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It may not seem so obvious to many analysts, but in my view, the financial crisis of 2008 was a turning point for entrepreneurship and the scaling of innovation activities of all sorts across the globe. Perhaps coincidentally, this is when Vadim Kotelnikov, whom I first met in New Delhi in 2001, launched his innovative Global Entrepreneurial Creativity Contests − the first of many of his innovations such as his most recent Innompics, the Olympics for entrepreneurs.
Why is this significant? It's also the starting point of now-ubiquitous business accelerators, innovation bootcamps, other models and movements, and all the wide range of activities that provide dedicated support to individuals to take control over their destinies.
We are increasingly searching inward for business solutions and ideas when the job market boards go dark. This phenomenon has occurred and is still happening in most markets (the USA being an outlier for other reasons); it was out of necessity to accommodate the vast layoffs of workers from tech and traditional businesses hit hard by the financial collapse. People were left to their own devices to make a new living, somehow, and this urgent need supercharged grassroots innovation activities with innovative approaches − innovating innovation. |
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Others see how a person can succeed in business with just a
laptop and an idea. Global and regional innovation
ecosystems are coming to life. However, in my view, many of
them are still about services push and not technology pull,
about many ventures chasing too few funding sources.
This is
a process well established in places like
Silicon Valley,
which is being replicated worldwide, creating systems for
presenting business plans to investors who see a hundred
submissions a day and fund one company per month. How can
this paradigm be innovated? How can innovation be innovated? In my view, the innovation of innovation will happen when
entrepreneurs realize they don't need investors to succeed;
not all startups need to be unicorns; they only need to feed
the families who support the entrepreneur.
As an American, I
still tend to think too big, that we should only consider
ventures that can roll out across the US in a few months,
then the rest of the world in a few years. While this is
possible for the wealthy former employees of the big tech
companies that shed workers from 2008 (and more recently
from Covid-19), that's a minority of a minority and serves
not the majority of people requiring a better quality and
way of life. |
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We don't need to think radical or disruptive
innovation all the time, and we shouldn't need to feel that
we must have an investor in waiting before we can succeed.
We need to get back to our roots of local everything and
then slowly and organically go local.
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Innovation Tree
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I am one of the lucky evaluators of submissions to the Innompics. I also review business plans and R&D grant
proposals for a career serving governments and NGOs around
the world that evaluate for financing in one way or another.
To me, the Innompics is reminiscent of pilot projects such
as in the UK, where they have been experimenting with
teaching innovation and entrepreneurship in ever younger age
groups, all the way "down" to secondary schools and even
testing in primary schools (when you think about it, primary
and pre-primary grades are only teaching creativity which is
the foundation of entrepreneurship and innovation, but we
lose that when textbooks rule our lives). It will take a few
generations to have evidence-based results, but already the
results are positive in many ways if none other than our
realization that a student's creativity comes to life
outside textbooks at any age. But what about countries where
there are no venture capitalists, formal innovation
ecosystems, or entrepreneur support services? And many
countries have no textbooks either (for better or worse).
How to stimulate the creation of vital local startups to
promote innovation that can increase their quality of life,
make living wage jobs, and grow the national economy? Is this not where the Olympics started to find the planet's most outstanding athletes? |
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But the Olympics are not just
about finding the best athletes;
they are about inspiring people
of all backgrounds to reach for
their highest goals and to have
the support of others like them
trying to do the same thing.
This is what Innompics is all about.
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So having turned our image of innovation activities on its
head from a financial crisis compounded by a medical crisis
that brings on an economic crisis, we may have solved one of
humanity's most significant challenges, the sharing of
opportunities and wealth so everyone can rise above poverty
and disease and illiteracy. Surely it will take more than
one initiative and more than one model, but a pioneer needs
to lead this challenge so others will become engaged and
scalability, and momentum is just a matter of time.
For this
innovation of innovation, we can thank Vadim for being so
bold as to start with those most in need and those with the
least resources, and those who are the masses! Let us
embrace the Innompics challenges and let it be the start of
a global grassroots ecosystem for children and young adults
in all corners of the world and all walks of life to take
control of their destiny, starting local and going global
over time, to help meet the established or emerging systems
supporting more "traditional" entrepreneurship and
innovation.
The time to innovate innovation is here and all
the better to help us out of this global recession, which
should once again be the impetus to rise above it all and
succeed using what limited resources each has available. |
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Innovation Tree
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e-mail:
tom.ruddy@gmail.com |
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