I recently spoke at a number of conferences throughout South Africa on the topic of open innovation. Knowing that open innovation was practiced primarily by large enterprises in the US, Asia and Europe, I was curious to see how a region populated mainly with small and medium sized enterprises would react to my talks. Not only was I surprised by their warm reception to open innovation, but also by their deep knowledge and decisive action they were taking in this area. In order to remain competitive in this dynamic world of rapid innovation, industry and science parks are picking up momentum in South Africa, and other parts of the world where small and medium sized enterprises are grouping together, both physically and collaboratively, to share costs, resources and ideas.
The concept of the science park is a worldwide phenomenon, mainly seen in developing regions. The concept is based on cooperation between academia, industry and government operating in close proximity to strengthen the region’s innovation output. In South Africa, which has a developing economy, the science park concept offers a means of becoming competitive with those fully developed regions that host major companies, universities and other key sources of innovation and knowledge. Knowing the power wielded by large enterprises through their vast pool of resources and far-reaching supplier networks, these science parks are finding new ways to mimic this capability through collaboration and co-location. Open innovation is an integral part of the science park concept. What a company does not have in terms of innovation resources, may be found within one of the partnering companies. And if still not found, members of the park will soon begin to share open innovation resources, for example, the NineSigma office that is being established at the South African Innovation Hub in Pretoria, which will be managed by our local partner in the region, RIIS.
It’s fascinating to see open innovation take root in areas like Sub-Saharan Africa. The innovation efforts taking place today in such regions will soon begin to offer great insights and ideas for small and medium sized enterprises throughout the rest of the world. We see such companies in Asia, North America and Europe struggle because of their limited resources – especially in today’s tough economy. So perhaps the emerging science park model could offer a next chapter in open innovation and provide a means to accelerate innovation in this underserved market sector.
Contact us today to launch your open innovation program with NineSigma.