Research, Development, Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Caribbean Perspectives

A changing world.

We live in a Changing World with increased internal and external competition running after available resources and opportunities at local, regional and global levels. It is up to us to make the world change for better, not worse, by making sure our local and regional issues are addressed by the changes, are generating the changes and are being part of the changes.

Finding our innovation niches and opportunities.

The relevance of Research and Development (R&D) influences the viability and impact of innovation from within, which is to achieving Sustainable Human Development. R&D initiatives relevant to our local issues, are easier to comprehend, communicate and convey to others, generate less resistance, leverage more support from stakeholders and present better chances for innovation when built around our strengths, competencies, existing skills and competitive advantages. True opportunities arise when our own needs and issues are addressed and solutions are built that take our own particular conditions and strengths into consideration. That been said, we must not limit our focus to existing strengths or competencies, assuming them as a given, since they can be built as part of comprehensive strategies to exploit valuable niches and opportunities. Being new or an outsider in any field has its advantages, in particular freedom from blinding paradigms and the burden of legacy systems (knowledge, research, control, behavioral, operations, communication systems, etc.).

Finding Order in Chaos.

To many and at first glance, the fast and changing nature of the Information and Knowledge Society looks like major chaos, but the complexity theory allows us to find order by identifying Restrictions and Challenges, Opportunities and Niches.
Building Capacity to Innovate and Succeed. In order to address our needs, identify opportunities and build innovative solutions, we need to build capacity at many levels, including the capacity of our people, our institutions and their environment, strategically and collaboratively building a coordinated framework that fosters an entrepreneurial spirit and a conducive environment for innovation.

Research, Development, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Caribbean.

The most critical indicator of R&D in the Caribbean is the very lack of indicators on R&D in the region. Data is scarce and when available shows very limited financial resources dedicated to R&D. On the other hand, the fast pace of technology and the advance of globalization in the current decade have been a nurturing scenario for the appearance of technology parks, entrepreneurial initiatives, business incubation centers and innovation and entrepreneurial competitions. This has led to a current trend, backed by international organizations, of official innovation strategies for national innovation systems around multi-sector collaboration and clusters development.

Strengths, Opportunities, Restrictions and Limitations at the Caribbean’s Bottom of the Pyramid market.

Our first hand experience with scarce resources, lack of support, unreliability of systems, unpredictability of nature, limited choices, our practical knowledge of unmet needs and inadequate systems, our proven record of overcoming obstacles and our profound yearning for opportunities and improvement, combined with the unbreakable will and good nature of our people, are our greater strengths. A large percentage of our population remains underserved by the conventional market, creating a fertile ground of opportunities to find profitable ways to better address the needs of our people and those experiencing similar conditions in other places around the globe.

The Caribbean has excellent understanding of areas such as diaspora and mobility of people, disaster preparedness and recovery, multilingual and non-verbal communications, higher education and distance learning, tourism and multi-destination travels, call centers and service industry, mobile communications and wireless networks, financial services and gambling, among many other of our regional strengths. But we have yet to build a culture of true institutional collaboration, individual motivation and supporting financial instruments and institutional mechanisms and incentives to foster innovation and entrepreneurship.

Innovation Ecosystems tailored to our Strengths and Needs.

On 2007, the Dominican Republic formally announced its “National Innovation and Technology Development System” built around three pillars: A Technological Development and Innovation Institute, a Network of Business Incubators and a Knowledge Technopark. However, research centers, academic institutions, business incubators, technology parks, entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, financial instruments, public institutions, businesses, diaspora engagement, legislation, competition, protection, support, rewards, awards and incentives are all part of what is needed, but not enough. The capacity to build healthy win-win relationships among stakeholders and sectors and to generate synergies can make or break an innovation system.