Outthinkers #71—Simone Ahuja: Integrating Jugaad Innovation into Your Organization
Dr. Simone Ahuja is the founder of Blood Orange, a global innovation and strategy firm headquartered in Minneapolis, USA. She is co-author of the international bestseller, Jugaad Innovation, called “the most comprehensive book yet on the subject” on frugal innovation by the Economist. This practical innovation playbook makes clear how and why leaders must support the passionate and purpose-driven “intrapreneurs” inside their organizations to drive innovation and achieve sustainable growth.
Dr. Ahuja has served as an advisor to MIT’s Practical Impact Alliance and Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge. She provides innovation and strategy advisory and consulting services to organizations including 3M, UnitedHealth Group, Procter & Gamble, Target Corp, Stanley Black & Decker, and the World Economic Forum.
Dr. Ahuja is a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and a practitioner of improvisational comedy.
In this podcast, she shares:
- Why severe resource constraints often activate intrapreneurship and innovation
- Three things you need to put in place to unlock greater levels of internal innovation
- Why bottom-up innovation is so important to include in your portfolio of innovation approaches
- The mindset shift leaders and intrapreneurs should make to unlock greater levels of internal innovation
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-Simone Ahuja
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Episode Timeline:
00:00—Introducing Simone + The topic of today’s episode
2:05—If you really know me, you know that...
3:14—What is your definition of strategy?
6:24—Simone's biggest pet peeve
6:54—Where do you see the link between strategy and innovation being broken?
9:28—Could you talk about your idea of intrapreneurship?
11:50—Could you explain the concept of "juugad"?
15:06—Can you give us examples of these internal intrapreneurs who practice juugad innovation?
18:33—What is something I haven't asked you'd like to talk about?
22:02—How do you solve for intrapreneurial experience to encourage their abilities?
24:32—Where can people follow you and keep learning from you?
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Additional Resources:
Personal Page: https://simoneahuja.com/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-simone-ahuja-6b93a52/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/simoneahuja?lang=en
Thank you to our guests, thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening.
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