Innovation is not a slogan, but a way. It is the constant search, creation and implementation of optimal solutions to all the problems and issues faced by man, either as a citizen or as an employee and professional. It is the constant pursuit of new applications. In all areas of our existence. Innovation is not limited to the internet and the so-called “high” technology of electronics, but concerns all our areas of action without exception. From how we govern, how we train, how we work, how we cook, how we move and how we sleep.
As soon as a person decides to seek and implement any “better”, ie more efficient way (ie with less cost of time and money and greater benefit of any kind) to do anything, then he innovates. And innovation, which essentially concerns know-how and technology, that is, the application of scientific knowledge, finds a place of existence everywhere, it is enough to want it. And in turn, it “pushes”, as any economics student will tell you, the output curve to the “outside” and increases the total “wealth” of man, that is, the product he produces, individually and collectively.
So this is a very simple view that lies behind our effort to reform and introduce best practices everywhere. To make better use of the means at our disposal, and especially time, which can never be replenished. That is why innovation is above all a way of life and after everything else. And so, a mentality and perception that is cultivated, taught, learned, applied and reproduced.
In recent years there has been a lot of talk in Cyprus about our innovation, our digital transformation, and to a very large, if not overwhelming degree, this talk is about the new technologies that find a place in the whole range of our activities, but mainly the conversation , until now, concerned an ecosystem of state-owned scientific activity and creative social “fuss”. consisting, for the most part, of social gatherings, events, conferences, gatherings, and so on. Finally, in this “fuss” began to participate companies, supposedly high technology, which could not exist elsewhere, because their field of activity is not welcome due to the “gray” zone in which they operate. I leave the latter here and will catch it again in the last paragraph of the text.
Through this system, of course, have passed and emerged some successful start-ups with a real “product”. But in order for this “product” to be manufactured, promoted and sold, real money and modern business are needed. The money channeled through state, including European, mechanisms is enough for very little and certainly not enough and does not meet the need for sustainable advancement of any idea that was invented, developed into a product and integrated into a business context.
Much more money is needed for sustainable progress, and such money does not exist in Cyprus and Cyprus has not yet managed to get on the map of attracting such money. However, he managed to “germinate” some such start-ups, which in turn moved elsewhere. Where there is money, method, mechanisms, support, promotion and sales know-how, and above all a good reputation. That is, where there are networks of people and organizations that know how “work” is done. So we have to turn to that and we have to move towards these networks in a coordinated, active, methodical way so that they start looking towards us, so that one or two innovative companies become ten and twenty and gradually do not have to They leave Cyprus completely, but to be a lure for the specialized investment funds and the specialized consulting firms, so that they also come here, and our ecosystem can evolve into an essential sector of sustainable business activity.
But to do this requires something else, less easy and less enjoyable: the “bad” money and the “bad” business need to get out of here, because no matter how much these activities continue to serve some and be a lifeline for many and to be obliged to promote them and even reward them publicly at institutional gala and banquets as an example for others (for whom?), in fact their existence hurts our reputation and reduces our clientele as much as you can imagine…
