Maravi

(NEWZIMBABWE) Government as conductor of new enterprises

Government as conductor of new enterprises
22/06/2011 00:00:00
by Tafirenyika Makunike

COUNTRIES which have successfully implemented enterprise development programmes tend to focus on the needs of the local entrepreneurs first before trying to please external investors. Our parliamentarians who sit in the august house really need to agree on what should be done to make new enterprises thrive in the Zimbabwean domestic market.

Business and technology incubation which I started discussing in my previous article and continue this week is just but one aspect of enterprise development. A well thought-out enterprise development strategy would assist the country to create quality jobs even as we march towards a common market in Africa in the not too distant future.

They say only five to 10% of the world population are truly entrepreneurial, so we should stop trying to convert every person into an entrepreneur. Those who want to be professionals in their chosen fields should be allowed to do so. What Zimbabwe currently lacks is a critical mass of entrepreneurs to sustain broad base enterprise development. We are still very far off from having our very own 5%, so we should promote borderline cases of entrepreneurship by creating an environment that minimises chances of failure.

I remember back in the late 1980’s there were so many ground-breaking innovations created by researchers at the University of Zimbabwe. The academic mantra then was publish or die, so academics were not concerned with anything outside of publishing their research articles in reputable journals to enhance their professional standing. In fact Professor Phineous Makhurane and his team who initially established the National University of Science and Technology had in mind to work in this space which others have subsequently christened the “innovation chasm”, which links raw research to applied technology that is necessary for the economic advancement of a country.

A few years back, I visited formerly strictly “stiff upper-lip” premier British institutions like Cambridge and Oxford. They were also late comers in commercialising academic research but by the time we visited the bug had really caught on.

Between the technology incubator environments of both Oxford Innovation Centre and Cambridge Enterprise, they have established enterprises worth millions of pounds in sectors ranging from biotechnology to medical engineering. They have also realised that knowledge is not just something to be fascinated with but can also be used to create wealth.

Over the years, I have attended several UKBI incubation events. I noticed in Birmingham, Sheffield, Cardiff, Coventry and Leeds they have taken old industrial buildings in some cases that were virtually derelict and allowed incubators to set up new businesses thereby rejuvenating decaying parts of the city. In places where they are more bold like Swansea, they have built cutting edge science parks which speak the language of innovation.

Zimbabwe has created many excellent centres of learning right across the country over the years since independence. Notwithstanding, what good is education if you acquired it hungry and you still remain hungry many years after graduation with just a footnote in your life of a black gown hanging in your lodging apartment and an extension to your name?

Partnership in setting up an incubator project does not need to be limited to just the universities; it can cut across chambers of commerce, government municipalities, youth organisations and even NGOs.

NUST can jointly set up a science and technology incubator with the Bulawayo City Council and the local chamber.

The City of Mutare can set up an agro-processing and timber industry incubator with Africa University and Timber Industry Federation.

The City of Harare jointly with CZI, ZNCC, the University of Zimbabwe, Catholic University and Women’s University in Africa can set up multiple site incubators promoting various causes.

Great Zimbabwe University and Masvingo Municipality can create an incubator focusing on tourism related products.

Lupane University and Lupane Rural District Council can create and incubator that assist entrepreneurs adding value to the teak and other hard woods logged in the area.

Chinhoyi Municipality and Chinhoyi University of Technology could focus on new companies providing value addition along the agricultural continuum from social scientists to post-harvest specialists.

When the government set up the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre (SIRDC), it had its heart in the right place but the process was not thought through properly. While the place is staffed with highly-qualified researchers doing wonderful work, the missing link are the entrepreneurs who will convert the wonderfully researched ideas into opportunities which will make money and create jobs.

Key to establishing incubators is the management you put in place. The incubation centre manager must be an experienced business professional, preferably with an entrepreneurial track record. We do not want someone who has never set up even a tuck shop in Zengeza advising people how to establish and run a business. Even with all the qualifications, all they would give you is imported bookish information which has no relevance in the Zimbabwean matrix.

It is the incubator manager who should play the role of hand-holding the entrepreneurs, whether to funding sources, business linkages with bigger companies or even to Standards Association of Zimbabwe to ensure that products are produced to the right standard. The manager would also ensure there is an appropriate balance of businesses and not everyone is trying to do the same thing.

The incubator can also be a medium of providing on-going training and development keeping these new businesses up to date with various changes in the business and specific industry or the Zimbabwean economy as a whole.

Last time the government just rushed to build factory shells which were left empty for long as there were not always takers. A business incubator goes beyond the factory shell model, it combines buildings, people, ideas and market opportunities to create viable enterprises that will sustain themselves beyond one generation. To make it really sustainable, it is important that companies created and incubated must pay for the service as soon as they start generating income.

The free seed and fertiliser mentality that started at independence created a dependency syndrome that we are still suffering under even today. There is a mindset that everything which comes from the government is free. We even see this mindset in our members of parliament. They think they should get all those double cabs for free.

You would expect at that level that they would understand that there is no endless supply of money sitting somewhere particularly in a country where we still pay our teachers and nurses less than $500, but then probably that is too much to expect from our honorable members?

Tafirenyika L. Makunike is the chairman and founder of Napachem cc (www.nepachem.co.za), an enterprise development and consulting company. He writes in his personal capacity

Labels: BUSINESS, ENTREPRENEURS

posted by MrK @ 5:42 PM