Don’t Just Survive — Thrive: Leading Innovation in Good Times and Bad

Category: Software Development - Date: 18 - February - 2018 - Wriiten by: Saleh Ssennyonjo | Views : 939

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For almost a decade now, money and other resources from the different sectors, stakeholders and change makers poured in to the tech industry in search of solutions to real life problems from the technology. “Techpreneurship” has been hailed referenced as the new dimension of trying to address problems from a technology and entrepreneurship dimension.

Despite these massive investments, solutions seem to come slowly with much of the solutions not perfectly cutting edge to solve real problems. I therefore argue that innovation is not a side business to a real business: rather, innovation is the foundation of a successful business. Key concepts include:

• Entrepreneurs can be found and a culture of entrepreneurship can be developed in companies of any size and age.
• Entrepreneurial leaders must relentlessly — but not recklessly — pursue opportunity. They must look beyond the resources currently controlled to harness the power, resources, and reach of their organizations and networks.
• Breakthrough innovations that change people’s lives and the very structure and power dynamics of industries cannot be managed as “silos,” tucked away in corporate, university, or government research labs, in incubators, or within venture capital funded entrepreneurial start-ups. Access to the marketplace is needed to help speed commercialization and adoption to use.
• Emerging opportunities must be nurtured and the transition to high growth must be managed. Once breakthrough innovations catch hold, growth must be funded and managed to exploit the full value of the opportunity.
• Incremental innovations must ensure that businesses that have passed through the high-growth stage can continue to deliver the resources, capabilities, and platforms needed to fuel the emerging opportunities of the future.
• Different organizational structures, cultures, governance and risk management systems, and leadership styles are needed to manage the business innovation lifecycle from an initial idea to a sustainable business that leverages entry position and capabilities to exploit the full potential for growth and evolution over time.

“To effect successful change in any society, you have to thrive through the bad and the good times”

Dedicated to enthusiastic techpreneurs, innovators @klab.rw by Saleh