The Trickle-Up Trend: How Innovations from Developing Nations Make Their Way to the West

admin — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:00:16 +0000

Innovation has always been about people in rich nations getting the latest stuff and the rest of the world getting the castoffs as markets scale and prices come down. So why is Nokia looking to use Kenya to debut a free classifieds service, complete with a first-ever feature that allows people to shop using voice commands to browse for goods? And why are Western banks seeking ideas from India’s ICICI when its average deposits are one-tenth of those in the West?

The answer is that the traditional model of developing new products is quietly reversing course. This phenomenon is called “trickle-up innovation,” where ideas take shape in developing markets first, then work their way back to the West. If it’s radically innovative and reduces costs, it’s going to get looked at and will accelerate. As the credit crunch forces frugality on companies everywhere, it should turbo charge the shift toward developing markets.

The need to innovate in global markets is already changing the strategy at firms such as Infosys. Ten years ago, most of its technology was meant for the developed world. Last July, when the company unveiled cutting-edge data tracking for retailers called ShoppingTrip360, it first tested the technology in India.

Innovation won’t always trickle up, of course. A lot of what works overseas is unlikely to break through the West’s cluttered retail market. But there’s also trickling sideways – if it works in Kenya, it should work in other developing markets. Some successful examples of this include Brazil’s Natura, a cosmetics firm that bested Western companies on its home turf and has expanded throughout Latin America and now Europe, and China’s Goodbaby, which has 28% of the U.S. stroller market.

The emerging world, then, is no longer a dumping ground for trailing-edge technology. Brace yourself for the next wave of immigrants – ideas.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about innovation

Solar-Powered Cell Phones to Connect the Developing World

natelithgow — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:13:44 +0000

I’ve written in the past months about solar power’s prospects outside of large-scale solar farms and residential paneling, mostly as it would apply to gadgetry and daily use items. But it’s clear now that cell phones, as I’ve mentioned before, are a new frontier for the budding solar market, especially as they apply to the developing world. Africa and India are the prime example of marketplaces that are waiting to explode with this new technology. Because traditional power is much more sparse in these two continents, solar powered cell phones will make it much easier for people who would otherwise have to trek miles to the nearest electrical outlet to use cell phone technology to their benefit. And, of course, India and Africa are both bathed in sun.

MSNBC cited Uganda as a prime market for solar cell phones in an article last week: “Just eight percent of the country’s 32 million plus population have electric grid access. Even when the grid is there, like where Mawa lives in Mulago, a poor suburb of Kampala, the power is costly and the service is intermittent.” So far Nokia, Samsung, and a few others have ventured to make these phones readily available to developing nations, but it’s safe to say that many more companies will be looking to capitalize on the opportunity in the near term.

[image via Oracio Alvarado]

Mouli Cohen» The Trickle-Up Trend: How Innovations from Developing Nations Make Their Way to the West | Mouli Cohen

The Trickle-Up Trend: How Innovations from Developing Nations Make Their Way to the West

Solar-Powered Cell Phones to Connect the Developing World