Nelson Mandela Bay ICT incubator gains recognition for productivity

The ICT business incubator recently beat 28 other companies from the province to claim the Productivity SA Public Sector Award and the bragging rights as the most productive organisation in the Eastern Cape. This week SNII will also compete for the most productive organisation in the country at the national awards in Joburg.

The Productivity SA awards have been around since June 1977 as a tool to promote awareness around the importance of productivity. This annual event recognises individuals, organisations and communities for their contributions to building South Africa's productive capacity.

"We are excited about the recognition of our contribution to the Productivity of SA. This achievement would not be possible without the entrepreneurs we incubate; it is through their success that we succeed. Thirty-five businesses in various stages of incubation under our umbrella posted a R7.5 million collective turnover for the 2012/13 financial year, up from the R5.3 million recorded in the prior year.

"This represented more than double the provided grant funding of R3.5 million for the same period received from the Seda Technology Programme and Nelson Mandela Bay Metro. It's worth noting that 68% of the funding went to enterprise development, with the remainder allocated to capital budgets and support functions. The businesses collectively created 35 direct and 70 indirect jobs and we graduated nine businesses from the programme. An accolade such as this not only puts a stamp of approval, but motivates us and the productive entrepreneurs want to achieve more and live out our vision of producing globally competitive entrepreneurs," said Lupondwana.

The criteria for winning

A total of 28 companies entered the competition and, from that number, 13 were selected to be finalists. When selecting the winner, there are few issues that are taken into consideration by the adjudicators. They have to know what the company accomplishments are and how the company went about achieving them, how the company manages its productivity, whether management and labour are actively involved and whether there are clear objectives for productivity improvement.

Productivity SA spokesman Maupi Monyemangene said that their mandate is primarily to enhance the productive capacity of South Africa by meeting various objectives.

"As an organisation we try to promote a culture of productivity and develop relevant productivity competencies in workplaces. We also facilitate and evaluate productivity improvement, maintain a database of productivity and system publicising, productivity-related research and we most importantly support initiatives aimed at preventing job losses. These are some of the things we look for in a company when we select the winner. SNII was able to meet these expectations," said Monyemangene.

The launch of the National Awards was preceded by the declaration of a week in October as Productivity Week. The declaration of Productivity Week was based on the premise that awareness of the significance of productivity in social and economic development plays an important role in creating a productivity culture in all strata of society.

Participants entered for the competition by either recommendation, or call in to be entered, others saw advertisements in newspapers. The participants are then placed in different categories which are; Corporate Sector, Emerging Sectors (small to medium-size companies), Public Sector or Government Departments and Co-operative Sector.

For more, go to www.snii.co.za