Innovation is getting a lot of attention at the moment in development and humanitarian work. Many, including myself, see this as long overdue. But, according to an article in this weeks Economist, this attention may be misplaced. The piece makes a strong argument for the importance of imitation in business, and its advantages over innovation. [...]
Archive for the ‘Innovation’ Category
The Limitations of Imitation
Posted in Biology, Evolution, Influence, Innovation, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Reports and Studies, Strategy, Technology, Trade on May 18, 2012 | 1 Comment »
JP Morgan and the Price of Complexity
Posted in Accountability, Biology, Chaos, Economics, Evolution, Financial crisis, Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Networks, Organisations, Self organisation, Strategy, Technology, Trade on May 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
This is the text of an article in the Washington Post by Dominic Basulto about last week’s events in the financial markets. Great stuff. When news first broke Thursday that JPMorgan’s credit derivatives portfolio had sustained a loss of $2 billion, and potentially as much as $5 billion, on trades gone awry, there was an [...]
Taming fragility?
Posted in Conflict and peace building, Evolution, Influence, Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Networks, Strategy on March 12, 2012 | 6 Comments »
This is a guest post by Frauke de Weijer (pictured), policy and fragile states specialist at the excellent ECDPM think tank. In a previous post on this blog, Ben explored the potential of complex systems research for thinking about statebuilding and fragility. In this guest post, I would like to take this discussion one step [...]
Official Views, Doing the Wrong Thing ‘Righter’, and the World Bank Presidency
Posted in Accountability, Evaluation, Influence, Innovation, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Public Policy, Strategy on March 5, 2012 | 12 Comments »
There’s been a lot of interest in the imminent vacancy of World Bank President, with numerous suggestions of qualified individuals who should be on the list. This post looks at one particular aspect of the role which seems to be missing from most of this debate, and which should be high on the list of criteria [...]
South Africa’s democracy: Complexity theory in action
Posted in Accountability, Economics, Evolution, Innovation, Institutions, Leadership, Public Policy, Resilience, Strategy on December 16, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Dr Brian Levy is a Public Sector Governance Advisor at the World Bank, andused to head up the unit responsible implementing the Bank’s governance and anti-corruption strategy. In this guest post, cross-posted from here, he explores the relevance of complexity theory insights for South Africa. A fascinating read. The edge of chaos is the balance [...]
What are leaders really for?
Posted in Accountability, Campaigns, Conflict and peace building, Evolution, Financial crisis, Innovation, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Networks, Self organisation on December 7, 2011 | 5 Comments »
A continuing theme on this blog has been the issue of leadership. Many reports and studies call for it, reforms are seen as impossible without it, critical challenges will not be met without it, and we are all ready to point out the lack of it (in others, at least). Despite the fact that leadership [...]
Climate change adaptation, resilience and complexity
Posted in Climate change, Innovation, Public Policy, Reports and Studies, Resilience, Strategy on December 1, 2011 | 2 Comments »
With the latest round of UN climate talks underway in Durban this week, many are rightly concerned about the agreements that will be reached (if any), and whether it will be a case of too little, too late (quite probably). The challenges of achieving global public policy consensus aside, new research is highlighting a range [...]
New Scientist Briefing: Can ecosystems show how to fix the euro?
Posted in Biology, Economics, Financial crisis, Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Networks, Public Policy, Technology, Trade on November 10, 2011 | 5 Comments »
The eurozone, like the rest of the world economy, is a complex networked system. That gives it properties economists rarely consider but which could help us understand the current crisis. This New Scientist ‘Science in Society’ Briefing examines the issues. What is a complex network? Complex networks have many interconnected components which influence each other’s [...]
What Does The Atlas of Economic Complexity Mean for Development?
Posted in Climate change, Economics, Evolution, Financial crisis, Innovation, Networks, Public Policy, Reports and Studies, Resilience, Technology, Trade on November 3, 2011 | 9 Comments »
Ricardo Hausmann of Harvard and Cesar Hidalgo of MIT (whose work I have blogged about previously here) have just published the deeply impressive Atlas of Economic Complexity. It is built around an innovative, network-based methodology for understanding economies and their potential for growth. It represents perhaps the most systematic and in-depth application of the ideas [...]
USAID’s Complexity Journey
Posted in Conflict and peace building, Evaluation, Innovation, Leadership, Meetings, Organisations, Public Policy, Strategy on October 17, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Last week saw a remarkable meeting in Washington, bringing together USAID staff with scientists and practitioners working on complex systems. This post reflects on the event and outlines some of the emerging lessons. Background There have been a number of meetings on the topic of complexity and development in different locations around the world in [...]
