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Look to innovate continuously

Innovation should not be a one-stop initiative, but a continuous process that identifies how technology can be utilised to meet a person's needs, experts at Insead's Global Business Leaders Conference said on Sunday.
The event highlighted how businesses can act as a force for good, creating new frontiers of growth, jobs and hope and a larger economic pie for all.
William Doucas, chairman and chief executive officer at Elutions Inc, spoke about the importance of businesses creating a work culture that fosters innovation. Often times, this innovation comes from understanding their customer's needs. Companies such as Amazon, he said, are thriving with their business models; and it is proving to be very difficult to disrupt them, because they have a wealth of data on their users and their purchasing habits. Furthermore, organisations need to have a willingness to adopt new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), if they wish to remain relevant.
"What AI has done is that it has opened the door for a broader value proposition," he said, adding that the leadership in the UAE has understood the need and necessity to change and taken the relevant steps to facilitate it.
Karl Magnus Olsson, chief experience officer and co-founder of Careem, also noted that governments from different parts of the world have a lot to learn from the UAE and its adoption of the latest technologies. "The UAE has been making great strides in leading the way; look at the One Million Arab Coders initiative. There are lots of funds and incubators today that have been created to help entrepreneurs, however, what is missing is the global funding for such projects for the Middle East region. We need to showcase more success stories from the UAE and the region to ensure that this will change in the future."
Olsson also advised businesses to look at the opportunities that are presented by different demographics of people in various geographies. Millennials, and their habits in particular, will increasingly influence the way that organisations are doing their business in the future.
Leila Hoteit, partner and managing director at the Boston Consulting Group, touched upon the importance of legislation in allowing technology to keep pace with our needs. Both the private and public sectors need to work together, she said, to create the right ecosystem where it is possible to continuously innovate.
- rohma@khaleejtimes.com