#CamFest Speaker Spotlight

Paulo Savaget is Associate Professor of Engineering (Engineering Entrepreneurship) at the University of Oxford. His primary fields of expertise are entrepreneurship, sustainable development, systems change and innovation management.

In Could workarounds be the answer to the world’s complex problems?, he will be talking to Professor Jaideep Prabhu, Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Indian Business & Enterprise and Director of the Centre for India & Global Busines at the University of Cambridge, about his new book, The Four Workarounds, which tells how the most valuable lessons about problem-solving can be learned from the scrappiest, poorest groups. [28th March]

Why does your research matter?

A workaround is a creative, flexible, imperfection-loving, problem-solving approach. At its core, a workaround is a method that ignores or even challenges conventions on how, and by whom, a problem is meant to be solved. This method thrives in complex situations – when stakes are high, resources are scarce and there’s no time for the usual drawn-out decision-making processes.

What made you focus on workarounds?

I didn’t plan to study workarounds; I bumped into them as I searched for resourceful ways to tackle complex problems. More specifically, I noticed the value of workarounds when studying computer hackers. The essence of the hacker approach is that they weave through uncharted territory and, instead of confronting the bottlenecks that lie in their way, they work around them. I also learned that hacking isn’t limited to the world of computing – many scrappy organisations worldwide hacked their problems. From working around their obstacles, they addressed critical issues and were sometimes able to leave a powerful legacy, especially when it came to issues that, despite best efforts, seemed intractable.

Can you give an example of a successful workaround? How did it come about?

Let me illustrate with an example I learned from Zambia: many medicines cannot be found in remote regions of Sub-Saharan Africa because of hard-to-solve bottlenecks in healthcare, such as poor infrastructure and logistics systems. A workaround doesn’t try to tackle these bottlenecks; it circumvents them instead. The organisation I studied in Zambia, ColaLife, worked around them by piggybacking on Coca-Cola’s distribution channels. They realised Coca-Cola can be found even in the remotest places on earth – so why can’t medicines take a free ride with soda bottles? By tapping into the success of fast-moving consumer goods to address a healthcare problem, ColaLife dramatically increased access to diarrhoea medicine, saving thousands of lives.

Could wealthy countries learn a lot from those countries which are on the frontline when it comes to the complex global challenges we face, such as climate change?

Definitely. My book shows how organisations of all sizes, including in wealthy countries, can become more workaround-friendly. That involves recommendations for strategy, culture, leadership and teamwork. It also offers a sort of playbook for individuals who want to come up with workarounds for the problems they face.

Note that this is a change in the narrative: I am showing how powerhouses can learn from the ones I call “scrappy”: small organisations that are feisty, resourceful and operate at the fringes of power. They think quickly out of necessity and, despite some apparent clumsiness, they often persist and succeed because of their unconventional methods. They don’t get paralysed by what is lacking in a context; they see a world of possibilities by looking at unexplored places, finding unconventional pairings and repurposing resources.

What has been the innovation project that stands out for you?

I show four workaround approaches and offer many examples for each. It’s difficult to pinpoint the one that stands out, as they had different goals and outcomes… But some get more “attention” from my students than others. One that is particularly attention-capturing is from Ruth Bader Ginsburg – how she used a case where a man had been discriminated against for his sex to create a precedent that could later be used for the much more common cases where women were discriminated against for their sex.

How important is it that your work is accessible to a wide range of readers?

This is crucial for me – I think academic research can and should be more accessible. When finishing my research, many people from all walks of life were interested in workarounds; they said my work resonated with their professional and everyday experiences. Some of them worked around obstacles, but did that without giving it much thought. I wanted to write a book that shows how people and organisations can more intentionally pursue workarounds – which range from day-to-day hassles to efforts to address the world’s toughest challenges.

Do you have any plans for further books?

Writing this book was an absolute joy – I’ve learned so much through the process and am very proud of the outcome. During these years of writing, I would wake up in the wee hours of the morning and get into the writing flow, boosted by caffeine and lots of delicious carbs. And, in this process, I learned a lot from people, such as my amazing editors, whose expertise was invaluable for the completion of this work. I want to write more – and I have many ideas, but no concrete plans yet.