Scarcity Reframed is Abundance

Dr. Simone Ahuja is the founder of Blood Orange, a marketing and strategy advisory boutique with a focus on innovation and emerging markets. Headquartered in Minneapolis, with partners around the globe, Blood Orange shares and practices business principles learned through extensive work in developing economies, including jugaad — a frugal, flexible and inclusive approach to innovation inspired by emerging markets. Simone has conducted extensive ethnographic, background, and academic research focused on innovation occurring at the grassroots level in emerging markets, to that of US-based multinationals. Coupled with her own experience working with transnational teams, this experience has given her a holistic lens through which to view the mindset and principles of emerging markets-inspired innovation — and its relevance in a global context. Simone is the co-author of Jugaad Innovation: Think Frugal, Be Flexible, Generate Breakthrough Growth (Jossey-Bass and Random House India, 2012). Jugaad Innovation has been published in the US, France, Holland, Brazil and India, where it is now a #1 business bestseller, and has been called “the most comprehensive book yet on the subject” of frugal innovation by the Economist.

Dr. Ahuja has served as a consultant to the Centre for India & Global Business at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, and as an Associate Fellow for the Asia Society in New York City. She provides advisory services, keynotes and interactive frugal innovation labs to entrepreneurs, academic institutions, and corporations including 3M, Medtronic, Procter & Gamble, Best Buy, the World Economic Forum, MIT, and Harvard University. She is a regular columnist for the Harvard Business Review online.

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