South Africa could be the leader of technological innovation in the 21st Century as easily as any other country in the world, says IBM`s senior technology VP Nick Donofrio.
"Technological leadership in the future is not a given fact - the leaders of the last century will not necessarily be the leaders this century," Donofrio told an audience of IBM partners and customers at the Sandton Convention Centre yesterday.
Donofrio, who leads IBM`s global technology strategy, said he believed the world was on the brink of an extremely exciting period. "Opportunity is greater than ever to apply technology in bolder ways."
Turning his focus again to SA, Donofrio said a great opportunity was presented by the fact that the nature of technological innovation was changing. "Almost anyone can innovate because it is not about invention or discovery, but rather a process of adding new value to what already exists."
The key components of the process, he explained, included finding a balance between the need to protect intellectual property and the need to move away from proprietary technology to open standards.
"Future innovation will also require a global, collaborative and multi-disciplined approach because opportunities usually reside at the intersection of business and technology and skills will have to be drawn from wherever they can be found."
Donofrio illustrated his point that real value is often found away from an invention by linking the transport, retail and leisure industries that were made possible by the invention of the motor car. "Although the microprocessor emerged in the 1970s, the world will reap the value of its application in new ways in the next 30 to 50 years," he said.
"South Africa should make innovation a national agenda," suggested Donofrio as a way of positioning the country to take best advantage of the "incredible wealth-generating period we are entering," but emphasised education was of vital importance.
"The value of education increases during times of change and because the 21st Century will demand more highly-skilled people, education curricula must be transformed to reflect the realities of today and tomorrow to teach people how to think innovatively to meet the challenges of the future."
Donofrio said innovation stewardship demanded the application of technology to the world`s greatest challenges, efforts to strengthen and sustain the innovation ecosystem, and responsibility sharing by business, government, education and labour.
"The real fun starts now when we can build real business and societal value, but it is important that we prepare coming generations to deal with the exciting times ahead."
Share