Innovators Dilemma (the beginning)
Open Enterprise Africa, is intent in moving into the mobile space and in particular content generation. We have entered into negotiations with Mobile Planet a local VAS who a is key providers of Safaricom the largest Mobile operator in Eastern and Central Africa.
They have come back to us demanding to know the source of our content license for which we have to distribute across Eastern and central Africa exclusivity.
This is worrying to us because we are small startup companies without the legal and financial muscle to push and shove should Safaricom and Mobile Planet attempt to muscle in and pull the rug from underneath our feet. So in response to these demands we have opted to send them a non disclosure in an effort to preclude any efforts to undercut as by compromising our supplier with their economic muscle.
This dilemma brings to mind one important question: “”What is the value of an Idea?”
This is one topic that is notably the most discussed among entrepreneurs, Lawyers in defending intellectual property, and Venture capitalists alike. Many have ridiculed the value of an idea saying that an Idea costs nothing. I have come to believe this fact especially due to my discussions with various Value added service provider in Kenya. We all have the idea of providing a particular type of content, but none has taken the time and the effort to take this idea further.
We at The Big Picture and New Enterprise Objects not only thought of the Idea but have taken the time (close to two years) to develop and align ourselves with a strategic partner in order to develop and execute this solution that solves a consumer problem.
Another question that begs an answer is in the ethical, moral and legal space: “Is our fear of being undercut justified?”
Well the reason given to us by the mobile operator is that they would like to verify the credibility of our content partners so as to avoid litigation. In light of the fact that there is no formal expression of intent to obtain the service from my company, what assurances are there that the operator after determining credibility of our source will go into business with us? Do we have any legal recourse should they determine our source and decide to undercut us by procuring the service from our content partner directly?
I bring these questions to the Blogshpere in an effort to obtain advice from lawyers who may come across this post and provide me with their thoughts on this issue which I believe is not new. I also encourage Venture capitalists who wish to gain a foot hold in the Kenyan market to leave comments or contact me privately via email.
In the context of a third world country with a rapidly growing mobile industry, The Big Picture and New Enterprise Objects intend to deliver a myriad of services to expand the use of the mobile device in Kenya and indeed in Africa. We therefore hope that we can secure our place in the mobile space with this initial venture.
They have come back to us demanding to know the source of our content license for which we have to distribute across Eastern and central Africa exclusivity.
This is worrying to us because we are small startup companies without the legal and financial muscle to push and shove should Safaricom and Mobile Planet attempt to muscle in and pull the rug from underneath our feet. So in response to these demands we have opted to send them a non disclosure in an effort to preclude any efforts to undercut as by compromising our supplier with their economic muscle.
This dilemma brings to mind one important question: “”What is the value of an Idea?”
This is one topic that is notably the most discussed among entrepreneurs, Lawyers in defending intellectual property, and Venture capitalists alike. Many have ridiculed the value of an idea saying that an Idea costs nothing. I have come to believe this fact especially due to my discussions with various Value added service provider in Kenya. We all have the idea of providing a particular type of content, but none has taken the time and the effort to take this idea further.
We at The Big Picture and New Enterprise Objects not only thought of the Idea but have taken the time (close to two years) to develop and align ourselves with a strategic partner in order to develop and execute this solution that solves a consumer problem.
Another question that begs an answer is in the ethical, moral and legal space: “Is our fear of being undercut justified?”
Well the reason given to us by the mobile operator is that they would like to verify the credibility of our content partners so as to avoid litigation. In light of the fact that there is no formal expression of intent to obtain the service from my company, what assurances are there that the operator after determining credibility of our source will go into business with us? Do we have any legal recourse should they determine our source and decide to undercut us by procuring the service from our content partner directly?
I bring these questions to the Blogshpere in an effort to obtain advice from lawyers who may come across this post and provide me with their thoughts on this issue which I believe is not new. I also encourage Venture capitalists who wish to gain a foot hold in the Kenyan market to leave comments or contact me privately via email.
In the context of a third world country with a rapidly growing mobile industry, The Big Picture and New Enterprise Objects intend to deliver a myriad of services to expand the use of the mobile device in Kenya and indeed in Africa. We therefore hope that we can secure our place in the mobile space with this initial venture.
Comments
My feelings about this are well known. We've seen big firms pillage ideas or squeeze smaller competitors\entrants out of the market using bigger muscle. I'm personally in favour of everyone we talk to signing an NDA. This is especially important when we're [forced to] spill[ing] all the beans.
I know this makes me sound paranoid but we do live in a cutthroat environment. We have to make sure that we have technological barriers as well as the legal backing to support our business.