The opportunity to access technology is increasing day by day around the world, which now offers the opportunity for innovation to everyone.
Frugal innovation is using human skill to create faster, better and cheaper solutions. Financial services, health, education and energy are the main application areas.
We can briefly define frugal innovation as the ability to produce more with less. So; minimizes the use of dwindling resources such as energy, time and capital. Frugal innovation refers to a new mindset that sees resource scarcity as an opportunity, not an obstacle. In this way, it is more than a conventional business strategy.
Frugal innovation means reducing the product to essential functions that are really needed and important. These essential functions and features are of high quality, robust and durable. It is designed to be easy and simple to use and to require minimal maintenance. Products are environmentally friendly and sustainable due to their design and quality. Frugal innovation is ecologically, economically and socially sustainable.
Aetna, Fujitsu, General Electric (GE), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Pearson, PepsiCo, Renault-Nissan, Siemens and Unilever are examples of good practice. These companies make serious efforts to incorporate frugal innovation processes and a frugal mindset into their organizations.
Frugal innovation has a strategic importance in terms of sustainable development goals aimed to be achieved worldwide. Everyone has some responsibilities at this point. It is necessary to use the dwindling resources of our world, such as energy and capital, more carefully, in short, to be frugal. While doing this, care should be taken to create sustainable values by considering the interests of the society. Doing more with less and doing better should be the ultimate goal. It is possible to develop a frugal innovation model by producing simple and plain solutions.