Profile: Sasol’s ChemCity
They are involved extensively in Energy and Waste Management. “Energy started off as a renewable entity, but our perception of it has morphed over time. We believe all forms of energy consumed must be renewable. We currently support an enterprise that is the first bio-diesel plant that is producing on specification. And he has returned to us with new technology being researched on the conversion of bio-mass and waste product to electricity” Backman shared.
In 2011 Sasol ChemCity rolled out
projects within their Social Enterprise Development focus group that had higher focus on sustainability. They found that the entrepreneur was the person who had the idea or the drive to start an organisation but that they often ‘went it alone’. Using existing community structures, Sasol ChemCity developed a network of skilled people needed to operate a SMME, including a line of succession entrepreneurs.
Their second strategic business pillar is Supply Chain (SC) development. An SMME may need assistance with development as a supplier to either Sasol or another organisation. There are two streams within the SC; supplier development and supplier funding. As part of the development stream, Sasol ChemCity formed a partnership with the Supplier Diversity Council of South Africa to increase the number of vetted and accredited BBBEE suppliers. Part of this process includes SHEQ and financial audits as well as business plan development and ultimately, registration on the Sasol Vender Database. Once this registration is in place, the entrepreneur is in a position to supply to Sasol as well as to source business opportunities with other corporates as well.
2010 saw Sasol ChemCity’s first participation at a national science festival, at Scifest in Grahamstown. Backman continued “Initiate, incubate, innovate. Our play-off line has become our pay-off line. We went there with an agenda to teach and to make learners aware of science as a career and a platform to start their own business. We feel that initiatives such as this can form a much needed bridge between schooling and business. It will support Sasol’s staffing pipeline and also the broader economic landscape in South Africa.”
Naicker shared “My opinion is that young adolescent children already have a sense of the career path that they want to follow. It is more difficult to influence them at this stage than children at a younger age. We are working on programmes that target school going learners at primary school level, fostering a passion for science on the one hand, and that connects the dots between science and entrepreneurship on the other.
Backman continued “My dilemma is that I have found that sometimes children are interested in certain subjects because of the teacher’s attitude. Children will emulate entrepreneurial behaviour when they have an entrepreneurial teacher. If the teacher is disinterested the children lose focus as well. Some children exhibit inherent entrepreneurial spirit. How do we foster that?”
Naicker suggested and concluded
“We urgently need a school system that embraces a practical approach that taps into identifying high potential and gifted children. We have schools for art, music and sport. But I am not aware of schools in South Africa that develop entrepreneurs specifically. We, as South Africans, need to embrace entrepreneurship from schooling level up to profiling entrepreneurs as role models across different media. Private schooling for SMMEs is a business idea that Sasol ChemCity can most definitely incubate and deliver on.”
90 Management Today | June 2012
“Children will emulate entrepreneurial behaviour when they have an entrepreneurial teacher. If the teacher is disinterested the children lose focus as well.”
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