Using design as your strategy

Mr Simon Mawer, the business strategy and innovation leader at Blue Wren. When designing a product, one ought to start with the user; understand their needs and pay attention to their emotional experience. PHOTO/courtesy

Summary

When you think about designing something, think about the purpose and for whom you are primarily designing for, Charlotte Ninsiima explains.

By Charlotte Ninsiima

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Not every good looking idea can be transformed into a cash minting business.

Coming up with an idea is just five per cent of what it takes. A good idea does not necessarily create a good business, assures Japheth Kawanguzi, Team leader at the Innovation Village at the Corporate Innovation Summit 2020.

“We are helping entrepreneurs distinguish the difference between a good idea and good business. The need for business development skills and market opportunities, Simon Mawer, the business strategy and innovation leader at Blue Wren, said while speaking at the summit.

Mr Mawer opens up on the need for design innovation in organisations.

“In the process of convincing people that this  is a good idea, it is important to understand the human behaviour and the psychology of change. Often, we give people facts but they respond to stories. So understanding this is a design capability. Viewing the change process through the human centred lenses using incredibly powerful effects is probably the only strategy of creating a lasting impression.”

Designing innovation is the art of turning an existing situation into a better one. When you think about designing something, think about what the purpose is. Also think about whom you are primarily designing for.

“What is the problem that I am solving? What are we trying to achieve? What is the value that I can create for the end user? What technology can I use for a product or service and how can I make this affordable? What constraints do they have? Is it easy for them to think about the end to end user?” Mr Mawer explained.

In short, one ought to start with the user; understand their needs, pay attention to their emotional experience, this works at the top level of an organisation and colleagues in the office. 

The summit held at the end of October focused on bringing together global innovation experts, top executives across the country’s most successful corporations and fast growing start-ups to discuss how to fuel an innovation mind-set to drive your organisation forward faster.

Mr Japheth Kawanguzi, Team leader at the Innovation Village. Several companies are either pivoting their business models or collaborating with incumbents to meet market needs. PHOTO/courtesy

Crafted under the theme: ‘Building a culture of innovation fueling business and economic recovery’, after the effect of Covid-19 on the business environment, corporate organisations and tech entrepreneurs are invited to collaborate to arm business solutions.

Organisations have had to explore new ways and adapt to the significant changes brought by the Covid-19 pandemic. In some cases, several companies are either pivoting their business models or collaborating with incumbents to meet the needs of the market.

Innovation strategy

Through re-defining their innovation strategy, corporations and public entities can start incorporating an innovation culture with pathways of implementation, integrate the latest emerging technologies and disruptive business models, this summit is discovering the untapped opportunities.

For online businesses, design makes it easy for people to interact with the interface. Many people have websites that are hard to navigate which either require a lot of time or the pictures or amount of data required exceeds the bandwidth. The best source of value is when you create something that does not exist yet; it is a differentiation. Design helps one to pay attention where that value can be created, what needs to be fulfilled and solve a customer’s problem in a unique way.

Funding

This year, Africa attracted innovation funding worth $2billion; 35 per cent was to both Kenya and Lagos and 30 per cent to South Africa and less than one per cent to Uganda. That is closely related to how our ecosystem is and the readiness of investment. Are our entrepreneurs ready to attract that investment? It is beginning to change with significant improvement in opportunities for funding. Besides other upcoming funding opportunities, the Innovation Village has worked with MasterCard Foundation to build an innovation fund in the very first investments in 10 start-up entrepreneurs to move to the next stage.

However the challenge remains that organisations have not really engaged in the new opportunities in the industry. Such companies can source new opportunities to innovate by beginning to support young local entrepreneurs to build companies.

The rationale of the summit was for corporates and techpreneurs to collaborate with each other, find the solutions they are building. It is faster, cheaper and gives one evidence to grow before they invest in there.

Of course most start-ups are challenged with access to capital. There is need for business development skills and support in technology to further make it work.

Amidst waves to break even, key players in the industry have resorted to venture building to facilitate entrepreneurs with market, capital, access to partners and business development skills to build a successful start-up that can grow.