Innovation begets innovation

Lincoln Njogu
Aug 9, 2017 · 2 min read

With time i’ve come to notice that innovation is built on other innovations. The rise of a business gives rise to other businesses. The more innovative the business the more innovations it will produce. Any innovation out there that’s used by people can actually be drawn in an ‘innovation tree’.

Lets’ consider magnetism, then electricity then combine them and get electromagnetism, then innovate further to get wireless signals; then the rise of countless innovations using wireless technology in the communication, transport, entertainment industries etc. In the same tree we find mobile money which is a major innovation especially in East Africa. Mobile money has led to thousands of agents; decentralization of banks leading to financial inclusivity like never experienced before.


Diversity is an important factor when it comes to innovation. Its no secret that most of the worlds best innovations have been born in Universities and Hubs. When two or more people from different worlds meet, serendipity occurs. My Say on city life and startup creativity notes that, “Many of today’s entrepreneurial ideas come from the cross entanglement of ideas: Old solutions being repurposed to solve new problems. Twitter’s Jack Dorsey was inspired by a police scanner’s short messages and ubiquity of mobile phones. Google took the model of academic research footnotes and applied it to web pages”.

So go ahead and meet over a cup of coffee, meet up for beer, work from a hub, don’t disregard those long hours of coding, go to tech events, network with fellow entrepreneurs, ask for emails, give out your business cards; aim to have conversations that will spark of ideas and lead to other innovations. Meet different people from different regions, sectors, parts of the world and spark that conversation. You never know what could suffice from a simple, “Hi, my name is……!


Disruptive innovation is a term coined by Clayton Christensen that describes a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established competitors. Simply put, its an innovation that creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market leading firms, products, and alliances. This is the kind of innovation that characterizes the technology industry today.

There has been a narrative that all this disruptive technology will kill business and render people jobless. I say nay! Actually, more jobs that didn’t exist a few years back will be born. The business value-chain is the one changing, not the business itself. We are still getting news but not in the form of newspapers; we are still getting mails now in the form of emails; we are still buying shoes but through e-commerce platforms and they get delivered where we want.

Dear entrepreneur, the world depends on you! Create, so that we can create. Leave a mark in the world, there’s no much time.

Lincoln Njogu

Written by

…has a passion for Business & I.T solutions, Startup Growth Trends and Small Businesses that look to leverage from technology.

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