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The Act of Innovation is a monumental and enlightening attempt in demystifying the process of

innovation. Tom Kelly reveals in an easy read, the fact that innovation can be thought and learned. As

the general manager of IDEO, a company that has epitomized innovation the past 20 years, he exerts

and expresses his authority in the act of innovation. IDEO is an award winning product design firm based

out of the San Francisco Bay area. They are responsible for lots of familiar product designs in use today,

such as the original Apple mouse, Palm V and the interior of the Amtrak.

After reading this book, one is tempted not only to imagine, but explore the extent to which this could

be applied to proffer solutions to lives ever changing and evolving problems. It begs to be applied in

politics, policy development, education, the list is endless.

Being and African and Nigerian I cant help but focus on how these tested and proven principles could

apply to solving the continents and my countrys problems. Issues of disease and poverty eradication;

economic development; industrialization and entrepreneurship can strengthened for the better by apply

the principles articulated by Tom Kelly.

Example, malaria still remains the biggest health broaden to most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and

takes up significant chunk of these countries healthcare budget. Also millions of pregnant women and

children die from this disease. So many eradication programs and researches have been ongoing for

decades but yet little or no success has been seen despite millions spent. The question is, why has these

programs failed? Other developed countries like United States and Israel use to have some states where

malaria was endemic. Malaria in these US cities has since been conferred to the history books. I used to

live in New Orleans and observed firsthand how the public health department down there continues to

wage and sustain the battle against mosquito borne diseases (Malaria, Yellow fever, Dengue fever). It is

time stake-holders really brainstorm and come up with better programs and solutions. The programs in

United States and countries that have eradicated malaria can serve as a working prototype.

Using the IDEO method, one has to start with trying to understanding what the problem really is. One of

the problems is that the health ministries who are supposed to be the lead agency in the fight are

usually ill equipped, too corrupt and highly politicized to do their job. This has led to a plethora of

international NGO, international governments, and numerous United Nations agencies including the

World Health Organization, UNICEF etc., all having parallel programs. A more coordinated approach,

where experts from all these stakeholders are appointed to a national committee would be a step in the

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right direction. This committee working under the ministry of help would be mandated to articulate a

comprehensive program that would