Author name: Dr Maxwell Ampong

This article is for the 20-something-year-olds who send me their pitches day in and day out. If I’ve already spoken to you, then you’ve already heard this before. Every industry has its rituals of spectacle. In business, that ritual is the launch. We pour energy into unveiling the minimum viable product, celebrating the award, or cutting the ribbon on a new office. Photographers capture the moment. Speeches are given. Sometimes there’s champagne. But beneath the confetti lies an uncomfortable truth: launches are the easy part. The harder, slower, quieter work begins after the applause fades. I have sat in offices where executives obsessed over the launch date as if it were destiny, and in village markets where farmers marked “first sales” with dancing and drums. Both moments mattered, but both were only beginnings. If we are serious about innovation, growth, and long-term transformation, we need to move our gaze from the spectacle of starting to the discipline of sustaining.  That is the heart of post-launch: resilience. The Seduction of the Launch There’s something psychologically irresistible about launches. Humans are wired to love novelty. Neuroscientists have shown that the dopamine reward system in our brains spikes when we encounter something new, whether it’s a shiny phone, a bold idea, or even just a fresh headline. Media outlets know this. Investors too. Politicians cut ribbons not because concrete drying is newsworthy, but because audiences thrill at beginnings. This is why, across the globe, we celebrate MVPs (minimum viable products) as if they are fully fledged companies. It is why African tech hubs routinely generate more media for demo days than for five-year sustainability reports. And it is why entrepreneurs sometimes fall prey to the “founder hero” narrative, where the drama of ignition is treated as the whole story. It is not. But novelty is not the same as resilience. A launch without a maintenance plan is a short-lived firework: spectacular, yes, but fading into darkness just as quickly. The Mirage of the Launch History is littered with launches that dazzled and died. Consider Theranos in the United States. Its promise to revolutionise blood testing was celebrated with billion-dollar valuations and magazine covers. But beneath the surface, the post-launch discipline of peer review, maintenance of credibility, and incremental improvements was absent. What collapsed was not only a company but the trust itself. Closer to home, Africa has seen its share of high-profile launches that stumbled. Some governments have launched industrial parks with ribbon cuttings, only for machinery to rust months later because spare parts were never budgeted. Some start-ups dazzled investors with apps that attracted early downloads but failed to update their servers or adapt to user feedback. The “launch mirage” creates the illusion of progress, but without systems of learning and adjustment, it is simply that: an illusion. The financial world provides the starkest reminder. The 2008 crisis was triggered by instruments whose launches were celebrated on Wall Street as “innovations.” What followed was not resilience but collapse because the systems sustaining them were never stress-tested. Feedback Loops are Oxygen Resilience, by contrast, is sustained by feedback. In farming, you know that crops respond to rainfall differently each season. Farmers in Ghana’s northern regions adjust planting times not once, but continuously, as they observe weather changes. This is a feedback loop: observe, adapt, survive. In business, feedback loops serve the same purpose. Amazon’s entire empire rests not just on its launch as an online bookstore, but on its obsessive iteration. It tests relentlessly, gathering user data, refining logistics, tweaking algorithms. This is invisible to the public but vital to its survival. At Maxwell Investments Group, our networks of farmers thrive not because we launched contracts once, but because we maintain trust through constant recalibration: pricing updates, transparent communication, and swift adjustments when supply chains falter. Post-launch resilience is not a product but it’s a living conversation between system and environment. The Fragility of Forgetfulness Another enemy of resilience is forgetfulness. Institutional memory is often the first casualty of obsession with novelty. Africa offers sobering examples. Colonial governments built railways that spurred trade. But after independence, maintenance was neglected. Today, many of those tracks lie in disrepair, symbols not of progress but of the cost of forgetting. In corporate settings, the same pattern repeats. Leadership turnover wipes out lessons learned. Staff rotate, reports gather dust, and every new executive wants to “reinvent” the organisation. The absence of structured memory forces companies to repeat mistakes. At Maxwell Investments Group, we deliberately invest in documenting processes, creating playbooks, and cross-training teams. This is not glamorous work, and it rarely earns headlines. But it prevents fragility. It keeps wisdom alive even when people move on. The Resilience Dividend Why should anyone care about the slow grind of maintenance and feedback? Because resilience pays dividends that launches never can. Investors often look for signals of durability. A start-up that survives its first storm attracts more serious capital than one that dazzles at demo day. In fact, resilience itself becomes a form of collateral: proof that an enterprise will not collapse at the first sign of market turbulence. Consider Ghana’s cocoa sector. International buyers favour suppliers who can consistently deliver quality beans year after year, not just one harvest. That consistency commands premiums. The same is true in manufacturing, where the reliability of supply chains attracts global partners. The resilience dividend is both financial and reputational. Organisations known for post-launch stamina earn trust, and trust multiplies opportunity. Why We Celebrate Launches, Not Longevity And yet, despite this evidence, our culture continues to reward launches more than longevity. Why? Partly, it is novelty bias. Humans overvalue the new and undervalue the old. Media houses too are incentivised to cover fresh stories rather than long maintenance journeys. And capital markets often pressure leaders to show short-term wins rather than long-term stability. Even in awards ceremonies, categories for “Best Innovation” or “Most Promising Start-up” are far more common than categories celebrating a decade of quiet excellence. We lionise beginnings, not endurance. The

We’ve been repeatedly sold a seductive lie for a long time. Perhaps because we are drawn to stories that are clean, simple, and dramatic. Imagine: the lone inventor in a dimly lit workshop. Imagine: the tech founder in a dusty garage who conquers Silicon Valley. Picture this: the artist who wakes from a dream and pours a masterpiece onto the canvas before dawn breaks. These stories are cinematic, and they are inspiring, and they are also, more often than not, plain misleading. Behind every celebrated “genius,” there is an entire web of support, often invisible to the outside world. There are mentors offering guidance, rivals pushing the bar higher, critics sharpening the ideas, funders taking the early risks, and family members quietly managing life’s practicalities. The Wright brothers’ triumph in flight was as much about the machinists in their shop as it was about their vision. Einstein’s breakthroughs in physics were shaped through conversations with friends and fellow thinkers. Even the mystic poet Rumi was deeply influenced by the companionship and insight of Shams of Tabriz. The myth survives because it’s neat. It gives us a singular hero to admire, a figure to model ourselves after. It tells us that brilliance is self-contained, and that we too could ascend to greatness in splendid isolation. But the truth, though more complex, is far richer because it tells a story of interdependence, shared effort, collaboration and the true cradle of innovation. Why the Myth Persists Part of the blame lies with how we tell stories. Media headlines demand simplicity. “Visionary changes the world” is far easier to write than “Team of thirty-seven across three continents incrementally refines a decades-old process!” Complexity doesn’t lead to quick, clickable stories on the internet. Our education systems also bear responsibility. From a young age, we are conditioned to compete as individuals, receiving separate grades, rewarded for solitary achievements, and seldom encouraged to develop the subtle skills of collaboration, negotiation, and shared credit. In business, we reinforce this bias by naming awards after founders, rather than recognising the diverse teams that turn visions into reality. Ego is another factor. The lone-genius myth flatters our ambitions. It’s appealing to imagine ourselves as the architect of our own solitary legend, rather than as a node in a network of contributors. But those who have achieved meaningful, lasting impact know the truth: it is often the overlooked skill of making others better that defines transformative leadership. The MIG View: Ecosystem Over Ego At Maxwell Investments Group (MIG), I witness the power of interconnectedness every day. Our traders are more astute because our data analysts identify subtle patterns. Our field officers make improved decisions because insurance partners highlight risks that may not be obvious on the ground. One company’s success is always linked to another’s contribution. Maxwell Logistics guarantees that harvests reach Tema on time. Confideo Technologies provides the tools to monitor and interpret risk. Prime WellMax leverages its negotiating power to secure the right deals at the optimal moment. These moving parts form a dynamic ecosystem where innovation thrives through ongoing dialogue, not in isolation. This is why our growth strategy focuses as much on people as on projects. We bring in bright young minds eager to challenge the status quo, and pair them with experienced experts who possess the hard-earned wisdom of their careers. It’s the meeting of perspectives that strengthens the system. Innovation is rarely a singular act. The “solo” might be the big reveal of, say, a groundbreaking product or service like this WellMax Insurance Inclusive product. But the “groove” is the invisible fabric of our shared understanding, mutual trust, and the ability to anticipate each other’s moves without instruction. At MIG, I’ve seen this groove at work when teams hand off projects seamlessly, each knowing when to lead and when to support. It’s in these moments that real breakthroughs happen. The Head-Scratcher We Don’t Ask Enough Here’s a question: if your best performer left tomorrow, would your organisation still run smoothly? In sports, no team expects to win a championship relying solely on one striker. Coaches build depth, rotate players, and train substitutes to step in without missing a beat. Yet in business, we often overlook this principle. We are unprepared when the exit of one person causes a project or an entire department to falter. A genuinely innovative system is designed for adaptability, ensuring that no single departure destabilises the whole. I place more on developing “capacity resilience,” the organisation’s ability to absorb shocks and continue progressing. Leadership as Capacity Unlocking Leadership is not about being the most brilliant person in the room. It is about creating conditions where others can shine. Sometimes it means staying quiet so a new voice can be heard. Sometimes it means giving away credit so that someone else can gain the confidence to lead. And sometimes it means admitting “I don’t know” so that the best ideas can emerge from anywhere. I was away for a couple of months last year, and I have previously stated in speeches and articles that the team operated much better than I expected. They surpassed what I had even planned to do if I had been present. Still not sure how to feel about that haha! The freedom to think collectively and make decisions together yielded results far beyond what top-down instructions could have achieved. True leadership multiplies innovation by unlocking the potential of the collective. The Invisible Work That Makes Innovation Possible There is a type of work that doesn’t make headlines but forms the foundation of all visible success. The late-night calls to resolve misunderstandings between partners. The carefully maintained spreadsheets that prevent costly mistakes. The emotional labour involved in building trust across diverse teams. These contributions rarely show up in awards or press releases, but without them, the “genius” moments would never materialise. Recognising, valuing, and rewarding this invisible work is essential if we want innovation to be consistent rather than accidental. Learning to Innovate Across Boundaries Some of the best ideas emerge when disciplines

We often toss around the word “innovation”. It’s linked with shiny gadgets, artificial intelligence, Silicon Valley, and slick startup presentations featuring words like “disruption” and “unicorn”.  Fact: innovation is not about technology alone. Some of the most transformative changes in our societies, especially here in Africa, have little to do with new devices or software. Instead, they are rooted in new ways of thinking, organising, collaborating, and adapting. In this article, I want us to take a step back, challenge assumptions, and broaden our understanding of what innovation truly means. Innovation Is Behavioural Before It’s Technical Before any piece of technology changes lives, a change in mindset must occur. Behaviour must adapt. Systems must bend. Culture must open a door. For example, mobile money in Ghana didn’t succeed solely because of the phones. It succeeded because Ghanaians were already sharing financial responsibilities communally through susu, rotating savings groups, and trust-based lending. The technology simply formalised and scaled what was already culturally ingrained. That’s behavioural innovation: when people change how they do something either before or alongside the introduction of a tool. The Illusion of the “New” Many so-called “tech disruptions” are not new. They are simply digital versions of traditional systems. Take e-commerce. It feels revolutionary. But the idea of buying something you don’t see physically and then receiving it later has existed for decades through catalogue shopping, mail order, and even village provision stores where you place orders for items that arrive within a week. The real innovation wasn’t e-commerce. It was logistical efficiency and data-driven fulfilment. Recognising this helps us stay grounded. Innovation isn’t about invention alone. It’s often about improving access, speed, scale, or trust. Innovation Happens Before, During, and After Tech Arrives Consider farming. Long before agri-tech platforms existed, farmers innovated. Now that we have technology such as drone mapping, blockchain tracking, and AI weather models, we should view it as an addition to traditional knowledge, not a replacement. The most successful innovations merge ancestral wisdom with modern tools. Innovation Can Be Administrative We often overlook this issue. Some of the biggest bottlenecks in African economies are procedural rather than technological. A regional produce market that digitises its permit process is innovating.A government office that reorganises how it handles export documentation, reducing delays from 5 days to 1, is also innovating. Administrative systems affect every sector, yet they get the least attention in conversations about innovation. Why? Because they lack glamour. However, they are highly impactful. Let me give an example from our own ecosystem: when Maxwell Logistics digitised cross-border permit processing between Ghana and Burkina Faso for our commodities shipments, we saved three days of border delays per truck. Three days. Across a hundred trucks, that’s 300 days saved. Time is money, literally, because the cost of deployed capital (interest) is reduced per trip. Time is productivity. So what if public procurement procedures became completely transparent through mobile dashboards? What if licensing departments could verify data instantly? These changes might seem like minor adjustments, but they have the potential to transform entire economies. Innovation Can Be Emotional Here’s a head-scratcher: innovation can be about how people feel. Consider customer experience. Two services can provide the same result, such as bank transfers, but the one that is easier to use, more friendly in tone, and respectful of the user’s intelligence will win every time. How you make people feel is part of your innovation stack. Let’s take insurance. Traditional micro-insurance often suffers from distrust. At WellMax Inclusive Insurance, we had to design not just the product, but the language around it. We avoided confusing jargon. We introduced follow-up calls with real human voices. We use stories, not spreadsheets. When people feel respected, they engage more. When they feel intimidated, they disengage. That emotional journey, from doubt to belief, is as critical as any base code or product launch. Innovation Can Be Invisible Some of the most powerful innovations never get noticed. Because they work so smoothly that nobody questions them. At Confideo Technologies, one of our most impactful tools is a background credit-scoring engine for our stakeholders within the MIG Ecosystem, embedded within our MIG Impact platform. No fanfare. No dashboard. Just quiet intelligence improving outcomes. The quiet systems are often the most essential. The ones that reduce burden without introducing friction. It’s worth asking: is your innovation loud, or is it lasting? Innovation Can Be Who You Involve Who’s in the room matters. Often, we think innovation comes from experts. But communities, frontline workers, and low-income users have insights that no consultant ever will. Designing an agri-marketplace? Talk to the woman in the market who knows how pricing changes by hour. Building a logistics app? Speak to the driver who knows which checkpoints cause trouble on Fridays. Innovation isn’t just what you build. It’s who you build with. In the Africa School of Entrepreneurship (ASOE), we involve students, employers, artisans, farmers, traders, and other schools in curriculum development. They are co-creators, not just beneficiaries. And involving users from design to deployment means fewer errors, faster adoption, and more meaningful outcomes. So What Should We Do Differently? Here are five practical changes we can all adopt: Broaden your understanding of innovation. Don’t restrict your search to devices or apps. Consider processes, people, feelings, and culture. Sometimes, a change in meeting structure can be more impactful than a new software subscription. True innovation often appears as common sense in hindsight. Build on what works. Don’t always aim to replace. Sometimes the best tech supports what people already do well. The goal shouldn’t always be to disrupt. It can and should be to empower. If your grandmother’s wisdom still guides efficient decisions, find a way to honour and improve it with tech, not erase it. Fund boring things. This one’s for policymakers and investors. The glamorous pilot project is tempting. But real change often comes from funding admin upgrades, HR systems, training, and distribution networks. Not exciting, but transformative. The pipes matter more than the faucets. Involve those closest to the problem. Innovation