What is Leapfrogging? Why “Catching Up” is no longer enough.

Hearing Michael Crow, President of Arizona State University, speak about leapfrogging made me reconsider a familiar assumption about progress. We often imagine development as a queue. It’s as if some countries and institutions are ahead, while others must follow the same route until they catch up. But what happens when the route itself changes? Must a country build everything others built, in the same order, before its people can enjoy similar opportunities? Leapfrogging offers a different way of thinking about that question.

At its simplest, leapfrogging means bypassing some intermediate stages of development and moving directly to a more advanced technology or model. The image comes from the game in which one person jumps over another. Instead of travelling through stages one, two, three and four, it may be possible to move from stage one towards stage four. The important qualification is that we skip stages that are no longer necessary, not the capabilities required to succeed.

The leap already in our hands

Africa’s telecommunications experience makes the idea tangible. Many people did not first acquire a household landline and later replace it with a mobile phone. They moved directly into mobile communication. The World Bank Group’s 2024 report, Digital Opportunities in African Businesses, identifies this as a notable example of leapfrogging. People gained access to communication without every community first reproducing the extensive household telephone wiring of earlier industrial economies.

Mobile money extended that possibility. Consider a trader whose first formal financial account is a mobile wallet. That person need not first become accustomed to a bank branch, then an ATM, and later internet banking before making digital payments. This is not a universal sequence that everyone once followed. It illustrates stages an individual can bypass. Across Africa, mobile money has allowed people to transact digitally before opening a conventional bank account.

Yet the user has not escaped the need for a functioning financial system. Mobile transactions still depend on secure technology, financial institutions and arrangements that protect customers. Agents who exchange cash for electronic value connect the digital service to everyday life. These agent networks help bring financial services to underserved customers, but they also require effective oversight to protect those who rely on them. The leap changes how a service reaches people, but it does not abolish the machinery behind it.

The advantage of arriving later

There is an interesting advantage here for those arriving later. Imagine an established business with expensive equipment, rigid procedures and years of investment in an older system. Replacing it means spending again and disrupting familiar routines. A newer competitor may be able to begin with a more suitable model. Yesterday’s investment can become tomorrow’s constraint. So starting later can sometimes create room to choose differently.

However, being behind is not automatically an advantage. A business without old equipment may also lack finance, skilled workers and reliable electricity. The opportunity lies in avoiding unnecessary duplication, not celebrating deprivation. Nor is every upgrade a leapfrog. Buying a newer computer is ordinary improvement unless it enables a meaningful change in how work is done. The useful question is whether the new approach removes a barrier that previously limited performance.

Education beyond the campus

Education provides a particularly powerful illustration. Imagine trying to expand access entirely through the traditional route. One would have to acquire land, construct lecture theatres, recruit staff and increase classroom capacity. These investments remain valuable but must every additional learner depend on another physical seat? Digital delivery enables the combination of academic expertise with online platforms and local support, allowing access to expand without a matching expansion of buildings.

Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University offers a concrete example through its Najafi 100 Million Learners Global Initiative. Launched in 2022 with the ambition of reaching 100 million learners, it provides online learning opportunities in entrepreneurship, business, innovation and leadership at no cost to learners. That figure is an ambition, not a claim that 100 million people have already completed training. Its significance is the attempt to separate educational reach from campus capacity.

The next possibilities include artificial intelligence that supports practice, explanations and feedback, alongside teachers who provide judgement and guidance. But a platform is not an education, and a registration is not a learning outcome. UNESCO’s work on educational technology emphasises the importance of access, teacher preparation and evidence of benefit. The meaningful test is whether learners understand more and can apply what they have learnt, not how impressive the delivery system looks.

For a Ghanaian entrepreneur, this could mean studying a business concept online and applying it to stock management the following morning. Local facilitators could help translate unfamiliar examples into practical decisions. Such a model would not make universities or teachers redundant. It would give their expertise another route into people’s lives. The ambition is not necessarily education without effort, but useful learning without every obstacle imposed by geography and physical capacity.

What cannot be skipped
This distinction matters beyond education. A digital marketplace cannot carry tomatoes over an impassable road. A payment application cannot provide the electricity needed to operate a factory. An online order cannot replace a warehouse, a delivery vehicle or a competent worker. These examples point to a basic principle that technology can change the organisation of an activity without removing all its physical requirements. Skipping yesterday’s delivery model must not become an excuse for neglecting tomorrow’s foundations.

Indeed, the same World Bank Group report cautions against treating mobile phones and mobile money as proof that entire economies can leap ahead in a single leap. Most technological upgrading among African firms has been gradual. This is a useful corrective to the excitement surrounding the concept. A country can advance rapidly in payments while still working through slower improvements in production, distribution and skills. Progress need not happen at the same speed everywhere.

There is also the question of who can make the jump. A digital service may reduce distance while creating difficulties for someone who cannot afford data, read its instructions or operate the device. UNESCO’s research documents how technology can extend educational access while also excluding disadvantaged learners. An innovation should therefore be judged partly by whom it leaves behind. Otherwise, the apparent leap forward could widen the distance between those already equipped to benefit and everyone else.

A further question concerns dependence. Before committing to a platform, a business should consider what might happen if its supplier raises prices, withdraws support, or makes it difficult to transfer records. Can employees continue to maintain the system? Can customers get the help they need? These questions are not arguments against external partnerships. Rather, they offer practical ways to assess whether a new arrangement strengthens an organisation’s capabilities or simply replaces one constraint with another. Access today should not come at the expense of choice tomorrow.

A practical question for Ghana

For Ghanaian businesses and educational institutions, a sensible starting point is the problem rather than the fashionable technology. Is the obstacle expensive distribution, inaccessible training, unreliable information or slow payment? The next question is which part of the existing process can genuinely be bypassed. A small pilot can then test costs, ease of use and results before expansion. That calculation should include maintenance, training and support, not just the initial purchase price or ongoing subscription fee. Success might mean fewer losses, faster service or better learning, rather than simply more downloads.

Sometimes the most effective arrangement will combine old and new. A digital course with a local tutor may serve learners better than either alone. A mobile service with accessible human support may inspire more confidence than a completely automated alternative. There is no contradiction here. Leapfrogging is not a competition to remove every human interaction or physical asset. Its purpose is to find a better route to an outcome people actually value.

The deeper challenge is to reconsider what catching up means. For Ghana, the question is how to reproduce the systems advanced economies operate today, which capabilities will matter over the next fifteen or twenty years, and which investments can remain useful as circumstances change. Nobody can predict that future perfectly. That is precisely why adaptable systems and people who can keep learning deserve attention.

What stayed with me about leapfrogging was not the promise of an easy shortcut. It was permission to question whether a familiar route is still necessary. We should learn from those who travelled before us without assuming that their entire journey must become ours. Progress requires preparation, investment, and work, but it need not repeat every historical step.

The opportunity is that we catch up faster. It is also that we avoid arriving at a destination the world has already left behind.

That, is leapfrogging.
Thank you for reading. I welcome your reflections, questions, and suggestions for future topics. Subscribe to the ‘Entrepreneur In You’ newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/d-hgCVPy, follow me on all social platforms at @thisisthemax, or get weekly updates via my official WhatsApp channel: www.bit.ly/whatsappthemax.

Wishing you a purposeful and successful week ahead!

'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'

The author, Dr. Maxwell Ampong, is an entrepreneur, investment and strategy executive & CEO of Maxwell Investments Group. His work spans finance, technology, sustainability, trade, enterprise development and institutional partnerships. He serves in executive and advisory capacities across business, academia, culture, agriculture and social development. He is Nana Kwadwo Marfo Ampong I, Aboafuohene of Kona in Asanteman. Dr. Ampong holds postgraduate qualifications in finance, law, business administration, international relations, artificial intelligence and machine learning. He writes on economics, investment, entrepreneurship, technology, social and sustainable development. Entrepreneur In You operates under the auspices of the Africa School of Entrepreneurship, an initiative of Maxwell Investments Group.

Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author, Dr. Maxwell Ampong, and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position, or beliefs of Maxwell Investments Group or any of its affiliates. Any references to policy or regulation reflect the author’s interpretation and are not intended to represent the formal stance of Maxwell Investments Group. This content is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or investment advice. Readers should seek independent advice before making any decisions based on this material. Maxwell Investments Group assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content or for any actions taken based on the information provided.