and was just curious about what it actually meant. 'Makes it out to be some amazing cultural thing' is I suppose quite common (or substitute 'amazing' for anything broad) - 'curry' is an obvious example, it presumably comes from कढ़ी, in turn from the leaf/herb, which is one very specific (very delicious, IMO) dish, yet used over here like it just means (Indian) food. I digress. I can see why it's useful to cling to a term to discuss a phenomenon or even a non-unique idea in the context of a particular place, but really, imagine (as a non-Indian) reading this with <country> in place for 'India', and Agile (or something) for 'jugaad'. Egh. I'm all for intercultural learning or whatever, but as part of that we surely have to look at what's 'a thing' to learn and what isn't.
  - kranner 6y ago
    Curry and कढ़ी are false cognates, AFAIK. According to Wikipedia [1]: "Curry is an anglicised form of the Tamil word kaṟi meaning 'sauce' or 'relish for rice' that uses the leaves of the curry tree (Murraya koenigii). The word kari is also used in other Dravidian languages, namely in Malayalam, Kannada and Kodava with the meaning of "vegetables (or meat) of any kind (raw or boiled), curry". Kaṟi is described in a mid-17th century Portuguese cookbook by members of the British East India Company, who were trading with Tamil merchants along the Coromandel Coast of southeast India, becoming known as a "spice blend ... called kari podi or curry powder". The first known appearance in its anglicised form (spelled currey) appears in a 1747 book of recipes published by Hannah Glasse." Another theory suggests the same root, but a longer journey via Portuguese settlers: Tamil 'kaṟi' -> Portuguese 'carel' -> English 'curry' [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry#Etymology

clumsysmurf 6y ago

The first time I heard of Jugaad was in Katherine Eban's "Bottle of Lies". The book goes into the ethically dubious shortcuts taken by companies like Rambaxy to make profits, in the name of Jugaad. The broader question was whether it was just one company, or this was a cultural thing involving multiple companies. Podcast if you would like to learn more https://peterattiamd.com/katherineeban/ https://peterattiamd.com/katherineeban/

tacon 6y ago
That was also my first contact with the concept. That podcast episode is infuriating, shocking, outrageous, riveting, and in certain parts so funny I laughed out loud. Highly recommended. By the way, near the end of the (long) episode, they discuss how a generic drug consumer might mitigate the worst effects of the Indian (and Chinese) drug companies. I thought that would be an interesting startup, to track the scandals and reputations of every drug company and map to each drug they manufacture. Apparently this is a DIY endeavor at the moment. This information has recently become even more useful as the worldwide pharma industry ramps up for COVID-19 drugs, vaccines, etc.

kang 6y ago

Jugaad is just hindi for hack.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

Karupan 6y ago

The jugaad mentality may help coming up with innovative, low cost solutions to problems, but isn’t the best way to actually deliver it to a mass market.

quadrifoliate 6y ago

The less widely known and palatable truth is that jugaad is simply a way of adapting to a few hundred years of colonial exploitation [1]. Indians have built precisely engineered monuments like the Taj Mahal [2] and the Konark Sun Temple [3] in eras before India was engineered to be a vast source of raw material for the British Empire, designed for optimum extraction. Bygones are bygones, and we need to move on. However, I would urge all people who identify as Indian to reject this sense of "jugaad" as a uniquely Indian thing – it unnecessarily paints a picture of us as consistently turning out shoddy and half-baked work that will fall apart eventually. -------------- [1] http://www.nilejournal.net/politics/britain-exploited-india http://www.nilejournal.net/politics/britain-exploited-india [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konark_Sun_Temple https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konark_Sun_Temple

jojobas 6y ago
Oh come on, half of the world (US included) was colonized and optimized for resource extraction, mostly because of how far ahead British manufacturing was at the time. India as been independent for a while now, just own the half-bakedness already.
- abalaji 6y ago
  I would posit that the level of exploitation of the Indian population paled in comparison to the colonies. [citation needed] But, you are right in a sense.
  - felipelemos 6y ago
    Everything south of United States had the same or if not worse level of exploitation as a European colony. I sort of agree with parent poster, specially because most of these countries are independent for a bit longer and maybe because of that they tend to blame less the colonization (but blame still), but also because keep blaming the past (even when it is true) holds you to look forward.

ponker 6y ago

Well look at the development outcomes for India and Germany and jugaad doesn’t seem so great.

Ballu 6y ago

I used to be a fan of Jugaad concepts, but ended up (opposite end of spectrum) critique. The reason was, the concept was used by corporations as well as SME domain for cost cutting and throttling the innovation. The reason they become successful in doing this, too much focus on cheap labor. Hopefully, the concept of using the technology what we have (basic foundation of ITIL v4) to start the project, work iteratively with improvement in cycle with core focus on achieving the targets (again, core philosophy of ITIL v4) and get the product whats the need of hour. There is core similarity of JUGAAD mind set and Agile as well as modern dev-ops. Hopefully, world will take Jugaad what it was. Brief history of Jugaad (as one mentioned, means life hack): With explosive growth in '90s (and before that, controlled production of commercial vehicles in India), local mechanics started using small diesel engines or totalled vehicles engines/front body and attaching that with locally available carts. Haryana roads were full of these vehicles (before that there used to be 3 wheel tempo, which was called Jugaad as people were using that for people movement instead of freight), This thread has some good examples of Jugaads :) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commercial-vehicles/117066-jugaad.html https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commercial-vehicles/117066-ju...

draw_down 6y ago

> use whatever works without prejudice Does anyone else’s spidey senses start tingling when they read such “common sense” directives? If you’ve been around a while you know how these formulations play out, the dominant group gets their way, and don’t bother contesting it because hey man, we’re all pragmatists here! Don’t bring your dogma around here. Call me crazy but I imagine the ultimate emphasis is on the third precept, frugality.

macropusmacro 6y ago

Wasn't it Boeing's jugaad that ultimately killed 600+ people? Wasn't it ultimately due to jugaad that security breaches occur because the company wasn't willing to pay extra for good quality software? Isn't my (non-Indian) manager doing jugaad when he asks me to do the bare minimum to get the work done, so that he can complete maximum number of features so that he can get his yearly bonus?

rramadass 6y ago

A lot of the comments here are unnecessarily negative. The author has actually worked with Teams employing "Jugaad" strategy for a decade and knows what he is talking about. I will wager that most people commenting here do not have that experience. "Jugaad" is a great concept and strategy to adopt in real-life scenarios where you have to make do with what you have got. In these scenarios almost everything is lacking; not enough money, resources (human and capital), education nor Time. "Quality" is always a function of "Cost" which is a function of the above mentioned variables and thus the outcomes will vary based on the project/customer etc. Looked at in this vein, "Jugaad" makes perfect sense. Your expectations have to match reality. The trouble only happens when this mindset is perverted and you start cutting corners everywhere to the detriment of the end result.

riantogo 6y ago
I have employed “Jugaad” for multiple decades. And the comments here are correctly negative. Jugaad is what good people have to do to work a shit system. It leads to utterly unprofessional environments and is a tremendous drag on the overall system.
- superasn 6y ago
  In my opinion jugaad isn't always bad. See this for example (1), this is 100% jugaad IMO. It's only bad when you have the resources to do something and yet you choose the shit way to do it. (1) https://mothership.sg/2020/09/cd-zoom-hack-camera-teacher/ https://mothership.sg/2020/09/cd-zoom-hack-camera-teacher/
- rramadass 6y ago
  I disagree. That is a perversion of the principles and not true "Jugaad". As an example see the success of the "Generic Drug" pharmaceutical industry and how it came to be. https://blogs.deloitte.co.uk/health/2020/03/the-indian-pharmaceutical-industry-the-pharmacy-of-the-world.html https://blogs.deloitte.co.uk/health/2020/03/the-indian-pharm...
  - riantogo 6y ago

systemvoltage 6y ago

Having audited over 200 suppliers in China, I feel like the Chinese have mastered the art of "Jugaad". Absolutely brilliant, wreckless and dangerous violations/innovations I've ever witnessed in my life. Commonly known in the west as Redneck Engineering and Jerry-rigging. I think every culture has some sort of a "Jugaad", this isn't something specific to India besides the etymology.

rramadass 6y ago
This is exactly right! What the author has done is to distill some principles from practice so as to build a possible "methodology".
BrandoElFollito 6y ago
In France we call it a "temporary solution" to highlight the greatness of the permanent one. My children go to the temporary school I attended 30 years ago.

Brajeshwar 6y ago

I like Jugaad as the quick prototypical research tool. Cliché but it has its place as the pirates' way. It is a means (not an end) that needs to graduate to the ways of the Navy. I also love to leverage the straight-forwardness of the west, and the finesse, artistry, and craft of the Japanese culture. Here is a book about the slow rise and success of Bigbasket[1] in India - Saying No to Jugaad: The Making of Bigbasket[2]. 1. https://www.bigbasket.com https://www.bigbasket.com 2. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52560378-saying-no-to-jugaad https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52560378-saying-no-to-ju...

kjsingh 6y ago

Jugaad == patchwork?