Unlocking national innovation - Cara Bouwer
Harnessing innovation is, in many ways, like capturing the power of the atom. It is not an easy process. It involves a fair amount of trial and error. The results can be explosive and it is not always a positive outcome. But, coupled with a rigorous scientific approach, innovation can create magic. The question is: why do companies, governments and individuals not approach innovation from this scientific standpoint?
of Dr Liesbeth Botha, Executive Director of Materials, Science and Manufacturing at the CSIR, was evident. It is easy to see why.
A Prior to Botha’s discussion around
products and possibilities being spawned out of the CSIR, her counterpart at Sintef in Norway held the floor recounting the massive successes that country has had promoting innovative thinking since the 1950s. Thunem, Executive Vice President of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation, is part of one of the biggest independent research organisations in Scandinavia. The body boasts annual sales of €350 million and customers in 60 countries. “Even though we are a non-profit organisation we have to make a profit,” said Thunem (pictured right).
In essence the Sintef model is linked to the “needs in society” and the organisation works closely with universities too. But, unlike the South African model, which seems to shoot in the dark when it comes to gauging future commercial applications, the Sintef approach is to engage actively with industry from the beginning. “Industry has to be aligned with what we do … so all we do is go into products,” he said.
92 Management Today | June 2012 t the 4th
SA Innovation Summit, held at the IDC in Sandton late last year, the palpable frustration
Like in South Africa, Norway has little by way of pre- and seed funding so the research organisation has stepped in to provide a business focus too. Part of their requirements for selling their technology or a licence is that the product and business plan “must have a large, international market in its sights”. Sintef even assists in approaching venture capitalists once enough soft funding is forthcoming for an idea, really helping to give flight to new ideas. The success
stories
are endless: GasSecure, which boasts the world’s first wireless optical gas detector; eDrilling Solutions, a software package that should improve the efficiency of offshore drilling and well
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