Business innovation in developing countries
Author Rowan Gibson talks about how businesses can encourage innovation even if their host countries don't.
Gibson is a global business strategist whose job is to help companies overcome long-held cultural barriers that may be holding the firms back. Gibson's new book is called, "Innovation to the Core" and draws from his experiences around the world, including in Botswana, Africa: "Children at school are taught to stand in line ... don't get out of line ... don't think differently. So they actually asked me in Botswana, 'how do we break out of this culturally, so that we an actually encourage our people ... to be contrary, to challenge orthodoxies."
Gibson says in places like India, which he has written a lot about, he's seen unbounded optimism in business circles: "India has a can-do spirit ... India has a lot of problems ... 40% of the world's poor, dreadful pollution ... but India says 'let's turn that problem into an opportunity' ... and there are very good examples there of social innovation."He cites the Grameen Bank, which gives micro credit to the poor; and the Tata Nano, the world's cheapest car, costing a mere $2,500 -- as examples of India's social innovation.
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