Innovation and Agility in the Digital Age

Africa is a laboratory for managerial and societal innovations built out of pragmatic arrangements. Some African companies offer products and services that go beyond the standard practices of their international counterparts, based on original and inventive managerial characteristics. Such success stories outline a new model of management and innovation for companies in the digital era. The African innovations that have emerged over the past ten years are directly linked to a managerial model that perfectly meets the demands of the digital era. These new organizations indicate that good managerial practices and innovation models also come from the Global South and no longer exclusively from the East Coast of the United States. Understanding these dynamics is of great theoretical and practical interest for the many companies struggling to seize the opportunities for growth in Africa.

Foreword vii Introduction xiii Chapter 1 Disrupters, Breadcrumbs and the Managerial Revolution 1 1.1 Digital disruptions of management 3 1.2 New and fundamental insights 8 1.3 From pyramid to platform 10 1.4 Motivation by profit and especially by purpose 11 Chapter 2 The African Continent: Laboratory Tomorrow’s World 15 2.1 The frog’s leap, the leopard’s run and agility 16 2.2 Rebel talents and serial learners in dynamic rootedness 26 2.3 Rooted leaders/entrepreneurs, adventurers and hustlers at the service of African singularities 30 2.4 An African citizen educated and trained to think within organizations, who can speak and must be listened to 49 Chapter 3 The Mediterranean: Marrying the Future without Divorcing the Past 59 3.1 The Mediterranean: crossroads of civilizations, one-way street or dead-end street 61 3.2 Drawing from the Mediterranean thanks to people of transposition 74 3.3 Neither adoration, nor submission, but self-realization 94 3.4 Zones of fertility in “layer-cake” societies 115 Conclusion 129 Postface 131 References 137 Index 149