Leveraging ICT in Entrepreneurial Ventures II: ICT as the Product or Service of the Venture

ICT is particularly attractive for new entrepreneurial ventures because of the proliferation of the web and the increasingly complex things people have to do. The product options run from manufacturing to software services.

Here are a few of the opportunities that exist in the Nigerian and developing country market. Even though most of these are already crowded, with some creativity and innovativeness, an entrepreneur can find ways to cut down the price even further or even come up with high value products that they can sell at even higher prices to niche markets.

1. Provision of affordable computers: Even though the price of computers has fallen dramatically in recent years, there is still a large demand for computers especially by students and institutions of education. Businesses are also now using computers by default rather than typewriters. The secret is to find out how to make these computers even cheaper than most of the big manufacturers can.
2. Computer peripherals to help people get more value out of their computers. These include not just common printers and scanners but more specialized input devices like digitizing tables tablets for architects and artists, larger than ordinary printers and scanners, plotters etc.
3. Device Repair and maintenance: A lot of money lies in people’s offices in the form of equipment that is bad and cannot be repaired. These equipment can not be repaired either because there is no one competent to do the repairs and/or the parts needed for replacement are not available. This presents an opportunity for a technical services venture that helps people save money by repairing their bad equipment.
4. Re-furbished equipment: This builds on the last idea … you buy broken-down equipment from people and give-away prices (after all they haven’t been able to fix them), repair them and by cleaning them well, you could sell them at good margins.
5. Mobile IT Support – this would probably work best in middle-class and higher neighbourhoods – people with computer issues can call a number and have a technician be on ground within the hour to fix the problem.
6. Up-to-date demographic data for business intelligence. Suppose I want to start a new business or expand an existing business into a new geographical area. Wouldn’t it be helpful if I had some kind of data related to the demographics of the target market that would help me plan my strategy? But the reality is that such business data – demographics, updated directories etc.

Obviously, these ideas have not been explored deeply in developing countries as they have been in developed countries. So long ….

Leveraging ICT in Entrepreneurial Ventures I – Introduction

The ability to make use get business information from raw data in order to support business decisions is a critical ability of the information age. And the old saying in management that says …’what gets measured gets improved’ is still correct.
The value proposition of ICT to business can practically preach its own sermon: computers are at another level of speed, efficiency, accuracy and aesthetic quality above typewriters. The Internet provides via the world wide web, email, chat and newsgroups a means of communication that is richer, faster and more interactive than could ever be dreamed of via traditional snail-mail, printed brochures and whatever means of communication were available before the Information Age. In the same vein accounting software are another level of functionality and capability above traditional ledgers and so are databases with respect to paper files and filling cabinets. In a more central role, ICT supplies tools for decision analysis, market intelligence, sales and service support as well as operational excellence that lead to great savings in operational expenditure. However [and this is where the plot thickens] no single solution fits all – every business doesn’t need ALL of these technologies; they only need a subset of them and even then to different degrees. Thus while there are certain generic solutions for all organizations (- like the need for word-processing and communications via email), because every organization is unique, each one’s ICT solutions must also reflect this uniqueness for the solution to be effective.
For the entrepreneurial venture, ICT can either be the main product or service around which the venture hopes to create value or it could simply be the means to an end – in order words offer operational support for a different service or product.

Vista Gives Ubuntu [Linux] A Window of Opportunity to Push Back the Windows Waters

Last time I checked, Windows is reportedly still the operating system that runs on more than 90% of the world´s desktop computers. I am a Linux advocate (no, I don´t hate Windows, I love many things about it) and I think it holds great potential for desktop computing. However, since many people started out on computers with Windows, they acquired a learning disability that essentially retards their ability to switch to different paradigms of doing things. That isn´t a problem in itself – after all, whatever paradigm helps you get the job done, it is the paradigm that you should go with.

Observing recent events in the tech industry, I think the time has come for Linux (particularly Ubuntu and any other variant that can match the elegant simplicity of Ubuntu) to significantly increase it´s market share on the desktop. The reasons are both technological as well as economic.

a. Ubuntu is now more user friendly than it was 2 years ago: Not only that, the ease of use keeps increasing practically every six months. I sincerely think the ease-of-use argument has been really a result of people´s mentality getting locked in Windows-mode. Since Microsoft seems determined to shove Vista on us come June 30^th 2008, that edge (familiarity aiding ease-of-use) will disappear. This is because moving from XP to Vista is not as seamless as it was to move from Windows 2000 to XP (I still fumble around Vista looking for network connection status details dialog). It is easier for a user to just use Ubuntu than Vista.

b. The core applications required for desktop use exist on Ubuntu … and the´ve been for a while. Not only is the switch going to be easy OS-wise but it also will be easy application-wise. Users can thus leverage their knowledge of Office to work with OpenOffice, CorelDraw to work with Inkscape, Photoshop or PhotoPAINT to use the GIMP etc.

c. According to Clayton Christensen´s model of Disruptive Innovation, with respect to the more than 2 billion people in developing and under-developed countries – that segment of the market is being over-served by Windows and thus the perfect opportunity for a low-cost product to move in. The hardware requirements to run Vista and Leopard effectively are an overkill for most desktop computing applications and way out of reach for most people in emerging markets who need access to desktop computing. Ubuntu will run perfectly well and fast on today´s value laptop. Combined with fight against software piracy which is the most significant reason that people who can´t afford Windows continue to use it, Ubuntu will be the OS of choice for these emerging economies.

d. Ubuntu´s Incremental Innovations will eventually Exceed Windows´s innovations. – the damn OS gets better every six months! Windows on the other hand essentially remains the same for more than 4 years at a stretch. I currently use Ubuntu 7.10 and am very happy with it – all office and web productivity applications, NTFS read and write capability, eye candy etc. Ubuntu 8.04 just came out last week – more innovations from what I hear.

e. Greater security awareness – As people become more and more aware of the importance to remain secure from malware, spyware and viruses, they will turn more and more to platforms that are not mass targets for malware – like Linux.

When Politics Meets IT – Politics Reloaded!! Politics 2.0

¨Candidates Microtarget Voters¨ – that is the title of an eWeek (March 17^th 2008) article that reports that the main Democratic candidates have turned to technology for predictive analysis of voter trends. In short, microtargeting helps the candidates focus their campaigns on voter segments that matter and on the issues that are important to those voter segments – even down to small groups of voters!! I find that an interesting way to leverage IT – in effect using IT to guide campaign strategy because if you ask me, this is IT helping to both identify a political (..it could also be a business) problem and the key issues that relate to it´s solution or as the article puts it, ¨a way to help campaigns target their [scarce] funds towards the right voters ¨. Though a great leap ahead in how IT is being used creatively by politicians, it is not the first and I certainly don´t think we have seen the limit of it.

This US election is perhaps the most tech-savvy election anywhere in the world … the term Election 2.0 (part of the xxxx 2.0 family of buzzwords like Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0 etc) is used regularly by election reporters and campaign analysts. Senator Barrack Obama is reported to have a huge followership on MySpace and one that is reported to be the reason for his huge popularity with the younger generation – these people help recruit other followers online using social networks – sounds like Wikinomics in politics to me!. Then again go to the popular Youtube and type in ¨Obama¨ and you could practically create a TV channel of the campaign.

If politicians can use IT in such creative ways, I can only see a bright future for IT. First it is a vote of confidence to what IT is capable of doing when the right people are in charge of it. Here we are for the first time a leading presidential candidate in the US as part of his campaign goes to one of the world´s leading tech firms (Google) and publicly pledges to appoint the nation´s first government CTO, and also specifically address a key IT concern (web neutrality) – ¨…on the issue of net neutrality, I will take a backseat to no one¨ – were Obama´s words.

It is also revealing that Google was chosen to represent the IT world, apart from being an English verb ( ..yes it is correct English to say ¨I will google that later¨) it has a slew of applications that increasingly encourage web collaboration and democratizes the dataverse. More important to me is the culture of the company ….one that is appealing to lots of young people. The main thing is your contribution – how you give it is not much of an issue – you want to play games and swim during ´working hours´? fine with Google – they´d provide the game console and the swimming pool and there is no dictatorial HR department insisting you look ´corporate´ (a euphemism for ¨look boring and bureaucratic¨. And what is the reward to such a company? Loyalty!! … people are willing to spend more time on the job to get results and by taking work into non-traditional settings like a poolside or mini-bar their creativity and productivity increase.

I see a future in which one day, a tech-savvy president – what I call a ¨wired-president¨ or President 2.0 (hey can I put a copyright on that? I am sure I am the first person to use the word will leverage the power of the masses in ways unforeseen – say to push back some selfish lawmakers? Imagine this scenario: It is 2010 and the US senate is moving a motion for the US to attack Iran even though public and international opinion is clearly against it. President Barrack Obama who is also against it launches an online survey in which 90% of all adult Americans say their bit – NO!! and send a clear message to the lawmakers — ¨ … we don´t agree with you on this one¨. I believe the technical infrastructure to make that possible is available …. all it needs is a visionary leader willing to use IT as the ultimate tool of mass democracy (true and pure democracy). I must say kudos to Barack Obama for being this visionary (he ´gets´ it) and also kudos to Hillary Clinton for not being ashamed to follow Obama´s lead – hey, I think both of u would make a great political pair – just keep Bill safely occupied with enough humanitarian and consulting deals!!!!

Leveraging ICT for Business Productivity

I know this topic sounds strange, that is because it is supposed to be obvious. I mean everyone talks about how ICT makes business easier, faster and more efficient – yet you can walk into most businesses today and be amazed at the inefficiency and resource-wastage that goes on because ICT is being misused.

The value proposition of ICT to business can practically preach its own sermon: computers are at another level of speed, efficiency, accuracy and aesthetic quality above typewriters. The Internet provides via the world wide web, email, chat and newsgroups a means of communication that is richer, faster and more interactive than could ever be dreamed of via traditional snail-mail, printed brochures and whatever means of communication were available before the Information Age. In the same vein, accounting software are another level of functionality and capability above traditional ledgers and so are databases with respect to paper files and filling cabinets. In a more central role, ICT supplies tools for decision analysis, market intelligence, sales and service support as well as operational excellence that lead to great savings in operational expenditure.

However [and this is where the plot thickens] no single solution fits all – every business doesn’t need ALL of these technologies; they only need a subset of them and even then to different degrees. Thus while there are certain generic solutions for all organizations (– like the need for word-processing and communications via email), because every organization is unique, each one’s ICT solutions must also reflect this uniqueness for the solution to be effective, hence the need for thoughtful IT planning.

The Need to Re-Appraise the Role of ICT in Organizations

Our lives and therefore our organizations should be less about getting computers and software to work and more about them helping us work smarter – not harder [think 80/20 principle], and cheaper [The device and software makers have already spent sleepless nights about making computer and software work – or have they?]. For this to happen, each organization must properly re-position ICT’s role within its operations, strategy and value proposition for greater effectiveness. To do this, we must begin with a realization of the fact that it is the need to process information that is the essence of ICT in Business – it is only device and software manufacturers whose purpose ICT is. In this age, knowledge which is based on information is a company’s greatest asset and any company that has not realized this fact in both principle and practice will soon be out of business – if it already isn’t. Understanding this in principle is the first creation, the second creation – understanding it in practice is the more difficult because it entails putting just the proper mix of ICT technologies to form a solution that meets the organization’s business needs (including strategic ones).

According to the great management guru Henry Mintzberg, every organization does one or more of four things: it finds, keeps, transforms and distributes people, resources or information. Therefore the proper role of ICT begins with how information is used in the company, NOT how computers, switches, routers, servers etc. are used. In practical terms: it is because people within an organization need to share information that there should be a computer network in place and not because computers are more useful when networked – obvious isn’t it?

One of the biggest problems plaguing organizations in most developing countries today is the gulf that exists between the IT department and line management (and by interacting with other professionals in developing countries, I know know this isn´t unique to developing countries). The result of that gulf is evident in the fact that most organizations have spent and keep spending huge amounts of money on equipment that remain essentially under-utilized years after their acquisition despite the fact that a lot of business requirements are not being met. And a symptom of this malaise is the ICT solution that increases rather than reduces business complexity. Of course there’s the sad human factor of equipment being bought as a result of management’s overboard decisions [makes you wonder why management will impose equipment on the IT department – shady 15% commission perhaps?!]. On the other hand, some IT departments are run by people of questionable skill and leadership at best and at worst – plain mediocres and the only way to continually justify their employment and pretend to be relevant is to inundate management with requests to acquire impressive-sounding [and usually expensive] technology that doesn’t add substantial value to the organization’s value proposition. If key personnel in IT departments can learn more about business drivers and requirements, value propositions, return on investment and corporate strategy – with adequate empowerment from the organization’s top management, then the view of ICT’s role can be the same from both the perspectives of management and IT department and thus begins the repositioning process and the turning of the potential tap.

Understanding the Business Value of ICT – An Information-Centric Paradigm

Many experts have given their opinions on this issue in-depth in a 1999 Harvard Business Review on ‘The Business Value of IT’ and these can be summarized as thus: Fundamentally, ICT is a resource to the business, like people, money, and machines thus the effectiveness of its utilization depends how well it is understood. This means an on-going review of industrial trends and developments to continually identify solutions that suit the organization. According to John F. Rockart, to serve customers well, every organization must be proficient in the following areas:

• Reduced cycle time.

• Reduced asset levels (e.g. In inventories and people)

• Faster product development.

• Improved customer service.

• Increased empowerment of employees.

• Increased knowledge sharing and learning.

Interestingly, I can think of at least three ways in which ICT can help achieve each of these requirements for effective organizations. If your IT people can’t tell you at least one way, then you have a big problem in your company that may only become evident as the company grows in size. Better give your IT people some relevant education.

In conclusion, I’d say that most organizations shoot themselves in the foot with the aid of IT departments that are yet to understand that ICT infrastructure are not purchased for their own sake but because they are supposed to facilitate information flow in a manner that is as unique to that organization as its corporate strategy and value proposition. The way forward for effective solutions will come when IT departments and management sit together to analyze this question: ‘What are the critical needs of our business and what are the most appropriate IT solutions that can serve them taking into consideration our unique environment?” An honest, interdependent brainstorm of this question between competent people should yield the answers needed to put the organization on the right path to effective ICT-Business integration. So let the walls between the real IT guys and real management come down so that the questions, ideas and solutions can flow.

The Importance of Eye Candy towards Linux Desktop Adoption

For most people born within the last 35 years or so … using a computer has become and inextricable part of living. Unfortunately [for Linux] most of the not-too-technically savvy amongst them got started using some version of Microsoft´s Windows or an Apple Macintosh. These people have been used to a certain way of doing stuff and how things should look. For Linux to appeal to this people, not only must it flaunt it´s technical excellence, freedom of choice and low cost, but must also prove as easy to use, flexible, simple and aesthetically pleasing. In computer-speak, eye-candy refers to how beautiful or pleasing to the eye the whole user experience is. It involves beautiful graphics, icons, mouse cursors as well as animated feedback.

These characteristics plus simplicity is perhaps the primary reason why Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distribution today not only on the desktop but for servers. I used to be a Fedora fan but today, I don´t see myself downloading and burning six iso images and spending about an hour to setup my system when I could do all that from a single CD in about 30 minutes. Therefore, switching to Ubuntu on both my desktop, laptop and any server services was just a no brainer. A key department in which most desktop linuxes have improved is the eye-candy department but to get the kind of eye-candy that makes people drool a little tweaking needs to be done which may be more than the average joe is comfortable with doing [eg installing compiz theme manager, emerald, using svn to get keys and then download themes.]

Eye candy has become important because our laptops have become very personal objects, much in the same way we by cute phones with nice covers for them and change wallpapers regularly. Eye candy is the primary reason why most people go WOW!! when the first see a Macbook [both hardware and software eye candy]. Personally, one way in which I have spread the Ubuntu word is with my own laptop. Immediately after installation, I enable compiz themes, install emerald theme manager, get some beautiful themes, cute icon packs, cursor themes and nice looking fonts. I also get rid of most of the default login screens (except the Human Circle) and add cutter ones which come up at random. So when most people see my laptop, they go WOW!! … what OS are you using? — giving me the perfect opportunity to sell them not only to how aesthetically pleasing [aka eye candy] Ubuntu and Linux can be but also the fact that I usually don´t bother much about antiviruses, the moral issues of pirated software, or system instability. Yes I know, focusing on eye candy might seem like a trivialization of the technical excellence of Linux, but then most of the people out there whom we´d like to adopt Linux on the desktop are people who would gladly ´…make the mistake of falling in love with a dimple and then marrying the whole girl [and live to thank God for the mistake].´ to paraphrase Evan Esar, italics mine. I think eye candy is that dimple that can be used to seduce people to marry the whole girl (desktop Linux)

What’s Technology Worth?

20 years ago, possessing new technology might have been enough to give you an edge in business or the market place. Perhaps that was because it was expensive. But with the commoditization of technology … especially computing technology …. a purely technological advantage in the marketplace is ….. let’s just say a red herring.

For any technology … ICT included to deliver value to an organization, it must be put in its real place …. an enabler and effort multiplier (read my next blog on ICT & Leadership). To put IT in a role that is actually serves the organization requires IT managers with more than technical skills. These IT managers must command the respect of the business ’suits’ and possess a broad range of managerial skills. To lead the IT gurus, he (I prefer she) must also understand their culture, their language and how they think.

Technology is worth ….. A LOT …. but only to the extent that it addresses some business need in an elegantly simple way. I am very much in love with the …. ‘every sufficiently advanced technology is indistiguishible from magic’ — Arthur C. Clark? You know IT is worth its weight in gold when it’s un-obstrusive and transparent to its users. Putting it another way, technology is worth what the brains that implement it make it.

The Simple Case for Free & Open Source Software

 

Everyone is supposed to like a ‘free’ lunch and so free software is equally tempting – check out the rate at which Windows and other commercial software is being pirated. For any business or organization, keeping operating costs low is usually at the top of management’s list of priorities (except of course the organization is run by ‘damagers’). There is also a minimum level of IT which every organization needs and its associated costs are not insignificant – at least those related to software.

Consider the traditional costs for the most rudimentary IT needs of any organization – a computer with the standard tools for office and web productivity.
1. Hardware – a complete computer system…………………………$400:00
2. Windows XP……………………………………………………………………………$200:00
3. Office 2003…………………………………………………………………………….$400:00
4. Miscellaneous………………………………………………………………………..$100:00
Total ………………………………………………………………………………………….$1,100:00
Miscellaneous costs her cover software like IM clients, Antivirus tools, RSS readers and other freeware tools that must be downloaded and installed from the Internet ( … and I love the heartburn the word miscellaneous gives the bean counters!)

$1,100 per PC at minimum. Thus for a small organization of 5 people to have only PCs without any server services costs $5,500:00 – not an insignificant figure for a small business especially in developing countries.

As an astute manager, what you say to a proposal to legally shave off about $700 per PC for a similar or improved feature-set? …. this means that for $5,500 you get to give 13 employees essential functional IT tools or better still you could add a simple network to your 5 systems — good deal any day any time.

And what is the miracle that gives me such enormous cost savings? ….. GNU LINUX and other free open source software. If you want a more specific answer, I personally swear by Ubuntu but there is also Freespire, Fedora, Mandriva and for those already running Windows, a plethora of free and opens source solutions for office and web productivity.

Ubuntu is free – as in free beer — up to and including acquiring the installation disk (get more info here). You can have the CD shipped to you free of charge if you don’t have a broadband connection to download it from http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu. On that single CD which I repeat can be mailed to you free of charge, you get the following – just to name a few:

1. Full featured, stable world-class operating system.
2. A complete office suite – OpenOffice.org 2.2
3. Web suite including browser (Firefox 2.x), email client (Evolution), IM Client (GAIM)
4. Vector graphics and illustration software – Inkscape.
5. Relative freedom from viruses and malware.
6. World class image manipulation software – The GIMP

And of course, the peace of mind that you are not stealing (pirating) software and thus are on the wrong side of the law. Of course, if you are connected to the internet, practically any other type of software is available free of charge at a few clicks away.

For sure this won’t solve ALL your IT needs …. for in an interdependent world, you will still need some Windows or Mac-only tools but I am convinced beyond doubt that when we sum up what we gain from what we loose, free open source software (FOSS) is the clear winner for most SMEs. Haven’t tried it yet? don’t wait any further … drop me a line if you need any help.

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Now playing: Yanni – Face in the Photograph
via FoxyTunes

Strategic Issues in ICT for Education

I wouldn’t know the issues that education faces in the developed world … but I have no doubt that developing countries’ educational systems face some unique challenges. ICTs have the potential to alleviate some of those issues but it must be done right.

Well as a citizen of the developing world, I understand these issues first hand. Most organizations love doing grand strategies on how to achieve some business goal but too often those strategies remain and die in the head of strategic and senior management. Why? — because the real executives of an organization i.e. the people who interact with the customer/users are left out of those strategy sessions (real executives are people who DO/execute, like middle managers, life field personnel – how much executing does the CEO do? – that’s what Henry Mintzberg will say). Without the buy-in of these executives, strategies ultimately fail.

I will go deeper into these issues in a later blog, but let me just lay the groundwork here for some of the ways we can leverage ICTs effectively to alleviate the rot in our educational sector.

 

1. Web 2.0 may be disruptive …. but therein lies its potential: Web 2.0 is about user-generated content and leverages technologies like Wikis, blogs, RSS, podcasts, social networks etc… I call it mass democratization. It is disruptive in education because it will significantly change power dynamics that exist in the situation where the lecturer is God/prophet who dispenses information which the students should (in most cases) unquestionably consume. But Web 2.0 unleashes synergies in intelligence and passion that is more than what any single person can come up with. I believe the collective IQ of students (although I prefer ‘learners’) amplified by passion for what they learn and brought together via Web 2.0 exceeds that of any single lecturer/professor/guru.

 

2. In the developing world – evolutionary strategies won’t get us there - we need revolutionary strategies that let us leapfrog years upon years of institutionalized mediocrity and obsolescence. Evolutionary strategies are for ICTs are akin to re-inventing the wheel – a very stupid thing in an age where mass collaboration enables us learn and benefit from other’s experiences and mistakes. Revolutionary strategies will have lots of casualties (in terms of obsolete skills, out-of-touch and clueless people and old technology) – harsh maybe but sometimes the only way to new life is destruction (like the phoenix)

 

3. Effective strategies must focus on solutions to business problems, NOT infrastructure & technology: Just look at the Web 2.0 poster children like Wikipedia and Digg. The former was born out of the desire to leverage collective knowledge and the age-old philosophy of ‘two heads are better than one’. The later was out of the desire not to have what we read being filtered by editors of dubious expertise and questionable motivation. These survive and will keep thriving because the focus on a business goal or problem to be solved and NOT on technology gives them great flexibility in the means of attaining that goal – whatever technology that will be used to achieve those ends will be used.

When a strategy focuses on solutions and not technology, it becomes easier to make a business case for it (and more importantly you can get the buy-in of the usually technologically clueless CEO ). As an example, both the CEO and CIO may easily agree on the following :

‘We need to deploy a Virtual Learning Environment and online testing to improve quality of teaching and reduce over-burdened teaching corps. Such a a project will cost us $2 million.’

However, both the CEO Chancellor and CIO and especially the CFO/Bursar are not likely to agree on the following

‘We need to implement a broadband fibre optic network to connect all buildings of the university to the Internet.This will cost us $1m’

The fact is that a the first project may well involve the second! but the second is a ‘those guru’s thing’ as far as the business side is concerned while the first could well be ‘ … something that makes my job easier/makes me look good’

4.0 De-couple the new ICT Unit from the Core Organization: The IT department/unit/directorate represents a force that wants to change the status quo – something other parts of the organization/institution may not be very enthusiastic about. In the case of universities, the same mentality, human resources practices that have led to this much ineptitude and rot can not suddenly make the kind of significant and revolutionary changes that must be made to help the institution leapfrog its current weaknesses. Thus the IT department should leverage a few strong institutional assets (eg Alumini, researchers etc) but decouple itself in terms of HR strategy, work ethic (we all know the work-ethic of the typical civil servant in the developing world ….). This decoupling should largely free the unit of the stifling bureaucracy and enable it quickly learn from its mistakes and correct its course.

 

Finally, I couldn’t agree more with Tom Peters that the IT departments should increase their failure rate – yes …. the faster you try and fail at different things, the more likely you will stumble on the one that works. After all, strategy is useless unless it is executed to yield business results that are SMART (specific, measurable, attained/achieved, repeatable, and timely)

Shalom people, and let the rants/barbs/comments flow.

 

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Now playing: Loreena Mckennitt – Annachie Gordon
via FoxyTunes

 

 

 

 

Piracy ‘Disrupts’ Disruptive Innovation?

I have been fascinated by Harvard’s Clayton Christenson work on Disruptive Innovation. One of the premises of his work is that a new technology can garner huge market share when it competes against non-consumption, or it suddenly makes it possible for people who couldn’t afford technology to do something equally well. Well, this is a business technology blog and I have been looking at the penetration of desktop Linux in Africa i.e. desktop Linux as a disruptive innovation for Windows.

Linux really fits the disruptive innovation bill clearly on both counts but there is a huge saboteur to it becoming THE desktop OS of choice on most desktops to people who can’t afford to spend $1000 on a PC (See my other blog on how I arrive at this figure). That saboteur is piracy. First, because of the sheer number of other people using it on desktops around the world – Windows is the natural tendency for most people (besides the fact that most new laptops come with Windows pre-installed) – now if it were not affordable by any other means, these people would then have no choice but to love and use desktop Linux and unless Microsoft can find away to make Windows equally free – most of the developing world would end up with Linux.

 

That is not going to happen as long as piracy enables these people to obtain almost any commercial software for as low as $2. It is for this reason that desktop linux hasn’t grown as much as one would expect from the Disruption models especially in the developing world. So ….. how do we remove this limitation? – Food for thought.