As a rule, Indians bend the rules

Kirana stores used Jugaad to build categories in India. As we organise retail more and more, who's bending the rules now?

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Per my weekly routine, I was driving back from my gym one Sunday afternoon when I was stopped by a policeman who accused me of jumping a red light. He said that he could prove it. I was feeling confident, so I said, “Sure, prove it and I will accept the challan¹.”

He pulled up footage from the traffic light camera on his mobile phone app, watched it twice and let me go.

Whew!

That day, I got lucky because this particular policeman followed the rules. This is more of an exception, because in India, rules are not always rules. Mostly, they are mere suggestions.

There are two very rational reasons why rules are just suggestions.

First, they lubricate the wheels of social reciprocity.

Since we are a ‘we’ society, we know that when our group is better off, we are too. So we bend the rules to benefit our social group or to ingratiate ourselves with one, hoping that our good deeds will come back to us, with interest.

We bend the rules…

for people we share lunch with because we like them and we want them to like us.

for bosses because of loyalty that might lead to a promotion.

for our chachi’s² son-in-law’s nephew’s boss, because the relationship is ‘sensitive’.

Second, they help us make or save money - the driving force for Jugaad.

Jugaad is a creative bending of the rules, like a child colouring outside the lines. The motivation is not altruistic at all. Instead, we want to save money or make some.

Loosely, it fits into the box labelled ‘frugal innovation’ by MBAs. In such cases, jugaad is an institutional capability. E.g. India earned global headlines with its Chandrayaan-3 moon landing with just a budget of Rs. 600 crore (~$75 million).

For context, the entire Chandrayan program cost Rs. 1,977 crore (~$247 billion)³, while the entire Apollo program cost ~$482 billion in today's dollars⁴.

Mostly, jugaad is an insurgent force, found at the grassroots level. It’s when Bharat builds for Bharat.

It’s when we take cues from our culture while navigating scarcity, psychology and unfriendly laws.

Remember how Punjab farmers use washing machines to churn milk?

Or how wholesalers buy Lux and Lifebuoy on credit, quickly sell them for cash, just in time to stock up on pre-tax rate cigarettes?

One such jugaad built the bread category.

I share a real-life story.

When bread was launched in India, it did not fit into our kitchens. That’s because when my dad was young, this was in the 1950s, his family ate roti (chapati) with milk (for kids) or tea (for adults) for breakfast.

Bread was ‘exotic,’ foreign, an unfamiliar taste, so a whole loaf was much too expensive a risk to take.

The neighbourhood kirana came to the rescue. He broke the seal and sold bread slice by slice. Over time, families like ours tried this new ‘doubleroti,’⁵ liked it and adopted it as a breakfast staple.

Today, bread is a $9.6Bn category, and 85% of bread is consumed by lower-income households. (The India Marketwatch 2023)

To think, it all started with ‘illegal’ fractional sales.

The retailer was not driven by ‘consumer intimacy.’ He made more money when he sold bread one piece at a time.

Here are some example numbers:
10% MARGIN ON A RS.10 LOAF = Re.1
SOLD 10 SLICES FOR RS.1.5 EACH = Rs.15
Rs. 4/- EXTRA PROFIT

This fractional sales phenomenon is still alive and kicking for categories like cigarettes.

And pickles, or ghee, that are still stored in jars and decanted into tiny single-use pouches in rural areas.

The jugaad that Bharat builds for Bharat builds tomorrow’s India.

Yet, the more we organise our retail, the less we allow for jugaad.

Our blind spot. Are we organising jugaad out of the system?

The question is,
Quick commerce is solving for speed.
Horizontal commerce is solving for selection.
Vertical commerce is solving for curation.

Who’s bending the rules to let a consumer buy a little bit at a time to try out new stuff?

No one.

1. Traffic rule fine

2. Father’s brother’s wife

3. https://www.deccanherald.com/science/space/infographic-how-much-the-chandrayaan-missions-cost-isro-2657967

4. The United States spent $25.8 billion on Project Apollo between 1960 and 1973, or approximately $257 billion when adjusted for inflation to 2020 dollars. Adding Project Gemini and the robotic lunar program, both of which enabled Apollo, the U.S. spent a total of $28 billion ($280 billion adjusted). Spending peaked in 1966, three years before the first Moon landing. The total amount spent on NASA during this period was $49.4 billion ($482 billion adjusted). https://www.planetary.org/space-policy/cost-of-apollo

5. Bread was called 'doubleroti’. Because the dough ‘doubled’ in size after it was fermented with yeast. Such a happy coincidence for the cash-poor Indian, who might have warmed up to the familiar ‘roti’ and the idea that a slice of bread is ‘double’ of roti.

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