Bright Simmons
Vice President of IMANI-Ghana and Chief executive Officer of CEO, mPedigree, Bright Simmons as well as Chief Executive Officer of UT Holdings, Prince Kofi Amoabeng have been named joint winners of the 2013 Lifetime Achievement for Innovation in Africa Award, by the International Foundation for Africa Innovation (iFAI).
They received their awards at the first Africa Innovation Forum organised by iFAI and Business and Financial Times newspaper at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, Accra.
Founded in late 2011, iFAI is dedicated to developing and transferring innovation management best and next practices into organizations in Africa. It is an individual and corporate-membership based organization dedicated to promoting the acceptance of innovation management as a respectable profession in Africa.
The forum, which was under the theme, “Unleashing Innovation Leadership in Africa”, provided a unique platform for CEOs and other corporate executives to acquire insights and knowledge on new trends in innovation and leadership from renowned practitioners.
It also enabled participants to understand the special challenges of innovation in emerging economies; shift their focus from supply side to demand side to find new sources of value for customers; appreciate and use frameworks and tools for building innovation culture in their organisations.
Participants were also encouraged to know how to lead innovation to help their organisations create new products, services and business models necessary for success; comprehend and use models and frameworks to meet today’s business performance while at the same time innovating for the future and also learn from practical case studies of how to innovate speedily and at lower cost.
According to Dr. Glenn Armstrong, Vice President of Business Innovation, Amway: “Even world-class companies, with powerful and proven business models, eventually discover limits to growth. That’s why they are drawn to continuous innovation. For leaders of companies that are smart enough, fast enough, and agile enough, this forum sets the stage for you to change the rules in Africa to create your future”.
Founder & President of iFAI, Professor Kwaku Atuahene-Gima of iFAI noted: “Leadership requires patience but innovation leadership demands a healthy dose of impatience. In Africa today, learning to be an impatient leader becomes the driving force for growth, and paradoxically for business simplicity”.
According to Mrs. Edith Dankwa of Business and Financial Times: “In the current competitive business environment, innovation continues to be the panacea for success. Managers face the apparent paradox of pursuing orderly and predictable decisions with often disorderly and unpredictable processes of innovation. The African Innovation Forum presents an opportunity for African companies to pursue innovation strategically in order to re-strategise for growth”.