Jump Associates recently sent a team to India, and I had the chance to talk with Pete Mortensen about innovation, India, and how their work is aimed not just at developing new clients for Jump, but also on expanding global markets.

Here’s edited excerpts from our conversation that I think are particularly important as we consider business, design, and innovation on the world stage.

Jess McMullin First, for people who don’t know you, tell me a bit about Jump, and about how your team ended up taking this trip to India.

Pete Mortensen Jump is an innovation consultancy that helps clients cultivate new growth by building new businesses, defining new products and services and creating cultures of innovation. The firm was founded in 1998 by five folks from a variety of backgrounds, including product design, social research and business strategy. Managing Associate Dev Patnaik helped found the company after a stint at Doblin. Prior to that, he served as design director for Forbes-Marshall, an energy and industrial infrastructure company based in Pune, India. During his time at Forbes-Marshall, Dev was able to work with executive Naushad Forbes to bring design closer to R&D and strategy, and he saw his group become influential in shaping innovation at the company.

Naushad recently suggested that Dev and some teammates return to India and meet with companies to discuss design, innovation, and sustainability – he said the time to come to India is right now.

JM So why right now? What’s driving demand for those conversations from Indian corporations?

PM Well, it’s really about managing growth – many Indian firms are seeing double-digit growth, commonly 35-40% growth. That isn’t sustainable – it’s much easier to sell someone their first car than their second or certainly their third.

JM At least, you can’t sell a second car in the short timeframe needed to continue those kinds of numbers, at least without planned obsolescence and other unsustainable short-term thinking.

PM Right. So the question in India is how to innovate to sustain that growth, and do it in a way today that doesn’t sacrifice future opportunities in business, society, or the environment.

Naushad let us know that a lot of companies are already looking for outside help, to do something that lasts, and that matters to India. They’ve turned to firms like McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group to figure out what to do next. They aren’t necessarily liking the answers they’re getting, so there is an opportunity right now to look at things differently.

JM So what’s the big picture for Jump? How do you look at things differently?

PM Some critics would say that we’re sharing American innovation secrets. People might say that we’re giving this knowledge away to foreign economic competitors.

We don’t see it that way. We’re not supporting the rise of new competition - more so, we’re going to make sure that the rise of the Indian economy continues so that we have a market for our own US goods and services. In the 1960s, US growth was driven by the rise of Japanese and German economies. By helping those recovering countries rise up to near our level of productivity, then there was a new market for us. That same opportunity exists in India and China. Anything we can do to level the playing field can only be a good thing.

JM So that’s the big picture - creating a larger overall market, with sustainable growth, even as Indian and Chinese companies start to compete in it. That’s a very positive vision – can you tell me about the day-to-day work that Jump is doing on this trip?

PM We have some meetings set up with several companies. We want to know where they are in terms of the innovation landscape, but also to do some real work. The word that I’ve gotten from our team members on the ground is that the Indian companies (at least some of them) are more ready for this kind of work and needs-based approach and setting up internal teams - they’re as ready as many of our American clients, and in some cases a little bit ahead.

While we’re there, we want to get a real sense of their capabilities - what their real needs are for managing innovation. In part, that’s to understand them better as clients, but it’s also to serve our American clients better as they look to India as a market.

Of course, we’re also looking at longer-term partnerships in India as we expand our global client base. While we’ve worked a long time internationally with clients like SK Telecom, Unilever, and Virgin, India is a very different country. They need to understand less about what problems they should be solving and more how to do it again and again, how to manage internal processes. Managing innovation is a really hot thing in India right now.

JM So those are some of the differences you’re finding. What about similarities?

PM Well, like the United States, as sophisticated as the clients might be, to the press innovation typically means cool products. Speaking with the Indian press so far, they want to hear about the work we did with Target about Back To School, since retail in India is really rising. The potential client base in India is interested in the process, systems, and measurement, but the stories are still about product.

JM So far, we’ve been talking mostly about what Jump brings to India. Since work like this is always a two-way street, tell me a bit about what you see Jump bringing back from this trip?

PM First, anytime we increase the diversity of our client base ,it helps us to understand how and why something works well or doesn’t work well with all of our clients. That insight can be enhanced by working with clients across countries. It creates a larger pool for us to understand and anticipate what the needs of current and future clients will be and what offerings we can develop in response to that.

Secondly, a lot of inspiration for Jump came from time spent in India. Seeing the power that came from connecting design to strategy during Dev’s time at Forbes-Marshall was really a foundation for us, and there will be a certain amount of rethinking and invigoration that comes from this trip too. Colleagues return with tons of new insights in how we work and how we do things. Culture is core to what we do, both from our culture in the office to the work we do to understand culture.

Finally, we’re obviously looking to grow ourselves in a sustainable way, and one way is to develop new markets like India. As we do that, we want to contribute to making sure that the development of India is a positive thing. On some level, if this doesn’t sound too idealistic, we’re rewiring capitalism for social good - the creation of wealth can be really helpful, or really harmful. We see the opportunity in India as one that makes sense for our own growth, and feel that our work contributes to India’s growth in a way that helps not just corporations, but individuals to have a better life.

JM That doesn’t sound too idealistic – it sounds like business that can make a difference. I’d love to get deeper into that, but unfortunately, that’s all the time we’ve got today. Thanks for taking the time to talk with me Pete. Let’s keep in touch.

PM Sure thing, Jess. Thanks for the opportunity.