Adaptive Advantage

Yesterday morning I photographed a slightly strange use of what is around you to accomplish at task. The farm caretaker here in Kitengela wanted to wash one of his heavier blankets but the small bucket and basin available to him were insufficient to achieve this goal. So he resourcefully looked around and the first thing he found that he could use was a wheelbarrow. That’s right, you did not misread it, and neither did I use the wrong noun. He used a wheelbarrow! Looking at it critically, the wheelbarrow has a large surface area and the depth needed to fully submerge the heavy blanket. It is also well fabricated in that it doesn’t have any leaking points. So he pulled up the hose pipe and filled it up with water and detergent. The trait of being able to think on the spot and creatively use whatever resources are around you to accomplish a stated goal is to me a component of Adaptive Advantage. In the business world, it also encompasses being able to observe market trends, predict changes in consumer behaviour and technological advancements and change early enough to take advantage of them. The example of Sony and Samsung is a perfect depiction of adaptive advantage. For the longest time, Sony was a world leader in consumer electronics like T.V. sets, gaming stations and various other electrical appliances. At the time, Samsung was dragging behind in the shadows. But over the last few years, Samsung has been able to predict that the Smartphone and Tablet markets would be huge growth areas and it invested heavily in these nifty new devices. It also utilized the Open Source Android Operating system as a platform for its devices. Right now, Samsung is the world leader in the Smartphone market edging out even Apple Inc. Last I heard, Apple was trying to get certain Samsung phones banned from sale in the US. Talk about scaring the competition stiff! This ability to think in new directions and adapt easily to new environments is actually what has brought me into farming. I had been writing research papers online and doing poetry, but now that I am farming, I am writing lifestyle articles about my experiences as a new young farmer and hopefully this will help me reach young non-farmers and entice them to join me in soiling their hands. The Ministry of Agriculture is also working towards getting young people into farming as a wealth creation tool for themselves and to enhance food security. Farming magazines are also trying to gain that new young farmer as part of their readership because these are the future. And so, by using my journalism training to write about my experiences as a new young farmer, I am connecting the dots between fellow youth, the Ministry of Agriculture and the farming magazine industry. Talk about being at the right place at the right time. My brother calls it Adaptive Advantage. I think it’s a Miracle!