I recently shared on Facebook about the sugar tax dilemma in South Africa. The tax is good for the public purse and health however it is harming the sugar industry. It is experiencing jobs blood bath not only because of sugar tax, but because of changing consumer preference and sugar dumping (subsidized imports).
Obviously the industry that supports 1-million livelihoods needs to innovate or else it will die. Innovation is not only necessary for RCL foods or Tongaat Hulletts of this world, but also for everyone that wants to stay relevant. The importance of continuous innovation was one of the first things I internalized when I started my career in academia some years ago. Publish or perish they told me. Invariably, they were telling me that knowledge production and innovation are imperative for me to stay relevant and make impact.
So I learnt to constantly to come up with new ideas, use valid methodologies to generate acceptable results which were then published in accredited journals or books. I also learnt it is easier to innovate in my career when I collaborate with colleagues and also when I regularly attend scientific meetings.
However, I have never forgotten that as a child of God, I have the greatest innovation Specialist, the Holy Spirit living inside of me.
Nevertheless, fear remains the greatest barrier to innovation. Next to fear is not moving fast enough to adopt innovation. Mark Zuckerberg whose motto is ‘move fast and break things’ recently informed United States congress that they should be allowed to launch their own digital currency, Libra or else China will.
He went on to say “If we don’t innovate, there’s no guarantee that we can extend those same rules and project that kind of influence around the world going forward.” Less than two days after Mark appeared before congress, Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, said the country needs to “seize the opportunity” of blockchain technology.”
“We must clarify the main direction, increase investment, focus on a number of key core technologies, and accelerate the development of blockchain technology and industrial revolution” Xi said. Also, China’s central bank is reported to launch a state –backed digital currency (before the end of the year) to seven institutions.
From there, these institutions will begin circulating the stable coin to China’s 1.3 billion citizens. Mark is right. Let’s innovate. Let’s move fast, act cleverly and stay relevant.
“Innovative thinking and strong viewpoints are rewarded in our new economy.” ~ Douglas Kruger
