Navi Radjou

Navi Radjou (Tamil: நவி ராஜூ, born 14 August 1970) is an innovation and leadership advisor based in Silicon Valley. He is also a Fellow at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, and a World Economic Forum (WEF) faculty member. He is a member of WEF's Global Agenda Council on Design Innovation and a regular columnist on Harvard Business Review. Navi Radjou is also a sought-after keynote speaker^[1] widely quoted in international media.

He is ranked as one of the 50 most influential persons shaping innovation en France.

Co-author of Frugal Innovation^[2] published worldwide by The Economist. The book explains the principles, perspectives and techniques behind frugal innovation, enabling managers to profit from the great changes ahead.

Navi is also co-author of the international best-seller Jugaad Innovation^[3] (Jossey-Bass, 2012). The Economist calls it "the most comprehensive book yet to appear on the subject" of frugal innovation.^[4] and he is co-author of From Smart To Wise,^[5] a book on next generation leadership.

In 2014, Navi delivered a talk at TED Global^[6] on frugal innovation (over 1 million video views).

In 2013, Navi received the Thinkers50 Innovation Award — given to a management thinker who is re-shaping the way we think about and practice innovation.^[7][8] In addition, his book Jugaad Innovation was shortlisted for the 2013 Thinkers50 CK Prahalad Breakthrough Idea Award.

Till 2011, Navi served as the Executive Director of the Centre for India & Global Business at Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, where Jaideep Prabhu was the director.

Prior to Cambridge, Radjou spent ten years in the US, primarily as Vice-President at Forrester Research,a leading US-based technology research and consulting firm. At Forrester, he investigated how globalised innovation – with the rise of India and China as both a source and market for innovations – is driving new market structures and organizational models called "Global Innovation Networks".^[9]

During his tenure at Forrester, he advised senior executives around the world on technology-enabled best practices to drive collaborative innovation, global supply chain integration, and proactive customer service. At Forrester, he published more than a hundred thought-leadership reports on business topics related to innovation and emerging markets.^[10] Based on his extensive field research in India he published in 2008 a ten-part report series titled "India: The Innovation Giant (Re)Awakens", which explores the innovative business models pioneered by large corporations and grassroots entrepreneurs in India.^[11]

Radjou has had wide exposure in national and international media, including The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Bloomberg Businessweek, Financial Times, Le Monde, and Nikkei Shimbun.^[12] He is a frequent speaker to senior executive groups and has spoken on the topics of innovation and globalisation at leading conferences organised by the World Economic Forum, Council on Foreign Relations, The Conference Board, TiE (Indus Entrepreneurs), Milken Institute, Asia Society, Harvard University, and MIT.^[13] For several consecutive years, he has served on the international panel of judges for The Economist’s Innovation Awards.^[14] In addition to regularly writing columns in Bloomberg Businessweek and The Wall Street Journal, Navi also blogs on HarvardBusinessReview.org.^[15]

Named by BusinessWeek as an "expert in corporate innovation," he was also honoured by the Financial Times, which called his co-authored work on National Innovation Networks – the first-ever ranking of countries by their collaborative aptitude to integrate innovation capabilities across multiple regions – as "ambitious" and "sophisticated".^[16] His latest research on "polycentric innovation" – a new approach that multinationals can use to integrate globally distributed R&D and innovation capabilities – has been featured in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Global Intelligence for the CIO, and Le Monde.^[17] Similarly, his concept of "indovation" —the unique process by which innovations are developed in India to serve a large number of people sustainably — has been featured in The Financial Times and in several conferences organised by Asia Society.^[18]

An Indian-born French national, he earned his MS degree in information systems from Ecole Centrale Paris, and also attended the Yale School of Management.

Notes

• Made in India for the 21st Century, Navi Radjou, 28 January 2010, Asia Society New York^[19]
• Transforming R & D To Win in Global Innovation Networks, Navi Radjou, 1 March 2007, PARC Forum,^[20]
• Turbocharging the Franco-Indian Partnership, Navi Radjou, 15 July 2009, Bloomberg Businessweek,^[21]
• Polycentric Innovation: A New mandate for Multinationas, Navi Radjou, 2 November 2009, The Wall Street Journal,^[22]
• INDOvations, moderated by Navi Radjou, 28 January 2010, Asia Society, New York,^[23]
• Managing the New Trajectory of Global Innovation, Navi Radjou, 14 October 2009, Council on Foreign Relations.^[24]
• India's Decade of Innovation, Navi Radjou, 16 February 2010, Cambridge Judge Business School.^[25]
• Polycentric Innovation Video Interview, IBM, 27 May 2010, Cambridge Judge Business School,^[26]
• Creating the Next "Indovations", Navi Radjou, 27 November 2009, India Economic Summit 2009, World Economic Forum,Panel on YouTube
• Made in India, for the world, N Madhavan,12 May 2010, Business Today.^[27]
• Do Multinationals Really Understand Globalization?, Navi Radjou, Prasad kaipa, 6 August 2010, Bloomberg Businessweek.^[28]
• Talking about Indovations, Nisha Kumar, Kulkarni, 2.12.10, Beyond Profit.^[29]

References

External links

• Navi Radjou at TED