On foresight and innovation: Jugaad jiayóu!

“Action stations!” here at Pickard Towers.

Emerging, bleary-eyed, from the other side of the 2012 Duke TIP Futures Institute, and before throwing myself back into the fray for a second session, I wanted to take a moment to flag my co-instructor Scott Smith’s after-action report – laying out some of the scaffolding and topics, student project details, and what we, as instructional staff, are taking away from the experience.

One of the most significant thinks I took from our fortnight together was the emphasis on non-market and informal innovation, including a closer look at those activities that sneak under the radar, or emerge from the struggle and foment at the bottom of the pyramid. Ultimately, it’s all about the next billion(s).

Combine that with this trailer for Kickstartered book-turned-media-channel The Misfit Economy (2013) …

… newly-certified crazy person Tobias Revell‘s final-year Design Interactions project, ‘New Mumbai’ …

… a kick-ass talk from IBM Research’s Steve Daniels on innovation under conditions of scarcity …

… and the fact that I’m starting a PhD in Sustainability & Innovation in the autumn, as part of a project on climate-linked uncertainty in South Asia … and, well, things start to get interesting.

“Jugaad jiayóu!”

Jugaad jiayóu: a hybrid phrase, made by mashing Hindi and Mandarin together; a solid translation of which would be “refuel your bodged, faintly perilous custom vehicle!”

Now, I suspect this is an attitude to innovation (and development) that we’ll see more and more, particularly as power begins to shift from America and Europe to the BRICSAM nations.

Best set of tools for the 2010s? Direct eye contact, jazz hands, and a heap of electrical tape. After all, what could possibly go wrong?