In 2008 The World Bank hired a global consulting firm to put some structure into a number of quite disparate factories in a Mumbai textile plant. And surprisingly, it worked. Productivity jumped by 17% just by instituting a few simple measures: preventive maintenance, record-keeping where there previously was none, systematic storing of spare parts/items and inventory, and recording of quality defects.

The experiment was offered as proof of a very basic principle: a simple idea, used humbly, can pay dividends.