SA is full of bright ideas, but without a collaborative approach by government, industry and research councils, local innovation will struggle to get off the ground.
This is the view of various ICT business incubators, which say budding entrepreneurs often underestimate the process involved in moving from the initial concept to final business plan.
Teboho Mafodi, founder and director of the Rehlohonolo group of ICT companies, says while there are many enterprising individuals generating innovative ideas, this is just the first step.
“When thinking about innovation, most organisations put their emphasis on forming the idea,” he says, adding that the ideation phase must be based on considered research, insights, and trends.
“Ideation cannot stand alone. We need a structured framework to carry these ideas forward through agreed evaluation and on to action, which could mean ending, temporarily shelving, or advancing an idea into existence.”
Robynne Erwin, CEO of Durban-based incubator SmartXchange, says having a rounded skills-set is vital, as innovators often have the technical skills but lack the necessary business know-how.
“People don't know enough about the industry, which, in any case, re-invents itself about every three years. You have to build a culture of life-long learning. People expect miracles overnight, but it's a slow process.”
For small businesses to really flourish, she says, an ecosystem needs to be built incorporating academic institutions, skills development, research and what's going on in the industry.
“Then you can put interventions in place to enable businesses to run in the best possible way, and get a culture of learning going. You can't even begin to discuss innovation without these in place.”
Local genius
When it comes to local areas showing promise, Roger Norton, administrator at ICT incubator Silicon Cape, says innovation is happening across a broad range. He adds that local start-ups often initiate a product or service in SA with plans to expand globally.
“Because the market is so small in SA, they use it as a training ground to test things, instead of launching it into the big wide world and then ironing out the bugs.”
Norton says the country provides an ideal springboard into the international market. “There's massive potential in SA because our time zone is similar to Europe and because of the quality of services.
“From the comments you hear at conferences like Seedcamp and Tech4Africa, people are unanimously amazed at the diversity of products, services and companies coming out of SA.”
According to Norton, SA has always been strong on the development side. He cites companies like Nimbula, a cloud operating system provider founded by the South African team who developed Amazon's EC2 infrastructure.
He adds the country also has an advantage in being able to tap into the African market, creating “African solutions for African problems”. “You're starting to see lots of interest and development from government's side, which is promising for entrepreneurs in the IT industry.”
According to Erwin, how far a company can expand depends on the issue it's trying to solve. “Most products are developed around solutions to problems here, but as businesses grow they often realise the exact same problem exists in another country or industry.”
She notes there's a lot more discussion around where technology trends are going, adding that SmartXchange is working with Cisco and DiData to host forums about the latest developments in the ICT space.
“There are huge opportunities in the mobile sector and lots going on in this area. Watch this space, there are some amazing developments coming.”
Be realistic
Bandwidth Barn general manager, Chris Vermeulen, says the strong focus on mobile applications stems from the global boom in social media, and that the area is experiencing major growth.
Recently, a local consortium comprising the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research's Meraka Institute, The Innovation Hub, Innovation Lab and Ungana-Afrika was selected to host the Southern African lab of the African Regional Mobile Application Laboratory. It aims to serve as a platform for building technical and business skills in mobile applications, and stimulating solutions.
According to Mafodi, innovation is about ideas that result in value creation, from new technologies or products to new research models and processes. “Innovation itself comes in degrees, from sustaining and growing existing projects to those which create strategic alternatives for the future.”
Vermeulen would like to see the creation of a complete entrepreneurial ecosystem, incorporating everyone involved in starting and growing small businesses. “Grant providers, incubators, government and the private sector all play a role in fostering entrepreneurship.”
However, he points out that innovators should be realistic about funding and do their research to find out if there's a potential market. “Speak to the right people and do your homework. The customer must understand your value proposition.”
He says it's important to find a niche market and a unique offering. “It's a very competitive industry and business requires patience. Things don't happen overnight.”
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