Anecdote

The Indian Jugaad

02/06/09 21:34

I'ts always great fun hearing about friends and colleague's latest cross-cultural encounters. Especially the stories that are uniquely characteristic of a particular culture. For example, The Swedes have their lagom, the Korean's their kibun. And lest us not forget the importance of Ordung to the Germans, or hyggae to the Danes.

A colleague of mine, Michael Gates - Managing Director of Richard Lewis Communications - recently was in India when he encountered an equipment malfunction right before a major presentation. Apparently the projection screen was stuck. Unless something was done ASAP half of each slide would not be seen by most the audience. Michael's presentation was to begin in just a few minutes.

In hopes of avoiding impending doom, Michael located the hotel's one and only technician and made a desperate plea for help. But the screen was huge and heavy. Probably circa 1975, it had a construction that was more steel than aluminum. It was nearly impossible to maneuver, even with Michael's assistance.

All seemed to be lost when to Michael's delight the room came alive. Kitchen staff, custodial help, and even hotel management appeared out of nowhere to rearrange furniture and scavage for anything that could help bolster and raise the screen. Tables were recovered with fresh new tableclothes while the banging of nails and shuffling of propping devices consumed everyone's energy.

Then, without missing a beat, the screen was one meter higher, as if it had always been that way. And a beat later, the ad-hoc fixit team disappeared as quickly as they had arrived. That was when Michael first noticed the Rube Goldbergesque creation assembled to keep the screen in place. Pieces of rope, wood scraps, and a few bits of nails and staples all helped to secure that extra one meter for the remainder of the day.

Later that night Michael asked his Indian hosts about all this flurry of activity and make-shift solution. In a rather matter-of-fact tone, his host told him that it was simply jugaad, that's all.

Best described as a sort of hurried collective resourcefulness, jugaad is a Hindi word meaning to find an alternative, lateral thought out solution - which somehow works against the odds, by acting before the proper means can be put in place, maybe using your connections, and possibly bending some rules along the way.

A jugaad as it turns out is also the name of a vehicle that people in small Indian villages often make out of spare parts from a junkyard, and an engine made from the diesel pump used for irrigating their fields. Alas, it is not uncommon for the brakes to fall off. As further evidence of that "good 'ole jugaad", it's also not uncommon for a passenger to jump off, and apply a manual wooden block as a brake.

For a high tech jugaad solution, one needs to look no further than the hysterical 2007 movie "Outsourced". The convoluted wiring connections required to get power and the Internet to an office building jugaad as it gets. If a picture is worth a thousand words, than the visual of that cabling nightmare is worth a thousand laughs.

Jugaad in Business?

Jugaad can also be seen in the context of management. While ingenuity and innovation is core to our culture here in Silicon Valley, we are at times bound by our corporate structures and processes. Jugaad on the other hand requires people to use skills outside their direct responsibilities, while requiring strong collaborative skills. The raising of the screen Michael witnessed was indeed Jugaad at its best.

In fact, a recent comparative report by McKinsey on the relative strengths of India and China identified Indian flexibility as a key ‘soft competitive edge’.

In our current economic situation, flexibility and resourcefulness are virtues worth extolling. We can learn a lot from India. Not to mention Michael.

Tags: jugaad India

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