The future of mobile technologies: cheap smartphones, shorter timespans, and augmented reality
A special feature of Mobile West Africa 2014, the tech conference we covered in Lagos, was the workshop and keynote of Tomi Ahonen, widely recognised a top mobile thinker and strategist. I’m always a bit suspicious of these titles of expert and the likes, but I must acknowledge Tomi has delivered an amazing vision on […]
Iran startup scene: turning top engineers into businessmen
Iran may not be the first destination you would think of when it comes to startups. Its track record is here: top engineers filling American Ivy League Universities, a series of key founders who made possible eBay, Dropbox, Youtube or Zoosk, and, more recently, a political improvement which make diasporans think of going back to […]
Kenya's lesson on innovation to Africa – From hack schools to long-term capability building
Njeri Chelimo’s “Nairobi Dev School” – An Exemplary Beacon for Kenya’s innovation ecosystem The story of Njeri Chelimo is a compelling one, and a shining example of the proverb “when there is a will, there is a way”. This 20 y.o Kenyan girl had planned to attend a hack school in New York a few months ago. The 12-week program was free […]
Somali diaspora and mobile money: a research on hawala presented at Afrikoin
After a few panels and talks on mobile money at Afrikoin, we had the opportunity to listen to Gianluca Iazzolino, a researcher from the University of Edinburgh. Gianluca studies the way Somali people deal with mobile money, particular as a people who are constantly moving – whether as refugees or traders of gold and other goods that can be exchanged […]
East African E-commerce: key findings from iHub Research team in Nairobi
The #Afrikoin conference is organized and hosted by iHub, Kenya’s famous and main innovation platform for web technologies. Their research arm, iHub Research, gave us a few insights on a research they have been running in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) on e-commerce. The first e-commerce ventures in East Africa used to focus on affluent costumers and the […]
Building an Entrepreneurial University: Global Entrepreneurship Summit
A tale of 2 universities Some universities can be a place for innovators to learn and grow. Others are an obstacle to innovation. On the one hand, companies like Google are tightly intertwined with the support from their partner universities. They are a place to nurture ideas, spearhead research, establish patents and are sometimes first drivers for growth. On the other hand, many […]
Getting rid of competition and convincing non-customers with Blue Ocean Strategy
Chan Kim, Chair Professor of INSEAD Business School delivered an energetic and humorous speech at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Kuala Lumpur, after Malaysia PM Najib Razak and US Secretary of State John Kerry had opened it (see wrap up of the keynote). This professor is known for a strategy called “Blue ocean”. Blue, because he envisions a business […]
