Consider challenges as opportunities for innovation - Youth, business leaders urged

The President of CIPA, Dr Richard Ampofo Boadu, has encouraged young people, entrepreneurs and business leaders to always use challenges as springboard to created innovations that would propel the nation’s socioeconomic development.

He noted that even historically, innovative ways of doing things were either invented or developed as a means to overcome barriers in everyday life which ultimately improved their way of living.

He was speaking at innovation forum organised by the Certified Innovation Professionals Association (CIPA) in Accra.

It was held under the auspices of the Nobel International Business School (NiBS) on the theme; “Exploring the Future Through Innovation.”

The forum brought together diverse participants such as entrepreneurs, industry leaders, academia and researchers, investors, and policymakers to exchange ideas, discuss emerging trends, and foster creative solutions to challenges facing society.

It also served as a collaborative platform to stimulate innovation, promote cross-disciplinary collaboration, and accelerate the development of new technologies, products, or services. 

Unique solutions

Mr Boadu, who is also the Administrator of Ghana Education Trust (GET) Fund, said as Ghanaians, the country needed to find solutions to its problems in a way that would enable it to thrive and not necessarily try to overtake or even compete with advanced nations. 

He said countries in Asian Pacific area realised that they could not compete with the leaders, particularly the Western world, so they created a niche market for themselves and had since been coming up with innovative ways of doing things.

“That is what we call the secondary innovation. You lean on the primary innovation in the system and then polish it up, so the idea of copying comes in. We copy smart, with the idea of not infringing on intellectual property.

In the secondary innovation, there is an existing product or existing service. You have to assess yourself and then know where you stand, looking at our strength and then the opportunity that lies ahead for us,” he said.

The Chairman of LVS Africa, Naa Alhassan Andani, urged the youth and business leaders to constantly challenge the status quo and try to find new and improved ways of achieving their objectives.

He equally urged the state to champion and invest in the innovation agenda stressing that it would trickle down to the rest of the nation. 

Innovation strategy

The Founder and President of the Nobel International Business School (NiBS), Professor Kwaku Atuahene-Gima called for the establishment of a national innovation strategy designed to promote innovation and foster economic growth by focusing on research, entrepreneurship and technological advancement among others.

He explained that although most organisations had policies on how to do new things, countries where the government wants to drive innovation usually develop a strategy which laid down the scope and objectives of innovation and how the various sectors in the national economy contribute to the process of innovation while measuring the results.

“I think that we need something like that in this country so that if I'm a private business person and I read the national innovation strategy, I will know where my activities and how I can develop my capabilities for me and fit into the national innovation strategy. I will know the resources the government puts into building company innovation capabilities so that I can tap into that,” Prof. Atuahene-Gima said.