I first heard the term innovation blowback from the McKinsey Quarterly article I read when I was in business school in 2005. If you dont have time to read the article the basic thesis is that the developing world is creating incredible innovations that will essentially "blowback" and significantly influence the developed world.
At the time, the article struck me, and now everytime I travel it is reaffirmed. So just today, I was stuck in the airport talking to my sister saying I needed her to pick me up a prepaid card so I could charge my phone and then within a matter of minutes I get a text message saying she has loaded my phone with minutes taken from her phone... very cool. Caveat (those of you travelers know all about this but I still think it is cool and worth sharing:)).
In addition, I was at the Safaricom mobile phone dealer yesterday and my sister was talking to me about the new technologies associated with mobile phones called mpesa, which allows individuals to transfer money via text message and cell phone.
Knowledge is becoming democratized and it is giving everyone the opportunity to seed innovation no matter where they are from. We truly live in an exciting time....CK Prahalad, a mentor of mine from Michigan, discussed this when I asked him to speak to my Fellows graduation last September. Check out his speech on YouTube, he is so inspiring..
Well more soon, just found out I got on my standby flight to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania gotta run!
"Bridging the Gap" by Blair Emily Miller
Nice peace,
ReplyDeleteI agree, there are so many features available at relatively very low cost to the developing world. In Pakistan one of the MFI in partnership with a cell company has introduced "Easy Paisa" money transfer service which take less than a minute to transact money through out Pakistan. Similary all cellular comapanies here has this feature of "minutes/balance Sharing" free of any charge. Another interesting feature is that with your existing cellular connection you can transfer to any other network without changing your number!
How cool!