[kictanet] Dreams of a cosy career that turned into a nightmare

[Ali Hussein]

Listers

This is an interesting case study of the link between employer/employee relations on Intellectual Property. Who owns the IP when you invent/innovate while working at a company and the invention/innovation is directly linked to the work you have been hired to do?

IN SUMMARY
When Mr Samson Ngengi beat thousands of applicants to land the coveted position at the tax agency in December 2009, the graduate of Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology (JKUAT) had one thing on his mind; to ensure that he gets absorbed into the job
Mr Ngengi came up with an innovation that links plot boundaries and location, ownership, and building details as well as tax status of a taxpayer as a single view in a computer application, in an effort to give KRA an insight into how to get its pound of flesh from the lucrative real estate sector
His innovation was named the Geo-spatial Revenue Collection Information System (GEOCRIS). But little did he know that he would, early in his career, find himself fighting his employer

Is there a strong case here to also focus our Techpreneurs on the 'softer' stuff of turning their ideas/products etc into viable businesses? You know the boring stuff...the nuts and bolts of building an enduring business? Protecting your business idea, building a business system to deliver on the values opposition, sales, legal standing (company registration) etc..

What would have happened if Samson had decided to quite his job at KRA and develop his idea independently?

There has been lots of news of late about the hype that has become known as 'Silicon Savannah'. It would be sad if the hype is not concurrently followed by serious efforts to build an ecosystem to support all these brilliant (and not so brilliant) ideas and turn them into strong enduring businesses. 

For every Cellulant there are maybe tens of others that will never see the light of day. 

There is a case here for a new type of Multi-stakeholder intervention - between government, private sector (VC, Companies etc) and Not For Profits. I suspect this is already happening in some form or other. More focus is required.

Ali Hussein
CEO | 3mice interactive media Ltd
Principal | Telemedia Africa Ltd

+254 773/713 601113

Sent from my iPad
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