Innovation Learning Series: Innovation Trends
The world changes every day.
The way we process the things around us, our needs, our wants; as people and organizations, we will always have our preferences and there might seem to be some consistent choices, but every now and then there’s always a shift that comes from learning more about the environment and experiencing it in new dimensions.
With this progression, we see how creative the human mind can be, and get to experience compassion and empathy which help drive the most important innovations in our world today.
We learnt from the previous article what innovation means and the layers in which it can occur, now we will be looking at the innovation trends that shape our world today.
The Covid-19 pandemic brought about innovation at a different speed, we watched how fast and interconnectedly the world can go about solving problems we all face as a people, how skeptics can (mostly) put aside their differences and support those who use technology to make things easier for everyday people in spaces that normally reject it.
Innovation helped us get through a time when no one was sure of what was next. It helped remove uncertainty through the transformation of business models and kept loved ones protected, sane and connected in the most extraordinary of ways.
Although certain parts of the world have had amazing technological growth in previous years, we are going to be focusing on trends specific to Nigeria which have helped increase productivity and spur growth across civil and commercial sectors.
Trend 1 — Enhanced Digital Citizenship
Our interaction with our mobile devices increases each day, the average person spends about eight-and-a-half hours a day on the internet. As our society progresses, connectivity plays a fundamental part to what our world can become. At the height of the pandemic, connecting remotely became a necessity, and guaranteeing the safety of those closest to us while we went about income-generating activities required more creative methods such as the boom in the use of collaboration software.
In addition to guaranteeing safety, some reports claim that collaboration tools helped increase productivity in the office space especially with reaching global teams and companies; and with the shift into digital workspaces, the convenience improves employee morale, reduces travel costs as spending less time in traffic means more time to focus on work and more time to rest properly. The move also provides benefits to employers, in addition to being able to track work progress in real-time, it also reduces office rental and associated operations costs.
With more Nigerians working from home fully or part-time, we expect to find more creative ways to connect to the world and work remotely.
Trend 2 — Organizational Digital Transformation
With the change in what “business as usual” means, the need to create new business models to keep up with customer expectations has most businesses going back to the proverbial drawing board. Redefining the vision of an organization gives room to finding new ways to utilize resources available to provide more services to customers and enhance daily activities.
Digital Transformation (DT) does not focus on just the automation of daily activities but on concepts like improving client trust, user experience and ESG (environmental, social and governance).
One sector undergoing major transformation is the financial sector, FinTech has changed the way we see financial institutions. From money transfer to buying data to paying bills, the financial sector has improved its ways in handling payments and with this we expect to see more businesses utilize this move to the best advantage.
Redefining business models in this country is pertinent to tackling the obstinate level of unemployment we have suffered through the past years. With the ease of access to information and reach to a larger audience globally, we expect to see more creative businesses utilize the availability of social media and collaborative tools.
Trend 3 — Consumption of Services
DT played a major role in how the consumption of goods and services has transformed over the years; the following areas have been affected by it the most.
Contactless Delivery
As mentioned in the previous trend, with the transformation of financial institutions, contactless delivery has taken the front seat in today’s market.
The way we consume goods and services has changed; with benefits like having access to a wide range of products while shopping at ease, saving time and energy from standing in queues and avoiding obnoxious members of society all from the convenience of your milieu on whatever mobile device available to you. It is not a surprise because contactless delivery has defined customer experience for almost two years.
Technology has made it possible to go about this in a safe and convenient manner which keeps customers coming back to it. With the increasing importance attached to cybersecurity and technological advancement like blockchain, we expect to see more creative ways to go about contactless delivery.
eLearning
With the ease of access to information and increase in courses on relevant industry skills available online, the importance of eLearning remains unparalleled.
eLearning is becoming more of a daily activity for not just those present in educational institutions but for those in professional bodies. Picking up a new skill or learning a new language has been a focus for most professionals in the advancement of their careers and skills, we expect to see companies that tailor more to the needs of professionals.
eLearning makes it easier to overcome some of the challenges the Nigerian educational system faces like regional differences in curriculum and quality, most schools utilize eLearning for curricular and extracurricular lessons to give their students an edge and with the pandemic, it became the safest way to keep our children educated and connected to their friends and teachers.
Health & Telehealth
Access to quality primary health care is one of the challenges we face as a nation. Advancement in technology available to the everyday Nigerian is what is going to eradicate this issue.
With the availability of technology, most Nigerians that make use of a smartphone and are subscribed to health insurance benefit from telehealth. Although parts of the healthcare services sector have experienced a slow integration of technology into its daily activities, seeing the potential and functionality of tech in healthcare came with the 2019 pandemic. Apart from providing ease of access to healthcare professionals, it can be used in monitoring and managing the demand on healthcare resources.
Being able to provide health services through video conferencing, e-mail, telephones, or smartphone apps will help provide it exactly when needed especially at inaccessible areas and help reduce traffic at hospitals letting only extremely special cases make it to the building. With the provision of affordable health insurance plans by health maintenance organizations, we expect to see more Nigerians partake in this, and with the rise in telehealth, we will see a drive in updating and improving our country’s Health Information System (HIS).
We see innovation every day, we interact with it. With the increase in people who want to make a change in their environment through tech, we are hopeful for the positive changes we expect to shift our country forward.
We’ll be focusing on case studies in the next article; technology trends and understanding how to determine what tech is necessary to improve your business. If you would like to discuss new ways to think about your business model or starting an innovation program, send us a message at hello@gumi.company.
Also, kindly share, drop a comment; let’s know your stance about innovation and its place in today’s business.
GRACE.
