TALKING POINT
New Economy And
The Age Of Terrific
Deal
I
recently ordered an old school taxi
and I felt lost when the driver quoted
a ridiculous price. As we were chatting
on the trip he explained that his car is too
old to be enlisted by Uber.
I found it amusing that the driver didn’t
consider the new realities in his pricing
then I remembered the product lifecycle
where there are always laggards who
adopt products that are proven and tested
after a long time. The experience didn’t
feel terrific and I thought it was a raw
deal.
The thought of Kenyan Senators who
have been holding meetings with digital
cab association members came to mind.
The senators have been pushing for digital
cab drivers to be paid decently for their
service. They attempted to fix prices but
the digital platform has its own life.
The Age of Terrific Deal
Robert Reich the author of the book
titled, The Future of Success: Working and
Living in the New Economy explains the
concept of terrific deal. He refers the new
economy as the age of terrific deal because
of the way technology has advanced with
high connectedness which means the best
deals in the world are at an arm’s length
to the majority. One Kenyan poster child
is Julius Yego who learnt how to throw
Javelin on YouTube and ended up being
a world champion in the game. As the
Kenya Telkom advertisement on data was
stating, “You too can be like Yego” and
learn something new through technology.
26 MAL32/19 ISSUE
By Boniface Ngahu
Initially the terrific deal was in reference
to the developed world and how easy it
is to change ones choices about anything.
Now that the world is largely connected
I think the same applies to most netizens
whenever they are located. Bill Gates’
book, ‘The World is Flat’, suggests that
technology has the effect of leveling the
playing ground across geographies.
Tapping the bottom of the pyramid
market requires scalable solutions to
spread products and services to the
masses. Safaricom’s MPesa mobile money
solution has been noted as one scalable
technology and one of the best ways of
increasing financial inclusion.
Other financial inclusion technology
based products like Tala, Bitcoins, and
Branch have also disrupted mainstream
financial sector players to claim their
share of the financial market. Increasing
access to credit and other resources is
highlighted as a prerequisite for targeting
the bottom of the pyramid by creating
capacity to consume.
If it’s Too Good, Think
Twice
The deal doesn’t come for free as the old
saying goes, if it’s too good think twice.
Robert suggests that the Age of Terrific
Deal replaced the one of Mass Production
as this calls for continuous innovation.
He concludes that while tech is good
for consumers, it is hard for our personal
lives where we benefit from standards
created by innovators like Microsoft and
lose on their monopolistic tendencies.
Some people have referred some of these
problems as over connectedness demons.
These include issues such as cybercrimes,
cyber bulling and FOMO (Fear of Missing
Out) which is some kind of addiction.
FOMO trend has resulted to a trend
especially in the leisure world where
JOMO ( Joy of Missing Out) has emerged
where some people choose to disconnect
from technology and enjoy the good old
barefoot luxury, quiet time or equal value
entertainment.
Privacy is also thoroughly challenged
which is the reason that data privacy rules
are being strengthened the world over.
Under age exposure to adult content is
another problem which is worsened by
absentee parents. Still, if one chooses to
get love digitally, there is still a great deal
of kissing many frogs before you get that
princess or price.
There is a bill in parliament of Kenya
which proposes to have WhatsApp
group administrators licensed by the
Communication Authority which I doubt
will succeed but it shows that leaders
are worried about the possible misuse of
technology to spread negative information.
The Age has No place for
Xenophobes, Isolationists or
Trade Barriers
We have seen recent xenophobic attacks
in some parts of Africa and hard talk
against foreigners. We have seen countries
building walls to control Immigration