I was asked to moderate the technology panel at the Clinton Global Initiative Action Network Post-Disaster Recovery Event in Miami recently. On my panel were Javier Saade, Venture Partner at Fenway Summer Ventures and Bob Lord, Chief Digital Officer at IBM. We ended a 30 min panel discussion with this question. I asked them was “ What would be the one song that you would use to inspire and challenge this powerful and influential group of people here to take on the technology challenge in a way that really benefits the Caribbean.” Both panelists gave awesome answers that had the audience laughing and clapping loudly, then Bob Lord asked me the very same question. Thankfully I had thought about it and the song came easy to me, because it matches what I’ve long believed about the Caribbean and how it should go about reinventing and repositioning itself in this Digital Age.
My song was Good 4 We by British Group D-Influence. The lyrics I zoned in on were these – “ we, we should find, we should find the time, to define, what is good for we.” That line, is the essence of what how I believe the Caribbean should approach Technology and Innovation. We simply must take the time, to define what is good for us, but from the inside out. What I mean by that is, typically Caribbean National agendas have been heavily influenced by outside forces – people who lend us money and people who are always trying to sell us things.
I just believe, we should flip that funnel, be more mindful, confident and strategic in our approach to innovation – versus acting on what others tell us what we’re good at and what they think is best for us. I believe that playing to our strengths and negotiating from that powerful position. Our emerging #DigitalCaribbean must be created by US to the world, not fed to us by the World.
With that in mind, here are three key things I believe the Caribbean must get right about Innovation if we are going to succeed in this global land grab called Global Digital Economy.
Play to our Strengths
I’ve always been an unapologetic believer that each country and region in this world,
has its own unique culture, digital talent, unique processes of innovating and unique strengths that can breakthrough locally, regionally and globally and be super successful.? The Caribbean is no different, but do we believe it?
I believe that each Caribbean Nation must sit with itself and acknowledge the things it does best in the world, then marry it to the existing and emerging technologies to further cement those strengths.
I believe that each Caribbean Nation must sit with itself and be honest about its most pressing problems and have the courage to disrupt itself with technology and innovative thinking to drive economic and social impact for its people. These are the things I believe the Caribbean must do to thrive in the regional and global digital economy. And those exercises can’t be driven by people who want to sell us loans, products and their beliefs on who we are and need to be in this new world emerging.
That said, I am the eternal optimist, and having been in the Caribbean Tech Startup scene since the late 90s as an entrepreneur, investor, mentor and pioneering tech community leader – I know this inside:out approach is already happening. You just have to look at the tech startup scene in Jamaica, Barbados, Bahamas, Aruba and Haiti. And no not just at the hackathons and competitions and tech events — they are hiding from predatory investor, corporate and government predators. LOL!
Entrepreneurs/startups and other digital nonconformists are already creating products, startups that has begun to shift things in their countries. They have been finding/creating work around products and services for what they want to do and can’t do in their home countries and in the Region.
They have been taking technologies such as Blockchain, American and European payment and company mechanisms for example-to solve problems in their own neck of the woods. We should be taking more keep notice of them, support them, partner with them and learn from — and for goodness sake, don’t stifle them because you don’t understand them.
“If you want to win the future, you have to prepare to shape it — or someone else will.”
Since I’m Jamaican, I’m going to use my country as an example.
Over the last 3 years especially, — whether I’m In meetings, speaking locally, regionally and internationally, in the blogs I’ve written – I’ve consistently asked this question…When are we going to acknowledging what Jamaica has, as its unique and unfair advantages and pair that with technology and fresh thinking to become even more dominant, problem-solving and revenue generating.
I’m talking about the intersection of Tech + Tourism, Tech + Sports, Tech + Culture, Tech + Cannabis, Tech + Food just to name a few. Once we decide what our priorities are, then we seek the right tech talent, funding and smart partnerships from that position of strength.
This is something each Caribbean Nation simply must do now and kick into high gear with. But let me tell you this, The Caribbean is already creating its own mini hubs of tech-driven innovation and entrepreneurship, you just have to look on the fringes as I said. We have a lot more work to do though, especially in preparing our people with relevant digital skills. We have to move faster on dumping outdating legislation and putting in place modern laws that facilitate this innovation that we say we want.
And as Caribbean Nations move along this process, let me say this…Access to and innovating like Silicon Valley is not a magic pill for the Caribbean. Plus as China continues to wields its soft power in huge and strategic ways, we, are already part of the “ the rest” that’s rising according to Steve Case. So let’s get it right by shaping it all, from the inside out.
Innovation Is Not A Playground Only For The Young
Yeah I know, much of the Caribbean’s population are millennials, and we do know that we have a youth unemployment and underemployment problem thanks so a number of factors. So there is a mad rush recently to set up Entrepreneurship programmes in high schools and to launch Youth Innovation centres as way to have our young people thinking that problems are sexy and profitable to solve and can also change their lives and that of others.
In Jamaica, about half of our population is under age 40, so I get the sense of heightened awareness, but I’d like for us to remember that innovation and entrepreneurship is a process-even as technologies are moving faster ever before. Plus our ecosystem is young and the average startup still takes about 5-7 years to make real impact and revenue at certain levels as well.
Added to that, I’m going to use some American examples to make my case
- Jessica Alba, actress and founder of the billion dollar company is 37.
- Reid Hoffman 36 when he founded LinkedIn (this platform by the way now has over 300, 000 Caribbean professionals on it).
- Steve Jobs’s most significant innovations at Apple — the iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, and iPad — came after he was 45.
- The entrepreneur of the moment that’s been pushing to transform industries including transportation, energy, and space, is Elon Musk; he is 47.”
- My point here is, can we stop looking for the next Mark Zuckerberg, because chances are, she’s likely to be in her 40s with a few failed businesses and a tonne of wisdom under her belt. Chances are she is making millions already focused on a business filling a specific need for women.
That said, I do hope that all of these youth-focused initiatives I see popping up across the Caribbean are being driven my OUR true, data driven agendas and that in all of this, we are making sure our young people understand the economic and opportunity value of technologies like the Internet and Mobile phone to make our daily lives better, to create their own jobs, launch businesses that solves local, regional and global problems.
Women
As a woman in tech since launching my first startup in the in the late 90s and also working for an American Dotcom back then, having travelled the journey through startups, tech communities, producing and hosting tech events, serving on government boards and mentoring entrepreneurs — women’s visibility in tech, entrepreneurship and innovation is important to me. On many occasions I was the lone woman, black woman and one of few Caribbean women in a room. While that never intimidated me and I leveraged that position to hold the door open for others, I just wished I saw more women walking through. So I know we have a lot more work to do.
So let me say this unapologetically, Caribbean Innovation cannot happen in a sustainable, impactful and profitable manner without women. Period. While the world has woken up to girl bosses and badasses in pink with the massive visibility being given to women events and programmes around the world, there and here in the Caribbean, we still must have more women in boardrooms, conference rooms, on government boards, starting businesses and in leadership and decision-making positions everywhere.
Caribbean Innovation will miss the mark if governments, but more so businesses, refuse to collect, connect the dots and leverage data on women — their roles, pain points and the digital and consumer trends they drive. Caribbean governments and Caribbean businesses who want to really succeed in this emerging Digital Age, must use this data, to decide future products and services on every single level.
Yes, we’ve been seeing some signs of this, but it’s still pretty damn insignificant.
I will now, allow this quote by female futurist and entrepreneur Danielle Kayembe, to say the rest of what I want to share. She said:
“Women represent the largest disruptive force in business — and the business world is unprepared. Currently women are the largest unserved market in business as a result of coded patriarchy — the assumption of male as default and exclusion of female perspectives in nearly every domain.’
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