market demand and pricing, and funding models. In order to ‘de-risk’ the concept and match it up with the right investors, you need a tangible.”
As poorly as South Africa fairs when it comes to commercialising ideas, there are countries which are getting it right. Professor Roy Marcus, Chief Executive Officer of Da Vinci Holdings, says that Singapore and Malaysia are both getting it right. “Singapore has made a significant investment into their education system,” he reveals. “The government has a technology vision in place which incentivises science, maths and technology. The country is one of the most densely populated in terms of universities. The country had a vision to be one of the biggest ship builders in the world. That vision has given rise to a number of spin-off industries.”
Malaysia, on the other hand, had a dream of being Asia’s information highway. Driven by the Malaysian president who consulted with Microsoft’s Bill Gates, that strategy is now paying dividends.
Similarly, Scotland had a dream to offer the highest concentration of PC manufacturers in Europe. Civil
servants were incentivised to enter negotiations with major PC manufacturers in order to encourage them to establish manufacturing facilities in Scotland. Like Singapore and Malaysia, this vision is paying off.
“The problem in South Africa is that we don’t have a vision, let alone a technology vision,” explains Marcus. “On paper we appear to encourage innovation but implementation is a disaster.”
What is required, he insists, is a complexity of research including all the various participants who are able to turn these ideas into viable commercial initiatives.
Great ideas, adds Dan Hanson, also a founder and principal of TIG, have many formats. “Some are never sufficiently viable or sufficiently important to justify further investment. Other ideas may already have been invented by somebody else. In order to succeed great ideas need to be encouraged and supported, ideally by some kind of institution which is able to champion further investment. All too often, however, institutions don’t themselves understand what is required to successfully commmercialise a new idea or invention.”
EDGE | November 2011 13
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