Navi Radjou

Navi Radjou is a French-American innovation and leadership scholar who specialises in frugal innovation and sustainable economic transformation. A Fellow at Cambridge Judge Business School and ranked by Thinkers50 as one of the world's 50 most influential management thinkers, he won the prestigious Thinkers50 Innovation Award in 2013 and delivered a TED Global talk that has garnered over two million views. Author of the global bestseller Jugaad Innovation and the newly released The Frugal Economy, published by Wiley and Thinkers50, he equips organisations to build inclusive, regenerative economies that maximise human potential within planetary boundaries, turning the climate crisis into a generational opportunity for lasting impact.

When Navi Radjou won the Thinkers50 Innovation Award in 2013, he became the first scholar to introduce the world to jugaad, a Hindi word capturing the ingenious, improvised problem-solving born from resourcefulness in constrained settings. That recognition marked a turning point in how global organisations think about innovation, shifting the conversation from resource abundance to creative ingenuity. His TED Global 2014 talk on frugal innovation has since drawn over two million views, cementing his influence as a thought leader who bridges Eastern wisdom and Western business practice. Born and raised in Pondicherry, India, and educated at École Centrale Paris and Yale School of Management, Navi holds dual Franco-American nationality and now resides in New York, where he continues to shape the future of innovation and leadership from a uniquely global perspective.

Navi has served as a Fellow at the University of Cambridge's Judge Business School and previously held the position of vice president at Forrester Research, a leading technology research and advisory firm in Boston. Since 2021, he has been ranked by Thinkers50 as one of the 50 most influential management thinkers in the world, a recognition that reflects three decades of advising senior executives across continents on breakthrough growth strategies. His bestselling book Jugaad Innovation has sold over 250,000 copies globally, and his subsequent works, including Frugal Innovation published by The Economist and From Smart To Wise, have established him as a prolific writer whose ideas appear regularly in Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, and the World Economic Forum. His latest book, The Frugal Economy, published by Wiley and Thinkers50, offers a blueprint for building inclusive and regenerative economies that maximise human potential within planetary boundaries. A long-time student of yoga, Ayurveda, and Vipassana meditation, Navi draws on his Indian spiritual roots and French education to inform his work, blending analytical rigour with mindful wisdom.

Navi equips organisations to anticipate disruptive mega-trends and proactively adapt their strategy, workforce, and leadership to shape the future rather than simply react to it. He helps audiences reframe the climate crisis as a generational opportunity, showing leaders how to turn sustainability challenges into engines for innovation, profitability, and social impact. Through his speaking, advisory work, and writing, Navi empowers businesses to do more with less, unlocking grassroots ingenuity within their teams and ecosystems to co-create simple, effective solutions that deliver greater value at lower cost. His audiences leave with actionable frameworks for building resilient, regenerative organisations that thrive by placing human well-being and planetary health at the centre of their business models, ensuring lasting impact that benefits people, places, and the planet.