Frugal Innovation – Its Concept & Attributes of Success; Learning Lessons for Western MNCs

Frugal Innovation is an emerging trend as affordability has become a major constraint on purchasing behaviour of the growing population of emerging/developed economies. The Westerns MNCs are good at innovation; however working in a resource-constrained environment requires extra challenges. The success of frugal innovation depends on the ability to sense the local needs and translating them into low cost products without compromising on quality. Using four case examples of Mettler Toledo Basic Weighing Scale, GE"s Portable Ultrasound Machine, Haier"s Mini Magic Child and Philips Bedside Patient Monitoring System, the research findings reveal that the firms which are aware of the difference between developed and developing markets and are more flexible and adaptive can have more opportunities to capture the market