One of the advantages of living in an underdeveloped economy is that the number of opportunities to leapfrog are plentiful. Especially when it comes to digitization and the adoption of emerging technologies.

The one thing that sincerely confuses me though, is the eagerness with which not only said technologies, but also related dysfunctional processes and practices are being adopted here. It is almost as if the local corporates I work with want to be like their peers in advanced economies so badly, they forget that leapfrogging is a superior solution to copy-pasting, especially since they have the advantage of not having to deal with any legacy misconstructs.

SPARK OF THE DAY

I don’t think business owners in underdeveloped economies realize they’re in a much better position to innovate than their peers in the more advanced economies who are in a constant bind to first fix the shortcomings of their legacy systems and processes with their patches upon patches adding complexity upon complexity for their organisations to deal with.

It is time businesses leaders in underdeveloped economies learn to trust their own insights and experiences when it comes to innovation and digitization… and celebrate the fact that there are no structures and formal processes in place yet as a blessing, instead of a curse.

Starting from a clean sheet is a seriously great opportunity, let’s not waste it!