The disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have tasked organizations to look for leaders who can innovate and leverage on emerging technologies for survival and continued sustainability of the business. However, fostering a culture of innovation requires much more than a vision and direction from the top but rather a collaborative culture that encourages idea sharing and creativity.
To ensure that these organizations keep abreast with the latest in innovation strategy, Future Lab at The Innovation Village (TIV) in partnership with CEO Summit Uganda has organized a three-day an executive program tailored to resolve the current innovation challenges faced by most corporate entities. CEO East Africa Magazine talked to Samantha Niyonsaba Karama, Future Lab Lead at The Innovation Village to tell us more about program and why it’s crucial for organization leaders to be innovative
Please tell us more about this Senior Executive Program?
The Senior Executive Program was designed to help organization leaders with the ambition to succeed in Corporate Innovation be able to build a coherent strategy and collaborative culture that recognizes talent, encourages ideas sharing and creativity, and remain competitive in times of rapid changes and disruption. We believe that at the end of three-day training, participants will learn how to drive organizational change and apply their learning to the unique challenges and opportunities of their business context.
The program is quite context in nature, what unique skills will the executives be able to take home after the training?
Strategy on corporate innovation; the program challenges top executives to define the organization innovation vision, build a balanced portfolio of innovation activities and craft a change management plan that allows the organization to keep up with the current times.
Organization structure that aligns with innovation programs, establishes governance and decision-making processes doing away with long bureaucratic processes as well as navigating key trade-offs from different business models.
Building social and human resources with an innovative thought process and culture across the organization to create a long lasting & effective impact.
Ability to create an innovation pipeline and design a problem-solution-fit idea while understanding organizational change models, applying appropriate KPIs and metrics for POCs & pilots. Calculate and communicate return on innovation for the organization.
What are they benefits of the program to senior executives?
The executive program goes beyond the course outline, product, and strategy development to making innovation an essential leadership capability to examining the social processes that inspires creativity and removes routine. At the end of three day, we believe these executives will leave with a richer understanding of what it takes to lead a talented creative team and be able to inspire, empower, collaborate, and innovate with other each day.
Letters to My Younger Self: Robinah Siima — “Success Is Quieter, But Richer”The executives will be able to adjust their leadership approach to spark creativity, create a new level of organization collaboration and be able to understand the difference between establishing a top-down vision. By fostering continuous innovation, they will be able to build a supportive environment that enables their employees take risks and learn from their failures, experiment ideas and work differently.
We hope to inspire productive innovation within all areas of the organization to be able to boldly and consistently innovate, unleash a collective talent by nurturing a culture where people engage in innovative problem-solving and enhance, the use of local talent.
Also, the program will create an organization culture that takes full advantage of new technologies and platform, promotes both incremental and breakthrough change by realizing the potential of pioneering ideas and accelerating them into productivity projects and programs that will benefit the organization in a short or long run.
Furthermore, the program will provide opportunity for these executives to expand on their personal and professional network. Build relationships with a diverse group of peers across the industries who can provide wide-ranging insights into their business challenges and opportunities.
What are your thoughts on the Country’s state of innovation and government focus on digital transformations as an economic driver?
Innovation in Uganda is still evolving, and the current state of Uganda is much more advanced that what existed five-years ago. If there is anything that the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us, is embracing ICT into our day-to-day dealings is non-negotiable because of the opportunities it provides to scale their businesses, do business differently at a lower cost and reach a wider audience. Last year saw a quick rise in EdTech platforms which made online learning accessible and available to all. Not forgetting is the rise in Telemedicine healthcare – a technology platform that allows individual have access to health services such as consultation, lab testing and medication at their comfort.
Within the innovation ecosystem, the evidence for a digital economy is more realistic than ever with multiple of start-ups taking on the lead to demonstrate to opportunities present if we make digital transformation inclusive. This fiscal year, we expect broadband infrastructure to be extended to sub-counties and for the government to facilitate the development of software in support of e-commerce, e-governance and e-payments just as it has promised.
I commend the government for this strategy. However, there is more we can achieve with digital solutions right from public service delivery, administering products and services in healthcare, education, agriculture extension, business operations, manufacturing, tourism and energy.
With the Covid-19 pandemic still amidst us, access to the digital economy is the new competitive landscape for businesses. Today, we are living in a low touch economy that will long live with us. As a country, whether you are in government, a startup or corporate institutions, building a digital economy is a powerful tool for business sustainability and economic recovery.
