How to boost entrepreneurship in Africa?

Innovation hubs hold the key, says Paresh Soni, Associate Director for research at MANCOSA, South Africa

A new era of product development is dawning. If developing countries want to create more jobs and boost entrepreneurship, they should be aiming to harness the full benefits of the digital era through innovation hubs. They will also need to encourage small businesses to collaborate and disrupt, not follow.

From the dawn of humankind, whatever items people owned they probably made themselves — they were designer, manufacturer and user in one. Collaboration was minimal, and the resulting products, although few in quantity and crude in quality, were tailored to the user’s needs.

During the industrial revolution, mass design and production by large firms centralised expertise. Product users became consumers. Experts collaborated, but rarely experts and users.

The third and current era, which is underscored by digital technology, enables new forms of collaboration, new levels of product performance, and, in some sectors, almost unlimited product variety via customisation. Regardless of firm age or size, it is important for entrepreneurs to understand this landscape and leverage its inherent opportunities.

In effect, a ‘perfect storm’ of digital design, rapid prototyping, and social networking is fundamentally reshaping the new product development landscape. Technology allows new communities to gather that have the potential to bring enormous leverage to small businesses at relatively little cost. Collaboration is the key catalyst.

Shared spaces provide tools and other equipment that allow people to create tangible objects. Called “makerspaces”, “fab labs”, “tech shops” or “hacker spaces”, these spaces have four common fabrication devices: a lathe and CNC mill for metal work, a 3D printer, computer-controlled machines for cutting 2-dimensional vinyl sheets and a 3-D laser cutter (for cutting plastic, wood and some metals). These centres also have a recommended inventory of software and electronics parts, specifically the Arduino and Raspberry Pi open source embedded circuit boards.

The new innovation hubs enable ordinary people to access costly digital fabrication devices, such as 3D printers or laser cutters, which are otherwise only available to larger businesses. This access empowers people to pursue their ideas independently without having to rely on service companies to produce their goods.

The labs contribute to society by educating people and providing them with technical skills. Users learn how to apply the tools to realise their individual purpose and vision. These spaces serve also as an educational institution that conveys skills and knowledge away from academia.

The strength of these spaces resides in their ability to make innovation available to anyone. They democratise access to technological tools and machines and, above all, give people the taste to innovate and collaborate.

The factory of the future will see these new innovators working alongside regional manufacturers to introduce smart manufacturing such as 3D printing, artificial intelligence and robotics. This will help equip our manufacturing sector for the Fourth Industrial Revolution by providing smart manufacturing solutions that will boost productivity and provide new jobs.

If the African business and entrepreneurial environment, especially the small business sector, intends to access the full benefits of the digital era then it will have to work in partnership with society as a whole to establish the new innovation hubs in all public and private sector spaces, such as at universities, public libraries, industrial parks and other appropriate settings.

Failure to do so will only give truth to economist Schumpeter’s theory that our small business sector will become a “classical follower” that imitates others selling the same products to the same consumers. Entrepreneurship of this kind will not be innovative and will not be the foundation of creating new jobs and opportunities. Innovation, collaboration and disruption are key.