JUGAAD, The penny-pinching novelty

Junaid Shaida
The need of the point in time and the guarded resources often drive people innovatively. When needs of result spur up, at times where planning and predictability fall apart, the traditional attire of mindset often comes-up with the upshot that outplays all. The contemporary era is feint by paucity, so need of optimal utilization of the scare resources we have with us arises to run the show. Traditions and the line of evolution have always been vital factors to harness novelty.
“The term Jugaad hits the mind of a layman as the idea of monkey business, pranks and has off-putting association pertaining with it”. But the populaces of management have high regards towards Jugaad, as the result driven innovation, an attitude to pull off the results with almost nothing or constrained store in a short cross of time. Jugaad, a Hindi term reflects a witty and intellectual elucidation at times of adversity. Making due what one has and solving seemingly insolvable problems is the upshot of it, thus establishing jugaad as a ground-breaking style. A discounted interim solution for most of the problems by maximum utilization of the presented resources with creative inputs is the essence of the jugaad. Jugaad isn’t really a new concept; it is an ancient Indian management technique which signifies attaining any objective with the available resources at hand. The practitioner of Jugaad exercise the combination of present knowledge and innovation in utilizing whatever resources may be at hand without waiting for additional resources. It is result based rather than process based one. The quintessence of Jugaad is to improvise, and to cobble a solution quickly and economically together from the wherewithal’s available. Jugaadis, The practitioner of Jugaad can perform any kind of job and have the ability to go through cracks and find a mode or to improvise in the fickle times. From efficient utilization of time and resources to role in promoting innovation, jugaad finds its feat in general to the specific big business. When quandary seems perplexing and there seems no way out, it the clout of jugaad that boost up Jugaadis that no matter what adversity or odds prevail it will help them to innovate and find a way out. That is the real beat that keeps the floor to run the show. We can neither plan a system nor can predict for the jugaad attire but it impels itself at time of need and appears with an efficient resolution.
However Jugaad can confer the quick-fix but happens to be flaccid in the enduring if not propped up aptly. As a coin has a flip side, so does Jugaad, it has an immediate solution to a “problem” and not to a “crisis”. It can be of help in a situation where the problem could be averted or solved and hence saving the whole from the crisis. The downbeat of the practice is that neither can anything be taken as for granted, nor can something be predicted and upon that planning seems to be not in attendance. Which mirrors that outcome seems to be dicey, if the outcome is in line of our favour, we say jugaad is of first-rate if not then it moves the other way. Besides people feel that it blurs the line between legal and illegality, although the thin line in-betweens have been redressed as firms have legal advisors who help them to abide by the law while practicing the Jugaad. The only need is to polish the line, which makes division in-between the legal and illegal phases lucid so that to the practice augments to the standard in applicability.
Although lacking the technical route and strategically naïve, Jugaad still finds it acts as the art of doing more with less. Existing state of affairs pictures that emerging markets face scarcity on a grand scale and across the board. Hence green signalling this approach to find hold in Indian simply because nation has scarcity and unpredictability in space. This jugaad stance can push back a major predicament, but when the jugaad, a quick-fix if sponsored by course-corrections can have magical upshot in the long-run. Thus settling its drawback of being of interim applies. Section of people seems to be bigoted towards Jugaad as it thwarts the traditionally held beliefs of management. Despite its certain faults, Jugaad if used vigilantly and with proficiency could be like the genie in the magic lamp. Even though with appearances of something completely basic but if polished the right way jugaad is unquestionably capable of creating wonders. We have to harness it so that it takes us forward not to keep scratching the jugaad the whole lot. It can be a combat tool for short-term supervision, but for long term it needs to be backed-up. Hence focus should be on smoothing the fray ends of the jugaad oriented result. The byproduct of Jugaad shouldn’t be left as it is. It should be worked upon to enhance it. Let’s spot it as an attribute and turn it into strength by bringing its cons to a standstill through a back-up scientific mode to make it a parcel of long-term strategic map.
(The author is Research Scholar @ Lovely Professional University Punjab.)