By Sabine CessouPosted on 27-10-2019Modified on 27-10-2019 at 09:05
A senior engineering engineer from Stanford University, this design thinking expert teaches the virtues of Ubuntu, African humanism, in Silicon Valley. To African entrepreneurs, he advises to know about finance and to think big.
"Do not call me Professor! As I do research, I reserve the right to be wrong in 99% of cases ... " Ade Mabogunje , positive and modest, describes herself as an" ant ". He is none the less one of the most insightful minds he meets. Five minutes of conversation are enough for him to glimpse the major assets of his interlocutor.
Trained at the University of Lagos in 1984, he completed his mechanical engineering degree at Stanford, where he graduated as a doctor in 1997, before becoming a clown. He has worked in Africa, India and Europe, including for the French oil group Elf and experts in artificial intelligence at NASA's prestigious Ames Research Center in California. Former Associate Director of Stanford's Center for Design Research (CDR), he has led all kinds of programs and is now in demand around the world for training sessions.
His hobby: innovation. Or more precisely, the springs that allow the latter to happen. In addition to the individual genius, Ade Mabogunje strongly believes in team spirit and speaks willingly of this sense of collective belonging that is the hallmark of the African continent. The famous "ubuntu", a Bantu word often cited by South African archbishop Desmond Tutu, is thus used in the famous saying: " Man is a man only through other men . "
Ubuntu is not a panacea
" Clearly , says Ade Mabogunje , you treat strangers as members of your community with sincere warmth. Ubuntu comes from small hunting communities whose members had to worry about each other, for survival. Ubuntu always comes with the birthright, the notion of seniors. "
For Ade Mabogunje, it is a fertile ground for innovative ideas, but not a panacea. He explains it in lectures given in Silicon Valley, to oppose this system of values to that of industrial capitalism, called "Plantation". As the name indicates between the lines, this system is linked to the era of the industrial revolution, the transatlantic trade and the colonial empires. " In the plantation, everything is done to make the boss happy. The job first represents a status and the salary a favor. Loyalty is concentrated on the leader's person. "
Problem: the era is no longer really isolated leader, if only because of the complexity of the world and the mass of information to be processed every day, said Ade Mabogunje. " If you manage a community that suddenly goes from 1 to 4 million people, chances are that as a boss, you have a hard time understanding even that size. More and more, we come to the conclusion that we work better as a team. Japan had not planned to beat the United States in the car industry. If he produces better cars, it is because he works better on the collective level. "
Examine the springs of finance and dream big
In Africa, the Stanford professor is impressed by the innovation that has manifested itself in the arts over the last decade - which includes fashion, music, film and gastronomy. " The general adoption of information technology has been remarkable and shows a certain level of flexibility in adaptation, " he continues. But when asked what is the main impediment to innovation on the continent, its response takes the form of heavy fire. The first of the five big failures he identifies is linked to the " lack of imagination in finance ". " Key financial institutions are allowed to borrow five to seven times the amount of their deposits. This margin was not used to develop the abilities of others. It's a huge failure. "
Second obstacle: the laws are not adapted to the social norms in force, which poses all the more problem that the societies are heterogeneous and carry several systems of values. Secondly, stock exchanges seem too little developed for local entrepreneurs to raise funds. There are too few systems to gather information and data in the business domain. Finally, the focus is on human capital at all levels - health, education, sport, entertainment, media, etc. - because the creation of wealth depends on it.
The model of the "rainforest"
"My advice: have friends in finance and be aware of the structure of financial systems. Tell yourself that you are the most important! If you produce coffee like Kenya, why do not you own Starbucks, why do not you control the whole chain and not get the profits? Among his favorite books are James G. March's The Myths of Management (1999) and Money : Yuval Noah Harari's Vintage Minis , Mind in Motion : Barbara Tversky's How Action Shapes Thought and The Achievement Habit : Stop Wishing Start Doing and Take Command of your Life by Bernard Roth. Her favorite films are documentaries on finance and success, such as Panic: The Untold Story of the 2008 Financial Crisis (2018), Personal Gold: An Underdog Story (2015), which traces the fight of four Americans to win gold medals in cycling, and Something Ventured: Risk, Reward and the Original Venture Capitalists (2011).
Among his favorite readings, he also cites two of his friends, Victor Hwang and Greg Horowitt, American authors of an essay published in 2012 on the model of the "rainforest" ( The Rainforest : The Secret to Building the Next Sillicon Valley ) on the model that allowed the outbreak of Silicon Valley, crucible of high-tech innovation in California. What is it about ? " A mix between Ubuntu, which gives human warmth but not necessarily efficiency, and Plantation, which gives efficiency with a value system centered on the leader. The " rainforest" is breaking the rules and dreaming, opening doors and listening, trusting, seeking fair treatment and not benefits, experimenting together, failing and persisting. This model is the best for innovation because it allows you to be in tune with terrestrial energies to create. Utopic? Not really, since it happened in the United States from the 1960s.
Ade Mabogunje brings an African touch to innovation thinking in California and is also interested in bringing the lessons of the California experience to the continent through training. This sharp-minded expert is evolving in the spheres of expertise that are his, but deserves to be better known, especially by young African entrepreneurs.
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