Simple gadgets that solve trivial, yet often annoying, daily problems are a dime a dozen – if you can think of something that even slightly inconveniences you, someone has probably developed a relatively cheap and often-flimsy gadget to poorly address it.
Some online marketplaces have gladly inherited the mantle of pre-eminent gadget peddlers from the infomercials of yester-year, littering screens with intrusive ads, flogging machines that can cut individual grapes, automatically apply your toothpaste, warm your mug of tea, hide unsightly cables, light up your toilet bowl, and much more.
Although the promise of their utility and worth lies with users, one thing is certain – such gadgets rarely remain profitable for long. Why? Simply put, they are easily copied, easily produced, cheaply built, and solve very specific problems without much scope for further use beyond their very narrow applications.
It is a shame then that, in South Africa, the cheap gadgets’ distant and much more capable cousins, the engineering and scientific breakthroughs produced by deep tech organisations operating in the fields of robotics or quantum computing, are significantly less likely to succeed.
The South African innovation ecosystem may not be working efficiently, but all the nodes are present and ready to be connected.
In South Africa, start-ups geared towards solving complex and prescient problems with technological and scientific rigour face monumental odds of success. In general, our market landscape does not empower engineering innovation – instead, as shown by the trend of cheaply produced faux innovations, the South African market has made profit the driving force behind entrepreneurship.
This is not only disingenuous, but short-sighted, displaying a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of private enterprise in meeting the public’s evolving needs. Without dedicated time, effort and capital poured into helping start-ups, we will remain a nation of fickle consumers relying on the innovation of others, unhappily papering over the cracks in our economy, ecology and communities.
“But,” I hear you say, “if a start-up cannot make their product or service profitable, is it really something that we need?” Yes – and no.
The reliance on free market logic to act as the arbiter of quality, need and merit is built on the assumption that society, as a collective, places a monetary value on the things it requires and wants – effectively voting with our wallets on whether or not innovation lives or dies.
This, however ruthless it may seem, is wholly fair. But, the dynamics behind the invisible hand are messy and rarely as perfect as its textbook descriptions. For one, the invisible hand requires a marketplace which does not obstruct business, but enables it.
We are often told that entrepreneurship is a key component in South Africa’s economic future. At present, although the act of incorporating a business (along with all the necessary registrations and documentation) is relatively clear, it is but one rung in a long climb towards operational stability before anyone can even begin to think of engaging with potential consumers and clients.
In the case of deep tech industries – in the fields of quantum computing, alternative energy, biochemical solutions, among others – innovation and perfection of a product or service is for many an insurmountable barrier.
No matter how brilliant the idea and no matter how talented or educated the team, without being afforded the tools to research and develop new ideas and offerings, innovation will remain highly risky.
Innovation is not a linear process – inputs do not necessarily scale with expected outputs: investing $10 million into a venture without a sound working prototype or proof of concept is functionally the same as playing roulette and betting on lucky number 13. Add to this the regulatory hurdles that both investors and the fledgling business need to traverse, and it’s not difficult to see why South African innovation seemingly always remains just out of reach.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s raison d’etre is, among others, to stimulate economic progress. Compare its member list with non-members and one thing is clear – innovation is one of the cornerstones to economic prosperity (case in point: countries which are relatively prosperous but heavily dependent on natural wealth are not present among its ranks).
So much emphasis is placed on the role of innovation that the organisation has published a formal strategy to promote the foundational tenets needed for economic and technological creativity. Investing in human capital and improving STI (science, technology and innovation) governance are notable and expected suggestions – but the strategy also explicitly acknowledges the role to be played by public- and private-sector instruments in facilitating innovation, and particularly the importance of the public sector as well as the needed infrastructure to support innovation and knowledge production.
The South African innovation ecosystem may not be working efficiently, but all the nodes are present and ready to be connected. The Western Cape, for example, is home to numerous globally-competitive public research institutions that could be better leveraged in addition to their roles in giving us a pool of high-quality creatives and innovators to draw from.
The city, like other hotspots across the country, is also home to a robust private network of collaboration and competition in a number of deep tech sectors. They are playing by the rules and succeeding despite the challenges of a potholed playing field (relative to their non-South African peers).
Entrepreneurship and the free market is a necessary tool for innovation – but it is not enough. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a whole society to raise champions.
To unlock South Africa's true potential, both the public and private sectors must step up and be equal parents to deep tech industries in our country.
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