Interview with the Expert: Prof. Ignatius Rasiah on Frugal Innovation
Interview by Anne Lochoff
We know frugal, we know innovation. But what really is frugal innovation?
We had the privilege of getting insights from the expert — Mr. Ignatius Rasiah, professor at the Institute of Engineering Leadership (IEL) in the Faculty of Engineering, National University of Singapore. He is a seasoned Head of Business and Technology Development with more than 20 years’ experience in establishing and leading regional & global technology teams, and centers that innovate commercially viable product platforms & business models. He also has a proven track record of working with technology leaders in industry to form future needs into technology roadmaps while driving organic growth internally.
Our conversation with Ignatius demystified frugal innovation:
What is your definition of Frugal Innovation?
Frugal Innovation is all about “doing more with less”.
Social enterprises big and small as well as start-ups and even large corporations are under some form of constraint, whether they be financial, social, environmental or the physical circumstances of the situation. They all need to develop Frugal solutions for their needs and problems by doing more with less.
Emerging markets are often the source of Frugal Innovations. People in these markets are forced to create more value with less in order to overcome significant local constraints. In recent times, however, resources are becoming increasingly limited even in developed economies as well. Consequently, firms in developed economies are also faced with a similar mantra — “doing more with less”. Thus, Frugal Innovation have also become relevant to Multinationals and Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as they continue to become more efficient and ingenious by adopting Frugal principles with ways of doing more with less.
Can you share a case study from the Frugal Innovation programme that illustrates the great contribution engineers can make to sustainable solutions?
We have a number of examples. One in particular looked into stakeholders working with the disabled community as well as in urban farming. Engineers and post-graduate students from other disciplines spent time with the various stakeholders and understood their needs. Their knowledge from both the technical as well as the social aspects was able to help them design a sustainable business model for engaging the disabled community to be actively engaged in fruitful work that help provide seedlings to the urban farming community… a Win-Win solution for the stakeholders.
How can individuals/companies/organisations become involved in the Frugal Innovation programme?
There are a number of ways that society can get involved with the Frugal Innovation programme. Some examples are as follows;
a) Students can join this very experiential programme to not only study, but experience Frugal Innovation and they could even decide to take on the project beyond the course to start a sustainable social enterprise.
b) Companies have developed a relationship with us and even put together their frugal needs into a project and propose it for one of our courses.
c) Similarly, we have welcomed organizations like Asia P3Hub to begin a conversation with us to understand how we could work with each other and leverage our combined strengths. This may lead to a project where it could eventually become a sustainable solution with a societal impact.
What happens to the projects that are studied in the Frugal Innovation programme?
All our projects come from stakeholders who own the project. These include social enterprises, companies and non-governmental organizations. The good work done by the project team members are normally handed to the stakeholders who then continue to implement the changes/proposals. In this manner, we are able to contribute in a positive manner to society.
How important is multi-sector partnership to the success of your students projects?
No single problem or project is solely a technical or social problem. Every project is a multi-disciplinary problem which usually needs a multi sector study. This is leads to a multi-faceted solution that needs a multi sector engagement to solve the problem. Thus, we cannot do our projects without multi sector partnerships.
Reach out to him via LinkedIn.
About the Interviewer
Anne Lochoff is one of 9 Women rated as the Top Global Influencers of Tech Innovation in Cities by Inc.com in 2016. Common strengths in strategy, design and technology integration run through Anne’s career. While intersecting across government, academia, business and NGO’s.
Currently consulting as a strategic business advisor to the Executive Director of the World Vision hosted Asia P3 Hub based in Singapore. She is also the former chair and business advisor at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Beachheads network.
As a former Executive Director at McCann Erickson she was part of the global team managing the MasterCard account for APMEA (Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa).
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