Growing an SA Google starts with a mind shift

According to the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) South Africa Report, conducted by the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the UCT Graduate School of Business and released this month, the characteristics of South African businesses over a three-year period show worrying trends in several areas:

Firstly, the data reflects that only a small number of owner-managed firms offer products and services that are new to all customers. Secondly, the proportion of businesses that do not have any competitors has declined significantly to well below the international norm, with most reporting a low level of differentiation from their competitors.

And thirdly, the proportion of businesses that report using the latest technologies has declined by a large margin, also to well below the international norm.

This should concern South Africans as it is widely acknowledged that innovation is key to economic growth and job creation.

No instant formula

So how can local companies respond to this innovation crisis? There is clearly no instant formula for businesses to emulate the likes of Google, but perhaps businesses should begin a process by taking the baby-steps that will one day allow them to leap and bound.

Business has to look at what lies at the heart of innovation - the mindset of the people within the business. Innovation begins with creative ideas, and creativity begins with people.

For this chain reaction to occur, businesspeople need to adopt and foster a culture of strategic thinking and action.

Being a "strategist" is often defined as those in leadership who make the big decisions for the business - nothing could be further from the truth.

For the most part, strategy is a misunderstood phenomenon and as a result it is a blunt tool for most organisations. It's no surprise then that an estimated 80% of strategic plans fail at the implementation phase.

Strategy as intelligence

The challenge to business is to turn strategy into a powerful, all-pervasive force - taking it from the dusty shelves of most people's minds into their consciousness. This means a move from seeing strategy as planning and as something that is contained within a document to strategy as intelligence and something that is contained within people.

Everybody has it within them to be a master strategist and to bring strategy to life. To unleash their strategic potential, there are three key practices that can be adopted.

Top of the list is that people simply need to reframe the way they think and act strategy. Most people are already strategists but they don't know it. Think about it. In most things you do you'll have a mental model of what the effect will be - a theory of cause-and-effect. That's strategy.

Strategy applied to the business environment enables one to see more viewpoints, alternatives, solutions, and opportunities for success, and therefore to make more informed decisions on what action will create value for the organisation. It thus refines judgement and informs a person how best to apply their energies.

An art form

Strategy is not a science or a theory - something that can be gained by reading a book or taught in a classroom. Strategy is more of an art form - a simple analogy is learning to play a musical instrument. One has to begin with the basics and then take it step by step from there - eventually one will become master at using the instrument, at improvising with it, and at generating creative output through it.

As such there is also no quick-fix to becoming a good strategist - it's a long-term process that requires discipline and application.

Practice

Thus the second key thing that people can do to improve their strategic ability is to practice. All people can hone their skills and actively improve their strategic ability. In the same way that a musician will practice scales, a strategist can practice strategy in order to refine their technique.

The third shift is to clear the way for a movement of strategic energy by ensuring that the environment that people are in is supportive of creativity and fosters care for the outcomes of actions.

Tolerant environment

According to Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Classes, a tolerant environment that values innovation and diversity is one of three enablers of creativity which in turn, he shows, is a key driver of economic growth.

Business literature is littered with examples of companies from the Hewlett-Packards to the small home-grown businesses that have recognised and enshrined this principle and reaped the benefits as a result.

Today academics and popular business press tell us that we are living in a new age with a new economy. In this new economy, all businesses, regardless of their size, need to innovate to satisfy the changing needs of their markets, both local and global.

Undoubtedly unless people are given the environment that supports and fosters strategic thinking and thereby creative and innovative action, then that master strategist will never truly emerge and our people, our organisations and society will continue to be the poorer for it. With it, however, the era of our very own Google may not be so very far off.