Innovation culture

Thanks to This Blog Sits at the…, here’s a report assessing Canada, with respect to innovation (among other things)…

“Our culture is unwilling to accept the failures that are built into an environment that genuinely supports risk taking. Nor are we wholly comfortable with differentiation, success and excellence. This culture holds Canada back in entrepreneurial and technological innovation.”

It’s not too hard to see the obvious similarities with the Indian culture of (lack of) risk taking. But, one of the other ways of looking at it is, in “third world” or developing countries (never understood these terms), when one hits rock bottom and when things come down to survival for the basics, wouldn’t necessity be the mother of inventions?

No wonder Mohammad Saidullah got to the list of 12 finalists at the Asian Innovation Awards (2005).

Frustrated by three weeks of flooding in 1975 that swamped his village, Mr. Saidullah was determined to make his bicycle float. He attached fan blades to its rear wheel, and fashioned some floats out of wood that he attached to the spokes and saddle. After a few failures, the bike stayed afloat and that is how Mr. Saidullah has been using it since, putting on demonstrations for visiting dignitaries and researchers in a local pond, his distinctive white hair and beard blowing in the breeze, a generation or two of children looking on. Mr. Saidullah remains ready for commercial production, believing the bicycle— named after his wife Noor—has potential beyond merely overcoming floods and traversing the local pond: as an alternative to crossing rivers on overcrowded boats, for monitoring plankton, towing barges, relief work or as a paddle cycle for fun parks.

And, Prof. Anil Gupta’s Honey Bee network seems to have enough proof.

“Grassroots innovations seem to carry a message of sagacity, fortitude and ultimately the spirit of overcoming constraints ingeniously without any outsiders’ help,” he says. Mr. Saidullah isn’t alone. The Honey Bee project has discovered more than 50,000 innovations in the Indian backwoods, some of which have also made it to the AIA’s final 12.

The Canada report also had this statement about innovation…

“…Needs more skilled people…”

And that got me thinking…

• What does “skilled people” mean? Traditionally, we tend to mix up skill and education. The UK HSMP seems to indicate that “highly skilled” people are “successful people with sought-after skills”. And if you look at their criteria, education is a very important factor. Which obviously contradicts the success of people like Mr.Saidullah.
• Is this statement more relevant in the context of commercialization of grassroots innovation. Even in the case of the 50,000 innovations that got identified by the HoneyBee network, it took a Prof. Anil Gupta to start the process and to have “highly skilled” people champion the cause of the grassroots innovators.

While on the topic, The Innovation in Emerging Markets blog is also a good resource.