Josh Software Organizational Innovations: Dynamic Capabilities for Social Causes

Abstract

This case study titled ‘Josh Software organizational innovations: Dynamic capabilities for social causes’ deliberated regarding how Josh Software undertook its organizational innovations. The case set in the emerging market of India, illustrated how an organization engineered organizational innovations towards serving social causes. The primary protagonist of this case is Mr Gautam Rege (hereby referred to as Rege) and the secondary protagonist is Mr Sethupathi Asokan (hereby referred to as Asokan). Rege cofounded Josh Software (https://joshsoftware.com/) along with Asokan in the year 2007. The case study timeline is between the years of 1999 and 2021. In the year 2007, Rege and Asokan had to decide whether to continue or discontinue ‘Kimaya NICU’ at Josh Software. The Josh Software founders figured out that if Josh Software focused towards social innovation initiatives that primarily benefited stakeholders then in the short run it did not benefit the organization economically. However, it brought reputational advantages in the long run. For undertaking innovations, the dynamic capabilities perspective (Sensing, Seizing and Reconfiguration) has been a good theoretical anchor over the years. This case study can be taught to illustrate how strategic initiatives of an organization were undertaken. This could be both in the strategy planning as well as strategy implementation contexts. The theoretical aspect of this case study was grounded in the literature of dynamic capabilities for innovation. Furthermore, this case study linked the concept of organizational innovation with organizational reputational egoism and organizational economic egoism literature.

Origin with Socially Directed Innovation

Mr Gautam Rege (referred to as Rege) cofounded Josh Software (https://joshsoftware.com/) along with Mr Sethupathi Asokan (referred to as Asokan) in the year 2007 (ConfEngine, 2015a; Rege, 2021a). The narrative however began much earlier. In the year 1998, when Rege) was studying engineering in computer science discipline in the city of Pune in Maharashtra (India), his parents were involved in social activities. Rege’s father was involved in Rotary club activities in Pune whereas his mother was associated with social initiatives in hospitals as a Rotarian. Rege’s mother discovered that in a super speciality hospital (KEM Hospital) in the city of Pune, doctors were with the help of the paramedics calculating the value of neonatal nutritional requirements of prematurely born babies. This was in Neo Natal Intensive Care Units (NICU) (Rege, 2021a). In the year 1998, there were very few NICUs in India (Fernandez & Mondkar, 1993). In the NICU, the babies were as small as the palm of an adult (Yajnik et al., 2003). Neonatal nutritional requirements calculation of prematurely born babies was a very vital task (Cormack et al., 2016). These calculations were done manually. This was very taxing for both the doctors as well as the support staff. This was a non-core activity for the paediatrics and the doctors mentioned to Rege’s mother regarding the technical difficulties they were facing (Cormack et al., 2016). Rege’s mother after hearing this told the doctors of KEM Hospital that her son was studying computer science engineering and could be of help by providing an information technology-enabled automated solution (Rege, 2021a). This would undertake automatic calculations saving time and effort of doctors and staff in the neonatal ward. Rege soon got connected to the KEM Hospital doctors and developed a software program to calculate the nutritional requirements of babies in the neonatal unit (Kimaya, 2015). This programme could be continuously applied to calculate the frequent nutritional requirements of the babies in the NICU care unit. This mathematical calculation programme was good, and the doctors were happy with the solutions (Kimaya, 2015; Rege, 2021b). The programme also did not require updates so there was no hassle of using the programme from the doctors’ end. This programme was very helpful for the hospital. This programme was also very important in the social context as it provided the scope towards better nutrition assessment of prematurely born babies (Rege, 2021a).

Fast forward to the year 2001, while Rege at this point was working in another organization the doctors of NICU of KEM Hospital, Pune again contacted him (Kimaya, 2015). The computer in which the programme software of NICU was hosted had crashed. As a student, Rege had just developed the programme and did not even take a backup of the programme. Rege never thought that his programme would work in the real world that too for three years on the trot (Rege, 2021a, 2021c). So, in the year 2001, Rege had to again recreate the software from scratch. Now the doctors of KEM urged Rege to explain why did he not make this software as a product and launch it in the market (Kimaya, 2015; Rege, 2021b, 2021c). In the year 2005, the NICU doctors of KEM Hospital again reached Rege and advised him to develop this software as a product and sell it to different hospitals hosting NICU facilities. The doctors told Rege that there was a lot of demand from different hospitals for this kind of software (Kimaya, 2015; Rege, 2021a). This was a socially important product which the country needed for a better future. The product was already being spoken of in Neonatal care conferences all across India (Rege, 2021a).

Advice from the neo-natal care doctors over a period of time became a trigger for Rege to develop this as a software product. Any software engineer dreams about developing a product. For Rege, this was increasingly becoming a reality. Given this backdrop, Rege cofounded Josh Software (https://joshsoftware.com/) along with Mr Sethupathi Asokan (referred to as Asokan) in the year 2007 (ConfEngine, 2015b; Rege, 2021a). Asokan incidentally used to play the game of cricket along with Rege in Pune (Rege, 2021a). One day while playing cricket, Rege and Asokan thought of setting up a venture with the neo-natal nutrition calculation software. Rege and Asokan both quit their existing jobs. Rege had always been high on creative energy and thrived on uncertainty (Rege, 2021d). So, a start-up was a natural leaning. The NICU neo-natal nutritional software program which Rege and Asokan named ‘Kimaya NICU’ was thus the first product of Josh Software (Kimaya, 2015; Rege, 2021a). The word ‘Kimaya’ in Hindi (the national language of India) means miracle. ‘Kimaya NICU’ was developed with the best technology that was available at that point in time (ConfEngine, 2015a; Kimaya, 2015). The product ‘Kimaya NICU’ was thus always high on technology (Rege, 2021a). However, Rege and Asokan immediately could not figure out that a successful product was not all about the technology deployed but rather it was all about making the right connection with customers (Rege, 2021a). Sales were important. Rege and Asokan both were not salespeople. They were both tech geeks, so as a team they hit a wall in the market. Rege and Asokan took painstakingly almost three years to understand that sales and marketing were the keys to a successful product not just technology. Rege and Asokan had a dilemma, to continue or to shelve Kimaya NICU’ (Rege, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c).

Josh Software: The Organization

‘Kimaya NICU’ was not bringing in cash for Josh Software (Rege, 2021a). Rege and Asokan however even after realizing this could not discontinue the product. This was because the product had significant social value (Kimaya, 2015). If ‘Kimaya NICU’ were to be stopped then a lot of NICU facilities in hospitals around Pune would be affected. By this time around about 35 hospitals were using this software. Discontinuation of ‘Kimaya NICU’ was thus never an option. Rege and Asokan were in a dilemma. This was regarding whether to make this software which had a lot of social value, proprietary or keep it free. If the software were available for free, it would do a lot of social good (Postner et al., 2015). A substantial number of hospitals would be able to easily adopt this software and apply it in the hospital’s respective NICUs (Kimaya, 2015). By keeping ‘Kimaya NICU’ free, the revenue would increase for Josh Software. However, there would be no profit as there was no margin for profit (Rege, 2021a). One has to remember that Josh Software had to incur all the costs associated with the development of the ‘Kimaya NICU’ software program. They could comprehend that philanthropy could only take them a certain distance only. Asokan and Rege decided that the software should be available for free given its social value (Rege, 2021a). Till today (that was March, 2021) this software was hosted online and furthermore was available for free. As of March 2021, ‘Kimaya NICU’ was globally used by 60 hospitals with almost 20,000 calculations based on the data collected from premature babies being analysed on a monthly basis (Rege, 2021a). In retrospection ‘Kimaya NICU’ did not bring much profit but it brought in a lot of goodwill (Rege, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c). There was a dilemma about whether they should invest in the technologies for ‘Kimaya NICU’ without the promise of much profit potential. Josh Software was widely appreciated in the NICU healthcare ecosystem initially in the city of Pune and then across India (Kimaya, 2015).

Josh since its inception that is 2007 has always grown primarily through word of mouth. 90% of the sales till the year 2021 have developed through word of mouth (Rege, 2021b, 2021c). The Josh Software motto has been a concoction of technology and passion (Josh Software, 2021a). It stated

Our name stands for passion. And, passion for technology is who we are.

One could attribute the success of Josh Software’s success because of the top management team (Josh Software, 2021b). The top management team of Josh Software had motivated the employees to always be exited, motivated, passionate, and dedicated towards their job task endeavours. The Josh Software’s top management team members list has been tabulated in Exhibit 1. Over the years Josh Software has developed an illustrious set of clients. The various domains in which Josh Software clients worked have been tabulated in Exhibit 2. There was an array of activities that Josh Software carried out. These were primarily six such activities. These were ‘Rescue Missions’, ‘IP Multiplier’, ‘Accelerate Time to Market’, ‘Simplify Domain Complexities’, ‘Agile Process’ and ‘Scalable Architecture’. In Exhibit 3 Josh Software activities have been described (Josh Software, 2021c). Since the year 2007, Josh Software has developed an array of technologies and products. This set of technologies helped Josh Software serve the illustrious set of clients mentioned in Exhibit 2 (Josh Software, 2021c). In Exhibit 4, the products of Josh Software, the technology stack used (Josh Software, 2021d), its details the pain points solved, and the product description has been presented. Josh Software served a number of industries. These were health (Josh Software, 2021e), sports (Josh Software, 2021f), marketing and sales (Josh Software, 2021g), media (Josh Software, 2021h), education (Josh Software, 2021i), insurance (Josh Software, 2021j) and travel (Josh Software, 2021k). The industry catered through was based upon a specific product offered involving a particular business with a well-targeted solution which created an impact. The details regarding the industries served by Josh Software have been tabulated in Exhibit 5. Within the first one and half decades of the establishment of Josh Software successful narratives have emerged. The success stories were based upon the great products that Josh Software had developed to solve the challenges of the clients (Rege, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c). Josh Software achieved success because it provided unique solutions to its consumers (Josh Software, 2021l). This has been viewed as the Josh Edge and created significant client-side positive impact (Josh Software, 2021m). The insights from these successful narratives have been summarized and tabulated in Exhibit 6.

Exhibit 1.

Josh’s Top Management Team (Josh Software, 2021b).

S. No.	Name	Designation
1	Gautam Rege	Co-founder & director
2	Sethupathi Asokan	Co-founder & director
3	Maragatha Sundari	Director
4	Satish Talim	Director
5	Vaibhavi Rege	Director
6	Shailesh Kalekar	Chief operating officer
7	Sachin Shintre	Head-US operations
8	Sameer Tilak	Head-India operations

Exhibit 2.

The Major Clients of Josh Software (Josh Software, 2021c).

S. No.	Client Domains
1	A Mumbai-based Indian media conglomerate having a network of 60 channels in eight Indian vernacular languages.
2	A leading Indonesian on-demand multi-service platform and digital payment technology group. It was based in Jakarta having 20 plus products and doing over seven million orders a day across a variety of sectors like transport & logistics, food & shopping, payments, daily needs, business, news and entertainment.
3	A Tokyo-based Japanese electronic commerce and online retailing big player with global operations.
4	A company providing digital telecom services, offering mobile, data, roaming, number transfer, and digital services across the Asia–Pacific region.
5	A UK-based web platform that helped manage clubs with database management and communication.
6	One of the leading firms based out of Mumbai, India helped in hyperlocal strategy.
7	A California, USA-based legal firm deploying online legal technology that aided customers develop legal documents without the explicit necessity of having to hire lawyers.
8	An organization dedicated towards neo-natal health.
9	A Mumbai, India-based organization providing high-tech solutions in the domains of legal and risk assessment for management & law professionals.
10	A paediatric solutions firm based out of Mumbai, India.
11	A Philippines-based firm providing credit to small and medium-sized enterprises.
12	An India innovative web application-based firm that helped students to develop verbal, quantitative, creative thinking aptitude and data inference skills for school-going students.
13	An Indian non-governmental organization which focuses on holistic mental development.
14	A Pune, India-based online platform for comparing and buying insurance policies for two and four-wheelers, travel, health, and personal accidents.
15	A Sunnyvale (California, USA) based firm offering SaaS platform-based products.
16	A home automation firm.
17	A firm which helped small and medium enterprises apply mobile application-based technologies.
18	An Indian group based out of the state of Maharashtra that operated across various sectors like industrial mechanical and electrical solutions, water management and logistics.
19	One of the leading Indian diabetes care firms.

Exhibit 3.

Josh Software Activities and Explanation (Josh Software, 2021c).

S. No.	Josh Software Activity	Explanation
1	Rescue missions	Josh Software helped clients get rid of extant unproductive architectures through re-engineered solutions. This involved zero downtime with complete data protection.
2	IP multiplier	Josh Software enabled its customers to maximize the value of intellectual property (IP) and create brand as well as market value.
3	Accelerate time to market	Josh Software made certain that its customers achieved faster ‘Concept to Code’ delivery. This enabled the Josh Software clients to beat competitors in the market.
4	Simplify domain complexities	Josh Software zeroed in towards applying intelligent technological initiatives to simplify the challenges that Josh Software customers were confronting in the industry.
5	Agile process	Josh Software practised ‘AGILE’ processes which guaranteed faster, high-quality, and on-time delivery for its clients.
6	Scalable architecture	Josh Software helped its clients by providing solutions that catered towards sustaining, increasing, and performing consistently well with large data volume and increased number of consumers.

Exhibit 4.

Josh Software Array of Technologies and Products Description (Josh Software, 2021d).

S. No	Product	Technology Stack Used	Details	Consumer Pain Points	The Solution
1	Quickinsure	Ruby 2.2.1 Rails 4.2.5 MongoDB React Action Cable Elastic Search 5.3 Android	Quicklnsure was a specially built website that made it easy to purchase motor vehicles and third-party insurance.	Purchasing car insurance can be a time-consuming process for both vehicle owners and the professionals who offer insurance coverage solutions in the market.	Quicklnsure was a B2C platform that offered convenience and ease. There were two ways to go about it. First being a smartphone application and second being an online platform.
2	The paediatric network	Ruby 2.3.3 Rails 5.0.0 PostgreSQL 9.5.3 Sidekiq Elasticsearch2.3.3 AngularJS1.4.9 Gulp NodeJS with NPM Bower Ionic 1.7.16 Cordova 6.3.0 Android iOS	This portal aided doctors in reducing appointment times and automating the process from patient registration to drug prescription and, if necessary, referral to other physicians.	The long appointment time for patients.	Automation of the process was achieved as well as referral to other doctors became easier.
3	ClubBuzz	Ruby 2.3.3 Rails 5.0.0 PostgreSQL 9.5.3 Rackspace	A versatile digital platform that facilitated community get-togethers accepted payments, and produced statistical reports on group activities, attendance, and member input.	Organization of community meetups and payment consolidation.	Generation of statistical reports for better insights was possible. Also, the promotion of events on digital platforms for better reach was enabled.
4	We3Health	Rails 4.2.0 Ruby 2.2.2 MongoDB Angular 1.5 Backbone 1.2.1 Google Chart	The We3 health journey started with the birth of a baby born prematurely in the 24th week of pregnancy, weighing 770 grams. The baby spent the first five months in the Intensive Care Nursery (ICN)/Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).	Complexities and struggles that parents faced when their child was fighting for his or her life. Such parents devoted their lives to their children, wanting only to provide them with good health.	We3 Health focuses on building a connection between parents, children and nurses by providing curated data through messaging and videos, capturing questions & thoughts anywhere and anytime, and linking to social networks to share critical information with families and friends.
5	GroupBuzz	Rails 4.2.0 Rackspace Ruby 2.1.1 MySQL DelayedJob AWS S3 GoCardless PayPal	GroupBuzz was dedicated to giving group managers and members the best possible end-user experience. To do this, the owners wanted to build a platform that could meet the needs of organizations of all sizes that required a professional website to manage its members and payments.	Handling the events, meetups of large organizations and their payments.	GroupBuzz became a forum where different groups could schedule different meetups, events, share ideas, and handle payments and accounts easily, effectively, and quickly.
6	Fundamentor	Rails 4.1.6 JW Player Ruby 2.1.3 MongoDB PayUmoney Razorpay D3.js AWS S3	Fundamentor was a cutting-edge web framework that incorporated gamification, analytics, and technology towards developing one’s leadership and teamwork skills with practice. The ability to think quantitatively, visually, inferentially, and creatively which laterally determined other skills was also developed.	To improve life skills and cognitive aptitude among school students. development of skills in leadership, collaboration, problem-solving, effective decision-making, creativity, and communication were the need of the hour for students.	To evaluate and improve students’ aptitude, Fundamentor employed a proprietary QVIC score model.
7	Kimaya NICU	Tech Stack Rails 4.1.0 Ruby 2.1 MongoDB JsonQuery Highcharts	Neonatal ICUs were provided access to a fully automated online platform that could precisely formulate dietary supplements for premature infants in a fraction of the time. In its pilot stage, this platform, which was launched on World Prematurity Day, had already displayed promising results. Thanks to this cloud-based programme, infant data could be accessed easily in the future and from a variety of places.	Nutritional supplements for premature infants.	Collaboration between KEM Hospital and Kimaya N ICU, a domain-specific neonatal healthcare technology provider. The application kept track of the baby’s development on a daily basis, helping doctors to schedule each infant’s diet.
8	Altizon Datonis	Rails 4.0.0 MongoDB ElasticSearch AWS-EC2	The Altizon Datonis platform enabled connected devices to securely stream massive quantities of sensor data in real time. The platform could also perform real-time data analytics and influence decision-making. For example, a supervisor in a manufacturing plant could track the output of all Altizon-connected machines in real time and take corrective action if it registered a schedule lag.	Conduction of real-time analytics in various functions of manufacturing plant for usage of large volumes of sensor data.	Production preparation, execution, and maintenance were supported by analytics based on data collected directly from his machines.
9	Brandscope	Ruby 2.1.0 FTP server Rails 4.1.10 Mongoid 4.0.0 sidekiq 3.3.0 nginx + passenger AWS-EC2	Brandscope focused on providing a seamless solution that maximized the sale process for suppliers, dealers, and agents in the Australian apparel and action sports industries.	Streamlining the sales process for a large number of manufacturers, retailers, and agents.	Suppliers could get direct access to quality retailers using unique and dynamic online tools to launch their brands quickly and efficiently, giving them a competitive advantage. Retailers could get the desired brands where they could display and purchase merchandise for the stores via this platform. An agent with minimal effort, could hit a large number of retailers and suppliers across geographies in no time.
10	Phalcomm	Ruby 2.0 Android Rails 3.2.11 MongoDB Sidekiq Redis WebSockets Control-S	Phalcomm was an e-commerce site that made it easy to buy real estate online, offered real-time brokerage, and generated project-specific reports. About 500 phalcomm distributors and agents used it. It also tracked the process from the time a unit was booked to the time it was allocated to a customer. The system includes a variety of reports that can help ground staff and management make decisions based on total revenue from various distributors, enquiry to sale conversion rates, market demands, and so on.	Prevention of double bookings of the same property.	The software provides real-time information about various bookings that are currently in progress across the country, preventing double bookings of the same property.
11	TourConnect	Rails 3.2.21 Mongoid 3.1.6 ActiveAdmin Node JS	TourConnect helped manage rates and contracts.	Management of prices and contracts.	TourConnect informed contractors about the supplier’s products and how much they could cost.
12	Bidwheelz	Ruby 2.6.3 postgres 11 Rails 6.0.1 Redis React 16.12.0 Redux 4.0.4 iOS Android Aws s3	Bidwheelz was the most user-friendly online marketplace for buying and selling used cars. When it came to one’s happiness.	Buying and selling of used vehicles.	Bidwheelz stood out in the market by providing one-of-a-kind Online Live Bidding on a wide platform of car sale domains.
13	GLLUU	Rails Postgres Android iOS	The purpose of this app was to bring family members together from different countries or cities, particularly adults and their elderly parents.	Children who lived abroad were constantly concerned about their parent’s health and wanted to be kept informed, but time management was difficult.	The app aimed to overcome these issues and get the family closer together despite the fact that everyone was physically separated. This app also aims to fill the gap for the elderly between loneliness, companionship, and idle time. The elderly, especially parents, sent WhatsApp messages/forwards to their relatives to ‘keep in touch.’
14	Flip	Android iOS Rails MEI	Flip was a peer-to-peer book-sharing app for kids.	Sharing of books among children on a digital platform.	There were four main steps in this process. One to add books to one’s virtual library. The second step was to request books from a friend’s bookshelf by searching, viewing, and requesting them. The third step was to give the book to one’s fried in the physical world. In the final step, the book was returned to a friend after it had been read.
15	mVaahan	Rails Android	Commercial vehicles were required to have reflective stickers added to the vehicle’s body for easy identification, particularly at night, according to the Regional Transport Office (RTO).	High rates of breakdowns on unlit Indian highways and expressways often caused accidents. Given the high number of breakdowns on Indian highways vehicle owners, preferred to use imitation plates or no plates at all to save money.	A small piece of reflective tape might mean the difference between a disastrous accident and an emergency stop or lane change manoeuvre. Thus, these stickers were important for protection. These had to be of high quality and applied consistently. Given this, RTO used the mVaahan app to scan the authentic QR code on the reflective stickers and included a compliance certificate.
16	Medunbound	Android Rails Ruby TrailBlazer PostgreSQL React	Medunbound enabled medium to small and micro businesses, single stores, and retail chains to join for a monthly membership fee. The store would focus on expanding its business.	Creation of mobile application for medium to small and micro-entrepreneurs, single store or retail chains.	Medunbound enabled to create its own branded Android and iOS mobile application with a strong analytical framework.
17	Simplysmart	Android iOS Rails ElasticSearch Redis	Data should be collected and sent to a cloud server from different water and electricity metres.	Collection and analysis of substantive data from water and electricity metres.	Regular intake and billing analysis of water and electricity consumption graphs compared to other houses of the same kind. Notifications were sent when the thresholds were exceeded.
18	Swalekhan	Android Rails	Salekhan was an Android app. It enabled blind students to write their exams without the use of scribes (writers).	Assisting blind people in writing exams without the help of scribes (writers).	Salekhan programme applied for human voice-directed assistance, with some Text-To-Speech guided assistance.
19	Freedom from Diabetes	Tech Stack Rails TrailBlazer Android iOS ElasticSearch	The Freedom from Diabetes app was an excellent companion towards diabetes reversal. This app connected diabetes patients around the world with a team of doctors, dieticians, and mentors to provide education, inspiration, and encouragement in a quick, unique way.	Need for education, motivation, and encouragement for diabetes patients.	Regular messages about diet, exercise, relevant behaviour, freedom storey, and other topics were sent to free users. Diabetes patients could keep track of their blood sugar levels as well as other vitals such as blood pressure and weight. Diabetes patients just had time to consult doctors and submit information about their blood sugar levels, diet, and exercise.

Exhibit 5.

Josh Software Industries Served (Josh Software, 2021e, 2021f, 2021g, 2021h, 2021i, 2021k).

S.No.	Industry	Product	Business	Solution	Impact
1	Health	The Paediatric Network	End-to-end streamlined medical processes with a single user interface were provided that allowed for digitized registrations, prescriptions, and online payments, as well as improving the end-user experience for doctors, nurses, receptionists, and patients.	In six months, Josh created a scalable, high-performance web and mobile application that incorporated all patient data into a single portal that doctors and parents could access. Doctors’ digital signatures were also developed, allowing for online prescriptions.	Each doctor’s consultation time was reduced to five to seven minutes. Visual dashboards with cumulative patient information were available. Scheduling doctor appointments and comprehensive vaccine charts with a single app was achieved.
		We3Health	Creation of an app to track and monitor baby development in ICNs while keeping parents and medical professionals informed in order to improve preterm baby medical outcomes. User approval and clinical trial testing in the early stages were carried out.	A mobile app with the use of API servers to distribute bite-sized information through various online handles like email, social media, and videos, allowing parents to keep in contact with doctors while tracking their baby’s health in real time.	Digital platform with scalability and high performance that kept parents engaged and enhanced their ability to care for their children. The app is currently being used in a variety of UCSF hospitals and is widely recommended throughout the United States.
2	Sports	England Hockey	A single system that integrated player data, player profiles, and coach profiles. It was used to recognize player strengths and weaknesses and track their progress.	In England for over 17 regions and 234 counties, a centralized, scalable, one-click online platform provided timely statistical reports for clubs, managers, and coaches. Custom pathways were built based on team needs, and messages could be broadcasted by administrations, players, and managers, making contact through the entire player-coach ecosystem easier.	More than 2,000 players, 60 team managers, and 50 coaches have participated in this platform. This resulted in improved player results, total team performance level, and increased sports league eligibility.
		Clubbuzz	An interactive website catering to unique activity groups and occupations was created to bring together different societies, manage member requests, and keep track of customer data.	Creation of a flexible digital platform from the ground up that promoted community meetups handled payments and generation of statistical reports relating to group events, participation, and member inputs.	In the first month, there were more than 16 registered parties. Streamlined contact between members of different groups and societies was achieved. Improvement in organization by automation of processes was also achieved.
3	Marketing & Sales	Brandscope	A dynamic platform that assisted retailers, dealers, and consumers by offering a comprehensive inventory view and assisting retailers in reducing transaction time.	This provided support like high-resolution product images, videos, catalogues, and social network reviews by an internet platform built from the ground up to monitor inventory in real-time, simulating the typical retail experience.	Reduction of salespeople’s time to market from three months to 15 days was achieved. Josh pioneered, a scalable e-commerce network of the Australian apparel industry available throughout Europe and the United States. This enabled online catalogue availability for a variety of product categories, lowering overhead costs and advancing global environmental protection initiatives.
		Get-a-Limo	In Singapore, limousine drivers and private hire vehicles could communicate using a voice messaging app.	Built on the back of a scalable API server, an all-encompassing application, it kept track of driver profiles with the provision of push-to-talk functionality and auto-played new messages. It ensured the tracking of conversations and sending warning notifications in real time.	The standard walkie-talkie was substituted by the app. This was able to build a group of over 40 limo drivers in just a few weeks.
4	Media	Kwikkopy	By updating a legacy Coldfusion website that could handle large amounts of customer data, queries, and orders, an elegant user interface was developed.	Handling orders from over 100 locations by a scalable, flexible web platform that allowed users to log in at any time.	Consumer orders had a shorter time to market, and inventory monitoring for weekly, monthly, and yearly orders was easier. An online-created customized collateral for business communication was developed. Integration of QR codes, payment gateways, and statistical reports for faster turnaround was achieved.
5	Education	Fundamentor	Gamification, a digital tool, was used to improve students’ logical, reasoning, and critical thinking skills.	Creation of scalable webfront and mobile app in just eight weeks, with an in-built analytics engine that worked with test questions, video tutorials, incentivized learning, and real-time user reviews based on results was achieved.	The pilot was implemented in five schools across India in 17 colleges, with 90% of students becoming clients. For students of all ages, it was a hassle-free, intuitive learning experience.
6	Insurance	QuickInsure	A retail-focused online insurance marketplace that aimed to make the process of buying and selling insurance more convenient for both insurers and consumers.	Linking various insurance agencies directly to customers with an all-in-one online portal with a shared interface by handling commissions in real-time.	In India, there are over 7,000 qualified Quickinsure agents (POS). It enabled the comparison of best quotes and offers in real time. Every day, 300 agents receive instant commissions as a result of quick and clear online transactions.
7	Travel	Tourconnect	This used an IT platform to streamline contracting in support of a soon-to-be-launched online portal for tour contractors, vendors, and end users.	Automation of supplier-vendor contracts to provide consumers with a full tour package at competitive rates by a cost-effective, high-performance online platform which was built in three months.	More than 10,000 suppliers had signed up to make the most of their time, money, and energy. Automated contracts and packages for hotels, car rentals, bike rentals, safaris, cruise rentals, and even more.

Exhibit 6.

Josh Software Success Stories (Josh Software, 2021l).

S.No.	Product	Context and Challenges	Insights and Josh Edge	Impact
1	Freedom From Diabetes (FFD)	By the year 2045, the number of diabetic patients in Southeast Asia would have doubled, according to the International Diabetes Federation. Currently, diabetes affects 8.8% of the adult population in India. Diabetes was a deeply rooted health problem that affected millions of people. In the past, it was thought to be incurable. However, life-saving change was possible as the best of technology and medicine came together. The number of patients steadily rose over the first two years of the programme, and by the year 2015, FFD was dealing with a few thousand. The most challenging job was keeping medical records offline, and the need for digitization just meant one thing: intrusion from technology. The CRM and mobile app were created in the beginning, but these were not scalable.	It was difficult to revamp the initial applications since these were built on a legacy tech stack that was unrelated to FFD’s other digital platforms. A new version of the app was desperately needed, one that was driven by cutting-edge technology. The Josh team began developing the software from the ground up, keeping the rescue mission philosophy in mind. The CRM framework was built using Trailblazer, Ruby on Rails, MongoDB, and ElasticSearch, as well as Android and iOS compatibility. To allow seamless integration of patient records with the current website and marketing systems, a centrally accessible database was also developed.	Time to market had been shortened. Doctor-patient interactions were measured in seconds rather than hours. Patients did not have to wait, and reviews and readings could be exchanged online. Currently, there are over 18,000 active users. The levels of blood sugar and insulin were monitored in real time. The end customer experience had improved as a result of increased operational productivity and without performance lags.
2	Brandscope	In today’s digitally evolving world, customers value convenience above all else, particularly when making purchasing decisions. Brandscope was established in the year 2011 with the aim of assisting suppliers and agents in the Australian surf industry with the sales process. The goal was to create an omnichannel distribution network for brands to use through webstores and physical stores. The primary aim of the platform was to remove logistical barriers between brands, suppliers, and retailers. Australian brands that used the release years model, released new designs to retailers every six months. Catalogues were sold to retailers, who placed orders depending on their customers’ needs. To provide a detailed, real-time view of inventory and aid cost management, a dynamic platform for producers, distributors, and customers was needed.	The traditional delivery system consisted of distributing catalogues to retailers six months in advance, accompanied by client orders. This whole procedure took an inordinate amount of time, necessitating the use of a cutting-edge stock management solution. Low platform selection also had an effect on delivery rates. Josh’s team completely overhauled the pre-built platform and rebuilt it from the ground up. In less than five months, the entire code was rewritten in Ruby 2.1 with MongoDB as the data store. An all-in-one high-performance solution for the Australian apparel industry has been created. The project was finished on time, despite the tight deadline, and the site went live with over 10,000 catalogue items available online. An all-in-one high-performance solution for the Australian apparel industry was achieved.	The time it took salespeople to get to market was cut in half, from three months to 15 days. A flexible omnichannel e-commerce platform is available for the Australian apparel industry, as well as for Europe and the US. Environmental quality is improved, and operating costs are reduced. Real-time inventory visibility and automatic stock control.

The Second Innovation: ‘Hunger terminal’

Asokan and Rege had always believed that any software company (colloquially referred to in India as IT firms) was as happy as its employees. Josh Software right from its inception started providing free breakfast, snacks, lunch and sometimes even dinner to its employees (Rege, 2021a). Josh Software also served tea and coffee to its employees for free. Most of these employees were bachelors. This was a big plus point for these young professionals working in Josh Software as these young employees did not have to bother regarding their food. This was a win-win situation for both Josh Software and its employees. The productivity of the employees also went up because the young employees (mostly bachelors) were free from the hassle of preparing food at home. Since the food was served in the offices of Josh Software the employees were also not required to venture outside the office for food. Thus, Josh Software employees spent more time at their work desks.

By the year 2011, Josh Software had become almost a 50-employee organization (Rege, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c). The food requirement had grown. At this point in time one of the employees suggested that Josh Software should continue to provide food to all its employees. It was the duty of the cofounders of Josh Software to serve food to the employees that the employee claimed. Given this backdrop, Rege did set up a canteen to cater to the needs of its employees. However, strangely soon enough the employees were not happy with the quality of food that was provided at the Josh Software canteen. The complaints regarding canteen services came because of oily food, dry food, uncleaned utensils, poor taste of meal served and such others. In one of the discussions regarding the quality of food served one employee strongly pointed out that the quality of food provided by Josh Software was also the responsibility of Josh’s top management. Rege and Asokan could not believe what they heard (Rege, 2021a). Rege and Asokan understood that they had to take a step back. An organization like Josh Software cannot get into the management of its canteen. This was beyond the scope of Josh Software as a software firm. Rege and Asokan immediately overnight stopped the canteen facilities of Josh Software. However, the Josh employees soon realized their loss. A few employees approached Asokan with the humble request to restart the canteen facilities at Josh Software. and Asokan nonetheless now undertook a different approach (Rege, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c).

Rege and Asokan had a discussion with the Josh team comprised of those members who were complaining about poor canteen and food (Rege, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c). Rege and Asokan made it clear that they had to find their own solution rather than just complaining. The idea of ‘Hunger Terminal’ thus sprouted from the employees of Josh Software. The idea of ‘Hunger Terminal’ was simple (Josh Software, 2021m). A dedicated team of Josh employees was formed to manage the issue of food provision for Josh Software employees during workdays. This team thought of sending an email in the early hours of the working day to all the Josh Software employees regarding what they wanted to eat during the course of the workday. This was the consumption side. Parallelly, this dedicated team of Josh Software employees also contacted all the food vendors that being restaurants and even street food vendors at a distance of about 5–15 minutes of travel time from the Josh Software office in Pune, India. Josh Software’s employees team made a proposition to these vendors. These food vendors would provide the menu card of their food items to the Josh Software team. In turn, the Josh Software team would circulate the menu card to the Josh Software employees. Josh Software employees were supposed to choose from the menu cards of the vendors who were willing to deliver food at Josh Software’s office. Once the employees on a workday selected their food requirements the list of food requirements was informed to these food vendors. These vendors had to cater to the needs of serving food at the Josh Software office subsequently during the day. This was the supply side narrative. Josh Software employees team thus every morning prepared a list of food that had been ordered by its employees and circulated it among the selected vendors who were located nearby. The food vendors were expected to make the delivery upon the order placements and this worked fine (Rege, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c).

Rege and Asokan, however, in this system provided an incentive. Rege and Asokan declared that whatever food price was in the menu card which the Josh Software team had earlier collected from the restaurants or the street vendors would be available to the Josh Software employees at a whopping 50% discount (Rege, 2021a). This was because Josh Software would pay 50% of the price listed on the menu card. This ensured that employees were delighted to get such heavily discounted food served at their work desks. The Josh Software employees did not need to venture outside in search of food and only had to pay 50% of the price for the food they consumed (Rege, 2021a). Because the employees were now paying 50 % of the food price, they understood the importance of the value of their preferred food served at their desks. This made the Josh Software employees satisfied as well as more prudent regarding their demands. The Josh Software team over the years developed an app (in line with ‘The Hunger Terminal’) that would enable this task of serving food to employees without having any inventory problems. This was based upon the logic and system of supply and demand as mentioned. It must be remembered that in India, the big software firms in their facilities ordered a significant amount of food with its canteen facilities. These firms faced the challenge of both food provision as well as food wastage. This was well and above the costs of running a canteen facility. This innovation from Josh Software gained traction from the local media in Pune. Many companies in Pune approached Rege and Asokan to understand the novel approach.

Thus, this could be developed as an app (in line with ‘The Hunger Terminal’) a new product and it could be a game changer. The new product as a new company named ‘Sure Food’ would soon be launched by Josh Software (Rege, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c). This ‘Sure Food’ app could be used by corporations to serve corporate lunches. Rege visualized this as the ‘Uberisation’ of corporate lunches and corporate food provisioning. Corporations could manage their lunches without holding any inventory. This was an entirely new exhaustive ecosystem for corporate lunches. Employees could get their choice of food served at their work desks. Rege and Asokan comprehended the big market potential of such a product from ‘Sure Food’ (Rege, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c). This innovation was a need indeed, but the solution was provided by the Josh Software team.

The Third Innovation: <Code/Curiosity>

Rege since he had started coding that was during the years 1997/1998 had been using open-source software (Rege, 2021a). Josh Software had from its very inception worked on open-source software only (ConfEngine, 2015b; SolutionsIQ India, 2016). Rege believed that increased usage of open-source software was the right direction for the world to move (ConfEngine, 2015b; SolutionsIQ India, 2016). Monopolies in software according to Rege are not good for the overall good of the technology world. Proprietary software which was developed and sold by the large information technology companies in the world made these large companies richer (ConfEngine, 2015b; SolutionsIQ India, 2016). The smaller companies like most IT firms in India which were using proprietary software were in a spot of bother. The smaller user IT companies which used proprietary software had to always pay rent to the larger IT companies and had to be constantly dependent upon the updates and the incremental development of the proprietary software carried out by the large IT companies (Rege, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c). The smaller user firms which were the consumers of proprietary software thus in the long run became captive to the larger IT companies. There was no end to the rent-seeking behaviour that the larger IT companies had developed from the proprietary software being used. The large IT firms owning the proprietary software dictated terms with the smaller IT user firms. The open-source software movement initiated through Linux in the 1990s and its likes provided the way out for the smaller user IT firms (Holtgrewe & Werle, 2001; Von Krogh & Spaeth, 2007). So, the narrative in software development shifted from competing to collaborating. This had been an ongoing narrative in the past. Rege believed that open-source software had more potential because it was developed by a lot of talented individuals spread all across the world (ConfEngine, 2015b; SolutionsIQ India, 2016). So, a lot of intelligent individuals with deep thinking were involved. Furthermore, open-source software was cheaper to develop and work with. This was because in open-source software unlike proprietary software there were no rental expenses to be provided by the smaller informational technology and other user companies to the larger informational technology companies (which had developed the proprietary software). Thus, smaller company companies benefited much more from the usage of open-source software as no outgoing payment was involved. Thus, <Code/Curiosity> was developed at Josh Software because of the philosophical thinking of Rege and Asokan (Josh Software, 2021l)

Rege and Asokan both believed that open-source software had been key in the progress of human civilization in the context of the information technology industry (ConfEngine, 2015b; SolutionsIQ India, 2016). However, there were very few developers who were engaged in the development of open-source software. The majority of the customers and consumers of open-source software hardly contributed towards the development of open-source software (Holtgrewe & Werle, 2001; Von Krogh & Spaeth, 2007). Rege and Asokan believed that for the open-source software movement to become more vibrant and sustained it was the responsibility of some software firms to engage in the development of open-source software and enhance the open-source software ecosystem (ConfEngine, 2015b; SolutionsIQ India, 2016). In the present-day context in the open-source software ecosystem, 99.3% of the participants were pure users and only 0.7% were contributors (ConfEngine, 2015b; Rege, 2021; SolutionsIQ India, 2016). This equation was not viable in the long run as the number of contributors needed to increase with respect to the number of users. Rege and Asokan believed that this balance needed to change favourably towards the contributors of open-source software. Rege and Asokan were interested in increasing the number of contributors to the open-source software community to at least by 1% more (ConfEngine, 2015b; Rege, 2021a; SolutionsIQ India, 2016). Most products which we as consumers are using are built on open-source. Thus, if through the efforts of Josh Software, the total number of open-source software contributors could become 1.7% it would be a great achievement by Josh Software (ConfEngine, 2015b; Rege, 2021; SolutionsIQ India, 2016). It would be a worthy effort. The big question was regarding how to convert 1% of open-source software consumers to contributors. The challenge was that individuals who could develop open-source software often aired that they neither had the time nor were provided incentives for developing open-source software. Mostly, such engineers were actively engaged with client projects (in their respective IT firms) which were very engaging. So, these engineers did not have enough bandwidth for open-source software development. Often such individuals lacked specialized expertise. There was also a view that the development of open-source software was the problem of someone else. Why should a software professional professionally engage in the development of open-source software when someone else is doing it? As a solution, Rege thought that open-source software development had to be competitive, self-motivating and incentivized (ConfEngine, 2015b; Rege, 2021; SolutionsIQ India, 2016). The incentives could be cash-based or in-kind rewards.

Towards this end, Rege and Asokan led a series of brainstorming sessions in Josh Software. Thus, to encourage the development of open-source software in Josh Software <Code/Curiosity> was conceptualized. <Code/Curiosity> was launched in the years 2019 by Josh Software. In <Code/Curiosity>, Josh Software provided challenges to amateurs who were developing or working on open-source software (Rege, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c). The amateur developers who developed very good open-source software were provided prizes, rewards, and incentives by Josh Software once the team of amateurs achieved a particular task assigned by Josh Software team (Rege, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c). Josh Software rated the performance of the open-source contributors and rewarded them with points. Within the first six months of the launch of <Code/Curiosity> more than two thousand five hundred (2500) developers joined the platform. Each and every developer’s work was monitored, tracked, and rewarded. This was also a new capability developed within Josh Software. There was a ‘Global Leader Board’ created for reward points. The points earned could be redeemed for actual money. In a span of one year (2019), $4,000 was spent on rewards by Josh Software towards rewarding contributors in open-source software development across the globe (Rege, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c).

Josh Software by <Code/Curiosity> mechanism was encouraging the practice of development of open-source software with a clearly defined matrix. This had evolved into a self-sustaining move as coders because they were being rewarded were continuously monitoring their contributions. Once it so happened that the <Code/Curiosity> software (which was open-source, so source codes and algorithms were visible to everyone in the first place) was hacked by a certain team of amateurs (Rege, 2021a). This was done by the amateurs to gain the maximum incentives from <Code/Curiosity>. Rege was very happy on this day as some ammeters had developed the technical capability to breach the very base of <Code/Curiosity> open-source software. Over the years, Rege has been advocating the philosophy and need for initiatives like <Code/Curiosity> open-source software in talks and conferences all across the world (ConfEngine, 2015b; GopherCon UK, 2019; SolutionsIQ India, 2016). One such talk topic was ‘Rewarding Open-Source with $$$’. Another one was ‘Gamifying Open-Source’ at XP Conference India 2016. The efforts of Rege and Josh Software spanning the last decade created a new occupation being an ‘Open-Source Software Developer’ (ConfEngine, 2015b; Rege, 2021; SolutionsIQ India, 2016). This was much beyond just having esteem or pride. ‘Open-Source Software Developer’ stood for such individuals getting sustained remuneration. The efforts of Rege and Josh Software also altered the conversation regarding open-source software development. <Code/Curiosity> as of March 2021 has been halted (Rege, 2021, 2021b, 2021c). How it can be launched as a more effective and efficient product was being deliberated upon at Josh Software. Soon Josh Software would launch <Code/Curiosity> by rebranding it with an enlarged scale and enhanced scope.

Josh Philosophy and Spirit: The Idea of ‘Anti Start Up’ and the Momentum Towards Social Good

Rege had over the years as an entrepreneur advocated regarding various technologies like Ruby (Confreaks, 2014; RubyConf Portugal, 2015), smart internet of things enabled connected devices (Jigsaw Academy, 2016, 2017a, 2017b, 2017c) and automation (Jigsaw Academy, 2017d; Rege, 2015). Rege has always focused on the interface of technology and society regarding the provision of affordable housing (Rege, 2015), automation solutions to ease someone’s livelihood insurance (Jigsaw Academy, 2017e), insurance (Dhoot, 2018) and others. The Josh Software journey over the years has stood for a philosophy and the Josh spirit. It was all about converting a crisis into an opportunity, a need into a business value proposition. In one conference, Rege had talked about anti-start-up. The listeners were taken aback by this talk. Rege talked about start-ups losing money in the short run. But the message was loud and clear, in the long run, a start-up should develop products or services that solve a compelling social problem. All the innovations of Josh Software exhibited this. ‘Kimaya NICU’ was for the well-being of prematurely born babies’ nutritional calculation. A very important social cause. ‘Hunger terminal’ was all about employee welfare as well as reducing food waste both vital organizational and societal necessities, respectively. <Code/Curiosity> was a step towards encouraging open-source software development. This was a need in the world of information-driven society. Josh Software represented this ethos, sensed societal needs, seized the initiatives and reconfigured the organizational efforts towards the greater good of society. Rege thought would it be correct to continue to undertake social innovations at Josh Software where profit levels were suppressed in the initial years, but organizational reputational assets were forthcoming. Rege pondered whether could this be the path going forward.