How are you doing today? I hope your weekly activities went well. These days, it’s so easy to be fixated on how difficult things are that we lose sight of the big picture and miss opportunities right before us. So, I thought it would be nice to start this week’s newsletter by reminding us that tough times birth innovation. And in case you are wondering, innovation is about a new way of doing things. When we apply new processes or develop new techniques to solve existing problems, we are innovating.
Generally, when motivational speakers want to get people to think about innovation, they often tell them to look inward. Well, I am not a motivational speaker. I am a politician who, in his first life, built a business out of thinking of new ways of doing things. So, my advice would be to look outwards. It is in understanding our external environment and identifying where ideas and solutions intersect that we innovate.
In line with the aforementioned, my next reading is about innovative thinking. A father and his son co-authored the book. Don Tapscott, the father, is a one-time chancellor of Trent University and one of the most influential management thinkers in the world. He writes about technology, business, and society, while his son, Alex Tapscott, is a capital markets professional. His work focuses on how emerging technologies, such as blockchain, impact business, government and society. Their book is titled, “Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies Is Changing the World”.
I have heard quite a bit about blockchain technology, but it mostly conjures up the feeling of young people staring at computers mining cryptocurrency. Of course, I know it is a lot more than that, and I am excited to learn how this innovation can work in governance. The world is moving forward technologically, and we cannot afford to be left behind.
This is why when it was obvious that I could not attend the Future of Innovation Conference organised by the University of New Brunswick Fredericton, Canada, to which I was invited earlier this week, I ensured that I was represented by the Honourable Commissioner for Public Works and Transport, Prof Dahud Kehinde Shangodoyin and Pro-Chancellor LAUTECH, Prof Deji Omole at the event. The ideas they gained from that conference will add value to the work we are doing in the State.
So, we will be thinking more innovatively under Omituntun 2.0. I know people are expressing their dissatisfaction with the pace of development in the State. Some are even saying I may have been bitten by the second-term bug. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Our patient planning should not be mistaken for the paucity of ideas. As we approach the five-month mark of Omituntun 2.0, rest assured that we are on track to deliver on our promises in the Oyo State Roadmap for Sustainable Development 2023-2027.
Talk to you again soon.
Seyi Makinde
