Innovation Learning Series: Case Studies
What makes a great innovation case study, and how far back can we travel to uncover what is probably the earliest story told about innovation in its purest form, i.e., bringing a new thing into the world which creates value by bringing new solutions to difficult problems?
Prometheus? Fire?
According to the Ancient Greeks, the Artist-Creator Titan, Prometheus who loved humankind was saddened about humankind’s lack of variety both in outlook and disposition, and character and in its inability to create. Yes, they seemed happy; but to Prometheus such a safe, unchallenged, and unchallenging existence had no excitement to it. To really rise beyond this lowly station, humankind deserved, needed something more.
Humankind needed fire. Real, hot, fierce, flickering, flaming fire to melt, smelt, roast, toast, boil, broil, fashion, and forge; and needed an inner creative fire too, a divine fire to enable humankind think, imagine, dare, and do.
While the above myth is an exciting way of describing humankind’s discovery of its greatest invention — whose application has created a chain of innovations starting from a warm ember use for cooking, all the way to modern day advanced robots — the truth is that having the wit to engage in the simple process innovation of striking stones or rubbing sticks together was enough to set humankind and civilization on a journey that has seen such marvels such as telecommunication across thousands of miles through nothing but the airwaves, or the development of financial systems where a rural farmer using a feature phone can receive payments for last season’s produce and procure new seeds for the coming farming season.
From the simple process sparked by curiosity, humankind hasn’t looked back.
Moving on to contemporary case studies
The work of everyday innovators can be likened to the act of stealing fire and applying it to drive individuals, organizations, and communities forward.
Take healthcare for example, the World Health Organization states that around 10% of global GDP is spent on healthcare, and in recent years, the healthcare space has welcomed some of the most dynamic and groundbreaking ideas. While some of these ideas include advanced science like mRNA sequencing and its applications in battling the COVID-19 pandemic, there are also examples of like how the usage of bikes helped cut Malaria deaths by 96% in the Serenje District of Zambia.
The pilot project aimed at reducing malaria rates yielded great results after health workers were armed with new medication and bicycles. Children with suspected severe malaria were with initially treated with rectal artesunate (RAS), and then promptly transported to a health facility via bicycles.
Implementing this in the Serenje district entailed two steps:
- Commencing with education, primary health practitioners showed parents how to detect onset malaria symptoms and went further by also teaching them how to administer the initial medication.
- The next step after the initial medication was the deployment of emergency transport riders using bicycles to bring infected children to health centers, and by this process eliminating a long trek by both parent and child hitherto referred to as “the killing mile”, because so many children often died before reaching the facility to get treatment.
Over the course of a one-year pilot, the process innovation of quick medication and swift transfer to clinics yielded in a 96% decrease in Malaria deaths, reducing in a district where 8% of children had previously died to 0.25%, at no increased costs to parents who often didn’t have the means to procure either medication or transport to health centers.
Prometheus. Fire. Bicycles. Innovation.
An equally dynamic sector is education, where innovation is driving essential changes that reverberate beyond modifications to syllabuses and course content. Disruption is cutting across pedagogy, the definition of who a teacher is, what a learning environment is and what technology, skills and specializations are now required to improve literacy rates as well as empower coming generations to live productive lives. The two cases introduced below provide examples of how product innovation is proving useful in bringing a different dimension of application to learning.
- In a world where almost half a billion women are made more vulnerable due to illiteracy, and with women and girls in developing countries facing even greater socio-economic barriers and inequalities due to a lack of access to learning opportunities, products such as Audiopedia by Uridu are an example of an organization using technology to solve the problem.
Designed as a solar powered MP3 player and operated by voice command and recognition, it plays back responses to information requests while also offering guidance on gender-related issues such as equality, use of contraception, dealing with abuse and managing mental health related issues.
2. Another example is Cliqlite by 9mobile which provides an education service that connects tweens and teenagers of ages eight to 15 to an interactive knowledge base of fun, gamified and in-depth lessons on a variety of subjects, to supplement the existing curriculum, which is often outdated and limited with respect to 21st century skills.
As seen by the examples above, one of the ways innovation is being carried out in education is through learning providers teaming up with technology service providers in adapting and developing educational systems and products that provide increased access, enhanced content, and more connected alternatives.
The problem with Prometheus
We have since the inception of this series established that organizations need to constantly seek out opportunities for process, product and market creating innovation and that doing this often turns out to be a net positive. We have also provided examples of instances where individuals, organizations, and communities have benefitted both commercially and socially from innovation.
If the case makes itself, why then do organizations and leaders display reluctance and reticence towards innovation, especially from within their existing systems?
This could be as result of many factors not limited to the lack of appetite for experimentation (and occasional failure) that innovation calls for, especially when the current way of operating still appears good for the bottom line — if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
In some other instances, failure to champion innovation is political as it upends the existing bureaucratic order and way of doing things, and this leads to (in)actions therefore starve innovators and the innovative process of the wherewithal required for it to thrive.
The idea that something with net positive outcomes for a large group of beneficiaries being resisted isn’t new and we only need to revisit the protagonist at the beginning of this post to see this happen. Prometheus was punished by the Greek God Zeus for bringing fire to humankind by being chained to a rock forever with eagles coming daily to tear out his liver, and being a Titan, an immortal, the liver grew back each night, ensuring he went through the torture and pain daily.
We are certain no one pushing for new methods goes within an organization goes through such an ordeal as gory as the one described above, but organizations can and must do better in realizing the benefits, navigating the implications of, and organizing their innovation process.
In the topics that follow, we share our thoughts on innovation and the organization from a governance, navigating managerial changes and how to go about forming partnerships perspective, and if this post has sparked a fire within, please comment, share, and reach out to kickstart or go further along your innovation agenda.
“You can’t start a fire
You can’t start a fire without a spark”
– Bruce Springsteen
