The South African economy is faced with a myriad of challenges and opportunities. It is the role and function of innovation systems to help overcome these challenges and capitalize on economic opportunities through guiding and governing existing resources to support innovative activities. Understanding where the economy is headed requires understanding the existing position of the economy and its multiple components. These components can be simplified into knowledge production and transfer, technological capacity and infrastructure and the wider financial, political and economic environments.

The core of an innovation system therefore is driven by knowledge institutions, business, industry and government. Each of these ‘components’ play essential roles and have functions within the innovation system as a whole, which in turn is vital for guiding and building the economic system. Governing and managing the innovation system towards the country or region’s strategic economic goals and finding solutions for development outcomes is the primary role of the innovation system.

Building an innovation system requires large scale governance, management and delegation from the top down, as well as the bottom up simultaneously. This requires a systemic understanding of the various forms of innovation such as economy wide, sectoral, and innovation nodes, districts or ‘agglomerations’. Managing and governing the innovation system requires an understanding of the various systemic weaknesses and opportunities and providing resources and incentives to aid in strengthening the system. This is usually done via government or economic agencies through financial incentives, policies and institutional support and collaboration. This document will touch on the various opportunities and highlight areas that are weak and will need strengthening to ensure more effective economic outcomes for the province.

South Africa and the Western Cape have large potential to enhance its economic performance via recognizing the role the innovation system can play through the strategic governance of available resources. The first step will be in recognizing the role government, industry and academia can play in enhancing current innovative activity and bolstering opportunities for new innovative sectors in the economy. The Green Economy is a prime example, with numerous opportunities.

It is essential that new knowledge, methods and understandings produced at the university are transferred rapidly to the business and industry sectors. The universities of the Western Cape and CHEC need to take a substantial lead in ensuring that the innovation system is well understood and governed appropriately. They should also ensure the ease of access to knowledge for society and provide robust thought leadership and help to guide the innovation system.
The Green Economy or clean technology sectors in the Western Cape have a big potential to become one of the first viable production sites in South Africa, for Africa, and requires substantial university research and leadership. However, it is not only universities that play a role, and success in establishing a new sector, like clean technology will require effort and collaboration with industry, business and government. Opportunities exist to produce new innovations with industry and to learning to improve existing innovations to African specifications together with global players. The export market for African infrastructure is expected to grow extremely rapidly in the next decade or two and thus requires an effective innovation system for clean technologies and sustainable solutions (McKinsey 2010).

This document is a high level strategy overview of what is required to construct, implement and govern various elements of the innovation system. It is therefore an introductory overview, which is intended to provide a platform for communicating the meaning of the regional innovation system in context so as to stimulate debate, commentary and further suggestions. This document and the completed work of the ‘interim steering committee ’ will be the starting point for designing, constructing and executing a solid innovation system governance capacity. This will require continuous research and baseline studies to inform policy and strategy decisions, and will be a long term process.
Building the Regional Innovation System for the Western Cape will once again require support from provincial leaders in academia, government, business and industry. It will require a substantial budget and finances and considerable effort from stakeholders and managers across the board. Building an effective innovation system certainly takes time, continuity and relentless effort. Therefore, it requires a professional management body and advisory council who can ensure the effectiveness of the governance of the system and its longevity. The total effectiveness of the system however, is dependent also upon the level of interaction and collaboration within the system with viably determined outcomes. This document serves the purpose of explaining the role of a Western Cape regional Innovation system and highlights the main features of how such a system may operate in the province.

In section two, a short diagrammatic description is given, explaining the ‘innovativeness’ of South Africa compared to the rest of the world. Section three and four, deal with the Western Cape’s strategic economic and developmental goals, and goes on to explain the need for sustainability oriented Innovation systems. Section five explains the form and function of the regional innovation system with some real world examples and explanations. Section six, explains building and maintaining the regional innovation system. The main components of the innovation system are explained and their roles expanded upon with recommendations as to how they may be positioned in the system and what needs to change. A model for the actual functioning and governance of the total system is explained. In the final section a short term diagrammatic implementation plan is suggested for the regional innovation system of the Western Cape.

CLICK HERE to download the full document.

For more information regarding this strategy email Rahima rahima.loghdey@pgwc.gov.za

Some companies known for innovative products and services provide the means for their people to innovate.
Steve Jobs was the innovator, not Apple Inc. Sir Richard Branson enables innovation initiatives, not Virgin Etc.
For children to think inventively is an inborn talent as part of his/her survival and discovery talents. For adults, today, the inventive talent is dead or in the process of atrophying because of limiting thinking habits entrenched by many cultures, institutions, and employers.
Inventive behaviour is usually stifled within legacy organizations resisting change, because of the emotional safe and warm feeling in the cloak of “that’s how we have been doing it the last hundred years”.

The inventive growth curve resembled a fairly straight line up to the industrial revolution at which point the breakthroughs shifted into a very significant exponential curve.
Industries today who do not innovate disappear very soon as they are replaced by competition that exploit the exponential curve of emerging technologies.
Established companies find it difficult to survive and just about impossible to grow due to global competition and new technology breakthroughs. For these big and fat cats like the banking industry pretends not to hear the bell tolling. They stick to manage on what happened yesterday and then respond with minimum changes, i.e.

• they will only adapt to new technologies when industry at large force them;
• they stick to the old value proposition that favors them rather than the customer; and
•  they don’t really care for changing customer expectations.

To manage a company or industry into the future we need to break systematically from the past dictating ways of doing things, and start replacing stale products and service that are more fitting to emerging customer expectations. Innovate to leapfrog your current products and services before they become obsolete.
The shift towards functionality is a reality. People do not want to buy a ¼ inch drill when they need a ¼ inch hole (Prof. Theodore Levitt, Harvard Business School); or a Rolls-Royce engine when I only need power for an hour.
Defining innovation according to the following figure:

Source: BMGI Inc. 2008
The CEO will smile because that’s why he/she has the following imbedded in the company:

1. A product and service that is selling,
2. R&D place for new ideas, and
3. Marketing to look after the customer “needs”.

While in fact the core truth is:

• A product and service that is selling currently,
• R&D in place improving old/current stuff, and
• Marketing to push sales of current stuff.

Holding onto an outdated policy is a sure way of losing the future.
A real value proposition to a customer need is to sell ¼ inch holes instead of drills, or to offer more product and services at less cost. Not the other way round.
Companies with fixed cultures of passing rising costs straight onto consumers can be managed by Apes and have no need for expensive Chief Executive Officers!
True inventive thinking starts at the top where serious thinking is done about the future to ensure better value propositions to get the customers’ jobs done and at less cost.

• Not charging top prices for low-grade product content, and
• Hiding escape routes in small print.

The only way ahead is to get your people in the front line to come up with inventive ideas that can improve the value propositions to the customer.

The sad truth is that institutions do not only rip the customer off, but also its employees.
All the institutions I know have a clause in the employee contracts where the employee signs off ALL rights for new ideas, innovations, and what all, to the institution. What a great motivator for employees to risk punishment on new ideas and innovations that may not live up to the expectations of the Boss! This is the cause when the company sink the employees take their retrenchment packages and move on to the next employer; no punishment in that.
This is obviously the Achilles heel of all non-thinking institutions. Non-thinking people would sign these contracts because they find safety as a slave that will work less while insisting for higher wages through his/her trade union. The employee that is an asset for the company compromised by such an agreement becomes edgy and eventually becomes laid back or leaves the company with his good ideas.

So, my dear CEO, hear the wake-up call and replace that destructive one-side clause in your employment contracts with wording that invites creative people to come forth with ideas and share in the benefit it may bring to the institution.
It is a small act today that will enable a large leap into the future!

Amen
February 2012

About Jac Spies

Read all about this fantastic geriatric innovator on his new website www.trizsouthafrica.com

• At 72 he got himself accredited to facilitate the 1^st TRIZ (The Russian acronym for: The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) workshop for SAIMechE engineers during 2011.
• From 2012 this old innovator will be offering the following accredited workshops through Continuing Education at University of Pretoria:
  • TRIZ for inventive problem solving
  • Systematic Innovation
  • Resolving Technical & Physical Contradictions
  • Innovation Without Trail & Terror
  • Finding Hidden Relationships in Complex Data-sets
  • Jac also compiled a e-pocket guide with pictures and all that can be downloaded free from his website www.trizsouthafrica.com called “The Manager’s Toolkit” to deal with day to day management issues, and you may also download free from the SAINE website his newest free publication: “The Inventive Thinker’s Pocket Guide” with complements  from “InSaine”.
  • And, if you have no idea what innovation is about or how to go about to enable systematic innovation, call a friend at 082 903 6006.

The Regional Innovation Forum would like to alert you to the following workshops being organised by INNOVATE Eastern Cape, an entity of the Department of Economic Development Environmental Affairs and Tourism:
Eastern Cape Innovation Strategy Public Participation Workshops.

INNOVATE Eastern Cape, an entity of the Department of Economic Development Environmental Affairs and Tourism, invites Government Departments; state owned entities; district and local authorities; institutions of higher learning; science councils; industry and business associations; civil society; small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs); inventors and innovators as well as individuals to participate in the formulation of the Eastern Cape Innovation Strategy.
Objectives
• Sharing of innovation insights from stakeholders
• Seek inputs to the Eastern Cape Provincial Innovation Strategy
• Provide an opportunity for outlining locally specific innovation opportunities
• Find practical ways to stimulate collaboration amongst the key stakeholder groups
• Obtain inputs regarding the implementation of the Provincial Strategy
• To create awareness of the active and potential innovation projects

Dates:
21 February 2012: Queens Casino, Queenstown
23 February 2012: Hilltop B&B, Mthatha
28 February 2012: Summerstrand Inn Hotel, Port Elizabeth
1 March 2012: Regent Hotel, East London

RSVP: Ms Nosiphiwo Nontshinga, Tel: 087 373 0886, E-mail: Nosiphiwo@elidz.co.za.
NB: Persons or entities which have not RSVP’ed will not be allowed to attend the workshop.

An initiative of twelve local organisations from government, industry and academia that have joined forces to drive the Regional Innovation Forum for the Nelson Mandela Bay and Cacadu District Municipality areas.
Tel: +27 (0)41 504 4309 | Email: info@innovationeasterncape.co.za | Web: www.innovationeasterncape.co.za

Organisational Innovation management (OIM): Organisational Innovation Management (OIM) …(can be viewed as)…. a kind of managerial method, which provides an organisation with an underlying momentum for innovation, encouraging and facilitating the development of innovative ideas in a company (Wong & Chin, 2007)

Innovation management approaches and structures, innovation measurement, types of innovation focus and important elements for innovation success in the organisational environment were some of the themes investigated. We also posed general questions around innovation enablers and challenges and solicited responses on the distinguishing factors between successful and unsuccessful organisations.

From the results it does however seem that innovation receives more lip service than actual strategic support or financial backing. The required level of strategic intelligence for innovation is for instance not yet in place at most firms (only 44.9% have a formal innovation strategy). It was also evident that the most popular innovation management approaches employed by the South African organisations sampled were:

• innovation committees to evaluate and approve ideas 51%;
• innovation teams 49%; and
• general change management approaches 46.9%.

It seems that innovation efforts are incrementally being built into what is already in place.

1. Is your organisation “strategically intelligent” on the topic of innovation?
2. What are the most popular innovation management approaches used in your organisation?

In the second follow up Saine discussion on this topic we will share more of the results and consider innovation management in SA in the context of general innovation enablers and challenges, global innovation trends and innovation reward and measurement mechanisms.

If you are interested in a copy of the report “Organisational Innovation Management Approaches in South Africa” please email me at henra@innocentrix.co.za. 

About Henra Mayer

 Henra Mayer is CEO of Innocentrix. The company specialises in providing innovation management services to organisations. Years of innovation management experience and an intense desire to see innovation deliver the results it should, acted as inspiration for out of the ordinary, contextually relevant solutions that demonstrate the value of innovation in the environment of the organisation.  Henra often acts as judge at Innovation competitions and is passionate about the management and measurement of innovation in the organisation.

Henra completed her first degree at the University of Pretoria and then the Programme in Business Leadership (PBL) as well as the Masters Degree in Business Leadership (MBL) through Unisa. Her Master’s Research Report was entitled “Radical Innovation – Gearing for the Future through Corporate Renewal”, which she obtained with distinction.

Henra regularly contributes articles to innovation related publications and research journals. Henra can be contacted on:

E-mail: henra@innocentrix.co.za

Mobile: 082 323 7447

Office: 012 844–0084

Excellent opportunity to connect with other innovators and entrepreneurs.

Click here for the PDF  invitation: Saine Breakfast Event – 24 February 2012 PDF

WHEN: 24 February 2012

WHERE: University of Johannesburg, Kingsway Campus, intelliLAB

COST: SAINe members attend for free, non members: attendance fee: R95.00 pp

REGISTER online: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22EJBE55TFY

For more info contact Linda at info@saine.co.za /(012)8440672

Click here for the map to IntelliLAB: 132802195311249500_UJ_kingsway_campus

About Gift Nkuna

Gift Nkuna is a published author of inspirational books (Why You Are A Loser, and Seven Weapons That Defeated Goliath), an established motivational speaker, an inventor of inspirational board games and a developer of experiential learning material. Gift is the company’s managing director.

 What is SuperPreneur?

Packaged as an excellent simulation of the SMME sector, the SuperPreneur board game is a champion in exposing and discouraging habits and or practices that hinder business productivity, an excellent tool that encourages positive business principles and values, an intervention that horns an entrepreneur’s negotiation and deal closing skills. Played by up to 4 people (aged above 12), the SuperPreneur board game session may last 120 minutes. It has been discovered through constant engagement of the target market that the only way players will get the best out of the game’s content is when they have been taken through an orientation session by a licensed facilitator.

Contact:

Gift Nkuna Projects

132 Strelitzia Avenue

Country View, Midrand

T: 0110427989

F: 0865116814

M: 0762058584

E: gift@gnprojects.co.za

The workshop will be held from 26 to 27 March 2012 at the Farm Inn Country Hotel in Pretoria.
To registration please fill in the form below:

Registration form SARIMA
Click below to view the workshop invitation:
Invitation_Enhancing quality and productivity

On the last day provision has been made for SARIMA to engage with workshop participants on their training and capacity building needs to ensure that SARIMA’s interventions add value and remain relevant.

More about SARIMA (also visit our webpage at www.sarima.co.za)
SARIMA is a stakeholder organisation that was established in 2002. SARIMA’s key stakeholders are Research and Innovation (R&I) managers in the public and private sectors, researchers and entrepreneurs, institutional management, government departments and agencies responsible for R&I, other organisations supporting R&I, and other R&I management associations.

The overall objectives of SARIMA are to:
• develop the discipline of R&I management, including professional development and the promotion of best practice,
• foster and co-ordinate activities related to R&I management at a local, national and an international level,
• create a climate at both national and institutional/organisational level which is conducive to R&I, and
• to seek out and establish mutually beneficial links with other associations or organisations with similar or related areas of activity or objectives, at both national and international level.

These objectives are achieved through:
• the sharing of information on R&I management,
• the provision of training in R&I management through structured courses, conferences and mentorship and exchange programmes,
• the provision of platforms and forums for networking and sharing experiences in R&I management,
• advocacy and awareness raising on the importance of R&I management,
• the provision of platforms and forums for engagement on policy and legislative issues affecting R&I management, and
• the establishment of linkages to and collaboration with relevant external organisations with similar or related goals.

SARIMA is linked to other local and international organisations and associations operating in the area of R&I Management including the Association of Research Managers and Administrators UK (ARMA), Society for Research Administrators (SRA) International, Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and the International Network of Research Management Societies (INORMS), the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) in the US, Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) in the US, the Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals (ATTP) and Technology Innovation International (TII). In Africa SARIMA played an important role in the establishment of the West African Research and Innovation Management Association (WARIMA) and participated in initiatives to formalise the establishment of the East African Research and Innovation Management Association (EARIMA) and the Caribbean Research and Innovation Management Association (CABRIMA). We are also involved in the activities to establish a Central African Research and Innovation Management Association (CARIMA).

Please contact us should you need further information or if you have any enquiries.

We hope to see you at the workshop.

Kind Regards

SARIMA SECRETARIAT
Lorraine Smith
SARIMA:Administrative Assistant
email: Lorraine@sarima.co.za
Cell: 0836505157

More than half of the speakers at TED2013 will be selected through an ambitious experiment in crowdsourcing: the TED Worldwide Auditions.

The expert panel includes:
Dr Bernie Fanaroff –Project Director for the SKA
MAJ GEN (ret) Johan Jooste-Director International Business Development at BAE Systems
Mr Johan Tucker –Managing Director and CEO of Stratosat Datacom
Dr Happy Sithole –Director for the Center for High Performance Computing at CSIR
Mr Paolo Trinchero –Group Business Development and Technical Director at Macsteel Service Centres South Africa
www.theinnovationhub.com

How to Brand your Invention What to do and what not to do
Consumers decide if they will buy a product or use a service based on their PERCEPTION of how it will meet their needs. The brand, lets us imagine how good or bad the product is, even if we have not tested it!
The benefits of effective branding are sometimes quantifiable, some intangible, but all critical to your growth and prosperity. Bheki Yende is going to share his exploits in the world of advertising and branding. Having previously worked for ad-agency TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris he is now developing his own brand and will tell you what he has learnt along the way.

Date: 8 February 2012
Time: 7:30pm (19h30)
Venue: The IntelliLab (University of Johannesburg, Kingsway Campus next to Parking A)
rsvp by 6 February 2012 (seats are limited)

Please rsvp to info@iii.org.za by 6 February if you would like to attend.

Tshwane,15 December 2011 – The Gauteng Innovation Competition, launched mid December is looking for innovative solutions to improve local government service delivery in the province. The competition, with prize money of R1 million, invites entries in the two themes of mobile and green technology.

Implemented through The Innovation Hub in Tshwane, a subsidiary of Blue IQ, the competition is an initiative of the Gauteng Department of Economic Development (DED) of which Blue IQ is an agency. The province has long recognised innovation as a key driver of social and economic development, and this competi-tion will support government’s initiatives. An open competition format has proven to be a much more effective platform for encouraging and acquiring innovation.

McLean Sibanda, CEO of the Innovation Hub, explains that the advantages of a competition of this nature is not only the access to new ideas, knowledge and innovative solutions that the municipalities can use to address service delivery, but also the opportunities for inventive people and entrepreneurs to find commercialisation of their clever ideas.

“The competition format supports the mandate of local government and also provides a much-needed boost for fledgling enterprises,” says Ben Zaaiman, CEO of mLab Southern Africa, which is an implementation partner providing domain expertise for the mobile theme of the competition. He says that it can be very difficult for innovative start-ups to find the resources to commercialise their solutions.

“Innovators need to have the freedom to build their products and their businesses without worrying – for a while at least – about how they will put bread on the table.” says Zaaiman, “This is why the bulk of the prize money will be given out as a seed grant.”

The competition aims to assist in bringing local government and the innovators to the same table. The goal is to find a first pilot customer for the solutions within local government and if the solutions prove successful, there may be interest from other provinces as well.

“The two themes of mobile and green technology support the provincial ICT and Green economy strategies. They were chosen to respond to priority growth sec-tors identified in the Gauteng Employment Growth and Development Strategy (GEGDS) within the province and are also a means of furthering one of the objectives of the Gauteng Innovation Strategy to improve public service delivery,” says McLean.

Mobile phones have penetrated into peoples’ lives faster than any other infor-mation technology, and with nearly 100% of South African households having access to a mobile phone, this provides a unique channel for reaching citizens and making government services more accessible, effective, and efficient for all concerned.

The need to move towards a more environmentally sustainable economic structure has been recognised both at national and provincial level, as laid out in the Green Strategic Programme for Gauteng approved by the Gauteng Executive Committee in August 2011.

“Local government is not only the primary provider of water and energy resources in the province, it is also a substantial user,” says McLean, “We need to find better ways to manage these resources.”

The competition is open for entries from individuals, teams or businesses, and the proposed solutions can be at any stage from concept to the early stages of commercial feasibility.

Entries need to display substantial levels of innovation, which can be in the technologies, their applications, or the novelty of the business models implementing the solution.

The competition will open on 15 December 2011, and the closing date for accepting entries will be the 29th February 2012. Visit http://www.gautenginnovation.co.za for more information. -EXTENDED TO 7 MARCH 2012!!!