What your colleagues do in the bathroom| Health innovation on a budget

In today's letter;

Ventures and Products: Frugal product innovations for health insurance

Digital Transformation: How organizations 'falling behind' can catch up

People Solutions: What your colleagues do in the bathroom

Ventures and Products

In a low trust society like ours, frugal product innovations can create effective and efficient ways to extend health insurance coverage to the eager-to-be-served population in the informal sector.

Digital Transformation

There is a reason why certain organizations in certain countries?can discover and create at a remarkable pace. Reasons actually, and they include: R & D investments, private sector activities, public policy enabling?#innovation, strong links between academia and industry, and industries that are themselves R & D masterminds..

Where does this leave organizations whose organizational structures, policy environments and funding do not match up with those who are ‘ahead’?

Not as far behind as we may?think.

Two processes make technology beneficial for not just its original creators: diffusion and adaptation (not just adoption).

There are two valid pathways then for organizations here, and the public sector (that is keen on supporting them);

?? Now term: Explore use cases of technologies that can boost productivity within an organization’s industry and sector. There isn't always a need to create an entirely new product, business (or industry) as?#digitaltransformation?need not be digital replacement, but a means to improve the performance of what already exists and remains profitable. Finding technologies that work and the ways to make them work for the specific purposes of organizations is a solid approach to boosting productivity and scaling growth.

?? Longer term: Organizations work to catch up on the new development front through dedicated innovation/R&D funds and partnering with organizations that are ‘technically ahead’ on knowledge transfer. This is also where public sector support is crucial, in areas such as facilitating IP systems, innovation policy, and even the processes that allow for (transborder) knowledge transfer.

In a time when the pace of technological advancement is unprecedented and this advancement is itself enabling transfer of technical know-how and innovation knowledge, organizations should see this pace not as a pointer to how much they might be lagging behind, but a viable opportunity to ‘catch up’..

Technology is wonderful because it can be shared, and even built upon as adoption and adaptation happen. Remember that a lot of technologies which became ubiquitous over time as they proved useful across geographies can be traced back to a specific place, time, and even person…?

People Solutions

An often-neglected way your organization cheats itself is by not having an idea meritocracy.

Wait! An idea meritocracy is probably step 2, as some don’t even have a mechanism for discovering and exploring new ideas in the first place. One can however see why this is the case, because as the business starts ‘doing well’, it becomes counter-intuitive to not focus attention on what has gotten the business to the point of sustainability, and this includes the type of people you hire and the outputs you require of them.

But three events will happen...

? Aspects of your recipe for success will get copied (as with the recent Guinness World record-a-thons in Nigeria) ?? ♂?

? Innovation will render what you currently do obsolete. ?? ♀?

? Stakeholder/customer needs will evolve. ??

So how about leveraging the biggest advantage you have in staying ahead of these inevitable events. The advantage I am speaking of, are?the members of your team/organization that go to the bathroom at least once daily.

Where do the ‘best ideas’ come from? The bathroom, obviously. And

Spread knowledge by reposting this! Until next week's perspectives ; )

Yours in Innovation,

Gumi's leaders