The Role Of Social Business Software In Delivering Innovation

- Opening the doors to rapid, inclusive ideation for competitive advantage

By Gys Kappers, CEO, WyseTalk

Businesses today operate within a dynamic environment, shaped by variables such as evolving legislation, globalisation and economic volatility. Disruptive new technologies create new competitors overnight, and the only way to get and stay in front is to constantly innovate.

Innovation is sometimes thought of as the product of inspiration – a spark of genius whose timing or vessel cannot be predicted, or a closed process driven by research and development. In fact, creativity can be cultivated as a habit – by anyone – and it is better when it draws on more ideas.

By using a democratic, collaborative approach to innovation – called ‘open innovation’ – companies can nurture an innovative capability and increase their output of quality ideas, thus increasing their chances of bringing about or weathering disruptive market change and gaining a competitive edge.

Open companies innovate

Stories abound of market-leading companies that do not respond to disruptive changes in their field of play with a more open approach to innovation. Once great, they find themselves unable to recreate the spark, as they are too set in their assumptions to properly deal with shifting realities. Inevitably, they fail.

One example is Eastman Kodak. The inventors and market leaders in photographic film for over a century filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in America at the beginning of 2012. ZDNet noted that while the company had actually made a latter-day innovative breakthrough with the first digital camera, it failed to respond to the erosion of its monopolistic hold over film and film development, brought about by the commoditisation of the digital camera by Sony and others.

Others, too, have tasted bitter defeat by not ably responding to change. Nokia, the world’s leading mobile phone producer, lost more than $18 billion in market capitalisation when Apple created an irresistible wave of change with the iPhone. The resulting smart phone innovation went unmatched by anyone for years – certainly not by Nokia.

Then, suddenly, Samsung overtook Apple in global smart phone shipments. The difference? Samsung is a dyed-in-the-wool open company (unlike Apple) that taps its workforce and partners as well as the competitive landscape for ideas. The results speak for themselves.

Innovative companies communicate

Open companies communicate well. But traditional communications technologies haven’t kept up. Many comms channels have proliferated over the years, giving rise to an overwhelming range of ways to stay in touch, but none that offers an open, collaborative environment – one that everyone is at home in and in which their contribution is given equal weight and visibility.

Email doesn’t lend itself to elegant mass participation or visibility. Intranets have become notice boards with little chance of interactive discussion. Collaborative platforms do not include sophisticated communications that is so necessary for idea sharing. And unified communications platforms (videoconferencing, IP telephony, white boards etc) are expensive.

Social business software

Of late, social technologies have entered the corporate consciousness. A new breed of ‘social business software’ (SBS) platforms, also known as enterprise social software, uses social principles in a business context, offering great promise for inclusive, structured brainstorming within communities. They take the form of social and networked modifications to corporate intranets and communications software platforms or standalone SBS platforms.

SBS, itself a disruptive change in the market, combines and integrates ‘sharing’ features of social media sites with collaboration and standard unified communications support, giving company stakeholders a collective or group-based platform within which to contribute to the corporate conversation, with the safety and equality that comes with openness.

Better ideas, faster

It is clear that a company of information workers who communicate better will also increase their workplace and project efficiencies. In addition, they will co-create better, more nuanced ideas – faster. And more efficient companies that have better ideas stand a better chance of leading markets.

Platforms like WyseTalk, Yammer and Jive have been successful at ‘ideation’ or the seeding, testing and framing of ideas within companies. They harness the untapped brilliance of individuals on the strength of the principle that many heads are better than one, provided their cross-pollination is managed systematically. Collaboration-driven SBS tools provide that systematic, open approach to innovation.

Since the introduction of this nascent (two year-old) field in South Africa, leading companies in healthcare, financial services, mining, software, retail and hospitality have embraced it to create workplace efficiencies, knowledge and best-practice sharing, and communication.

No waste

As a result of implementing SBS successfully (a certain amount of change management is essential), excellent ideas need not be wasted. They will be given the exposure that is traditionally reserved for inner-circle employees, subjected to open scrutiny and a wide array of potentially complimentary or better ideas, earning individuals and companies the recognition that might otherwise have been

denied them forever.

Follow Gys on Twitter @gysbertkappers or read his blog socialbusinessafrica.wordpress.com

About WyseTalk

WyseTalk is the secure social enterprise platform that accelerates the performance of organizations that believe in the power of engaging communities to collaborate. A cloud-based software solution developed by a South African team, WyseTalk enables companies and communities to speed up the decision-making process, enable large-scale collaboration, improve all-round communication, encourage idea generation and facilitate an open innovation environment to drive critical business success. Available as a web service, desktop, mobile and tablet app, WyseTalk is more feature-rich than other products and offers unrivalled pricing, branding, and integration capabilities suited to local companies. The system does not restrict community participation on the basis of domains and conversations can be triggered from events created from a company’s internal systems (financial, production, customer, sales) and public triggers (news sites, customer queries). http://www.wysetalk.com

Media Contacts

Kerryn-Leigh Anderson Eksteen, Zenkai Communications

Contact: kerryn@zenkai.co.za or +27 82 457 7236

Gys Kappers, CEO – WyseTalk

Contact: gys.kappers@wysetalk.com or Twitter @gysbertkappers

Identifying social problems and finding innovative, progressive solutions is at the heart of social progress. Instead of being a new buzzword, social entrepreneurship should be understood as an age-old concept that is an enormous driver of human progress.

Since the industrial revolution, our economic progress has accelerated at a rate unseen in previous centuries.

According to economist William J Baumol, per capita income in Europe rose 20-30% in the 1700’s, 200-300% in the 1800’s and an astonishing 700% in the 1900’s.

But our social development has not risen at the same rate.

Despite this new wealth, and the shift of large numbers of people into a broad middle class, the divides between rich and poor have deepened.

Step in our social entrepreneurs who are the catalysts for both social and economic change.

These are the people who are driven by a social mission to achieve change – but their solutions are both system changing and make economic sense. Their work has resulted in both global businesses and non-profit organisations, and the impact of their work continues into the 21st Century.

Social entrepreneurs are not people who see economic growth separate to social development. Rather their innovative solution to a problem results in both social and economic progress. Their work seems common sense now, but then was groundbreaking.

Here is a short list of some of history’s leading social innovators:

 Florence Nightingale.

Not just because she revolutionized nursing, but more because she set up the first professional school for nurses, and transformed the way hospitals were built. Her contributions extend past her days as a volunteer nurse during the Crimean War when she earned the nickname “Lady of the lamp.”

She wrote extensively and was one of the first users of graphs – which made her writings easily accessible to people, irrespective of their literacy skills.

She worked closely in the construction of hospitals, insisting on airy wards with natural lighting, landscaped gardens for recovery, fireproof floors, cavity walls and heating systems – changes that today are commonplace.

Her work had an enormous social impact, but also resulted in improved efficiencies in the way hospitals were built and managed.

William Lever and Lever Bros

In the late 1800’s William Lever wrote down his idea for Sunlight soap: “’to make cleanliness commonplace; to lessen work for women; to foster health and contribute to personal attractiveness, that life may be more enjoyable and rewarding for the people who use our products.”

Till that point soap was something cut to size in a grocery store, made of tallow and hard to use. Lever revolutionized soap by pre-packing it and using glycerin and palm oils so that it was quick to lather. This was Sunlight Soap, which was quickly followed by other household names Lifebuoy, Lux and Vim.

Lever’s social mission mixed with his strong business acumen meant that his soap factory quickly evolved into an international empire, with factories in the UK, US, Canada, Australia and South Africa.

An eccentric (he apparently slept with windows and doors open and was known to wake up in winter covered in snow), Lever pioneered a 6-hour working week insisting that staff spend the extra time off exercising and staying healthy.

Today the company he founded, Lever Bros, is global multinational Unilever, which still subscribes to the social mission laid out by its founder. Its strong social mission is considered to be one of the reasons why Unilever weathered so successfully, the economic storm of 2008.

One of the few images of Alexander webster, preaching in Scotland.

Webster and Wallace

Alexander Webster and Robert Wallace were both clergymen in Scotland in the 1700’s, when life expectancy was less than 37 years. Troubled by the vulnerability of ministers widows who only received half a year’s stipend from the Church of Scotland in the year of the ministers death, the two set about righting the wrong. Over bottles of claret, Webster and Wallace came up with a plan that had clergymen paying an annual premium to a fund that would pay an annuity to widows and orphans on their death.

What was different, was that the fund would be invested profitably, so that it would achieve ongoing returns.

Webster and Wallace laid the foundations for today’s insurance industry and actuarial science as a profession.

Their projections on life expectancy, annual number of widows and projected growth of the fund were that accurate that their 20-year forecast made in 1748 was only GBP1 out in 1768

Other notable social reformers include Swiss businessman Henry Dunant, who’s war time writings and lobbying work, led to the formation of the International Red Cross, and the framework for the Geneva Convention.

Dr Maria Montesorri established the Casa dei Bambini – The Children’s Home – pioneering education reform in Italy. Her methodology that children teach themselves, is the foundation of the Montessori school system today. She transformed the classroom from a bleak space with blackboard, chairs and table, to one where furniture was child sized, light and easily moved, practical toys accessible, and the outdoors used for games.

I would be surprised if any of these leaders started out thinking that they would be the founders of large movements or international companies.

What they share is a visionary ability to solve and a commitment act.

They are not always perfect people or working in perfect circumstances. Nightingale was cripplingly ill and was often bed ridden, Dunant spent much of his life on the run from creditors and was spurned by the organization he is now credited as founding. Lever’s workforce reforms are criticized as being overbearing and he has a poor history in Africa, Montessori was imprisoned in India at the beginning of World War II, clergymen Webster and Wallace lived in times of revolution and civil unrest.

But they all connect in their ability to recognize where they could influence.

All brought on sweeping change in their communities, that ultimately had a broad impact across societies.

Looking to the past helps bring foundation to our work today.

What is important for us now, is to move on from the well-written European history books, and to build a history of our own social enterprise, both in South Africa and up through the continent.

Who would your African social entrepreneurs be? And how have they changed humanity?

Pretoria, 8 May 2013

A multinational food company with operations in South Africa has launched a new challenge on the Open Innovation Solution Exchange, a platform hosted by The Innovation Hub in Pretoria. The food company is looking for a solution to optimise the decolouration of sorghum and millet varieties for use in human food without compromising their nutritional value. The Innovation Hub Open Innovation Solution Exchange platform was launched in November 2012 and has attracted significant interest from the innovation community in Southern Africa.

The Innovation Hub, Africa’s first internationally accredited Science and Technology Park is a subsidiary of the Gauteng Growth and Development Agency (GGDA), which is an agency of the Gauteng Department of Economic Development.

This challenge is posted anonymously due to the competitive nature of the sector and a further challenge from another food company based in South Africa, is expected to be launched soon.  The first six challenges posted in November 2012, drew  a large number of responses from SMEs to large entities.  Joint venture and  purchase agreements are being concluded between the challenge owners and the  solution providers.

The Innovation Hub’s CEO, Mr McLean Sibanda said, “the Solution Exchange platform has delivered beyond our expectations in creating real value for potential solution seekers in the government and private sectors. This new challenge represents a significant opportunity for potential solution providers from  universities, research institutes, SMEs and large entities  across the country. The increasing costs associated with food production in the coming years will need to be addressed by innovative technologies and we encourage local organisations to participate in this regard”.

Open innovation accelerates the innovation acquisition cycle in both the public and private sector by extending research and development engagements beyond the “four walls” of an organisation. This results in a shift from closed R&D towards an open “Connect and Develop” model popularised by Procter and Gamble, one of the world’s largest firms and a pioneer of open innovation.

In South Africa, The Innovation Hub has taken the lead in providing a neutral platform for bridging the innovation chasm, facilitating collaboration amongst the multi-helix players in the national system of innovation whilst leveraging on the global innovation ecosystems. This will accelerate economic competitiveness, small firm growth, job creation and service delivery within both national and local government.

The latest challenge posted on the platform addresses a growing challenge for companies in the food sector. Recently food shortages caused by many factors, including climate change and a shift to biofuels, have resulted in price increases of all grains, including sorghum and millet that have traditionally been considered cheap and affordable to the majority of consumers in Africa. Higher tannin or red varieties of millet and sorghum can be cultivated at lower cost, but they are less suitable for human consumption. Technologies exist to decorticate or dehull red sorghum and millet grains, but these are often highly abrasive and tend to result in a substantial waste and loss of nutritional value. A potentially game-changing opportunity exists for improving or replacing the current methods for decolouring the higher tannin varieties without negatively impacting on yield and nutritional value.

Proposals are invited from individual inventors, scientists, small medium enterprises, research institutions, universities and companies. Interested parties are encouraged to register and submit their responses online at www.exchange.theinnovationhub.com. The response deadline is 22 June 2013.

Solution seekers looking to post challenges on the platform should contact the Open Innovation Solution Exchange resource team at The Innovation Hub.

Issued by The Innovation Hub Management Company. For more information, please contact Linah Nematandani, Communication and Marketing Manager on lnematandani@theinnovationhub.com, alternatively call 012 844 0030 or 076 717 9878, follow us on twitter @InnovHub and please like us on Facebook InnovHubZA.

About GGDA

The Gauteng Growth and Development Agency (GGDA), previously known as Blue IQ and GEDA, is a merged entity by the Gauteng Department of Economic Development (GDED).  GGDA is the implementation arm of the GDED and assists the department in leading, facilitating and managing sustainable job creation and inclusive economic growth and development in the Gauteng City Region.  For more information on GGDA, please contact Mr Stephen Watson, Executive: Group Marketing, Communications and Strategic Promotions on + (27) 83 380 3359.

About The Innovation Hub

The Innovation Hub, a subsidiary of the GGDA is Africa’s first internationally accredited Science Park and a full member of the International Association of Science Parks.  It is strategically located in Tshwane, South Africa’s executive capital in the ‘smart’ province of Gauteng.  As the leading knowledge-intensive business cluster in South Africa, The Innovation Hub implements initiatives identified in the Gauteng Innovation Strategy and Green Economy Strategy to advance the economic development and growth of the province through innovation.

For more information visit www.theinnovationhub.com

 Follow The Innovation hub on Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn

Innoworxx Management presents a two day training programme that will be held in both Pretoria & Johannesburg in June 2013. This programme will equip participants with the necessary skills, tools and knowledge that will enable them to implement innovation successfully in their organisations.  The Innoworxx Management “How to Execute Innovation” training, is a practical programme with the right balance between theory and practice, to achieve a deep understanding of the execution elements as well as the process towards implementation.

This training is more than just exchanging information, it is structured, concise and focused. It will help participants to clearly distinguish between creativity and innovation and how to make your organisation more innovative. It will provide in-depth understanding of methodologies and processes needed to create a climate and environment that unlocks innovation. The importance of making time for innovation and how to extract value from implemented innovation initiatives and how to measure the  return of investment will be demonstrated.

The programme provides a better understanding of the innovation imperative and why it has become so important to entrench innovation in every aspect of an organisation’s daily operations. Innovation is about doing things better, delivering services and creating products in new ways, and by doing so creating a competitive advantage and achieving excellence!

The presenters have many years of practical experience in managing corporate innovation programs
Where:     The Innovation Hub, Pta
When:      Wednesday 12 – Thursday 13 June 2013

Where:    The Hilton Hotel, Sandton, Jhb
When:      Wednesday 19 – Thursday 20 June 2013
Investment:  R 6999/$761 (excluding vat)

SAINe Members get 10% discount! T’s and C’s apply.

For more information about the training

Click here http://www.innoworxx.co.za/documents/Training%20Brochure%20April%202013.pdf

Register NOW!!

Click here: http://www.innoworxx.co.za/documents/Training%20Registration%20April%202013.docx

Contact:

Cherese Platt

Customer Relationship Manager

Innoworxx Management (Pty) Ltd.

Innovation Hub, Pretoria

Tel: (012) 844 0131

Mobile: 071 352 2074

Email: cherese@innoworxx.co.za

Web: www.innoworxx.co.za

The Junior Achievement South Africa (JASA) Youth Development Programme has done a good job in empowering young entrepreneurs in its 34 years of existence. On the 2^nd of May, Innoworxx Management Pty Ltd., in partnership with JASA, held an event that saw 30 students from the JASA programme as well as students from the companies around the Innovation Hub been given the insight opportunity on the journey of becoming an entrepreneur by the CEO of Innoworxx Management. The event was held in Pretoria at The Innovation Hub, who kindly sponsored the beautiful Auditorium 100 venue, where the students assembled for presentations.

JASA is a richly layered educational experience that takes passionate achievers from the ages of 18 t0 35 and teaches them how to establish a sustainable business. Students complete a programme that takes a duration of 4 months, which develops their entrepreneurial skills and enhances their confidence to be able to implement them. Katleho Ralehoko, who’s an intern at Innoworxx Management was given the opportunity to be emcee for the event and did an exceptional job co-ordinating the programme as well as introducing guests that were present. One of the guests was Lillith Holworthy who gave a brief background on the JASA Youth Development Programme and was followed by her former school mate Isaiah Engelbrecht, CEO and founder of Innoworxx Management.

Mr Engelbrecht gave a presentation about his tough history in becoming an entrepreneur, shared lessons he learned in his time with mistakes he made during the journey of establishing a new business. The presentation was made to be interactive and allow students to ask questions in the process and even stirred a little debate about “what is more important in starting a business-Capital or passion?” Different views were expressed and students gave firm opinions about what they thought was more important. Despite the interesting debate spark and a well prepared presentation by Isaiah, he showed off his leadership characteristics through encouraging the students to have ‘patience’ just like the farmer of the Bamboo trees story. As the first session ended on a high note, the second session presented a somewhat different display.

After breaking for a small lunch, the second session was kicked off by the harmonious sound of Nico also known as Mad Fingaz featuring an upcoming Motswako artist by the name of KB Makabasa. They perfomed a song called “Toro” which means “a dream”, and had the crowd vibrant and clapping to the rhythm of the song. If you can dream to be an entrepreneur, then you can achieve to create job opportunities to make South Africa a better country. The performance was followed by Keabetswe Motsilanyane, who is a musician/actress and popularly known as Lucilla Vilakazi from the local soapie called Rhythm city. She spoke about the obstacles she faced as an artist and the passion she has for empowering the youth in South Africa to become leaders.

Shortly after answering questions about her experiences, Earl Mubarak talked about how the youth should stop complaining and rather focus on creating opportunities for themselves. Explaining his idea, the vision he has for Innoworxx and how innovation can create more opportunities, he addressed the crowd and challenged their way of approaching life. As the event approached the end, the students were presented with an opportunity to network with the guests as well as take pictures with Keabetswe (KB) at the end of the programme.

The most powerful lesson that these students can receive is to be mentally prepared for all the aspects that make a business, and not to make the common entrepreneurial mistakes in their journey of life. JASA is a great platform for exposing these entrepreneurs to the people who have already walked the road, and who can provide an insight about different dynamics of becoming a successful entrepreneur. With this goal in mind, the vision of Innoworxx Management of “creating 1 million jobs by 2022 through Innovative platforms and partnership” may well be in the process of being achieved.

A Breakfast Event

for Innovators

and System Thinkers

proudly sponsored by

Join us for a morning of inspiration where speakers will provide insight on:

“The social innovation imperative”

► What are the global trends in social innovation and what does this mean for South Africa? ► What is Peer-to-Peer production/economy/consumption and what does this mean to us? ► What will the world look like 50 years from now? ► What world will your children and grandchildren live in? ► How can we imagine something else and who is making things happen? ► What is the difference between the atomistic and the systemic approach to problem solving? ► How can we move from opinion to intention? ► What does this mean for social innovation and innovation in a more traditional sense of our understanding?

SAINe has assembled local and international speakers to provide you with a perspective on things happening right now that you might not have been exposed to before.

17 MAY 2013 FROM 8:30 TO 12:00
AT HUB JOHANNESBURG, 4 DE BEER STREET
NO COST TO ATTEND BUT REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. LIMITED SEATS AVAILABLE

► Map: http://johannesburg.the-hub.net/contact
► Contact: email to info@saine.co.za or phone +27128440015
► Register via e-mail to linda@saine.co.za

WE INVITE YOU TO JOIN THE CONVERSATION.

Speakers

Curated by Irma Wilson

Irma has her finger on the social innovation pulse. She is a commentator, design thinker and futurist with special attention on collective intelligence creation, disruptive innovation and investigating the ways in which imagination and individual agency can be activated. Irma is the founder of FutureSharp, a collaborative researcher, interactive conversation facilitator and imagineer. She is active in selective social media spaces, most notably The Next Edge, is on the design team for the International Society of System Scientist Symposium and is engaged in understanding the future of collaboration, work and education.

Michel Bauwens

Michel is a Belgian Peer-to-Peer theorist and an active writer, researcher, and conference speaker on the subject of technology, culture, and business innovation. He is a co-founder and leading activist of the P2P Foundation (Foundation for Peer-to-Peer Alternatives), which researches peer production/governance/property and the open/free, participatory, and commons-oriented modes of human cooperation, and works in collaboration with a global group of researchers in the exploration of peer production, governance, and property. Michel joins us via Skype.

Lesley Donna Williams
Lesley is founder and managing director of The HUB Johannesburg, a co-working space for social innovators and entrepreneurs. She is also a HUB Association board director, representing a network of 36 HUBs in major cities around the world and she’s featured on the Mail & Guardians Top Young South Africans list in 2011. She just returned from the 10th annual Skoll World Forum where she participated and presented at the Strategy Gathering of The HUB founders all over the World. All this gives her great perspective on the latest global trends in social innovation and we’ll ask questions around what this means for us.

Maximilian Pichulik

Max is the co-founder Impact Amplifier, an investment, supply chain & sustainability advisory firm in Cape Town and was named as on of the Mail & Guardian’s Top Young South Africans in 2010. Max will shine the light on gaps in the current finance models/products available in South Africa and point to ways in which this can be overcome so as to assist social innovation initiatives here and across the continent.

This event is brought to you by:

and proudly sponsored by:

2012 AdReview Media Agency of the Year

Please read, enjoy and leave your comments.

Join a webinar on innovation culture – click here!

We all talk about it. Some corporate innovation leaders claim to have the answers. Lots of consultants are sure they know. Most CEOs don’t really have a clue. It is just difficult developing a strong and sustainable innovation culture and one key reason is that a corporate culture in general is carved in stone during the first few years of the company’s existence.

After this, it becomes very difficult to change, and only two things can change things fast: a truly committed executive group (this is very rare), or a true burning platform in which everyone realizes that they need to change more or less everything in order to survive (not many companies are in such a condition, which is actually a good thing).

This is the outset for a webinar talk and discussion on innovation culture with Stefan Lindegaard and InnoCentive. At the webinar, we dive into these topics:

• Different types of innovation initiatives and how they impact the corporate innovation culture

• Killers and boosters for innovation culture

• Why middle managers hinder innovation just by doing their job

• An overview of the mindset and skills needed to succeed with (open) innovation today

• Innovation methodologies and concepts in your organization

• Why you need a common language and why you need to educate up and down

• Why it should be people first, processes next, and then ideas

This will be an interactive session with plenty of time for Q&A.

The webinar, Innovation Culture: The Big Elephant in the Room is organized by InnoCentive. Participation is free of charge!

Article by Stefan Lindegaard, on 15Inno

The winners of the IPA 2013 will be announced at a gala dinner on 7 May in Cape Town, South Africa hosted by the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business and the Sekunjalo Development Foundation. The winner will receive US$100,000 for the best innovation based on marketability, originality, scalability, social impact and clear business potential. A runner up will receive US$25,000 for the best commercial potential and another finalist will receive US$25,000 as a special prize for social innovation.

“As global leaders gather for the World Economic Forum on Africa to discuss approaches to deliver on Africa’s promise, these innovators demonstrate that the best way to build Africa’s capacity is to invest in local innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais, a co-founder of the African Innovation Foundation and the IPA.

From Tunisa to South Africa, the IPA 2013 finalists include:

1. Zero-Blade Wind Convertor (Tunisia) – Innovators Hassine Labaied and Anis Aouini from Saphon Energy, a Tunisian R&D start up, developed a wind turbine with no blades that does not rotate – it uses sailboat technology to create cost-effective energy through a back-and-forth 3D motion.

2. SavvyLoo (South Africa) – Innovator Dr. Dudley Jackson developed a waterless toilet for rural areas and temporary settlements that separates liquids from solids to improve the environmental impact, decrease the potential for disease, reduce odour and ensure easier removal.

3. The TBag Water Filter (South Africa) – Innovator Prof. Eugene Cloete created a water filter that uses electrospun tea bag material to ensure one litre of the most polluted water is 100 percent safe to drink.

4. The Malaria pf/PAN (pLDH) Test Kit (South Africa) -Innovator Ashley Uys created a new rapid malaria test that indicates within 30 minutes if treatment is effective. The test kit is one of only nine developed globally and is the only test of its kind fully-owned by an African company.

5. The Fonia Husker Machine (Senegal) – Innovator Sanoussi Diakite developed an electric and thermal powered machine that husks 5 kilograms of fonia – a West African cereal – in just 8 minutes.

6. Novatech Construction Systems (Cameroon) – Innovator Njokikang Faustinus created an efficient construction process. Its flagship product is a manual brick press that more easily produces 3,000 interlocking bricks per day.
7. Mobenzi (South Africa) – Innovator Andi Friedman and his team has developed a software that provides mobile data collection and field research solution, allowing sophisticated forms of research to be conducted across Africa online or via mobile phones.

8. Mimosa for Solar Powered Production (Nigeria) – Innovator Justus Nwaoga developed a new way to collect renewable solar energy by using the mimosa pudica weed, an organic African medicinal plant.

9. Agroforestry Model Farm (Sudan) – Innovator Muna Majoud Mahoamed Ahmed created an agro-foresty model farm in Khartoum that produces innovative sources of income from moringa leaves, seeds and jatropha seeds.

10. AgriProtein (South Africa) – An innovative team of researchers from AgriProtien Technologies developed a new source of animal feed protein that lowers the cost of feed for African producers and farmers.
“We see a strong trend emerging of innovations that have significant social impact for Africa,” said Dr.Francois Bonnici, director Bertha Centre for Social Innovation at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business.

The prize encourages Africans to develop creative ways to overcome everyday challenges. The IPA selection committee represents private equity investors, seed funders, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and development leaders who are looking for ideas that move Africa forward.

The call for applications for IPA 2014 will be announced in July 2013.

For more, go to www.innovationprizeforafrica.org.

Enter GAP-Biosciences 2013 today!

GAP-Biosciences is an exciting initiative brought to you by The Innovation Hub & Atlanta’s Emory University.

South Africa’s scientists & engineers are amongst the top in the world. Yet few technologies leave the lab to reach the marketplace. The GAP-Biosciences Business Basics Workshop is a free 2 day workshop that seeks to transfer essential business skills to researchers, academics & entrepreneurs involved in the sciences who lack the know-how of commercialising their technologies.

Presented by esteemed professors from Emory University & South African experts, the Business Basics Workshop is an excellent introduction to the business world & should not be missed. Apply online today to secure your spot at this brilliant workshop!

      Date: 30^th & 31^st May 2013 (8am – 5.30pm)

     Venue: CSIR Convention Centre, Pretoria

Visit www.gapbiosciences.co.za to apply

Email gapbiosciences@theinnovationhub.com for any queries

About GAP-Biosciences

The Innovation Hub and Emory University are proud to present the Gauteng Accelerator Programme in Biosciences (GAP-Biosciences) for its second successful year.

This exciting programme was established in 2012 to provide world class knowledge transfer to South African researchers and entrepreneurs in the biosciences field, and to accelerate the establishment of successful biosciences start-up companies in Gauteng.

The Business Basics Workshop is a free 2 day workshop offered to researchers, academics and entrepreneurs in the broad science and engineering fields.  An invitation to apply to attend this workshop is attached for your perusal. Apply online and kindly distribute this invitation amongst your colleagues who may also be interested.  The workshop has been very successful last year and attendance is highly recommended.

You are welcome to apply for the workshop regardless of whether you intend to apply for the Business Plan Competition, the second component of the programme.  The competition is essentially a programme run over 5-6 months that guides semi-finalists to produce a bankable business plan with expert business mentors.  This year the prizes for the GAP-Biosciences Business Plan Competition include R850 000 in seed funding, incubation support and business mentoring from experts. Last year’s winners, Chick Energy, have secured phenomenal funding for the business over the past few months since their win.

 You can  learn more about the competition at http://world2013.itu.int/event/innovation  or contactITU directly at young.innovators@itu.int

Our long awaited INSAINe Breakfast for Entrepreneurs and Innovators took place on 26 April 2013 at the Pulp Neelsie Cinema on  campus at The University of Stellenbosch. The event was proudly sponsored by The Technology Innovation Agency (TIA)

The two managing teams from SAINe and  PitchIn ensured that there was plenty of fresh coffee and breakfast snacks to provide some pre-event inspiration.

We kicked off at 9:00 with Alexandra Fraser, Business Development Manager from Invenfin, sharing her insights and educating entrepreneurs on the funding landscape in South Africa and where to go if your business needs start-up capital.

Next on the programme was William Duk , a major shareholder in and Managing Director of  The Plantation Shutter Company, which he purchased for R1 and brought back from the verge of bankruptcy. William spoke about key lessons he’d learnt in turning around a failing business. William also won the Sanlam, Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 Award.

Just before lunch were enlightened by one of the heavyweights in the marketing and communications sector.  Previously from Ogilvy Earth Deon Robbertze  is a co-founder of Sustain our Africa, and thus passionate about the need for responsible and sustainable business solutions, but also for honest and sincere communications. He shared his views on the importance that communication plays in creating positive change.

After some networking around the coffee station we heard from James Saunders who is the chief technical architect of BusinessOptics. James shared experiences from his own life, where he started up a company AND FAILED – He spoke about the realities, challenges and key considerations of modelling your business.

We ended off the day with a presentation by Érik van der Vyver  a partner and patent attorney at Von Seidels Attorneys. Erik stressed the importance of protecting your intellectual property when starting up a business. He also shared knowledge on the know-how of IP, patents and trademarks in a way that was simple and easy to understand.

Later that afternoon we headed back to be inspired by a bunch of entrepreneurs pitching their ideas to a panel of investors. There were 6 pitches in total with the winner walking away with R2000.00 in hard cash to start a portal for students to stay up to date on their classes, exams and all on-campus activities via their mobile phone.

Overall I think a wonderful event, you can view the live conversation from the day on Twitter #INSAINe

As promised, here are the presentations from the event:

Click on the links to download the presentations in PDF.

Overview of The Technology Innovation Agency

Alexandra Fraser Funding for your startup

James Saunders Business Modelling for startups

Érik van der Vyver Protecting your IP

The next PitcIN Event and SAINe Breakfast Event is on 17 May 2013 (this is a coincidence as PitchIN event is in Cape Town and SAINE Breakfast is in Johannesburg) Keep an eye on the respective websites for future events.

Thank you to the speakers, sponsors and delegates who made the INSAINe Breakfast a huge success.

Post by Linda Swart

RSVP for the event by clicking on the button below:

At the 10th anniversary of the Skoll World Forum, looking at the way forward for changing the world

The 10th Annual Skoll World Forum, which brought together several hundred of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs to Oxford, has just wrapped for another year. The Forum serves as a useful barometer for how the climate of social enterprise is changing.

When it launched in 2004, it was all about celebrating the unknown social entrepreneurs, helping give them global recognition and credibility, and a platform to engage with policy leaders and large corporations.

In that task, it has succeeded brilliantly–over the past decade, social enterprise has become mainstream. Jeff Skoll picks out the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus in 2006 as a watershed moment, followed equally significantly in the following year by the award to Al Gore.

“How is it that if no-one is for these things, and everyone is against them, these problems continue?”

So 10 years in, what’s the current thinking? What new big idea now dominates the agenda and concerns of the Forum participants? And where do they think this field is going?

1: It’s about Changing the System, Stupid.

Broadcaster Ray Suarez expressed it eloquently when he said, “Nobody ever comes out and says they are in favor of starving children, or inadequate sanitation, or war and conflict. And yet they persist. So how is it that if no-one is for these things, and everyone is against them, these problems continue?”

Everyone at the Forum was in some way wrestling with that question. Whether it was this year’s Skoll awardee Carne Ross, whose organization Independent Diplomat is seeking to turn the closed, rigged game of international diplomacy on its head, or Salman Khan’s Khan Academy whose new model of free, online tuition is re-shaping how education is delivered, system change is the new game in town.

2: Change is accelerating

In “Dare to Imagine,” the film from the Forum’s Opening Plenary, a theoretical physicist, a publisher, a neuroscientist, a technologist, a social financier, and a young science prodigy speculate on the next 50 years ahead. All agree on one thing – that the old, incremental way of tackling problems won’t work anymore; that we need to radically imagine new ways of coming together to deal with the accelerating world of change. But the film is also profoundly optimistic – never before have we had so many ideas and tools to help us cope with this change.

3: To solve our problems, we need more problem-solvers

Who better to address this issue than Ashoka (where I work) founder Bill Drayton, the man who was among the first to set out the very concept of ‘social entrepreneur’? Drayton outlined to a packed room his view on what Ashoka considers the next big idea in moving the field–what he calls “Framework Change,” In Drayton’s view, to fix our broken systems, we need to accelerate the number of changemakers in the world, and ultimately get to a world in which everyone is a changemaker. That message really seemed to resonate at this year’s Forum.

4: It starts with young people

A significant number of discussions highlighted the vital role of young people. Bill Drayton estimates that about 700 of the 3,000 social entrepreneurs in the Ashoka network work directly with youth in some way ,and that helping young people develop the life skills to flourish in this new world is critical to solving the problems we’re facing. In particular, helping a child master ‘cognitive empathy’ was cited by Drayton and others as a foundation skill that could set up a child for life, and speakers such as Taddy Blecher of CIDA and Sandy Speicher of Ideo showed how such models are working in India, South Africa, Peru and around the world.

5: Scale through collaboration

In this year’s Forum, I sensed a strong undercurrent of feeling that scaling impact need not be the same thing as scaling the organisation. Partnerships, franchising, scaling through influence and encouraging imitation: These were all strong themes that emerged in many conversations. Whether this was a response to a reduced funding environment or a strategic choice based on new more effective ways of delivering impact, there was real optimism about the new models emerging. I saw dozens of deals and partnerships being brokered around me. “I believe in collaborating to the point of pathology,” says Willie Foote, CEO of Root Capital. And he should know – from a tiny start-up only a few years ago, Root Capital has now mobilized over $500 million to support farmers in developing countries. If pathological collaboration is Foote’s mantra, I say amen.

“I believe in collaborating to the point of pathology.”