Date 27 June 2016
Issued Innocentrix – Zander Powell
Contact Henra Mayer – Innocentrix CEO, henra@innocentrix.co.za
Innocentrix presented the Innovation Live 2016 conference, and for the first time in Africa, the acclaimed Crowdsourcing Week Summit last week in Midrand. The event was hosted by Business Connexion and supported by Milpark Business School, the Innovation Hub and various other players in the innovation industry. The event took place on 23 and 24 June and is viewed as one of the most robust conferences for SA organisations who regard innovation as a strategic priority.
Innovation Live/CSW Africa presented 22 local and international speakers and was designed to offer South African organisations insights on tried and tested solutions to ensure systematic and sustainable innovation growth, focusing on real-life, practical examples. This year it also presented the latest on new business models involving the sharing economy and crowd-related business models.
The SA Innovation League results, run annually as part of the event, celebrated innovation excellence by SA’s top companies.
HOW DO SOUTH AFRICAN ORGANISATIONS STACK UP?
SA INNOVATION LEAGUE 2016 AWARD WINNERS.
For the past 6 months Innocentrix conducted their INNOVATION LEAGUE SURVEY to determine to what extent local companies are applying leading edge thinking to the topic of collaborative innovation. The survey was modelled on an international readiness model and included these 4 pillars of measurement:
- Leadership & Ambition.
- Organisation & Collaboration.
- People & Culture.
- Implementation & Measurement.
The Innocentrix Innovation League Awards took place on 23 June at Business Connexion and the awards were announced by Henra Mayer, CEO Innocentrix.
Henra says, “South African organisations are definitely viewing innovation as a strategic priority. We have seen the country’s overall score for innovation marginally increase from last year and exceptional results were obtained by some of our top organisations. It was a very close contest! Much still need to be done on especially implementation, collaboration internally as well as externally and better support mechanisms for innovation enablement. As a country it is evident that we are systematically growing an innovation capability across the board.”
Top SA Innovation League Companies
In terms of the 4 pillars assessed, Afrox was ranked in 3rd place with particular achievement in the People and Culture and Implementation & Measurement pillars, Vodacom was placed 2nd with a strong capability in Organisation and Collaboration while overall winners SA Legal Aid, excelled in three of the pillars mentioned above.
HOW DO SOUTH AFRICAN CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURS STACK UP?
INNOCENTRIX CORPORATE ENTREPRENEUR AWARDS JUNE 2016.
Corporate entrepreneurs are pioneers! They are the underdogs, corporate rebels and mutineers that was celebrated as local innovation heroes during the event.
The Corporate Entrepreneurship Award aimed to acknowledge and celebrate some of South Africa’s top change makers. Corporate Entrepreneurs were selected considering those individuals who:
- Created wild, new processes, or other value in an already established organisation.
- Used existing resources in an innovative way or consistently explored new avenues, without looking for excuses
- Unapologetically created new stuff that are competitive and have a track-record of sustainability.
- Acted as pioneer, champion or lead-figure, by inspiring and leading others to action change – creating a culture of innovation and those who
- Almost habitually led new ventures for the organisation, or implemented ideas that changed core business strategies.
The 2016 Innolive Corporate Entrepreneur of the Year awards went to:
Second Place: Cassim Motala from RMB – Specialist: RMB Ventures
In the world of private equity, innovation faces the challenge of risk management like in no other sector of business. Cassim breaks the mould, with his vision, his understanding of business, his appetite for disruption and his integrity. He has been part of significant investments in established industries, but has also foraged into new investment frontiers by applying an innovative strategy that has seen the ventures team acquire new businesses based on a bunch of new questions asked. He predicts shifts in economic plates, and he adjusts his strategy according, consistently asking the hard questions around whether RMB’s investments have the culture of innovation that will propel them beyond market uncertainty.
His contribution to his business unit has led to some very lucrative years for RMB’s Ventures team which, at the end of the day, is what corporate innovation is most often about: deriving exponential commercial value.
And the winner of the Innocentrix Innolive 2016 Corporate Entrepreneur Award went to Darren Hampton from Ster Kinekor Theatres – GM: CRM
Darren is responsible for the entire CRM portfolio for SKT, which includes the Ster Kinekor Club portfolio. As part of his approach plan to extract more value from his base, Darren has embarked on significant disruption to the status quo, upon a platform of lean innovation. This includes system and process re-engineering, value proposition enhancement, repositioning of the brand as well as collaboration with partners that would be initially perceived as competitors for spend.
The changes have resulted in commercial gains, an entire new go-to methodology for the business overall, as well as increased positive engagement from customers. Confidentiality obviously precludes us from providing in-depth detail. Suffice to say, Darren was an innovation samurai in a turbulent retail climate, and his courage has paid off.
Innocentrix is an innovation business and technology service company who serves South Africa’s leading companies and has a strong network of international partnerships. Our mission is to “Take you from concept to commercialisation”.
For more information about Innolive/CSW Africa & the SA Innovation League and Corporate Entrepreneur Awards call Henra on 012 844-0083 or mail to henra@innocentrix.co.za