Leaders in Action Dinner
After the Innovation Tour, we arrived at the Iziko South Africa Museum for the Leaders in Action dinner. As we made our way to the main exhibition room of the museum, we were still chatting excitedly about the innovations and technologies we had seen during the day.
While cocktails were served guests had the opportunity to get an even closer look at some of the innovations produced by local entrepreneurs. Ludwick Marishane showed off his waterless body soap. DryBath is a clever product which, when rubbed onto the skin, cleans dirt, kills bacteria, moisturizes and leaves a just-showered scent. It’s a useful product that can have multiple applications – for poor communities living in areas where hygiene and disease are an awful reality, for military troops in the field, for the backpacking tourist or even for astronauts in space…
Dinner was served in the Whale Well of the museum – a cavernous space where impressive skeletons of Blue Whales stretch out high above our heads. At the dinner table, influential business people, entrepreneurs, academics, ministers, mayors, government officials and financiers talked about what is needed to foster innovation in the Western Cape and South Africa. The Premier, Cape Town Mayor, and Minister of Science and Technology were also there, listening and sharing their thoughts on the subject.
At my table sat Roy Mathieu from Dream Mobile – a company founded in 2011 by a group of young social entrepreneurs. The company has developed a cheaper smartphone, which they believe better serve African needs. The smartphone is more cost-effective in terms of data and airtime and carry African-relevant content. He discussed his business and opportunities with Keith Matthews of the telecoms company BT Global Services. Business cards were swopped and contacts made. This was probably one of the main aims of the dinner – in order to foster innovation you need to create the right linkages.
In her opening speech, Premier Zille, said the role of government is to make it easy to be an innovator in the province – that the policy context must be right. She made a commitment that in the next budgeting round a dedicated component or fund would be included to support start-ups. She also spoke enthusiastically about the innovations she had seen on the tour and even joked that we need an app that can cut governmental red tape.
This was a working dinner and Francois Bonnici from the UCT’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) led a discussion on the key challenges role players face in fostering innovation in the province. Some of the interesting comments were:
- Innovation doesn’t need to be sexy. It’s not necessarily a funky app or the latest technology that will solve our problems.
- The innovators are often the people furthest away from capital, funding and business advice. They need to get easy access to these key elements in the innovation process.
- To foster innovation, you need to have a philosophy of innovation.
- Businesses are often too focused on cost-cutting – which is only going to inhibit innovation.
- We need an innovation process – one that will guide the entrepreneur in developing his idea, helping him to create a marketable product, and provide access to markets.
- Innovations must become multi-purpose if we are serious about solving the multitude of problems we face as a province and country.
- Government must create a context for businesses to innovate, but government also needs to know when to let go.
Open Forum
The debate continued the next day when we all met again for the Open Forum at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business. Tamsin Jones from the university outlined its plans in creating an innovation hub – known as Workshop 17 – near the Waterfront.
At the forum, Premier Zille launched one of the key projects of the 110% Green Campaign – the Better Living Challenge.
The Challenge is a call to inventors, industrial designers, architects, businesses and the public to create green and smart solutions to improve the living conditions of poor communities. It will also be a recognised project of the World Design Capital 2014 (which Cape Town was named World Design Capital – a status awarded to cities that are dedicated to using design for social, cultural and economic development). The winning designs will be incorporated into Homes on Show – that will showcase new technology, smart design and pioneering financial models.
The two days allowed us to constantly think about how innovations are created, why innovation is necessary and what actually constitutes innovation. It was not just about showcasing the innovations already present in the province but to stimulate support, exchange ideas, harness thoughts, to listen and to drive home the point that innovation is a joint venture.