Playing Leapfrog with technology and MPS

Playing Leapfrog with technology and MPS

The Germans proudly celebrated the 20th anniversary of their reunification this past week. Around the same time, other East European countries were riding the wave of independence and celebrating democratic and entrepreneurial revivals after living for decades under oppressive communist governments.

One of the most enjoyable evenings in my career was sitting one evening with a group of East Europeans as they traded stories about how miserable life was under communism. The stories were surreal, terrible events from recent memory told with humor and relief. Their enthusiasm for building their new businesses and their ambition to succeed was overpowering. They all spoke English, some genuinely struggled, but that was the common language of choice. They could have conversed in Russian, but, well . . .

One gentleman especially impressed me. He was from the Ukraine, apologized that evening in painfully broken English that he had not participated more in the day’s discussion. He promised to study hard and come back in a year and give a better presentation. By the way, he was about a year away from retirement. Why bother? He was now free to do it, and he wanted to do it. And he did it. He presented less than a year later. His English was not perfect, but his progress was remarkable. He earned congratulations and respect. And he delivered some great business results.

So where’s the relevance in the story about MPS? The potential leapfrog effect. For example: as the markets opened up, the telecoms sectors took off. But they did not follow the typical developments of the West, moving from shoddy land lines to improved land lines to cellular systems. The newest technology was ready to go, so what was the point of following that order of events? Those countries leapfrogged right into the world of wireless, upped their systems and made up for decades of lost infrastructure in just a few years.

Here is the point for MPS: be it regions, countries, or even players within a market, late comers (and nobody is really all that late!) can play quick catch-up and even leapfrog established players. All the technology pieces and skill sets are there, ready to be implemented. Like the East European cell phone boom, there is really no need to bother with the intermediate steps. Watch out for ambitious quick-moving players getting ready to make their moves in this space!

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