Bola
Olabisi CEO, GWIIN speaks about the first Centre for
Enterprise, Innovation and Technology (CIET) for women
in Africa.
The video interview is Mrs Olabisi
discussing GWIIN Innovation centre which will be opening
in December 2007 in Nigeria.
<Click here> to download the Video (7.86Mb).
You
will need Microsoft Windows Media Player. If you don't
already have it, you can download it by clicking
here.
Innovation:
an instrument for better lives
By Bola Olabisi
Innovation has become a very popular – and often
abused – topic in many debates. Behind all the
possible definitions, I believe that the distinction
between “invention” (which is unique, novel
and with a commercial value) and “innovation”
(which brings improvement of what already exists), helps
focus the debate on what really matters: the ultimate
objective of innovation as an instrument to improve
people’s quality of life.
I am strongly convinced that people should always be
at the center of governments’ attempts to encourage
innovation and competitiveness. A rich dialogue between
governments and consumers is essential: everybody needs
to play a role. That is why I value Voices for Innovation:
by giving a voice to the broader innovation community,
Voices for Innovation gives the concrete opportunity
to “provoke” a dialogue with decision makers,
encouraging them to take people’s views on board
and, in that way, help innovation be that instrument
of positive change.
Innovation is still too frequently equated with stereotypes
and definitions that limit its potential: the ideas
that it is only in the scientific and technology fields,
that it is a men domain and that it is developed by
either big or small companies are all wrong assumptions
that we have to address. Innovation overall has dignity,
it is the product of diversity, it is cross-sector
and transversal, and it overcomes the big-versus-small
dichotomy. Anybody can play a role, regardless of
gender, sector and company size. Opening up to this
diversity is the first step to expand the opportunities
innovation can bring.
However, bringing people to understand the value of
innovation as a way towards a better quality of life
and raising awareness of its benefits requires a radical
change: it means pushing them to leave their comfort
zone and to think outside the box.
How can we achieve this change? There is much talk
in Europe about the role of entrepreneurship education
to place innovation at the heart of people’s
lives. I am convinced that there is no one-way street,
and measures should not be seen in isolation. Education
is an essential piece of the puzzle but other ingredients
are just as necessary: the development of leadership
skills; an adequate system for intellectual property
protection and the right environment for access to
finance and product development; appropriate measures
to ensure gender diversity; and concrete ways to promote
innovation as a means to eradicate poverty in developing
countries.
Let me
go more in depth on these key points.
Knowledge is power and intellectual property protection
ensures that knowledge is properly safeguarded and
rewarded. Protected IP gives a better position to
negotiate, particularly for small innovators, who
suffer from a weaker position in the market place.
I believe that significant progress needs to be made
to ensure that all innovators have a proper understanding
of all the forms that IP protection can take (patents,
trademarks, copyrights), their benefits and their
economic consequences. This is essential to achieve
a balance: investments in IP protection make sense
if their costs can be recovered. Cost is a big deterrent
to patent inventions in Europe, due to linguistic
and legal fragmentation. The harmonization of IP law
across Europe would play an extremely beneficial role
by reducing costs and administrative burdens. At the
same time, we need to keep an eye on cultural differences
to ensure a system which is fair and focused on people’s
needs. After years of discussions, I believe it is
time for policy makers to act: Europe needs a more
predictable, affordable patent system to encourage
investments from all innovators, big and small.
Gender diversity is another necessary element of the
mix. That’s why, in 1998, I founded the Global
Women Inventor & Innovators Network (GWIIN), after
the success of the British Female Inventor of the
Year Award (which still continues). I wanted to raise
the credibility and the involvement of inventive and
innovative women. This can be done by bringing their
stories into the spotlight and raising their awareness
of the benefits of innovation. Although challenges
met by women cannot be generalized and depend both
on personal elements and on the context, when it comes
to creativity and innovation men still dominate the
scene: science, engineering and technology are traditionally
men’s fields, and more likely to be linked to
their career paths. From my experience as mother of
four children and CEO, I am strongly convinced that
flexibility to ensure a balance between work and family
life is essential. Some European countries have understood
this and are taking appropriate measures, but it is
not enough. Sharing best practices between countries
is essential. It is in this spirit that I’ve
founded the European Women Inventors & Innovators
Network (EUWIIN) in partnership with London Metropolitan
University: promoting opportunities for exchange for
creative, inventive and innovative women across Europe
is crucial in order to increase their impact on the
innovation and knowledge-based sectors.
Returning to my earlier point, I believe that a rich
dialogue between governments and the population at
large is the key to innovation as a way to eradicate
poverty in developing countries. I am very pleased
to be able to speak at the TED Global Conference,
which will take place in Tanzania in June. This event
is a great opportunity to discuss how innovation can
improve the life of Africans. I believe that it is
necessary to bring together lots of good doers, and
gather them in a think tank to look at infrastructures
and sharing opportunities and best practices.
It is through a better dialogue that we can find concrete
measures to benefit from innovation in its diversity
and on a global scale. This is the starting point
of all the efforts towards the true and final goal
of innovation as a means to improve everybody’s
life.
Bola Olabisi LLB (HONS), LLM, CIOH is the CEO of GWIIN.
: