INS630
analele
innovation_done_in_frugal_fashion.pptInnovation Done in “Frugal” Fashion:
Evidence from African Market
Stephen Ozoigbo, IFTIIN Foundation
What is Innovation?
- Both a process and the end result
- “New”, “novel”, “original”…
- “Important” and “significant”
Why Innovation is a Big Deal
- One of the primary ways of achieving product differentiation, and thus competitive advantage
- The single most important contributing factor to long-term productivity and economic growth (Grubler et al., 1999)
- Important to the advancement of society in general around the world
What THEY Said about Innovation
Some more…
And Finally:
- Why you should NEVER listen to your customers “to create the future road map for your product or service”:
- “Entrepreneurs need to be reminded that it's not the job of their customers to know what they don't.”
What Do They Mean?
- Innovation is a top-to-bottom, one-way linear process from the business (or more accurately, the entrepreneurs) to the end consumers
- The creativities (or genius) of the entrepreneurs are the most crucial elements for innovation
- Usually implies huge resources/investment requirement
And the Academia Agrees
- Innovation Chain model (Carbon Trust 2002):
That is Great, but…
- What about elsewhere in the world where
- Resources are significantly restrained?
- The customers know exactly what they need, but no existing product/service can meet their needs?
- Because the customers have limited means
- Emerging trend in innovation:
- Frugal innovation
What is Frugal Innovation?
- Innovation done with limited resources, targeting customers with specific needs and limited means
- It entails making better things, not just cheaper things.
- Frugal innovation extends to services, not just products.
- Frugal innovation is about remodeling, not just de-featuring.
- Low cost does not mean low-tech: frugal innovation can require, or be combined with frontier science and technology.
Our goal:
- We present our (preliminary) attempt to formulating a theoretic framework of frugal innovation based on case studies in African markets
- Why Africa?
- Good reasons for optimism for entrepreneurs in Africa
- Readily available resources for innovation remain limited in most of African nations
- Cases of successful stories
Our Basic Research Framework
The Cases
- Case 1: Solar-powered low cost hearing aids in Botswana by Godisa Technologies
- Case 2: Digital education in Kenya by eLimu and Safaricom
- Case 3: a mobile job matching application in Ghana by mPawa
- Case 4: mobile money transfer services in Kenya by M-PESA
Some Common Patterns Identified from the Cases
- Active role for target customers
- Emphases on social issues
- South-to-south, bottom-up technology diffusion
- Long-term focus of business models
- Partnership between local innovators with expertise from developed nations
Integrated Framework for Frugal Innovation (IFFI)
How IFFI Fits into National Innovation System
What Else Can Practitioners Do?
- Help to establish the relationship between developing economies and developed economies (circle 1)
- Increase Diasporas engagement in order to create visibility for frugal innovators, their technologies and products.
- Stimulate private capital flows to frugal innovation ecosystems through multi-stakeholder partnerships and matching funds from government agencies.
What Else Can Practitioners Do?
