If disruption is real for innovative industrial companies that are changing their models, this is not necessarily the case for their users. Think about it: can you provide one example of innovation that emerged truly from nowhere and radically altered peoples’ habits?

When Gutenberg invented the printing press in the fifteenth century, he aggregated three elements: paper, which came from China two centuries before; the press of winemakers and artisans, which he perfected; and lead typefaces, the alloy of which he, as a goldsmith, improved. Gutenberg revolutionized the production of the written word. In so doing, he accelerated the dissemination of ideas, and yet, he did not break the behavior of reading. The invention of the printing press was a disruptive innovation for the monks but not for the faithful readers of the Bible.

From the point of view of a company, innovation can be disruptive. When a business model no longer works, it is obviously strategic to change it. Though beneficial over the long term, this transformation can be tumultuous. The implementation of innovation can be a painful process, for employees and managers alike. The disruption is imposed by the evolution of the competitive, social, economic or environmental environment. It is not chosen. Who would consciously decide to experience a rupture?

From the point of view of users, customers, and citizens, evolution is only ever chosen, Read more

When Steve Song observed that the poorest do not have access to the Internet or mobile phone, he invented the "Mesh Potatoes." His social enterprise, Village Telco, sets up local wifi networks in rural areas... where traditional operators do not venture. The 'mesh potatoes' rely on an open source device sold 40 dollars since June 2013. Its beauty is that each potato extends the network to other neighboring uncovered areas.
The "Mesh Potatoes" have grown in their homeland in South Africa, then in Nigeria, Brazil, Colombia and Puerto Rico.
An inspiring example of creative vitality and collective power!

Photo : (c) Village Telco

Benign diseases account for more than 50% of the causes of death among young children in Africa. In Mali, 1 in 5 children dies before age the age of 5. Yet these deaths could easily be prevented if these simple diseases were detected early enough.

The international NGO Pesinet innovates and develops the health system in Mali with amazing results. Its approach is based on a technological facility, the mobile phone, and an ethnographic field observation: if the symptoms are not detected early enough, it is because children do not have access to health centers. Pesinet has therefore invented a new ecosystem of care pathways that calls children with symptoms of childhood illnesses in the dispensaries.

How do they work? Pesinet created a new job, the health care field agent, who visits the families and transmits simple health data to the dispensary physicians, via their mobile phone. Medical teams then detect potential risks in these children. Then they simply have to call them for a medical examination. 93% of the notifications to come to the dispensaries reveal a disease that can be treated well in time.

(c) Photo Pesinet

Let’s observe! And build a new world of client surveys.

Qualitative studies based on statements are unsuitable for understanding the lives of consumers. They are based on what they say they do but not on what they actually do. Why? Simply because they are carried out of the contexts of real life, and out of context, no one is aware of his behaviors.

But to innovate, it is crucial to rely on the truth of today usages before designing new worlds. If declarative studies are unreliable, where will we find the raw material for innovation?

Only the observation can activate the awareness-raising on the daily life.

If you ask me to describe you the way I prepare the family breakfast with my children, there is a good chance that I’m telling you nonsense. Not because I would want to cheat you, but because I am not aware of all these micro gestures, these habits, these reflexes that I show only when I am standing in my kitchen, with my kids heckling around me.

But if you shot me in my kitchen and then you showed me that video, Read more