Is it time to disrupt politics?
Coming from a STEM background I've never studied Politics or paid close attention to it. Last week there was a 'coup that isn't a coup' in the country of my birth, Zimbabwe. My family left 15 years ago to join the community of diaspora living all over the world. And we've all watched the events unfold over the last week with baited breath.
But I have been thinking lately of elections and their outcomes and wondering if it's time for 'political disruption'. Disruption in the business sense is a term coined by Clayton Christensen in his 1997 book, The Innovator's Dilemma. Christensen gives two ways in which a disruptive business starts, by either satisfying less-demanding customers or creating a market where none existed before. An example is Netflix vs Blockbuster. When Netflix first launched is wasn't as appealing as Blockbuster because movies were sent out by post. However as new technologies allowed video streaming, more customers started using the service instead. If Netflix had launched as a direct competitor to Blockbuster at the beginning, Blockbuster would probably have responded with marketing campaigns for customer retention. But by not responding, the company eventually collapsed.
With the unexpected results of Brexit, Trump and the coalition governments of U.K. and New Zealand, I've started to wonder if elections still serve the majority of voters? In New Zealand, government is elected under MMP (Mixed Member Proportional), a system in which voters have two votes - one for their preferred party and the second for an electorate MP. Since MMP was introduced in 1996 there has not been a single party majority government. In the 2017 elections, Winston Peters of the New Zealand First party became a one man decider in the formation of a coalition government, and the country waited almost 3 weeks for him to make his decision.
After Kenya's August 8 poll was invalidated, a re-run in October is being challenged in court and Kenya's Supreme Court is expected to decide today if President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta will be sworn in for his second term, or if new elections will be held. In the meantime post-election violence has been rife.
Does anyone really win in elections anymore? Maybe a thought leader could find a way to disrupt politics and truly bring back choice and freedom to the people.
But I have been thinking lately of elections and their outcomes and wondering if it's time for 'political disruption'. Disruption in the business sense is a term coined by Clayton Christensen in his 1997 book, The Innovator's Dilemma. Christensen gives two ways in which a disruptive business starts, by either satisfying less-demanding customers or creating a market where none existed before. An example is Netflix vs Blockbuster. When Netflix first launched is wasn't as appealing as Blockbuster because movies were sent out by post. However as new technologies allowed video streaming, more customers started using the service instead. If Netflix had launched as a direct competitor to Blockbuster at the beginning, Blockbuster would probably have responded with marketing campaigns for customer retention. But by not responding, the company eventually collapsed.
With the unexpected results of Brexit, Trump and the coalition governments of U.K. and New Zealand, I've started to wonder if elections still serve the majority of voters? In New Zealand, government is elected under MMP (Mixed Member Proportional), a system in which voters have two votes - one for their preferred party and the second for an electorate MP. Since MMP was introduced in 1996 there has not been a single party majority government. In the 2017 elections, Winston Peters of the New Zealand First party became a one man decider in the formation of a coalition government, and the country waited almost 3 weeks for him to make his decision.
After Kenya's August 8 poll was invalidated, a re-run in October is being challenged in court and Kenya's Supreme Court is expected to decide today if President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta will be sworn in for his second term, or if new elections will be held. In the meantime post-election violence has been rife.
Does anyone really win in elections anymore? Maybe a thought leader could find a way to disrupt politics and truly bring back choice and freedom to the people.
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