Barry Katz’s presentation of the ApproTec project of making a pump for the bottom classes in Kenya and Tanzania concluded that although this project was non profit there was a lot to be gained from it:
- Because of the project group being very fluid with people joining before and after working hours it had to involve a very high degree of knowledge management to ensure that the right competencies were used and that learning was passed on.
- Because of the challenges of the project regarding usability, mobility, costs and more there was a high level of technical learning.
- The project lead to a high degree of community building because it involved people from different areas and created a high level of trust and community in the organisation.
- This project has given a lot of "bragging rights" because of its nonprofit character and actually given an amount of positive publicity that could never have been paid for.
Finally worth mentioning is that this very simple and yet advanced product created by committed people before and after working hours has improved life significantly for more than 30.000 people and created a basis for further development of the rural sectors of Kenya and Tanzania.
The point of not only thinking in diversity in innovation regarding the input in the process but also the output gives food for thought. It opens up for rethinking the possibilities of creating concepts that will be a win win situation to the people both in the top and the bottom of the pyramid.
At what levels and in what areas can we apply our abilities for creative and innovative thinking?
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