Many companies in SA do not have the proper procedures or structures in place to encourage innovation, it emerged in a panel discussion on innovation yesterday.
The discussion, organised by First Tuesday, was hosted by Dimension Data and focused on innovation within partnerships.
The Innovation Hub CEO Neville Comins said that innovation within an environment was not negotiable, although a recent survey of the manufacturing industry showed that only 40% of companies have any innovation strategy whatsoever.
Comins said that many small companies were generated by frustrated entrepreneurs who had been "slapped down" by hierarchies without the process to deal with idea generation.
"So they form a company and then consult back," he said. "That is why small companies are often seen as more innovative."
Justin Arbuckle, head of innovation and foresight at Standard Bank, said it was important to have processes for internal and external idea generation. There was also a need for methodology to determine what was innovation and what would add value.
Jay van Zyl, Gordon Institute of Business Science professor and executive director of SystemicLogic, said it was also important for companies to include their customers in idea generation.
Panellists agreed that one of the key challenges lay in how to manage partnerships established to foster innovation.
Comins said that a question was whether and how long a company could protect the intellectual property (IP) created within an innovation partnership.
Peter Dixon, chief technical officer of Dimension Data`s Teamsource, said whether innovation could be contracted depended on the degree of innovation and boundaries expected. "In the context of IT outsourcing, you need to retain a certain amount of IP within the company.
"How do you protect that? Partners are there to learn and apply their knowledge across their client base. It`s a fine line."
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