Archive for the ‘What’s Next? (WILD CARD)’ Category
Friday, April 13th, 2012
A gentleman’s agreement
Since its inception in 1946, the World Bank has had 12 presidents, each of them an American. The practice of choosing an American for the job has gone unopposed given that the U.S. has been the world’s biggest donor nation. Similarly, the Europeans traditionally pick one of their own to run the IMF. This arrangement is known as a “gentleman’s agreement”.
But this year there’s a wrinkle in the World Bank process. A battle is underway among three candidates vying to succeed the incumbent president, Robert Zoellick, whose term ends in June.
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Tags: africa, Economics, emerging high growth, Kim, macroeconomics, Ocampo, Okojo-Iweala, president world bank, Sub-Sahara, World Bank, Zoellick
Posted in africa, Economics, Emerging Markets, International Business, Sub-Sahara Region, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | 1 Comment »
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Leader of the pack
Last July, Kenya became the first sub-Saharan country to launch an open data government site, enabling its citizens to gain access to vital information. After only six months, the Kenya Open Data Initiative (KODI) is still a work in progress, but it’s already reshaped Kenya’s culture of government.
When KODI was launched, Kenya was only the 22nd country with an open government portal. Today, 30 countries have live, open government sites, though dozens of other countries are in some stage of developing their own. Kenya’s early adoption is due in large part to the efforts of open data advocates both within Kenya’s government and among its influential technology community.
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Tags: gov2.0, government 2.0, iHub, Kenya, Kenya Open Data Initiative, KODI, Ndemo, open data, open government, open source, opengov, Ushahidi
Posted in Emerging Markets, Innovation, Sub-Sahara Region, Uncategorized, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, January 4th, 2012
Accra, Ghana
In reflecting on the year ending, my thoughts turn again to Africa, home of six of the world’s top 10 fastest growing economies. Africa’s mobile revolution is spawning exciting, new opportunities for entrepreneurs and engineers. For practitioners eager to experience the impact of their work, there’s no more dynamic and interesting place to be than Africa today.
With that in mind, I’d like to share three short but inspiring talks given in 2011 by three of Africa’s best and brightest pioneers. These trailblazers all began their careers in technology, but now they’re developing “platforms” in the broader sense, enabling a new generation of Africans to reshape their future.
Each speaker offers their unique perspective, but a common theme from all of the talks is that Africa is rising rapidly. Through their courage and determination, Africa’s trailblazers can inspire us all to persevere, whether we work on the continent or not.
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Tags: #ict4d, africa, Africa 2012, Afrigadget, Afromusing, Ashesi, Awuah, Berekuso, Global Voices, Hersman, Huduma, iHub, m:lab, Rotich, Tech4d, TED, TED Fellow, Ushahidi, White African
Posted in africa, Sub-Sahara Region, Tech4dev, Technology from Developing Regions, West Africa, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | No Comments »
Monday, December 12th, 2011
Global businesses faced unprecedented opportunities and challenges in 2011. In a year that ushered in the Arab uprisings and a fracturing of the Eurozone, the world grew more interdependent and fragile.
Yet markets are demonstrating surprising capacities for resilience. Engineers and entrepreneurs in places like Nairobi, São Paulo and Doha are beginning to build export-worthy technologies.
This is a momentous time for anyone engaged in cross-market projects. It’s only fitting that the year’s top books match the scale of the changes we’re witnessing.
Here’s a year-end roundup of books that define our times and guide practitioners with a global perspective:
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Tags: 2011 books, Bruce Rutherford, Daniel Yergin, David Brooks, Deborah Brautigam, Francis Fukuyama, Ivor W. Hartman, Jeffrey Sachs, John R. Bradley, Joseph S. Nye, Michael Lewis, Michael Spence, Niall Ferguson, Richard McGregor, Robert Kaplan, Tim Harford, touch points
Posted in Books, Economics, International Business, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 13th, 2011
An African Narrative
The misdeeds of Africa’s despots get plenty of media attention because they fit a Western “plug-n-play” narrative about the region. Conversely, the work of Africa’s exemplary leaders is often overlooked.
I’d offer the story of an extraordinary African leader determined to improve the quality of life in her nation. She’s Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was recently appointed Nigeria’s Finance Minister.
In her previous stint in that role, she compiled a stunning record of economic reform. She was the first woman to serve as her country’s Finance Minister and as its Foreign Minister.
Okonjo-Iweala is an inveterate disruptor of the status quo who is guided by her vision for what’s possible and a zeal for instigating change.
Stories like hers give rise to an emergent narrative that’s being written by Africans. As she puts it, “This is the Africa of opportunity. This is the Africa where people want to take charge of their own futures and their own destinies.”
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Tags: africa, Biafra, Delta State, Goodluck Jonathan, Iweala, Minister of Finance, Nigeria, Okonjo-Iweala, West Africa, World Bank
Posted in africa, Emerging Markets, leadership, Sub-Sahara Region, West Africa, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
Mapping the Fiber Revolution
Most everyone interested in Africa’s connectivity revolution has seen the handiwork of Steve Song, a South African social entrepreneur who wants to make telecommunications accessible to more Africans. His iconic map of Africa’s undersea fiber optic cables is a visual narrative of the continent coming “on-line”.
When Song began the mapping exercise three years ago, his intent was to document the continent’s two or three existing cables in order to aid his work. Since then, the number of new undersea cables encircling Africa has burgeoned, and Song has faithfully revised his map.
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Tags: #ict4d, africa, Afrinnovator, AFTerFibre, fiber optics, fibre optics, Google Africa, Matt Berg, Steve Song, Tech4d, Terrestrial Fibers, Terrestrial Fibres
Posted in africa, ICT, Sub-Sahara Region, Tech4dev, West Africa, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, June 1st, 2011
Two conversation-shaping books
Here are my Summer Reading picks for those who go for both engaging narrative and penetrating insight. I’m recommending two distinctly different books by writers who don’t want to merely inform their readers; they want to shape the conversation. Both authors accomplished what they set out to do.
Tim Harford | Adapt – Why Success Always Starts with Failure
“Today’s challenges simply cannot be tackled with ready-made solutions and expert opinions; the world has become far too unpredictable and profoundly complex. Instead, we must adapt—improvise rather than plan, work from the bottom up rather than the top down, and take baby steps rather than great leaps forward.” ~Tim Harford
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Tags: Adapt, Alone, Carr, Finikiotis, Harford, Harford quote, steven johnson, summer picks, summer read, summer reading, Turkle, Turkle quote
Posted in Books, Learning, Problem solving, Relational competency, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
Scenarios are the most powerful vehicles I know for challenging our “mental models” about the world and lifting the blinders that limit our creativity and resourcefulness. ~Peter Schwartz
Using a longer lens
It’s been twenty years since the publication of Peter Schwartz’s insightful primer about scenario planning, The Art of the Long View. In the book, Schwartz makes a convincing case for using scenario planning in approaching strategic challenges of various kinds.
Schwartz, who led scenario planning efforts at Shell, Motorola, and Pacific Gas and Electric, concluded that the technique could be applied to handling the emergent complex threats that companies were confronting in the 90′s.
Since then, the world has grown radically more complex, more uncertain. Globalization and the Internet have woven together our institutions so that a crisis in one corner of the world can spread virally with far-reaching consequences.
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Tags: charlie rose, design thinking, Global Business Network, Lee Kuan Yew, Metaplanning, ospreyvision, Peter Ho, Peter Schwartz, planning for uncertainty, scenario planning, scenario thinking, Singapore, Singapore miracle
Posted in Books, Business Model, Business Practices, Collaboration, design thinking, Innovation, leadership, Learning, MetaPlanning, Story Telling, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
Reverberating events
The uprisings in the Arab world are capturing worldwide attention not only because we’re witnessing history in the making, but because the changes are bound to affect us all. We live in a world that’s interconnected in ways that were hard to fathom only a few years ago. Interconnectedness is creating new challenges with social implications that traditional institutions and leaders aren’t equipped to handle.
The clashes across the Middle East and North Africa are only the latest example of unforeseen events that reverberate across regional boundaries. Before that, the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the U.S. sparked a deep global recession that affected more sectors than anything economists had seen before. As some economies began recovering during the following year, Europe’s mounting debt crisis triggered a cascade of new problems in distant economies.
Today’s challenges, geopolitical or otherwise, are more difficult to predict, understand and handle than the kinds of problems we’ve seen until recently. As the world grows more interconnected, we become more exposed to what design theorists Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber called “wicked problems” which are substantially harder to define and solve than so-called “tame” problems.
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Tags: age of design, CogNexus, complex, complsity, design theorist, design thinking, Horst Rittel, integrative thinking, Jeff Conklin, John Camillus, Mary Poppendieck, Melvin Webber, relational skills, roger martin, rotman, shared understanding, solving wicked problems, wicked, wicked problems
Posted in Planning, Problem solving, Relational competency, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011
High stakes, high pressure
As our society debates the need for more civil discourse, we’re underplaying the value of competing perspectives among our leaders. I’m a fan of rival leaders who can come together despite their differences to redefine their company’s mission.
For institutions grappling with deep change, there’s no better way to start than by assembling a coalition of leaders and entrusting them to set a new direction. When the stakes are high, a team of diverse, tough-minded leaders reaching a consensus can yield resoundingly productive results.
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Tags: coalition of leaders, guiding coalition, harvard business school, hbs, John P. Kotter, strategy, way forward
Posted in Business Model, Business Practices, Collaboration, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | 5 Comments »
Sunday, December 19th, 2010
Turning the page…
Another interesting year is rapidly winding down. This year, I had the chance to work with many gifted business and tech leaders, but it was particularly satisfying collaborating with innovators in developing regions — the Sub-Sahara, the Middle East and South Asia.
It’s time for Western multinational companies — especially those in the customer-facing sectors — to enter developing markets where consumer-led growth is robust but capital and resources are in short supply.
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Tags: "disruptive innovation", Business Model, Collaboration, collaborative, consultancy, consulting, developed markets, developing markets, disruptive, emerging market, Finikiotis, frontier markets, Innovation, innovators, m-money, middle east, prahalad, south asia, Sub-Sahara
Posted in africa, Business Model, Business Practices, Collaboration, Emerging Markets, International Business, Sub-Sahara Region, Telecommunications, West Africa, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | 2 Comments »
Thursday, October 28th, 2010
India’s top mobile carrier, Bharti Airtel, is bringing its ultra low-cost services to the sub-Sahara. Can it adapt its managed services model to penetrate Africa’s under-served, low-income markets? What are the implications?
Out of the East
Asia’s growing influence in Africa is receiving worldwide attention. China’s investment in Africa will top $100 billion dollars this year making it the continent’s biggest trading partner. There are 800 Chinese companies with over 4 million Chinese people living and working there. China’s impact on Africa, as author Richard Dowden observed, is the biggest economic shift of the twenty-first century.
Now, the story of Asia’s push into Africa is being revised to highlight players from India. In June, Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile carrier – the 5th largest telecom in the world – bought Kuwait-based Zain’s operations in 16 African countries for $10.7 billion in cash.
Bharti has been eager to grab a piece of Africa’s growing mobile market for some time. In 2009, it tried to buy MTN, Africa’s largest carrier, but the deal failed due to regulatory roadblocks. Undeterred, Bharti pivoted quickly setting its sights on Zain. By June, Bharti bagged its African trophy, though some analysts thought it paid too much for Zain’s assets.
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Tags: bharti, bharti airtel, bharti enterprises, Finikiotis, ibm, mtn, osprey, Richard Dowden, spanco, tech mahindra, zain
Posted in africa, Business Model, Emerging Markets, International Business, Sub-Sahara Region, Telecommunications, West Africa, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | 3 Comments »
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
Have App Will Travel
It’s been a hectic summer crisscrossing the Atlantic on planes. I enjoy catching up on reading during long flights but hate schlepping books, so the iPad is a Godsend. One of my favorite resources is WIRED Magazine’s app developed by Adobe Digital.
The app lives up to its hype of providing an immersive, highly interactive experience. Gorgeous images and crisp typography rotate with the device, and the layout is sexy. Apps like this are transforming the way we experience information, and we ought to be mindful of that. The implications are enormous.
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Tags: apple, Cupertino, design sensibilities, Garr Reynolds, gem-like, immersive, iPad, netgeist, Presentation Zen, sleek, Tufte, typography, User interface, WIRED, WIRED magazine, zeitgeist
Posted in design thinking, Innovation, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | No Comments »
Sunday, April 18th, 2010
Why customers do what they do
It feels like we’re at the dawn of a new era in understanding how people — namely our customers — make decisions, and some businesses will benefit enormously. More importantly, customers will soon enjoy more kinds of services designed to better meet their needs.
Our collective thinking is being informed by discoveries in behavioral sciences and behavioral economics about the role of the unconscious mind and the centrality of emotions in driving behavior. Many of these findings are now verifiable through neuroimaging tools.
Among other things, we’re realizing that people aren’t Vulcan-like beings who make choices on a cold, purely rational basis. Individuals — our customers — are complicated and swayed by factors beneath the level of consciousness.
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Tags: Ariely, behavioral economics, Behavioral Science, Brafman, customer experience, CX, immersive, Predictably Irrational, social sciences, Swayed
Posted in Behavioral Science, customer experience management, Innovation, Service design, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | 5 Comments »
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Downtown Cape Coast, Ghana
Pulsating business scene
I spent the last couple weeks on assignment in Accra, Ghana. On this trip, I’ve seen more growth than any time since my company started working there in ’07. This is a period of unprecedented business activity and promising new projects within and beyond the mobile sector. Meanwhile, new competitors from around the world are streaming in. This corner of Africa’s business scene is pulsating.
Astute businesses here are taking steps to preserve their client base and deepen relationships with their customers. We’re privileged to work with a new generation of African business leaders with the courage and determination to transform their offerings to meet the needs of an emerging class of consumers.
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Tags: accra, africa, Analytics, customer intelligence, ECOWAS, empowerment, ghana, strategic alliance, Sub-Sahara, West Africa
Posted in Analytics, Business Practices, Collaboration, customer experience management, Emerging Markets, Social Entrepreneur, Sub-Sahara Region, Technology from Developing Regions, Telecommunications, Uncategorized, West Africa, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | 3 Comments »
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
Evening at Cape Point on the tip of South Africa
While the business world is preoccupied with the global economic recovery, a mobile revolution is quietly reshaping the marketplace in the developing world. In Africa, mobile phones are providing access to communications for millions of people who’ve never had fixed communications let alone cell phones. I’ve written before about the impact that such ‘leapfrogging’ is having on African business. Now, we’re beginning to see exciting and substantial commercial projects taking shape, particularly in the service sector.
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Tags: african innovation, african mobile, international telecommunications union, itu, leapfrog, Leapfrogging, m-banking, m-commerce, m-pesa, mobile revolution, mobileindustry
Posted in Emerging Markets, ICT, International Business, Sub-Sahara Region, Technology from Developing Regions, Telecommunications, Uncategorized, West Africa, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | 1 Comment »
Friday, January 1st, 2010
One of the more satisfying experiences at year’s end is reaching out to clients, partners and colleagues to thank them for their business and their stalwart support. It’s even sweeter this time while reflecting on an entire decade going back to the early days of my business.
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Tags: 2010, appreciation, gratitude, happy new year, thank you
Posted in customer experience management, Innovation, International Business, leadership, R=G, Social Entrepreneur, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | No Comments »
Saturday, December 26th, 2009
So, then…let us reflect together for a while, consider what matters, what really matters, and then in our wonderfully separate ways, fare forward together. ~ James Hollis
It’s the season to reflect on a year that’s winding down before we turn the page. It feels right to look back on the year. What interesting times these are! Tom Friedman describes this as a period marked by the collision of two forces, the Great Recession and the Great Inflection – referring to the rise of cheap, plentiful technology.
The good news is that the economy is forcing us to adopt new tools more rapidly, accelerating business innovation. But, more tools bring more “noise”, and decibel levels are soaring. Noise distracts us from focusing on what’s important and we seem to be suffering from a collective case of “focus-deficit disorder”. I think it’s hampering our performance.
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Tags: accountability, Clay Shirky, course correction, Gret Inflection, James Hollis, never too late, signal-to-noise, Tom Friedman, What Matters Most
Posted in leadership, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | 3 Comments »
Friday, December 4th, 2009
It’s a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. -Lev Grossman, Time Magazine
The Urge to Connect
History shows that that when robust tools serve a powerful human drive, revolutionary changes occur. That’s happening now as social media enable people to satisfy their primal urge to connect with each another. Social media are ubiquitous, cheap, and accessible, and their widespread use is having a profound impact on business.
While the technology is grabbing the headlines, the more interesting story is how people around the world are using social media. They’re fulfilling their desire to connect with each other, forming communities in the process. The communities function like virtual beehives — amorphous, dynamic structures where members coalesce to share information.
Smart companies recognize the commercial value of communities. They treat community members more like stakeholders than consumers. Instead of broadcasting their messages at them, they engage followers in dialogue. In time, followers can be converted to evangelists. In a hyper-connected world, evangelism carries messages fast and far, boosting the value of the brand.
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Tags: Barbados, Clay Shirky, community, community-building, devotees, fans, followers, JetBlue, Social Media, social networking, Twitter, web 2.0
Posted in Airline, Business Practices, How Cool?, Social Media, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | 9 Comments »
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
You never know with these things when you’re trying something new what can happen. This is all experimental. ~Richard Branson
Over the years, there have been surprisingly few breakthroughs in the airline customer experience - until recently. Sir Richard Branson’s venture into the U.S. market, Virgin America, (VX) is redefining air travel by providing passengers with a fresh, distinctive on-board experience. The carrier is less than two years old but it’s quickly becoming a template for what’s possible in the future.
The choices VX is making demonstrate a “customer experience mindset” that’s all too rare in the industry. It’s evident that the VX team devoted their attention to passenger comfort and convenience. Features “baked in” to the customer experience include seats with power-outlets and USB ports. Cabins in their new A320s have soft mood lighting.
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Tags: Airline, airline model, Branson, customer experience management, in-flight, inflight, onboard, RED, Virgin, Virgin America, wi-fi, WiFi
Posted in Airline, Books, Business Model, Business Practices, How Cool?, Innovation, Service design, What's Next? (WILD CARD) | 10 Comments »
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