NEW TRENDS SOFTWARE: A GAME-CHANGER FOR AFRICAN INNOVATORS 

Over the next 35 years, Africa has the potential to grow its $1.3 trillion in wealth ten-fold. This presents a significant opportunity for innovative entrepreneurs to contribute to wealth creation on the continent, but the risks are high, says Merle O’Brien, an African futurist who leads foresight and innovation thought leadership at Lacuna, a global innovation management consultancy based in Berlin, London and Cape Town.

Currently, three out of five start-ups fail on the African continent because of their inability to identify trend-driven opportunity spaces in which to address unmet consumer needs. She says many start-ups are replicas of existing concepts instead of having a unique, relevant, trend-driven differentiator that holds value and is scalable within an African context. 

Currently, Africa has six of the world’s fastest growing economies and the growth of its middle class is outpacing the rest the world. “This provides fertile ground for the creation of new product concepts, services and experiences based on African trends to address unmet needs of the emerging African consumer”, says Merle.

Using a state-of-the-art, cloud-based technology platform, Lacuna is building an African trends radar to support a trend-based approach to innovation across Africa’s 54 countries. Lacuna Radar is an innovation management software developed in Germany that tracks and analyzes trends across geographic and sector fields to support identification of opportunity spaces. It is an enabler of innovation within a client context; used to support Front End Innovation for Lacuna’s clients such as Porsche, British American Tobacco (BAT) and Distell.

By applying Lacuna’s innovation software in Africa and combining this with its Front End Innovation methodology, more local innovators will be able to successfully turn a trend into something profitable. “Such a game-changer would enhance the success rate of African start-ups and corporate intrapreneurs,” says Merle.

Lacuna is recognized as one of the world’s leading innovation firms. In 2015, it is sponsoring and speaking at global innovation events such as the Foresight and Trends Conference in Los Angeles, the Innovation Roundtable in Copenhagen and the World Innovation Convention in Berlin. It opened an office in Cape Town, South Africa in 2013 to provide trends, insight and innovation commercial expertise in Africa.

Today, the Cape team includes 18 specialist trend researchers, analysts, innovation management consultants and a futurist. As part of the Open Design Festival underway in Cape Town, Lacuna will host two events to share its expertise with the local market on Saturday 22nd August 2015, at the Watershed of the V&A Waterfront. Lacuna’s Founder and CEO Klaus Schnurr will speak at 13:00 on his unique methodology for helping brands use trends to create opportunity space portfolios filled with innovative concepts.

Entitled, “From trends to front end innovation in Africa”, Klaus will present case studies and demonstrate the Lacuna Radar software. (To register, follow the link - http://opendesignct.com/events/talk100-from-trends-to-front-end-innovation-in-africa/) At 15:00, Merle will share insights into best practice for African innovators. She will provide feedback from the International Development Design Summit (IDDS D’Kar) held with MIT-DLab and IDIN, the International Development and Innovation Network - in Botswana during 4th – 16th August. She is the only South African member of IDIN. (To register, follow the link - http://opendesignct.com/events/lessons-from-idds-dkar-2015-with-mit-dlab-and-the-university-of-botswana/)

Says Merle, “Innovation expertise is a driver of economic growth. At South Africa’s current stage of economic development, its ability to create and leverage intellectual property will determine the extent to which it leapfrogs into the knowledge economy”.

Please  note the following events happening this Saturday.
Lacuna Radar demonstration at Open Design - Saturday, 22nd August V&A Waterfront 13:00
Insights into African Innovation best practice at Open Design – Feedback from IDDS D’Kar Summit 2015 with MIT D-LAB and IDIN – 15:00

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About Lacuna Innovation

Lacuna Innovation is a boutique consultancy helping global organizations to sustainably innovate new products, services and business models by combining trends, insight and commercial expertise in one place. We identify new growth opportunities, immerse ourselves in markets and build in house innovation capabilities to achieve lasting impact. Our specialties are: Front-End Innovation, Trend Management, Consumer Insight, Innovation Management, Immersive Research, Sustainability Innovation Capability, Technology Intelligence.
Website: http://www.the-lacuna.com
Tt: @lacuna_innovate

About Lacuna Radar: Lacuna Radar combines a proven methodology, a collaborative cloud-based technology and global expertise to sustainably identify, organise and manage cross-industry trends within a single platform. We enable our multi-national customers around the globe to manage their Front-End Innovation activities more meaningfully with the aim to develop and sustain a world class innovation pipeline. Superior management of the Front-End Innovation Process Structures and organises Trend and Technology Research so it leads to new Innovation Opportunities Systematically connects Innovation Information to enhance Innovation performance Builds a sustainable Innovation Capability and Preparedness for future changes in markets and society

Website: http://www.lacunaradar.com         Tt: @lacuna_innovate _____________________________________________________________________________________________  

Issued by: Merle O’Brien Lacuna: Foresight and Innovation Thoughtleadership

Tel: 021 4222 033                                   Cell: +27 76 891 2583      Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.         Tt:@merleobrien  

For further information: Klaus Schnurr Lacuna: CEO and Founder Tel: 021 4222 033                                   Cell: +2776 287 4228       Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.