India Inside: The Emerging Innovation Challenge to the West

Thanks to its ability to innovate, the developed world will always have a distinct advantage over the developing world, right? Not according to leading management experts Nirmalya Kumar and Phanish Puranam. In India Inside, the authors draw on their research to show how India is already turning this assumption on its head—often in ways invisible to consumers in the developed world.

Through their research and extensive interviews with India-based executives from such companies as AstraZeneca, GE, Infosys, Intel, and Wipro, the authors unveil the dramatic rise in invisible innovation occurring in India—from B2B products and R&D outsourcing to process and management innovation. The book also illuminates Indian companies’ growing ability to innovate consumer products that are compact, low-cost, efficient, and robust in the face of harsh environmental conditions. The authors’ analysis makes clear that for certain kinds of innovation, the long-held monopoly of the developed world is over.

India Inside provides a wake-up call for executives and policy makers in the developed world and a clear-eyed view of both the challenges and opportunities facing multinationals seeking new sources of innovation in the future.

Nirmalya Kumar and Phanish Puranam are professors at London Business School and serve as co-directors of its Aditya Birla India Centre. They have authored numerous books and articles on marketing, innovation, strategy, and Indian business.