Jugaad Innovation: Think Frugal, Be Flexible, Generate Breakthrough Growth

Chapter Two

Principle One

Seek Opportunity in Adversity

It has done me good to be somewhat parched by the heat and drenched by the rain of life.

—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

In the late 1980s, Tulsi Tanti moved to Surat, in the Indian state of Gujarat, to set up a textile unit. Like other entrepreneurs in India, Tanti found himself faced with infrastructural bottlenecks. The biggest of these was the power supply. Expensive and unpredictable, power proved a major barrier to growth. His profit margins were only around 5 percent, while energy accounted for a staggering 40 to 50 percent of total operating costs.

Instead of giving in to this problem, Tanti focused on finding a solution to it. He began to experiment with various types of boilers. He ...