FINAL WORD
“
THE NIGERIAN ECONOMY
IS BOLSTERED BY A THRIVING SMALL
TO MEDIUM ENTERPRISE (SME)
COMMUNITY THAT MAKES UP OVER
90% OF THE MARKET.
and agriculture. Take ThriveAgric for example,
it uses a crowdfunding platform to drive
investments for farmers. It also offers tech-
driven advice and provides people with the
chance to invest in agriculture to support its
mission to ensure food security.
One of the main drivers of cloud adoption,
besides benefits such as cost and speed
to market, is the government’s vision to
become one of the largest economies in
the world by 2020. A bold goal, but one
that’s being driven by a clear focus on
digital adoption and the use of innovative,
accessible and modern tools.
Adebayo Sanni, Managing Director
for Oracle Nigeria
Good news for entrepreneurs and post-
start-up companies is that Endeavor, the
global start-up organisation, has launched
an office in Nigeria. It selects, mentors and
accelerates high-impact entrepreneurs that
are poised to scale their businesses.
According to the Global Innovation Index
2017 Report Nigeria is ranked 119th in terms
of innovation and is performing below its
level of development. However, the sub-
Saharan Africa region is performing rather
well when it comes to innovation and has
had more countries among the group of
innovation achievers than any other region.
Nigeria is aiming for an economic recovery
over the next few years and it will be
important for the country to keep improving
its innovation performance to maintain the
region’s momentum.
Regardless of Nigeria’s ranking on the index,
recent innovations coming out of the country
are promising and span sectors as diverse as
energy, health, education, financial services
96
INTELLIGENTCIO
Here are three key myths that stand in the
way of transformative innovation. Businesses
must dispel them to become truly innovative.
Short-term thinking is the enemy
of innovation
Business decision makers are often told to
avoid narrow-minded thinking, for example
around quarterly targets, because short-
termism is seen as an inhibitor to strategic,
future-proofed IT systems. But while short-
term thinking can slow progress, quick goals
are the friend of innovation. Indeed, many
of the world’s most successful innovators use
the short sprint cycles of agile methodology
to develop new applications and roll updates
out at lightning speed.
AI, Blockchain and chatbots are swiftly
integrating themselves into mainstream
business functions and companies can use
short sprint cycles to rapidly trial these and
see how to harness emerging technologies in
the context of a broader IT strategy.
You know your
competitive landscape
While business decision makers work to
keep close tabs on the market, today’s
competitive landscape is constantly
shifting. A big bank may believe its fiercest
competitor sits within a crop of new fintech
start-ups, but disruption could also emerge
from a rival financial institution that’s
quietly adopting cloud tools and using agile
methodology to push out new offerings.
With modern cloud services empowering all
kinds of businesses to put ideas into action,
the market can be disrupted with little-to-
no-warning by small digital start-ups or the
biggest players keen on expanding into
new verticals. In this constantly evolving
competitive landscape, businesses must
expect the unexpected and maintain a
keen focus on advancing their agility from
every angle.
With innovation projects, you can
“set it and forget it”
There’s no shortcut to innovation and
companies must invest in their most
important resource: human capital.
Investing in the team’s knowledge and
expertise to build up their own methods
of cloud solution development is the most
sustainable way of working. Often, people
need to try things out in order to truly
understand how they can be applied to
the business.
Upskilling the full team can be a multi-
part process, from hiring new talent
who are familiar with dev/ops and agile
methodology, to training up the existing
team so that they understand the new
technology and are attuned to the agile,
creative attitude through which innovation
can be achieved.
Businesses must remain relevant and
competitive if they wish to participate on
the global stage and the adoption of cloud
and the technologies that surround it will be
instrumental in driving innovation. n
www.intelligentcio.com