@Prepaid_Africa Connecting Dots – August 2015
Insurance is rapidly capturing mindshare as the next big opportunity space in sub Saharan Africa, if only a way could be found to address the challenge of the vast & undocumented informal sector. London is calling African startups to apply for an insurance incubator programme. Deadline October 31st 2015. Prepaid economy characteristics are popping […]
Tsunami of change – design, brands, marketing and the mobile phone
In the 10 short months since I wrote on the market forces influencing the global mobile phone market, and the implications of the democratization of innovation whose early, weak signals I could already foresee, matters have come to a head. I had written: The locus of innovation in handset design, product planning and market strategy […]
Uncertainty and The Prepaid Economy: Time and Money
Uncertainty characterizes the entire global Prepaid Economy and is the underlying driver for decision making. Systems are unreliable Inadequate infrastructure, variability in basic services (will we have electricity this morning?), obsolete or incomplete systems; all of these, and more, are part and parcel of life in the emerging regions of the world. Will we wake […]
Perspective: Critical Analysis of The African Hype Cycle by Gartner
The very fact that this hype cycle exists is a signal of the increased importance and visibility of the African continent’s place in the global landscape for technology. Released recently by Gartner, the 2015 Hype Cycle for ICT in Africa, is far more interesting for its depiction of the perspective and worldview of Gartner’s analysts […]
Book Review: Adventures in Stationery by James Ward
I read this book in one sitting yesterday. Now I’m here writing on it. Any adult who’s furtively indulged in scented erasers, colourful gel pens or handmade paper, to be shoved secretly down the lowermost drawer in the desk will love this book. Pens and pencils, paperclips and pushpins. James Ward lovingly describes them all, […]
Introducing The Global Prepaid Economy
This week, that venerable newspaper The Financial Times, published an original piece of writing on the World Economic Forum’s Agenda blog. Its not a reprint from their own publication. It proposes the end of “Emerging Markets” (EM) as we know them: Now, commentators say, it is the world’s mental map that is in dire need […]
3 Myths of Financial Inclusion
This article has been co-authored with Michael Kimani @pesa_africa Banking the unbanked is very popular right now, as financial inclusion is seen as a key milestone on the path to development. In parallel, a plethora of “cashless” or “cash lite” solutions have begun permeating the cash intensive informal economy. These can be broadly described as […]
Nigerian retail transformation changing consumer expectations
Drawing on insights from Adewale Yusuf’s expert observations in the heart of the Nigerian transformation, I wrote up a short piece for his tech magazine Techpoint.ng which looks at changing consumer behaviour and its implications for startups. Do take a look: Shopping as entertainment – A trend that might bite Sprouting mega-malls are offering a […]
Roadmap for reverse innovation – how to leverage context for disruption
Vijay Govindarajan and Amos Winter have an interesting article in the July/August issue of Harvard Business Review. They identify the barriers to successfully integrating reverse innovation from emerging markets into the product pipeline for mainstream consumer culture. Their key paragraph echoes the issues of people, pesa and place I’d written about earlier: Our research suggests […]
Purchasing Patterns in Cash Based Markets and Informal Economy
When cash flow is irregular and not always unpredictable, both in amount and frequency, such as it is for the majority earning a living in the informal economy, buyer behavior is not quite the same as for mainstream consumers with access to credit cards and regular paychecks. I’ve quite often made reference to how operating primarily […]
