By Mr. Rohit Dubepatil (Director – Orah Nutrichem Pvt. Ltd.

You can also access the audio book of this handbook.

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_______________________________________________________ Chapter 1.

is Design Thinking?
You will find a very elaborate and complex definition for design thinking. But let me introduce you to the simplest way
to understand what design Thinking is?

“Finding simpler solutions to complex Problems is Design Thinking.”

Design Thinking
– DT is a structured stepwise guide Attentive Approach & Motivated Thinking leading to Accomplishments!!
– Design Thinking is a Problem-Solving Tool. It helps you simplify your problem.
– It guides you to simplify the process of Innovation
– Design Thinking is for betterment of Leadership, Life and Legacy

Thus, DT helps us to redesign the way we think.

Do you even feel that we need to design our thinking process? When was the last time you were taught how to think?

While growing up we all intuitively assumed that only by gaining experience can we think more clearly. No, that's not
correct. Thinking is a Science!!

Thinking can be defined as follows - Designed Discipline leading to Dedication that Creates Devotion!!

You all might have observed babies who crawl and put almost anything in their mouth whatever they see. But then
parents or closed one’s guide them and make them understand “Not to do this”. When that child is grown up do you
think he will put anything lying on the ground into his mouth? Obviously not, because his thinking process is designed,
he knows what to do. This is just one scenario, now look at the next one.

Imagine a lady is sitting in a garden and her baby is playing in the grass and suddenly she sees a most dangerous and
poisonous snake approaching towards her baby. Who do you think will get scared and take the required actions? Of
course, the mommy, since she knows that the snake is poisonous, may bite and harm his baby. She knows this because
her thinking is designed in that manner. While the baby doesn’t know what the snake is, he might hold the snake and
then snake in defence can bite the baby. Since, the baby’s thinking process is not designed yet may not be able to save
itself.

Can you all now gauge what impact the thinking process has in our life?

People may say I don’t feel the need to design my thinking process, I know how to think i am not a kiddo any more. But
they don’t realize that the thinking process which they have acquired is just based upon the “Experience” and they
lack “Perspective”.

“Design Thinking” says that perspective should be valued more than “Experience”. If a person wants to be “Creative”
& “Innovative” in life then a unique amalgamation of “Perspective” & “Experience” is must to happen.
I know it’s difficult to carry “Experience” and “Perspective” hand in hand. Since, the moment when “Experience” is
valued more. The “Perspective seeps out. Leading to a stage where the “Creativity & Innovation” are killed.

Now, you might think that, we learn from our or other’s experiences then how can valuing it more kills the “Creativity”
& “Innovation”?

You all are absolutely right. Experience is Important but valuing it more will constrict your ability to think and you may
think in a very “Uni-directional” manner and lose to achieve an holistic approach.

Say, for example: If you're a manufacturer and you have developed a very potent product which is very costly for the
existing market. And on the basis of your experiences, you might feel that this product might fail in the market due to
lack of it’s cost effectiveness. You might try to reduce the operational cost by optimizing the process, you might try to
start manufacturing the raw materials at your own facility rather than importing it. In order to make your product cost-
effective.

But a person with a unique combination of Perspective and Experience will say that I know the market requires cost-
effective products. And I have designed My product to be cost-effective. Let me explain to you how, my product is
very potent thus the dosage requirement is very less which will lead to cost-effectiveness.

Amongst these 2 approaches which one seems more simple and most creative and Innovative of course the 2nd
Approach. Once again, I would like to reiterate what DT says “Most Complex Problems have simple solutions”.

This is a reason why Innovation fails and many products remain stagnant at the research phase only and can’t find
their way towards “Commercialization”.

is it Design Thinking?

DT helps in Designing your thinking by adopting a systematic and Systemic approach in place of a more common
sense and gut feel/Six Sense driven approach.

History of Design Thinking?

– In the 1960s Design was studied to make it scientific; “Wicked Problems” is coined by Horst Rittlel; Herbert Simon
mentions design as a way of thinking in “Sciences of the Artificial”.
– In 1980s study of designers (Visual) and Scientists- Solution focused vs Problem focused- Problem Solvers
– 1987 - “Design Thinking” is published by Pete Rowe of Harvard.
– 1991 - Ideo and D.School of Stanford popularize the term.
_______________________________________________________ Chapter 2.

Design thinking is a creative, systematic and human-centered approach of problem-solving.

It can be adopted in situations ranging from new product development to meaningfully addressing your everyday
problems that can be used to create innovative solutions. It is an incremental process that involves Empathy,
understanding and defining a problem statement, brainstorming solutions, prototyping and testing, and iterating until
the best solution is found.

Your favourite phone apple is the best example of a design thinking products – they understood the requirements of
customers really well and see what's the result.

The evolution of Design Thinking stems from the fact that inventions, innovations, products and services need to be
more Human-Centric and should be caring for the ecosystem. They should be creating delight for end users and
researchers alike.

So what’s Innovation & The Challenges of Innovation

Creativity made practical is Innovation!! To be successful, an innovation process must deliver three things:

– Superior solutions,
– Lower risks and costs of change, and
– Employee buy-in.

A successful Innovation is a good combination of 3 aspects

1. Collaboration – the entire ecosystem of Innovation should be DELIGHTED!!

2. Solution – the final solution should make the end user feel GREAT!!
3. Customization – the final product makes everyone feel IMPACTED!!

For becoming a good Innovator you should start understanding the Consumer Preferences. You should be doing a
“NEED” Research before the actual Product Research.

Let’s look at the 5 elements of Design Thinking

1. Empathize
2. Define
3. Ideate
4. Prototype
5. Test
Empathy is the first step of Design Thinking.

A lot of people are confused between Empathy and Sympathy. Empathy means that you can get out of your skin and
feel what someone else feels, while sympathy involves understanding someone else’s emotions but from your own
perspective.

In Science Empathy is understanding the needs of the end user properly and then coming up with Innovation!!

Which means you need to understand market needs (PAUSE) which also means you need to speak to consumers or
the end users. When you empathize with the other person’s point of view you can hear it and integrate it. For being a
sympathizer, you need to be curious, a good listener wanting to get more information from others.

Empathy is at the core of design thinking and of a human centric approach to problem solving. You need to almost live
the life of a customer to get in their shoes.

Your great idea would have no meaning if it does not resolve your customer’s pain points. An empathetic approach
fuels our process by ensuring we never forget we are designing our innovations for real people and that’s the consumer.

Tata Nano was a great example of Product Innovation. An engineering marvel.

But they failed to realize that the Marketing as Cheapest Car made it socially unacceptable. In India Car is a Symbol
of Status. So while the Innovation was great and much required it could not sustain in the market. Had they promoted
it after understanding Consumer Insights it would have been a Great Success!!

- Creativity made practical is Innovation!!

And practical needs of consumers can be identified only through understanding them with greatest details through a
systematic method, being observant, being objective oriented and detailed listening. MOOD!!

– M : Methodical
– O : Observant
– O : Objective
– D : Detailing

Experts say that more than 80% of communication is non-verbal. So be Observant!! One way of making sense of the
whole customer is through the empathy map. These visual tools help capture what the customer says, does, feels and
thinks about an issue or an existing solution.

Once the empathy map has been developed. Now it’s time to prepare a “Customer Persona”. A Customer Persona is
where you actually sketch how and what your customer would think??
Define is a stage in design thinking where you correctly define a problem statement!!

After you have Empathized, then comes Framing a Problem Statement. So remember well!! In Design Thinking, Well
Problemed is Half Done!!

Apple is a Classic Example of what can happen if a PROBLEM is well defined. While Apple was busy selling I-Pods,
Blackberry was ruling the market. It was seconded by companies such as Samsung, Nokia etc. Each had one feature.
Apple is a Classic Case of Design Thinking. Their Consumer Insights were great. They defined the need (ie. Problem
Statement ) aptly.

They came up with a phone that had sleek design, touch screen, music, speed etc. And look at the results. Apple is not
only a brand but it has Cult Following. It is extremely important to make a clear understandable problem statement.
Only an an understandable problem statement creates an achievable Solution.

So a Problem Statement is extremely important to know what you’re exactly solving.

So let me tell you an interesting story to understand how IMPORTANT is Problem Statement Let's take a comparison
between Apple and Nokia – Nokia was a leading handset manufacturer when Apple was nothing in Mobiles. Nokia was
happy selling heavy, small, sturdy and price effective mobiles.

But in the PROBLEM STATEMENT OF APPLE it was clear that people are now moving towards Aspirational Brands,
Inspirational Products that are Versatile (All in One)

The next major hallmark in this stage is to pick the problem worth solving. Design thinking is about FOCUS.

Focus, speaking to your customer and choosing the correct problem is the pre-research before your actual research.
So, research before the research!! In pursuit of your research, you will come across various problems and opportunities,
but remember to be intelligent enough to FOCUS. FOCUS will give you an understanding to choose the right option.

So, let’s look at three GOLDEN rules useful in prioritizing problems are as follows:

– Not every problem is worth solving.

– Not every problem is solvable.
– A problem fully understood is half solved.

So, let’s try making some problem statements together. For instance, which of the two statements inspire more:

A. How might we eradicate the use of harmful synthetic antioxidants (BHT, TBHQ etc) from the length and breadth
of India?
B. How might we supply natural 100% bioactive antioxidant to every manufacturing facility in India?

Perhaps statement A is more inspirational, because it talks about the ultimate impact. Going after a problem where
you can make the greatest impact is as useful in design thinking as in life. A good problem statement should consider
all possible impediments and constraints. All logical impediments should be listed down so that it would be easy to
approach the solution.
A. How might we eradicate the use of harmful synthetic antioxidants (BHT, TBHQ etc) from the length and breadth
of India?
B. How might we eradicate the use of harmful synthetic antioxidants (BHT, TBHQ etc) from the length and breadth
of India without letting surge the cost of overall product?

This time it is B.
Constraints and Impediments well defined.

Framing a problem statement is an art and it can be learned and improved with practice consider the following two
problem statements:

A. How might we replace the synthetic vitamin E with natural vitamin E?

B. How might we replace the synthetic vitamin E with natural vitamin E without increasing the cost of the product?

Which of the two problem statements would yield better ideas, probably statement B. The second framing has a
constraint in it which makes the problem more real and hence would result in high yield ideas as compared to the first
framing.

Once again read the following two problem statements:

A. How might we replace the synthetic vitamin E with natural vitamin E without increasing the cost of the product?
B. How might we reduce the dosage of natural vitamin E, in order to replace the synthetic vitamin E (100% bioactive)
without increasing the cost of the product?

This time statement A is best suited. Because there is an issue with the second problem statement the issue is that it
has an answer embedded within the problem statement “ Dose reduction and 100% bioactive” this answer would
narrow down the possible ideas because now the problem solvers would think very much along the lines of “Dosage
Reduction and 100% bioactive” and could possibly miss out on other more elegant ways of addressing the issues such
as optimization of extraction process involved in extraction of natural vitamin E, develop own facilities to produce raw
materials instead of importing it etc. All these ideas can also decrease the cost of the product.

Please remember clearly – a problem statement should only be a problem statement – no solution included in it.

Problem Statement framing criteria must be both brief and explicit so that you do not suffer from either type 1 (failed
idea) or type 2 (missed idea) errors.
Ideate is a stage in design thinking where a solution is proposed or probable solutions are proposed!!
This is Stage at which a Solution is proposed So far, we have understood how to develop the consumer insights and
frame problems that are worth solving.

So, let’s look at what are the best ways to come to a solution;
1. List down all possible ideas – build a pipeline of ideas
2. Brainstorm well around these – mind it – you have to brainstorm and not chit-chat
3. Remember the most important aspect - key to powerful ideas is perseverance

Also Note that Ideas make themselves apparent more slowly gradually

Look at Oyo, their problem statement was well defined – now they came up with a solution. Without owning
a single hotel, they are the one with Largest Room Inventory. Same goes with Uber and Ola.

One of the biggest misconceptions about creativity is that it takes a brilliant idea to solve a complex problem. Almost
all organizations worldwide have come up with their own approaches to idea generation using brainstorming.

They’ve experienced different levels of success on the power of brainstorming in setting an innovation culture. A
regular brainstorming is as critical to a TEAM as regular exercise is to your health.

The most appropriate size is a group of two to discuss an idea. Well defined team, well defined time leads to well
defined tangible outcomes.
“We should bear in mind that not all innovative ideas are successful, and we should not jump to the conclusion that a
failure means that this is not the way to go”

So what’s PROTOTYPING

– Prototyping is to create a miniature skeleton model of your final product.

– Prototype is done to understand improvisations required in your final product.

Prototyping is about 3 important things

1. Fail Fast
2. Learn Faster
3. Recover Fastest

So, you learn fast from your early failures to recover and deliver the final product. Prototyping is important to get early
consumer feedback and iterate based on it. Prototype can be best defined as a 70% final product with 30% scope for
improvement. When prototypes are given to Consumers for Testing it becomes the TEST Stage of Design Thinking
(SMILE) SIMPLE!!

In the Testing Stage, all observations and feedback are noted for further improvement.
_______________________________________________________ Chapter 3.

Design Thinking is a human - centered approach in which attributes such as insights, emotion and visual design play a
key role. Scientific processes focus on tangible, objective and measurable results. Design Thinking starts with a
Problem, it tests assumptions about the solution to the problem and creates innovative solutions to things that do not
exist yet. Scientific education starts with a question, it tests hypotheses and looks at what is already existing. You could
say that design thinking imagines the future and the scientific process examines the past (or observable).

Looking at the steps of Design Thinking and the scientific process there are a few similarities and differences.

Researchers start by asking questions and following their curiosity. Design Thinkers start by empathizing with the
people they are designing for. They use their curiosity to step into the shoes of others so they can identify with what it
is to experience this problem.

When scientists have formulated a question, they start to research how others have answered this question and how
they can add to gaps in the knowledge around the topic. After designers have empathized with their users, they will
start to define the problem more clearly, so they are solving the right problem. This problem might be quite different
to what you started with. In this phase, designers also record what requirements are needed in the solution.

Designers brainstorm different solutions to the problem and choose the solution they think is best to start building in
as a prototype. Scientists in this phase will formulate hypotheses around their research question. These hypotheses
will be tested during the experiment.

Designers brainstorm different solutions to the problem and choose the solution they think is best to start building in
as a prototype. Scientists in this phase will formulate hypotheses around their research question. These hypotheses
will be tested during the experiment.

During the test phase in design thinking the data is gathered and interpreted. This is like the analysis phase in research
where you interpret the results of your experiment. As Mentioned before, design thinking is an iterative process. Within
one design project designers go back and forth between the phases. Even though the scientific process is mostly
displayed as a linear process, scientists will tell you that it is an iterative process.

– Courtesy: Leiden Learning & Innovation Centre

The use of imagination or original ideas to create something.

Or

Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in
solving problems, communicating with others, and creating delight for ourselves and others.

Three reasons why people are motivated to be creative;

1. Need for novel, varied, and complex stimulation

2. Need to communicate ideas and values
3. Need to solve problems

In order to be creative, you need to be able to view things in new ways or from a different perspective. Among other
things, you need to be able to generate new possibilities or new alternatives. Test of creativity is the ability to think in
very many ways and yet be unique.

Creativity requires you to be adaptable, disciplined and observant.

The simplest definition - Creativity made Practical is Innovation.

A new idea that betters an existing product or service is incremental innovation; and a new idea that replaces an
existing product or service is disruptive innovation.

Innovation is adding Value or Creating Delight for the Consumer.

Electric Cars

1. Incremental Innovation: The term “incremental innovation” refers to a series of small improvements made to a
company’s existing products or services.

You have developed an “Antioxidant Ingredient (ORAH VIT E)” and then by working & innovating the
formulation you are launching a new product called “ORAH Glo E” with additional benefits such as Skin Radiance,
and Skin Brightening effects. Additionally, it can also be used as an “Anti-melasmic agent”.
2. Disruptive Innovation: Disruptive innovation is innovation that creates a new market and value network or enters
at the bottom of an existing market and eventually displaces established market-leading firms, products, and
alliances.

Imagine you are an Manufacturer of Food Ingredients and then you come up with the most potent and
versatile cosmetic ingredient to start a new venture in the “Cosmetic Industry”.

While we understand Innovation, let's also quickly glance at the definitions of Invention,
Discovery and Research.

: The process of creating something that never pre-existed

Airplane made by the Wright brothers is an Invention

: Discovery is the act of detecting something new, or something previously unrecognized as

meaningful.

Gravity by Issac Newton

: Research is the pathway for Invention, Innovation & Discovery

The process being followed for making an innovation successful is Research

_______________________________________________________ Chapter 4.

: The people who actually use your product/services.

: The people who buy your product/services but might not be your end users.

: The people who are the end users but might have not purchased the product/services.

If you are a manufacturer of cosmetic ingredients and you supply your ingredient to XYZ Company's
Purchase person called “Mr. Sanjay Jadhav”. Once, the ingredient is purchased by the purchase department then it is
used in formulating a “Sunscreen” by the Production Head “Mr. Ravi Jain”. This “Sunscreen” is then sold in the market
to the masses.

Here,

– Mr.Sanjay Jadhav is a Customer.

– Mr. Ravi Jain is a User
– Masses are the End Users / Consumers

By now you all might have understood the importance of “Empathy”. For any “New Product Development” getting
market insights and knowing your Customer/Consumers very well is the most important thing to do.

Consider Mr. Ravi is an R&D head and he feels that people now-a days are using sunscreen a lot so he
decided to formulate a sunscreen with 35 SPF. But his product failed in the market. Can anyone guess why this might
have happened?

He didn’t understand what his end users/consumers really need – People prefer a natural sunscreen cream with SPF
50 or more with add on benefits such as Sunscreen with Moisturizing benefits.

In Empathy Maps, you will have to empathize with the End User/Consumer and the Customers as well.

Till now, whenever we have to take Market/ Consumer insights we generally opt for “Online Surveys” but it has a major
disadvantage of getting biased results. So, To know your consumers you need to go talk to some of them, make them
comfortable with you and then conduct an “Empathetic Interview” with them. During the interview you need to be very
methodical, observant, objective oriented and go into each and every detailing.
This Interview questionnaire will involve various types of questions such as ;
– Leading questions,
– Probing questions,
– Open ended questions,
– Close ended questions, and
– Factual questions.

These will help you gauge all the following insights;

1. Identify the true and unmet needs of consumer

2. Validate the assumptions about the consumer’s likes & dislikes.
3. When we are not the user of the product, then empathy interviews provide insights into solutions that you could
not have imagined.
4. Outline potential demand and give correct data about the consumer pulse.
5. Consumer’s buying and spending behaviour etc.

Now, let me guide you through various Interview questions.

: A leading question is a question that suggests a particular answer and contains information the
interviewer is looking to have confirmed.

: A probing question is an open-ended question that nudges prospects toward revealing more
information about their situation. it's a type of question designed to encourage deeper thinking
and elicit detailed information.

: An open-ended question is a question that cannot be answered with a "yes" or "no" response, or
with a static response. Open-ended questions are phrased as a statement which requires a
longer answer.

: Close ended questions are defined as question types that ask respondents to choose from a
distinct set of predefined responses, such as “yes/no” or among set multiple choice questions.

: Factual questions are used to establish basic facts and to review concepts.

During the Interview process you will get a lot of information which has to be simplified and interpreted. So here, the
Empathy map comes in the picture. It acts as a guiding tool to provide insights into what your consumer Thinks & Feel,
See, Hear, Do & Say.
Once, you have interpreted what your consumer needs and you know your consumer very well. Then it’s time to
prepare the “Consumer Persona Sketch”.

So why is there a need for “Persona Sketch”.

Since, not every consumer is the same, they are from various socio-economic strata, they have different buying and
spending behaviour, different likes and dislikes. Now it's very important to classify your consumers on the basis of the
same. Here, Consumer Persona will act as your saviour which will provide an in-depth understanding about your
targeted consumers.

Sr.
Parameters Details
No.

1. Market size (as per example given above in Market Trends)

2. Age
3. Gender
4. Profession
5. Location (where is your target audience located)
6. Educational background
7. Experience
8. Job responsibilities
9. Pain points
10. Communication preferences (for eg. social media, print media etc)
11. Buying behaviour
12. Needs that consumer is unaware of
13. Assumptions about the consumer
14. Actual reality
15. Demand of consumer

Consumer Persona can include many other parameters and can change according to your products &
services. The table about is specific for students pertinent to their research projects.
_______________________________________________________ Chapter 5.

Now while we have learnt so much - let's look at the tools to be a successful Design Thinker. Keeping your MOOD
Upright is the best tool to be a Design Thinker. So, What’s MOOD??

– M : Methodical
– O : Observant
– O : Objective
– D : Detailing

The Outcome of MOOD or the Epitome of a Design Thinker is being proficient in SILK.

Silk stands for Strategy, Innovation Management, Leadership and Knowledge.

: Strategically create products that add Value to the customer and end-user.

: A well-crafted Innovation Management ensures the agility of Innovations to market.

Attentive Approach is the Key!!

: Attain Leadership by creating experience for the customer.

: Efficient Transition towards being knowledge-intensive and asset-efficient.

Desirability Feasibility Viability and Ethical Matrix.

This Image itself is self-explanatory, so I don’t have to explain what Desirable, Feasible, Viable and Ethical is. Let's now
focus on why this is needed. A lot of people are involved in “Innovating Products” but they fail to understand the
Desirability, Feasibility, Viability and Ethical Matrix of it. And this is the main reason why we lag in generating patents
with commercial applications”.

“Innovation: needs to be approached from a Human-Centric manner. One should do a lot of pre-research before
starting the actual research. Innovation needs to create Value and Impact and needs to have a Purpose behind it.

To address this Challenge DT is very helpful. To understand the desirability of your products it's very important to first
Empathise with the consumers, Define their problem, then Ideate solutions around it, Prototype it and Test it. This will
ensure that your products are “Desirable”, “Viable”, “Feasible” and “Ethical” for the Market. So, my Innovator Friends,
please understand the DFVE Matrix before any innovation.
Importance of Purpose & Culture

Purpose and Culture are the foundation of Design Thinking. Culture and Purpose is what drives ethical actions, ethical
products, ethical brands that are legacy creating. Leadership is the hallmark of Design Thinking. The foundation of
leadership is built on Purpose & Culture. The shared values, beliefs & practices that shape an organization. All these
together form Habits that lead to creating Culture. Culture is about Prosperity. It is about progressing together instead
of the growth of a single individual.

An organization with good culture will always attract and retain the best talent. It will maintain a strong work-life
balance and will impart compassion into professionals. It creates alignment with the team, enhances performance
and leads to value-based innovation.

Culture cares for employee and customer well-being, it helps you make various individuals into a Team and makes
your organization Sustainable.

– Let us talk about Purpose:

Creating Delight should be the ultimate Purpose of an individual or organization. Purpose is what motivates an
individual or organization to be Purposeful.

Purpose is the driving Inspiration that makes any organization Sustainable. As students you should join organizations
with Purpose, as employees you should prefer organizations with Purpose which in turn gives a direction to your Life!!
Businesses exist to make a profit. But they also exist to make a difference. Profit is an outcome of pursuing the purpose.
So, if you are at the start of redefining your own organization’s purpose, below are some examples from leading
brands which I hope will provide you with some inspiration:

– “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” Google
– “To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy” Tesla
– “To improve life here, to extend life to there, to find life beyond” NASA
– “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world” Nike

DT imparts a lot of thrust on Culture and Purpose. At DT we strongly believe that Innovation cannot be successful
until it is driven by purpose and frame-worked by culture.
_______________________________________________________ Chapter 6.

An Innovation strategy is a detailed roadmap and a guiding tool to move out of the conventional ways of tackling a
problem and align your innovation with customer’s needs and create products/ services with a competitive advantage
through Design Thinking approach to reach to the desired outcome.

What are Frugal Innovation Strategies?

Frugal innovation is about delivering more value at lower costs to more people. It is frugal because you need to adopt
a mindset of simplicity and extremely low cost without sacrificing the quality of the user experience.

When Tata Motors designed the Nano car, they had to decide which industry standards to eliminate, reduce,
enhance or add in order to offer a relevant value proposition to people traditionally excluded from the market. Tata
Motors realized that the traditional developed-market approach to innovation would not apply and instead they
worked backward to develop solutions significantly different from existing ones and designed for bottom-of-the-
pyramid consumers with differing needs and value perceptions.

Frugal innovation is a growing trend. Examples in India that have recently attracted considerable media attention,
including the $2,000 Tata Nano car, $10 cataract eye surgery offered by Aravind hospitals, the $35 Aakash tablet PC
and the $1,000 GE handheld electrocardiogram device.

But you know why? TATA Nano still failed in the market even after empathizing with the customer and giving them
what they need?

Here, the answer to it is . . .

Frugal innovation needs to be complemented by business system innovation

Yet, developing an Innovative Product (NANO Car) at price points that customers can afford is not enough. In order to
be profitable in emerging markets, companies need to secure high volumes, but they can only achieve this if they
change their business model to reach these customers and find ways of compensating for the weak institutions. You
need product and business system innovation simultaneously. Here, The Tata Nano failed since they failed to
understand that the Car is connected to prestige and Nano Car gave consumers a vibe of “A CAR for POOR”. Because
of which the “Nano” was not able to reach the masses.

Instead of Marketing Nano as a Cheapest Car, if it has been marketed as a A Car just for your Family to make sure you
spent a quality time during the journey. With this it might have created a different Impact. Apart from these they can
showcase addition laddering benefits such as “A Car with the Cause” …Traffic Jam is the most widely faced problem
because of which a lot of people face problems such as they might reach the destination very late and might miss the
important occasions/meetings etc, Police Vans can’t reach the crime location of time, Ambulance can’t reach the
hospital on time and the patient might die and so no. People who want to stop this and want to contribute to the cause
then this car is for them. Collaborate with government /NGOs to use this car. Here, the Innovation is the same but the
“Perspective is Different”.
Frugal innovation is much more than designing a cheaper version of an existing product. It requires a whole new
mindset, delving deep to understand the real needs of bottom-of-the pyramid consumers, finding voids that can be
turned into opportunities, and revisiting the way the company is organized and how it delivers its products or offerings
on a vast scale.

Courtesy: IMD

The term “Strategy” means a cohesive response to an important challenge.

What is ”Strategy” ?

– Strategy is a set of coherent & consistent actions that helps you accomplish the Vision and Purpose.
– Strategy acts as a guiding policy and helps to reach from the current state to the desired state.

Who is responsible for “Framing Strategy”?

As said earlier “Strategy is a cohesive response to an important challenge”. That itself means that no single person is
responsible for “Framing Strategy”. It's about teamwork. Each team member/ employee should be involved in strategy
discussion. However, leaders need to be initiators, management as drivers and team as executors. A leader’s most
important responsibility is identifying the biggest challenges to forward progress and devising a coherent approach
to overcoming them with the help of “Teamwork”.

A strategy is unique to each organization. It is always useful to even make personal strategy of education, career and
pursuing your dreams and ambitions. There cannot be One-Fit-All in case of strategy.

Good Strategy

A Good Strategy requires leaders who are willing and able to say no to a wide variety of actions and interests. Since,
Strategy is not about saying yes!! It’s more about saying “No”. You should be able to say NO” to a variety of options
before you choose the best One.

“A good strategy recognizes the nature of the challenge and offers a way
surmounting it. “

And remember, a good strategy is about excellent story-telling and effective communication. To Form a good strategy
of any organization or for ones personal life, the flow should be as follows;

1. Purpose
2. Vision
3. Mission
4. Values
5. Strategy
6. Objectives
7. Goals
8. Actions
A Good strategy creates Strength or rather it plays on Strength!!

Looking at things from a different or fresh perspective can reveal new realms of Strengths, advantages and
opportunity as well as weakness and threat. And the fresh perspectives come through brainstorming amongst each
and every employee of the company. Since, each and every one has his or own strengths and expertise. Strategy is
always a collaborative effort. It is about communication and ownership by all team members.

Good leaders identify one or two critical challenges and pivot points that can multiply the effectiveness. While Focus
is the Soul of Strategy, versatility is its heart.

A Good strategy should be Simple

The most basic idea of strategy is the application of strength against weakness. But here, “Design Thinking” plays
the most important role which empowers us with the required skill set, toolset and mindset to frame a Good Strategy.
A good strategy should be simple and understandable. It is nothing complex or difficult.

A Good Strategy is Coherent

Good Strategy coordinates policies and actions/Plans. A good strategy doesn’t just draw on existing strength. It
creates strength through the coherence of design. Most organizations of any size don’t do this. At ORAH, we follow
the coherence of design through T-shaped skilling and Cross-functionality. We have imbibed these as a part of our
strategy. We don’t focus on the weakness of the employees rather we believe in leveraging their existing strength and
build on new strength to empower them. A good strategy honestly acknowledges the challenges being faced and
provides an approach to overcome them. The 2 most basic and essential Models to devise a master strategy are:

1. The Ansoff Matrix

A strategic Planning tool that provides a framework to help executives, senior managers, and marketers devise
strategies for future growth. It outlines four potential growth strategies:

– Market Penetration - Selling more of existing products to existing markets.

– Product Development - Offering new products to existing markets.
– Market Development - Entering new markets with existing products.
– Diversification - Launching new products into new markets.
2. SWOT Analysis

SWOT promotes fact-based analysis, fresh perspectives and new ideas by considering both internal factors
(company strength and weaknesses) and external factors (opportunities and threats). It is most effective when
diverse voices contribute realistic data. The findings are gathered to support a specific decision or objective faced
by the company

– Strengths: Competitive advantages and unique selling points

– Weaknesses: Characteristics that disadvantage the company/project- ideally discovered through feedback.
– Opportunities: External factors positively influencing performance.
– Threats: External factors posing potential future challenges; can be assessed PESTEL and Porter’s Five Forces.
3. Porter’s Five Forces

A framework for analyzing a business’s competitive environment. The five forces include:

– Treat to New Entrants: How easily can new businesses be spun up?
– Bargaining Power of Suppliers: How strong the position of sellers is.
– Bargaining Power of Buyers: How strong the position of buyers is.
– Threat of Substitutes: Customers finding a new solution.
– Competitive Rivalry: The intensity of competition
How to Recognize Bad Strategy
Bad strategy is not the same thing as no strategy that fails rather than succeeds. Rather, it is an identifiable way of
thinking about strategy that has, unfortunately, been gaining ground. Bad strategy is long on goals and short on policy
or action. It assumes that goals are all you need. It puts forward strategic objectives that are incoherent and
sometimes, totally impracticable. It uses high-sounding words and phrases to hide these failings.

Bad strategy is the active avoidance of the hard work of crafting a good strategy.

19 Golden Rules for “Framing a Good Strategy”

1. Strategy should encompass Economics, Emotion (Empathy) and Invention/Innovation.

2. Make strategy the rule, not the exception.
3. Make strategy part of everyone’s job.
4. When complexity increases, involve more people.
5. In making strategy, pay attention to the details.
6. Make strategy a continuous process, not an event.
7. Make strategy internally, within your own offices and meeting rooms.
8. Monitor actively; change reluctantly.
9. Everyone works at strategy at their own level and from their own perspective.
10. Internalize the 6M Model and the three questions and keep them front of mind, always.
11. Go for better, not for best.
12. Aim for confidence, decisions, and actions, not for certainty, analysis, and predictions.
13. Treat strategy and execution as yin and yang. You need both, and they are inextricably intertwined.
14. Start your strategy inside, and leverage your company’s uniqueness.
15. Only adopt the One-Hour Strategy if at least one executive strongly believes in it.
16. Allocate resources and make someone responsible for the One-Hour Strategy.
17. As a rule of thumb, focus on no more than three issues, Insights, and Ideas per M.
18. Don’t describe a complete strategy. Focus on what requires attention next (Action oriented approach).
19. Always end with actions, because without actions, nothing ever changes.

Thank You & God Bless,

Warm Regards,
Rohit Dubepatil
(Director – Orah Nutrichem Pvt. Ltd.)