{"id":31758,"date":"2020-02-03T14:37:04","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T14:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=31758"},"modified":"2020-02-07T10:41:46","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T10:41:46","slug":"why-the-tech-sector-needs-to-re-gear-its-approach-to-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2020\/02\/03\/why-the-tech-sector-needs-to-re-gear-its-approach-to-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the tech sector needs to re-gear its approach to innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Global financial services company, Mastercard, is at the forefront of the payments industry and has implemented many new technologies. But that\u2019s not to say it hasn\u2019t come without its challenges. Gaurang Shah, the Senior Vice President for Digital Payments and Labs for Middle East and Africa at Mastercard, tells Intelligent CIO<\/em> how it has used a three-pronged approach in order to be innovative.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you provide some background details about your current position at Mastercard? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am the MEA lead\nfor Digital Payments and Labs and am in charge of developing solutions and executing\nmarket strategies for cash displacement and leveraging digital payment\ntechnologies. I also lead the Labs organisation in the region, which is\nMastercard\u2019s Centre of Excellence focussed on new innovation with a special\nfocus on financial inclusion. Prior to this role, I was Middle East and North Africa Division Lead for Global\nProcessing, which was focused on developing and executing market\nstrategies and national ecosystem development across the cluster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can companies be innovative in Africa?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building the\nright solutions that aim to disrupt existing technologies. In the era of the\nFourth Industrial Revolution, emerging technologies such as Artificial\nIntelligence, Machine Learning, Robotic Process Automation and Blockchain are\nruling the roost in terms of their use-cases for commercial purposes. Emerging\nmarkets are set to contribute a large percentage to that number, with African\nAnalysis predicting that the Internet of Things in South Africa will grow to 35\nmillion by next year.  The\nboundaries of technologies continue to increase and there has never been a\nbetter time in history for innovators to experiment, build and test new\nsolutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When building\nnew products, it is crucial for digital disruptors to always keep in mind the unique needs of each market\nin which they operate. In a world where everything you want can be bespoke or\nartisanal, consumers have little time for services that don\u2019t take their\nparticular context or needs into consideration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nfew years ago, when Mastercard was designing Quick\nResponse (QR) payment solutions for markets in Africa, the biggest discussion\nat the time revolved around driving local adoption by working with the systems\nand infrastructure those markets already had in place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In South Africa, this meant designing a QR payment\nsolution \u2013 Masterpass – that was card-based. Why? Because in South Africa, 80%\nof the population already had a payment card. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To use the\nservice, consumers load any bank card into the secure Masterpass digital wallet\non their mobile phones and scan a QR code displayed on a website or at the\npoint of sale to make a payment.  When we looked elsewhere in Africa, many\npeople didn\u2019t have cards, so Mastercard designed a solution called Mastercard\nQR. This solution enables consumers to pay merchants\ndirectly from their mobile money or bank accounts using either a smartphone\nto scan a QR code or a feature phone to enter a text code at checkout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nexperience mimics a cash transaction as the consumer \u2018pushes\u2019 payment to the\nmerchant, which is received almost instantly. For\nmerchants, Mastercard\nQR provides an affordable way to accept digital payments from a range of different payment providers (mobile money\nor banks) \u2014\neven where traditional card payment infrastructure, or an electric grid, may\nnot be present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have talked about <\/strong>exponential\ninnovation. Can you explain what this is?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Uber was\ntrying to solve the problem of taxi availability anytime, anywhere, it invented\nan entirely new concept and caused a paradigm shift. Now, every car on the road\ncan potentially become a taxi and the industry has changed forever. Airbnb in\nthe hospitality industry and Spotify and Netflix in the entertainment industry\nhave done the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, in\nthe payments industry, when tokenisation technology was introduced, it was a\nconceptual shift in thinking. Should card data be compromised, the data became\nuseless to fraudsters. This not only helped to protect consumers\u2019 financial\ndata, but also boosted consumer confidence in an industry becoming increasingly\nmore digital.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the\nvery definition of exponential innovation – it goes above incremental\ninnovation to reimagine the consumer experience and create efficiencies within\nthe industry\u2019s value chain. It challenges the status quo, looks at pain points\nwith a different set of lenses, with the aim to eliminate them, not just reduce\nthem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is\nnecessary to approach your product or service from the viewpoint of the\nend-consumer. Every organisation today is a B2C organisation, not a B2B or a\nB2G, because ultimately the work you do will have considerable impact on\nindividual lives. It is that impact that you must look to positively transform,\nto achieve exponential innovation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from\nbuilding solutions, what are the other components of the \u2018three-pronged\napproach\u2019 to exponential innovation?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acquire.  <\/strong>Look at your landscape. The rise\nof fintechs and startups is disrupting virtually every industry, not just the\ntech sector. In the past year, more than US$1 billion has been raised by\nAfrican startups so far, with 83 deals exceeding US$1 million, according to\nVC4A. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to\nhyper-digitalisation, these startups have far greater access to consumers than\nwas ever possible before.  It is\nimportant to view these players not as competition, but as potential strategic\npartners that can help you achieve exponential innovation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good\nexample is Standard Bank\u2019s acquisition of the majority stake in Firepay \u2013 the\nstartup behind leading mobile payments product SnapScan. This is a clear\nindication of how a bank, which has already established brand recognition,\ncustomer trust and a distribution network, is benefiting from the agility and\ncustomer design capabilities of a fintech. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More fintech players mean more innovation \u2013 making\nthe global digital payments space competitive enough that the next massive\ndisruption is just around the corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collaborate. <\/strong>Technology\ngiants no longer work in silos, but rather encourage knowledge-sharing with\neach other and collaboration so that the world\u2019s technologies can talk to each\nother. Let me give you a world-famous example. When Apple decided they wanted\nto launch the Apple Card, Mastercard didn\u2019t shy away \u2013 we became their global\npayments network. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly,\nmany technology-based startups and consumer-facing apps only work thanks to\nestablished companies partnering with them. For example, popular apps such as\nMr D and Uber enable consumers to purchase their food and travel anytime,\nanywhere simply from their smartphones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this to\nhappen, several stakeholders need to work together. The app itself needs to\nensure that the consumer has an easy-to-understand user experience that allows\nthem to make the purchase seamlessly. The telecom provider needs to ensure that\na person has sufficient data capabilities to be able to process this payment\nvia their phone. The payment provider needs to ensure they can seamlessly\nprocess the payment safely and securely. Collaboration is thus key in this\nprocess. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nchallenges have you had to overcome?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trying to\nachieve exponential innovation comes with its fair share of challenges. In the\npayments industry for instance, our biggest concern is around misconceptions\naround security. Consumers take a lot of time to change behaviours and have\nconcerns regarding cybersecurity and fraud. According to a 2018 Mastercard survey, 87%\nof South Africans believe that data breaches and hacks are the new normal and\nwill likely happen to everyone. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key to\naddressing this is three-fold. First, it\u2019s necessary to establish a dialogue\ninvolving knowledge-sharing with government and banking and technology partners\nto address these issues in a collaborative way. Second, deploy the\ntechnological tools available that minimise fraud concerns and strengthen\nauthenticity. Tokenisation and Artificial Intelligence have been instrumental\nin achieving these goals. Lastly and most importantly, it is necessary to raise\nawareness on these issues to gain trust amongst consumers. Trust is the foundation of the digital economy, and consistent\nefforts must be made to ensure that trust. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every company\nthat aims to innovate will have its fair share of challenges while trying to\nachieve exponential innovation. But keeping the larger picture in mind and\naddressing these concerns is essential not just for a firm\u2019s growth, but also\ntheir sustainability and survival. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By executing\na three-pronged approach and leveraging technology to achieve exponential\ninnovation, it is possible to transform industries, benefit economies and\npositively impact and enrich communities. The world today is evolving at an\nexponential pace \u2013 disrupting technologies are changing the way people shop,\ntravel, communicate, pay and much more. Exciting times lie ahead, providing\ncompanies are able to approach and harness innovation in the right way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Global financial services company, Mastercard, is at the forefront of the payments industry and has implemented many new technologies. But that\u2019s not to say it hasn\u2019t come without its challenges. Gaurang Shah, the Senior Vice President for Digital Payments and Labs for Middle East and Africa at Mastercard, tells Intelligent CIO how it has used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":31761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4950,565,843,328,6,298,399,9059,13,262],"tags":[12491,5698,386,1959,2059,12495,676,977,679,12496,1002,12488,155,12490,392,979,12493,8710,11269,12492,1340,12497,453,12494,6377,1275,2841],"class_list":["post-31758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-banking-finance","category-editors-choice","category-features","category-insights","category-main-story-newsletter","category-more-news","category-south-africa","category-top-stories","category-used","tag-african-analysis","tag-airbnb","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-b2b","tag-b2c","tag-b2g","tag-blockchain","tag-digital-payment","tag-fintech","tag-firepay","tag-fourth-industrial-revolution","tag-gaureng-shah","tag-internet-of-things","tag-labs","tag-machine-learning","tag-mastercard","tag-masterpass","tag-netflix","tag-qr","tag-quick-response","tag-robotic-process-automation","tag-snapscan","tag-south-africa","tag-spotify","tag-standard-bank","tag-uber","tag-vc4a"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31758"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31858,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31758\/revisions\/31858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}