What counts as innovation?
A few days ago I met Matthew Scott for lunch. Matthew told me the story of “Mighty Light“.
MightyLight aims to bring “light” (literally) into the lives of millions who live in remote parts of the world and don’t stand a chance to get grid connectivity. It aims to do so by a clever product that is solar-charged and uses energy efficient white LED for lighting.
It got me thinking on how innovation in distribution channels is probably as critical as innovative product design in the context of domestic consumers in emerging markets (and particularly so in the case of BOP consumers…)
Now, if you are a purist – this may not count as true innovation.
Distribution channels (or even innovation in distribution channels) is not something that you can patent…and yet there is no doubt that products like these are capable of transforming the lives of millions through clever combination of technology and distribution which hitherto was not possible.
In other words, they fit the criteria of high-impact and definition of a “breakthrough product” – and possibly innovation.
What do you think?
On a related note, I also spoke with Alok Singh, CEO of Novatium a few days ago – they too are doing something that is fairly unusual and exploting a business model around services that has not been tried in the PC industry before . Will it work? We dont know yet.
Is it an innovative approach? I certainly think it is.
Related Post: Has the $100 PC finally arrived?
