UA in India
​Reverse Innovation Experience

For Fall 2013, all students and faculty of the STEM Path to the MBA read the book Reverse Innovation: Create Far from Home, Win Everywhere by Vijay Govindarajan. He came and spoke on campus that fall, and from his visit, a study abroad trip to study Reverse Innovation in India was created.
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Each summer, students embark on a three-week journey from northern to southern India to study emerging markets. They immerse themselves in Indian culture and history, study the six segments of rural and urban poverty, and finish the trip with a week-long reverse innovation project to improve the lives of people at the bottom of the economic pyramid. Over the years, students have focused their efforts for this final project in a variety of areas, ranging from providing inexpensive sources of light for homes to finding a sustainable way to provide clean water to rural communities.

Student Perspectives

“Even with shocking disparities in hygiene, education, and infrastructure, a solution-based mindset shapes rural India just as solutions motivate multi-national businesses. India is ripe with opportunities as social entrepreneurs, an aggressive government, and a motivated population raise a developing nation. There are multi-generational families who strategically pool their resources together. There are women’s self-help groups who actively work to shape their villages. There is a population of people who now see their size as an asset to the world, not a shock. Everyone has problems – some people dwell on them and others look for solutions. The solution-based mindset of many savvy Indians shaped me to continually tackle problems regardless of circumstances.”

                                                                                                                                                                                   - Joey Weed, student from the 2015 trip
“It’s important not to look at these things as problems to be solved, but as a way of life that must be understood if the poor are to be brought into the ranks of the world’s consumers. By developing products that support the needs of the people, rather than attempting to westernize them, India can become an innovation laboratory that can drive the 21st century economy, all while alleviating the crushing effects of poverty.”
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​- Ryan Hazel, student from the 2015 trip

2-Minute Video from UA in India
​Summer 2015

Download transcript for "2 Minute Video from UA in India, Summer 2015"