Tata Swach - better than the Nano?

(via Business Standard) The Tata's announced their latest product, this time in the water purifier space, recently. Two variants of the "Tata Swach" water purifier, one priced at Rs. 799/- and the other at Rs. 999/- will be available in the market by the end of the month. This will enable the Tata's to take a larger share of the Rs. 10,000 crore water purification market.

The Swach purifier, has a life span of 3000 litres, which will last a family of 5 a full year. The filter uses paddy husk ash as a matrix, bound with microscopic silver particles to kill 80% of the bacteria that cause diseases. And India produces 20 Million tonnes of paddy husk ash a year, known for long to have water cleansing properties.

A great product, has all elements of "frugal engineering" and a great collaborative effort:

• Needs no electricity, and uses local materials
• Doesn't need running water like most other electricity powered water purifiers do
• Complies with US EPA standards
• Collaborative effort between three organizations - TCS, Tata Chemicals and Titan Industries (try getting 2 organizations in one company to work together!)
• Great combination of nano technology, precision engineering and CAD technologies

This one is a coup. And notice the way Tata's launch their products - free press, stir the imagination of consumers, get their distribution networks in place, make consumers "line up" to book/buy the product. Many other companies would have done this after blowing up tens of crores.

Here's a toast to a great green product, to frugal engineering and frugal marketing. I am queueing up to buy this one!

PS: Here's my previous article on Water Management - Jalyatra - http://www.blogger.com/previous

Frugal Engineering & New Business Models

A recent issue of the Economist, brought out a detailed report on Globalization and its effect on developing and developed markets. The article analyzes the effect of the rise of corporations and businesses from developing economies and discusses how companies such as Lenovo, Airtel, Tata Steel, Embrarer are attaining global scale and acquiring well established brands and businesses from the developed world. At the same time, companies such as IBM, Cisco, GE are taking advantage of their presence in emerging markets and redefining their product, operational costs and business models. Key points from the article:

• Globalization now means business flows in both directions between developed and developing economies. Its now all about "competing with everyone from everywhere for everything"
• More than 62 companies from emerging markets are now part of the Fortune 500 list, expected to make up a third of the list in the next ten years
• Emerging markets demand a new genre of products, often in more basic forms or smaller sizes than developed countries. Firms in these countries are in a better position to understand these needs of a large consumer base.
• New business models are emerging - goods and services are being delivered in fundamentally different ways and at much lower costs
• Frugal Engineering - similar to the concept that I described in my earlier post Minimalist Products, where specialized skills of workers from emerging markets are helping define new, value driven products.
• Companies from emerging markets are more adept at making do with minimum resources and are able to make profits at low costs and while serving the "Bottom of The Pyramid"
• The incumbents are striking back too, by evolving new business models, buying out the cost advantage, building a large presence in countries like India & China and by tightening their belts.

Read more of the Globalization Report ...