As an initiating member of the Sub-Forum on Social Innovation for the China Technical Business Foum, supported by CEO CIO Magazine I had the opportunity to speak on a panel discussion on the use if IT in social innovation and disruption at the 2013 CTBF on the 8th November.

Key points I took away from my fellow speakers were:

• Steve Koon, of Innovate 99. Scale of delivery is more important in China than it might be in smaller geographies or populations
• Gu Yuan, founder of AHA (a-ha!) School. Yuan urges us to look at users and citizens in a positive perspective – that is, consider what they can do, and what they aspire to do, rather than what they cannot do
• Fuzhou Golden Sun Elderly Care Center, a provider of asssited living technology and services for older people in China, pointed out that over 90% of Chinese elders wish to remain in their own homes rather than retire to plush homes. With 50,000 paying customers I am inclined to give their comments some credibility. The comments were also largely reflective of my experience in the UK and my interpretation is they help people to live the life they want to lead
• Peng Yaani, Director General of the Narada Foundation gave a number of practical and inspiring examples of disruptive technlogical applications supporting social change
• Han Xiao, President of Lanshan Investment Group, made useful observations from the perspective of commerical and investment partners in social innovation systems

I hope my message that IT reaches its full potential when it ceases to be technology (a synonym for something you have to handle carefully because it’s always going wrong) and becomes part of the fabric of your enterprise like water in a tap, the floor you walk on or the money that funds the operation of your business.

Elegant solutions (ingenious simplicity) that give meaningfiul benefit to the users are normally better than sophisticated solutions that showcase the skills of the deliverer.

Published: November 8, 2013. Categories: News and Robert's Blog.