Harvard Business Schools take on the same article:
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/anthony/2009/03/what_makes_a_company_the_world.html
]]>Maybe that means that Erik is driven by both ensuring that Africa is innovative as well as that it’s recognized for being so. For starters, I like to distinguish between meaningful and meaningless innovation. And meaningless innovation is itself not that innovative anymore.
Thus, maybe the true innovation lies in new business models. Social entrepreneurship, products and services for the Bottom of the Pyramid, ultra low footprint products. I mean, how many of the companies that Fast Company mentions can be considered game changers? For me, it seems like that most of them are playing from the same old playbook again and again.
The past year, Apple (#4 on the list) has brought us – drum roll – an “improved” iPhone, “improved” Macbooks and updated iMacs… and uhm? What else? OMG an “application store”… Wow, who could have though of that? I have great respect for Apple’s execution, but I don’t think the world was *really* waiting for unibody Macbooks.
]]>One cannot appreciate what one cannot see, so until the rest of the world realizes that there is value in African ingenuity (not just African resources) we will be hard pressed to find a pin in that continent.
]]>By the way, if you’re on a VSAT or other molasses-esque connection while in Liberia, let me know how Maneno loads if you get the chance. Just did another round of shrinking things down. The home page is at 37kb now! Unfortunately we have a couple of months still before being on the ground again over there.
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