{"id":6862,"date":"2019-11-28T08:49:52","date_gmt":"2019-11-28T05:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=6862"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:43","slug":"co-innovation-will-open-windows-for-africa-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/11\/28\/co-innovation-will-open-windows-for-africa-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Co-Innovation Will Open Windows For Africa Businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By &nbsp;Mbugua Njihia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Markets, even those that would be considered boring and\nunappealing to serve, are in a constant state of flux. Finicky customers,\ngeopolitics, financial markets, technological advances, lobbying, and\nregulations either grow the opportunity or make it one of diminishing returns.\nThis state is what gives the enterprise c-suite sleepless nights and causes\nstartup founders to rise early with a mix of fear of missing out and the smell\nof opportunity. The agenda for both is the same; to grow and ensure the\nsustainability of their businesses but with each is dealt a different hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Enterprise, though with an available purse, is often wrought\nin policies, processes, and politics that make agile innovation a difficult\npursuit. Startups, on the other hand, are solution-rich but may lack adequate\nrunway or market access from which to establish themselves and exploit\nopportunities. Unfortunately, executives from both sides often look at this\ndynamic as zero-sum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Barriers to entry across many sectors are reducing and with\ntraditional moats breached, co-innovation offers the best opportunity for both\nthe enterprise and startup to collaborate to improve on the current\nopportunities or seed entirely new markets delivering strong consumer and\nshareholder value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is indeed unfortunate that in Africa, the concept of\nco-innovation is yet to catch on, starting from the academic institutions, the\ndifferent hubs and labs that provide a launchpad to startups and through to the\ncorporate class. Unto each, its silo. Academic institutions are a treasure\ntrove of knowledge, where cross-industry research and development should be\nhappening as a default from both faculty and students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The outputs from this RnD (research and development) process\nshould ideally find their way to market either on programs facilitated by the\ninstitutions or on the shoulders of the graduates who are charged to do all\nthat pertains to the certification attained. These tertiary institution\ngraduands end up either employed or dive into the startup world by choice or\nforced hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessdailyafrica.com\/corporate\/tech\/Co-innovation-will-open-windows-for-Africa-businesses\/4258474-5365008-14tyat7z\/index.html\">Read\nmore\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By &nbsp;Mbugua Njihia Markets, even those that would be considered boring and unappealing to serve, are in a constant state of flux. Finicky customers, geopolitics, financial markets, technological advances, lobbying,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}