A theme that I’ve been following over the last few months (ever since reading about Nigel Crisp‘s ideas in “Turning the World Upside Down”) is how innovation can transfer from developing economies to developed, particularly in the field of public health. So I was interested to read Vijay Govindarajan’s recent conversation in the Harvard Business Review about how Aravind Eye Hospital in India is responding to the challenges of equipment maintenance in resource-constrained settings. Govindarajan (along with Jeffrey Immelt and Chris Trimble) coined the term “Reverse Innovation” in an October 2009 article which chronicled GE’s attempts to “disrupt itself” by spending $3 billion on 100 healthcare innovations, borrowing from their experiences in emerging markets. The concept is taking hold as other industries are launching initiatives to do the same (also dubbed “trickle-up innovation” by some). Don Sull at the FT.com discusses the concept of reverse innovation with several business leaders from Nestle, Vodaphone, Deloitte and Deutsche Bank in a post from 2 weeks ago.
