Can business find the sweet spot?

摘要

If innovation's the sexy face of sustainability, then efficiency is the boring flip side. But it often drives the shinier stuff. When all resources are at a premium, says Samir Saran, former Vice-President of Reliance and now senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, then innovation is essential for any business seeking to survive. "It's not so much a case of 'frugal innovation', more that frugal is innovation. The companies that are unable to be frugal in their consumption of resources ... will be companies unable to compete." Viraal Balsari, an independent consultant on energy and environment, agrees. "Sustainability in an Indian context is essentially about efficiency: human efficiency, resource efficiency and, above all, cost efficiency. Indian companies are now terrified about costs, and very keen to manage them. So if you go and say, 'This is your investment, this is your payback time, this is how much your costs will come down', they understand that. Then you're getting down to brass tacks."