Ask a different question

Quite unexpectedly I had the opportunity to lead the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission for three years. Perhaps I am the only commissioner to have led the SLIC who does not possess a patent. However these three years gave me the opportunity to interact with some of the brightest minds in Sri Lanka who were innovating in many areas. During these interactions I learnt two main lessons. 

One, the process of innovation.

Inventors are keen observers. They observe the environment and notice a problem, or they ask the question why or why not? Thus they try to define what the problem is in a process or a situation or in a product.

Then they develop a hypothesis as to how to solve or improve the situation. In doing so what influences the person is his or her technology exposure. Thus obviously he or she uses that knowledge to define the problem and the proposed solution. 

The next step is developing the proto type, and invariably in doing so they need to network with other technologies and persons. Most of the innovations have an unusual combining of elements that are not usually associated.

Later I discover that this is being named as the Innovators DNA by Prof. Hal Gregorson of INSEAD. According to it the Innovators DNA has five steps; i.e. Observation, Questioning, Experimenting, Networking and Associational Thinking.

The second lesson I learnt is that the solution lies in the problem definition. This was a real aha moment in my life. Whenever we define a problem a particular way then the solution that comes to our mind is in line with that definition.

For instance when we see people crowding when one wants to distribute something, if we define it as a discipline problem our solutions are like using force to get people to come in a line, or build fences so that they are forced to follow the line. Remember in cinemas of yester year there were even barbed wires even on top of the queue.

But if we define this as a problem of one to many, then we can think of different solutions, and this can be using different technologies.

1. Have a number system to ensure first come is served first.

2. Automate it by issuing the token by a machine and announcing the number so till then the people can sit and wait.

3. Book an appointment by phone or online.

The technology differs but the problem definition is different.

Some time back there was a big discussion on the ill effects of eating flour based food and the solutions offered were rice mixed bread products, or Kurakkan mixed bread products. But that was not very popular.

Because the problem definition was incomplete.

When people eat fish buns on the go, they were satisfying their hunger, conveniently even cheaper. It is less time consuming, tasty, no need to wash fingers, and can eat even on the go.

So our problem definition should have been ‘providing a rice based food item that is easy to eat on the go’.

Then what would be our solutions.

1. Modernised version of aggala.

2. Laveria with the fish bun mixture in it.

3. Imbul kiribath offered like Inogiri rice cakes in Japan.

Solving wrong problem

Every year there was at least one submission of an improved rubber tapping knife to the Sahasak Nimevum National exhibition. I always challenged those inventors saying that they are solving a wrong problem. In rubber plantation the key issue is tapping! Who on earth wants to wake up early morning, fighting leeches, walk from tree to tree, go round every tea mostly bent, and then collect latex on to a bucket and with that load walk long distances. For the rubber plantation to be successful there must be very cheap labour. People who will do such tiring jobs just to survive.  

My challenge to them was why cannot we think of a robot that would move from tree to tree tapping it and have a network of pipes that are inter-connected so the sap flows through them and are collected at the end. I do not think I was successful in inspiring them to do so but I just came across some pictures in the internet where the Chinese have come up with a similar solution.

I am a firm believer of the concept ‘If a task is repetitive, and logical, however complex the logic is such tasks should be and will be done by machines’. With that in mind, consider tea plantations. However much we romanticise plucking tea it is definitely a very tiring job. That industry is also built on the logic of availability of near slavery type labour. I think the days of that business model is numbered. We should think of using drones to pluck and collect tea in plantations! 

To illustrate this principle let me give some examples.

Why would the Government own so many vehicles, every ministry department, institution starts with vehicles? As if the main business of the Government is providing vehicles. Yes you need vehicles to move but then why should you own all of them. Why not transfer all the non-emergency and no military type vehicles to one corporation who will operate them as a cab company. Now the technology is available to do that. This will save so much money, and even traffic. 

Categorise the type of vehicle that should be given to different staff members even including personal use, but let them order vehicles only when they want to go. The owning corporation can charge by usage! No need to send running charts to the AGs department every month. Who will protest? Your guess is as good as mine.

Meeting and conference rooms. Every conceivable organisation has a meeting room and some are very well-equipped auditoriums. Why not create a booking.com type platform so available rooms and facilities can be used. Why only 8-5 but 24x7.

The world is now moving away from owning. Why should Government own very expensive medical equipment like scanners, etc.? Ask the manufacturers and their agents to offer the service in house at competitive rates. After all the doctors do not need the machine but the report. Then those machines will be maintained all the time and be utilised 24x7 and government will spend only on the number of reports generated. The information will be available to see the usage and take management decision. 

Government is very good at creating institutions. In the area of innovation there is the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission, there is COSTI, and recently an act was passed to set up a national innovation agency, and there are many organisations that offer grants to innovations. There are so many research centres including the universities. All these are owned by the government. But when there is a government agency there must be drivers, peons, clerks, administrators, etc. etc. in addition to the core team. To keep these organisations going they are given sub optimum funds so nothing substantial happens. 

High powered cross discipline team

It is high time we set up a high powered cross discipline team to examine the purpose of these institutions under various ministries and merge them to create substantial enterprises that can function effectively. Just to support this argument let me share an incident. Many years ago I was at the ceramics industry annual conference held at Hotel Taj. The University of Moratuwa presented a clay pot that is better than non-stick pan that can be used on gas cookers. Next to me seated was a director of ITI and he told me that they too have developed something similar if not better.

But have we seen the commercialisation of this prototype? Secondly, why is there no system to share what each other does so there is no repetition?

SLIC was a small organisation. The staff strength was less than 25 if my memory serves right. But we had to have a separate accountant, and administrative officer. I always wondered why. Our budget was less than 100 million. Why cannot government ministries adopt front office back office concept where the agencies under the ministry will have only the staff needed to do the core function of that agency and the Ministry can handle all the support services like how large global corporations do. The technology is available to do that.

Every pensioner is supposed to submit a life certificate to prove that he or she is alive. Why? To prevent any dead persons continuing to draw the pension. Assumption – family members of all the pensioners are dishonest and all of them will continue to draw the pension even after the death of the legal recipient. Imagine how difficult this is for a person who is very old and feeble. 

Reverse the assumption, most of the family members of pensioners are honest and they will inform when a person dies to stop the pension. Perhaps ask the GSN to confirm that the person is living if a pensioner is more than 80 years annually. Or even simpler, change the death certificate. Include the NIC and the Pension Number if the person is a pensioner. Make it mandatory for death certificates of pensioners to be sent to the department of pensions. Eventually when smart IDs are given all these will be online.

Traffic, a very complex problem

We are talking of traffic, this is a very complex problem and we can define it from different points of view. The answers as mentioned before come from the problem definition. 

One common definition is related to the discipline and the attitude of drivers. Then we should question the process of issuing driving licenses. My view is in Sri Lanka we teach driving but do not develop drivers who have the right knowledge skills and attitude. Then we will want to completely revamp the license issuing process. Make the process stringent like in Australia. What about if a driver is involved in an accident within one year of obtaining the license why not penalise the person who passed him and the driving school that trained him or her. 

For instance take the heavy traffic around schools. In addition to public transport there are thousands of cars in the city at that time. Why not promote a ride share platform so parents can give rides to another kid or two who can take the same route. If the concept is given to kids as being green they will be the catalyst. What about office times and number who should come to work. Why not encourage every office to identify tasks that can be done from home and allow work remotely. If Government starts this as the largest employer this can have a significant impact on many fronts. Then we can have less number of working days in most offices and there can be functions that can be completed online. 

For instance obtaining the ISBN number by an author? Now this is done only from the office in Colombo. It is a small fee that they charge and one has to go to three places in the same building. But this is such a routine task that can be fully automated with online payment options and the whole unit perhaps can be managed as an extension of another office.

We make such a fuzz about giving free school books. There are no free school books. Why should the Government get involved in developing syllabus, writing books, printing, and even distributing. Define the syllabus, approve recommended textbooks and get every child to open an account issue a debit card and allow them to purchase textbooks and even stationary from registered bookstores. The whole thing will be far more effective and children will learn from young age the value of money. If the elder siblings have used the books carefully the younger ones will be able to use the funds to buy stationary. Do the same with uniforms now that the voucher system is in place.

There can be many more ideas like that. My attempt was to illustrate that by defining the problem differently we can generate a different solution. At least it can stimulate thought that can lead to an improvement to current state. For giving me this insightful lesson I am always grateful to our inventors.

(The writer is a management consultant, author and executive coach and can be reached via [email protected].)