How LeanSpark turns scarcity into innovation at scale

The road to frugal innovation has long run through Cambridge Judge Business School, and Jaideep Prabhu. The Professor of Marketing co-authored the 2012 book Jugaad Innovation, focusing on doing more with less in developing countries, and then in 2015 the book Frugal Innovation, which transported these principles into Western companies and thought.

Doing more with less knows no national boundaries, as it simply makes sense for budgets, the environment and societies.

Why frugality alone is no longer enough

Yet frugality alone has its limitations, and especially for a country like India.

India has 1.4 billion people, the world’s fourth-largest economy and an impressive growth rate that had lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty. Yet the country remains stubbornly low in global GDP and human development, ranking 130th out of 193 countries in the United Nations’ latest Human Development Index. While India has registered big advances in some areas such as life expectancy, the UN cited continuing challenges ranging from health and education inequality to lagging female labour force participation.

So Jaideep and colleagues have now expanded the principles of jugaad into the more expansive concept of LeanSpark, which goes beyond making do with less to embrace turning scarcity into innovation at scale.

From jugaad to LeanSpark: a strategic shift

“Frugality must move from being an afterthought or constraint to a design principle that shapes innovation from day one,” says Jaideep, who is Vice-Dean for Faculty and Director of the Centre for India and Global Business at Cambridge Judge. “LeanSpark extends frugal innovation into a broader framework built on 4 attributes:

1. lean execution
2. purposeful simplicity
3. adaptive scalability
4. systemic sustainability

“It also shifts the focus from individual jugaad activities to scalable systems and institutions, showing how frugal ingenuity can be embedded in startups, large firms, digital public infrastructure and even AI. Ten years since Jugaad Innovation was published, it’s become clear that global crises like climate change and inequality in its various forms require a new form of innovation, so more of the same – even while using fewer resources – won’t do the job. Instead we need to do better with less, and frugality can provide that creative spark.”

India’s growth paradox: innovation under constraint

Based on a decade of research and discussions with Indian entrepreneurs and other businesses, LeanSpark is the title of a book published by Penguin Business, co-authored by Jaideep, Priyank Narayan of Ashoka University and Mukesh Sud of Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad. The book’s subtitle encompasses the broader approach: Frugal by design, global in impact.

“Despite impressive gains, India still has problems that reflect those in other countries lagging behind in development,” says Jaideep. “There are still hundreds of millions of people working outside the formal economy, the country lacks natural resources so it relies heavily on energy imports, and there are big infrastructure gaps.”

Thus the birth of the LeanSpark concept, which Jaideep and his colleagues define as the “intentional spark of innovation that emerges under constraints” and a “universal language of resilient ingenuity”.

The idea for the book originated in 2022 in co-author Priyank Narayan’s classroom at Ashoka University, which houses a vibrant entrepreneurship programme, where Jaideep was a guest lecturer. Serendipity then arose: at London’s Heathrow Airport, Jaideep ran into Mukesh Sud (who co-authored a book with Priyank Narayan called Leapfrog: 6 Practices to Thrive), whom he had previously met in academic circles including at Ashoka.

One thing led to another, and the 3 men then co-taught a course on frugal innovation at Ashoka, and subsequently met up in Cambridge in 2024 to meld their intersecting research into a concept and then a book.

LeanSpark: innovation designed for scaling

As phrased concisely in the book, LeanSpark encompasses a big strategic leap beyond jugaad:

“Where jugaad is improvisational, LeanSpark is intentional and strategic. Where jugaad delivers temporary fixes, LeanSpark aims for long-term, robust solutions that are scalable. Jugaad often circumvents systems and is hyperlocal, while LeanSpark works within ethical and regulatory boundaries and is designed for scaling and adaptation.”

LeanSpark in practice: real world innovation from drones to tea

So how does LeanSpark play out in real life?

The Frugal Innovation Canvas: a toolkit for LeanSpark

Jaideep and his colleagues have developed a toolkit, including a Frugal Innovation Canvas, to help companies develop their own plans to incorporate the principles of LeanSpark.

The Canvas asks what is the customer segment, the core problem or challenges faced, and the constraints facing the business. It then asks how the frugal solution devised really differs from currently applied solutions.

In addition, it asks what key resources are needed, the revenue model needed to generate income and make the business sustainable, and which channels will be used to reach customers. The Canvas then asks how customers’ lives have been improved through the LeanSpark solution applied, and how this differs from existing alternatives for consumers.

The future of LeanSpark: from frugal innovation to frugal AI

Over the past decade and a half, Jaideep has examined many different aspects of frugal innovation – from its application in developing countries, to developed countries, to more recently a focus on artificial intelligence through the launch of the Frugal AI Hub at Cambridge Judge. He leaves no doubt that, similarly, he’s got plenty of work to do over the next years to further explore LeanSpark and its applications.

“LeanSpark is a mindset and not only a set of principles,” says Jaideep. “As with frugal innovation, there are few limits to where such a mindset might lead, so we’re really excited to see what the next chapters will reveal.”