Today, emerging markets present some of the most exciting business opportunities and innovations the technology industry has to offer - thanks to the ability these "Cinderellas of the global economy" have to leapfrog technology.
This is according to Sunil Joshi, MD and CEO of SA's second fixed-line operator, Neotel, speaking at the NetEvents EMEA Press and Analyst Summit, in Portugal, this morning.
Joshi says the innovation that has been born out of necessity in emerging markets like SA has propelled businesses and services onto an international scene, where technologies employed locally can be leveraged to fulfil other pertinent roles unique to the international community.
"Necessity is the mother of innovation. In emerging markets, businesses are also looking for means of doing more with less - and thinking around innovation is happening."
An advantage emerging markets have on their side, says Joshi, is the ability to leapfrog technology that is already in place. "[These markets] don't have to go through the cycle of evolution technology has undergone. There is an ability to leverage technology that is now available. Just because they may not have had it in the past, doesn't mean they can't now."
Reverse innovation
Joshi says emerging markets have undergone an evolution of their own and now present business opportunities in the global economy that necessitate new paradigms and out of which new business models are born.
"Do we approach [new business opportunities] using tried and tested business models, or do we take advantage of these relatively greenfield opportunities to break new ground - leapfrogging legacy technologies with 'reverse innovation'?"
Reverse innovation refers to an innovation that is likely to be used in the developing world first, before spreading to the developed world.
This phenomenon is changing the role of emerging markets in the world, says Joshi. "The evolution of technology has gone from globalising market presence to globalising resource bases to 'globalisation' and, finally, reverse innovation."
Global stimulus
He says Neotel, through its majority shareholder, Tata Communications, is a case in point. Within the emerging economy it operates, the company is not merely a testing ground for new technology, but has started feeding back and contributing to future advantages, says Joshi.
He cites four key examples of innovation that have originated from within the emerging market of SA. "Tata Communications' cloud offering, InstaCompute, has enabled new IT models. Then there are verticalised solutions, like the banking and payment infrastructure solutions, and value-added services like security solutions and collaboration - which we are enabling through telepresence."
Emerging markets on the whole are evolving as "centres of innovation", says Joshi. "In Africa, things like low-cost healthcare devices and mobile money, like Kenya's cellphone-based money transfer service, M-Pesa, are prime examples.
"In India and China, GE [General Electric] created a $15 000 portable ultrasound machine for the rural markets, which is now being used in the US."
It is about how the changing role of emerging markets is taken into reality, says Joshi. "The world is becoming a village that rides on technology and businesses are looking to Africa, Asia, BRICS, etc, for technology and connectivity to expand into geographies they are not physically in themselves.
"SA plays a key role in bridging Africa to the rest of the world economy. We are in the business of connecting people and enterprises in SA to themselves and connecting SA to the world - mature or emerging - to enable commerce."
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