F A S T C O M PA N Y
S O U T H
A F R I C A ’ S
ISSUE 37 TOP 20 UNDER 30
EMPOWERING CHANGE
T O P
2 0
U N D E R
3 0
South Africa
“AYO is looking to disrupt in everything it does and to challenge the status quo in the industry.”
AYO T EC H N O LO GY S O LU T I O N S
KEVIN HARDY “I’ve been given an incredible opportunity at AYO to work alongside fantastic people and to showcase my skill set.” SIPHIWE NODWELE AYO TECHNOLOGY CIO
FA ST C I T I E S J U LY/A U G U S T 2 0 1 8
R35.50
JULY/AUGUST 2018 FASTCOMPANY.CO.ZA
AYO TECHNOLOGY CEO
J u ly/A u g u st 201 8
COVER STO RY
2 2 Tra nsforming a n ind u str y
In understanding the power of digital and how it can serve as a catalyst for transformation, AYO Technology Solutions is powering change.
NE XT 16 FUTURE OF RETAIL – SUBSCRIPTION BOXES 28 INTERCONNECTING FUTURE FAST CITIES 34 FAST COMPANY DRIVES – MASERATI LEVANTE S 52 WHAT ROLE DOES AI PLAY IN AFRICA’S FUTURE?
TOP 20 UNDER 3 0 62 PASCALE HENKE 64 SIYA BEYILE 66 BOITUMELO TUMI MENYATSWE 67 DANIEL SCHWARTZKOPFF 68 MICHAEL DEON & KYLE HAFFENDEN 69 GIFT LUBELE 70 DOUG HOERNIE 7 2 ZAID OSMAN 74 BEN SHAW & KYLE BRADLEY 76 NKULULEKO LEGEND MANQELE 78 CYNDY STROEBEL 80 FRANS CRONJE 81 BULUMKO NAPAKADE, ASANTE NXUMALO & KEENO KOOPMAN, VELANI MBOWENI 82 KHANYISELA DAYI 83 MICHAEL ZAHARIEV, KIARA NIRGHIN 84 TEBOGO NAKAMPE, LUKE WARNER, MATTHEW HENSHALL
R EG ULA R S 08 FROM THE EDITOR 10 RECOMMENDER 11 SCREEN TIME 56 FAST BYTES & EVENTS 86 INNOVATION IN THE ACTUARIAL INDUSTRY
By Syed Danish Ali
South Africa AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY CEO Grant Fredericks
grant.fredericks@africannewsagency.com
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Saarah Survé
saarah.surve@anapublishing.com
ANA PUBLISHING COO Mark Keohane mark.keohane@inl.co.za
Walter Hayward
Lisa-Marie de Villiers CA(SA)
FINANCIAL MANAGER
FAST COMPANY INTERNATIONAL TEAM
HEAD OF DESIGN
PRINTER
CHAIRMAN
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Warren Uytenbogaardt warren.uytenbogaardt@inl.co.za
DESIGNERS
Tariq Cassim & Sheeth Hanief
EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS
Syed Danish Ali, Obenewa Amponsah, Akiva Beebe, Simon Capstick-Dale, Wesley Diphoko, Paige dos Santos, Roger Hislop, Elske Joubert, Farah Khalfe, Levi Letsoko, Prof. Alwyn Louw, Sonwabo Macingwana, Phathizwe Malinga, Jayshree Naidoo, Michael O’Carroll
RSA Litho
DISTRIBUTION
MDA Distribution
SUBSCRIPTIONS PUBLISHED BY
DEPUTY EDITOR David Lidsky
Noah Robischon
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Jill Bernstein
DIRECTOR, EDITORIAL STRATEGY
Keith Hill, Tony Malek, Mandla Mangena
Prof. Walter Baets, Koo Govender, Alistair King, Pepe Marais, Abey Mokgwatsane, Kheepe Moremi, Ellis Mnyandu, Thabang Skwambane
Stephanie Mehta
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
ADVERTISING SALES EXECUTIVES
SOUTH AFRICAN EDITORIAL BOARD
Eric Schurenberg
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Kyle Villet
Susan Ball susan.ball@anapublishing.com
CEO
susan.ball@anapublishing.com
HEAD OF SALES
OFFICE MANAGER
Joe Mansueto, Mansueto Ventures
Lori Hoffman Editor-in-chief: Saarah Survé Physical address: 5th Floor, Newspaper House, 122 St Georges Mall, Cape Town, 8001 Postal address: PO Box 23692, Claremont, 7735 Websites: www.fastcompany.com www.fastcompany.co.za www.anapublishing.com
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Florian Bachleda
DESIGN DIRECTOR Ted Keller
PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR Sarah Filippi
ART DIRECTOR Alice Alves
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR ARTISTS
Cover: Paul Shiakallis Photographer: Dylan Louw Illustrations: Adobe Stock
April Mokwa
CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER Christina Cranley
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Mark Rosenberg
No article or any part of any article in Fast Company South Africa may be reproduced without the prior written consent of the publisher. The information provided and opinions expressed in this publication are provided in good faith, but do not necessarily represent the opinions of Mansueto Ventures in the USA, Insights Publishing or the editor. Neither this magazine, the publisher or Mansueto Ventures in the USA can be held legally liable in any way for damages of any kind whatsoever arising directly or indirectly from any facts or information provided or omitted in these pages, or from any statements made or withheld by this publication. Fast Company is a registered title under Mansueto Ventures and is licensed to Insights Publishing for use in southern Africa only.
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Change for the better
REACH US ON: Twitter: @FastCompanySA Facebook: @fastcompanySA Instagram: @fastcompanysa
I have included a Fast Company SA timeline with my editor’s note this month. I think it’s important for our readers to understand the changes we’ve recently undergone, as well as meet our new and dynamic editorial team and publisher. By understanding where we’ve come from, we can move forward together. Even more so, our look and feel has changed. We are proud to be affiliated with the United States and have redesigned our masthead to align with that of Fast Company US and its sister publication, Inc. “The design has been considered and approached differently, allowing for an international look and feel with a
OCTOBER 2014
FAST COMPANY SA TIMELINE
NOVEMBER 2017
• Evans Manyonga becomes editor-inchief • Saarah Survé becomes deputy editor • Walter Hayward joins the team as chief subeditor
8
• The first issue of Fast Company SA is launched, with Robbie Stammers as the publisher and editorin-chief
MARCH 2018
• Outgoing editor Manyonga commissions his final cover and related story featuring JT Foxx and Mao Lal • End of March 2018: Manyonga and Stammers leave ANA Publishing
FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY/AUGUST 2018
distinct South African flavour,” says Warren Uytenbogaardt, head of design. Our 30-and-under editorial team has also been re-energised. Elske Joubert, who joined the team in April, says that working on this issue left her with an immense sense of pride. “I was so encouraged by all the people in our Top 20 under 30 list – stellar people who, despite (or maybe because of) their age, have made remarkable strides in life. I’m filled with excitement by the prospect of these people, and others like them, ushering in a new tomorrow for South Africa and Africa!” We will continue to deliver the kind of articles you have come to enjoy, while also offering
interesting takes on personalities, innovations, and the latest leadership and tech trends from around the world. We hope you enjoy this journey with us.
Saarah Survé saarah.surve@anapublishing.com
FAST COMPANY SA IS CERTAINLY GETTING OUR READERS TALKING. WE THANK YOU FOR BEING SO ROBUST AND ENGAGING WITH OUR CONTENT. I ENCOURAGE YOU TO WRITE IN AND SHARE YOUR VIEWS.
JANUARY 2017
• African News Agency (ANA), under Grant Fredericks, acquires the operations of Insights Publishing through a sale of going concern. ANA Publishing, a subsidiary of ANA, is formed. • Fast Company SA licence is transferred from Insights Publishing to ANA Publishing as of 1 January 2017.
APRIL 2018
• Mark Keohane is appointed COO of ANA Publishing, assuming the duties of Stammers • Warren Uytenbogaardt is appointed head of design
M AY 2 0 1 8
• Survé takes over as editor-in-chief • Fast Company SA masthead is redesigned in collaboration with Fast Company US and their sister publication, Inc.
JUNE 2018
• Hayward takes over as assistant editor
What are you loving right now?
LOVING: MACHINE, PLATFORM, CROWD: HARNESSING OUR DIGITAL FUTURE The authors speak of a triple revolution – that “we must rethink the integration of minds and machines, of products and platforms, and of the core and the crowd”. More organisations look to embrace the shift to digital, the authors believe that the balance now favours the latter of each of the pairings above, with massive implication for how we run our lives and businesses. They further introduce the acronym DANCE, to memorably illustrate what tools organisations need in order to master and scale digital transformation.
LOVING: UCOOK I love cooking and with the introduction of UCOOK in Cape Town, the entire family is brought together in the kitchen, with little planning and fuss. Karl Westvig, CEO: Retail Capital
Derek Bose, Senior Director for South Africa and the SADC regional cluster: Oracle
LOVING: BOUCHARD FINLAYSON 2016 GALPIN PEAK PINOT NOIR LOVING: PODCASTS AND HOT SAUCE I’m loving the Scaling Up Business podcasts by Bill Gallagher and the First We Feast YouTube channel because I love hot sauce! Wesley Fredericks, MD: The Red & Yellow Creative School of Business 10
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LOVING: BRUSSELS
I love the Bouchard Finlayson 2016 Galpin Peak Pinot Noir, voted South Africa’s best red wine and South Africa’s best pinot noir in the recent International Wine Challenge in London.
I recently spent a week in Brussels and fell in love with the unique mix of big city buzz with forestry and parks – all in one. It showcases the best of both worlds. Add in the variety of Belgian chocolates, waffles and beers and I was in food and drink heaven!
Janie van der Spuy, Head: FIVESTAR PR
Lelemba Phiri, CMO: Zoona
Fast Company SA rounds up five apps making your daily commute a lot less stressful. WAZE
The Waze navigation and live traffic app does more than just get you to your destination. The app functions as a ‘social network’ on the road, allowing users to actively report live updates of roadworks, police presence, speed trap locations, accidents and more. Now with its new ‘where to park’ feature, Waze directs you to the closest parking spots in a few easy taps.
PARKFIND
As the most traffic-congested city in South Africa, ParkFind offers a solution to Cape Town’s parking woes. Street Parking Solutions (SPS) records daily parking-related transactions in the CBD and has developed the first parking app in Africa aimed to relieve drivers of having to circle blocks looking for an empty bay. Parking bays in Cape Town’s city centre, fitted with a sensor in the ground, detect when a vehicle arrives and leaves the bay. Using this information, as well as an in-car navigation system, the app guides drivers to the closest open parking spots available to them. Users can sign up to the app using their email address and registration number, and select either cash, credit card or Snapscan as a payment method.
TRAFFICSA This app provides traffic information for South African roads. Using your GPS location, the app shows you the traffic according to your region. This service provides you with faster route suggestions when there are delays on your standard route due to traffic jams or road closures.
SYGIC This free GPS navigation app serves several functions and offers real-time traffic information, voice-guided information as well as speed limit warnings. Sygic offers superb traffic information powered by TomTom Traffic, with data collected from more than 400 million drivers. The accurate traffic information is updated every two minutes, so you will always know where the congestion is, how long it will take to get through it and how to avoid it with automatic faster route suggestions.
HERE WEGO With 40 million downloads and more than 250 000 5-star reviews, getting around town is easier and more personal with HERE WeGo. The app offers offline maps so you can navigate without an internet connection. Get directions and other info you need to go from A to B without any traffic, including transit ticket and carsharing prices, departure times and more.
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WANTED
Making luxury local Luxury accessories by Research Unit By: Elske Joubert
Research Unit recently launched its beautiful new collection called MASALA. The inspiration for the collection was based on founders Chad and Erin-Lee Petersen’s diverse upbringing in Cape town. Chad and Erin-Lee both grew up in the Cape Malay culture in the heart of Cape Town where they were exposed to Muslim culture and the delicious Cape Malay dishes that exude fragrances of curry and koeksisters. The inspiration for the
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MASALA range was drawn from the spices used to cook the traditional Cape Malay curries. The colours of these spices – specifically turmeric, masala, coriander and rice – were chosen as the official colours for the range. They also used saffron, a rare fragranced spice, as their inspiration for the fringing of the deep tote bags. The couple looked for ways to dye and deconstruct their canvas, creating the layers of fringing on the bags and keeping their dynamic canvas and leather on
the product. The leather used on the bags is handmade and stitched to perfection and was designed with every detail in mind: from fittings to finishes. “Research Unit is about redefining the way the world sees African highend goods. It is about how a product makes you feel when you touch it, wear it, or give it to someone special as a gift. It is about the story and soul behind a product; the little imperfections that make it perfect in every way, the creative process, the manufacturing process,
and the heart and the hands,” say Chad and Erin-Lee. The MASALA collection has a brand new leather and canvas AfricanBasket inspired bucket bag with a beaded strap, fringed deep shoppers in three gorgeous and vibrant colours, a black leather moon bag and an oversized, cylinder shaped canvas shopper. For more information: researchunitstudio.com
Join us at Leaderex 2018 As a sponsor of Leaderex 2018, we invite you to join us at this year’s event. Take a step towards making your future a reality. This is your opportunity to engage with industry experts and advisors who can guide you on your investment journey.
Date: Tuesday, 4 September 2018 Times: 08h00 to 17h00 Venue: Level 5, Pavilion, Sandton Convention Centre
Registration invite code: JSE
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M Y W AY
Creating growth and exit opportunities for entrepreneurs
The co-founders of Cape Town-based Knife Capital, Keet
van Zyl and Eben van Heerden, met while working at Mark Shuttleworth’s Here Be Dragons (HBD) Venture Capital Fund. Knife Capital was spun out of HBD in 2010 and became an independent growth equity investment firm and accelerator, specialising in investments in expansion capital, and small to mid-cap companies. By leveraging knowledge, networks and funding, Knife Capital accelerates the international expansion of entrepreneurial businesses that achieved a product/market fit in beachhead markets. Since its establishment, the company welcomed Andrea B0hmert, who raised the Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa Fund, and ex Springbok Rugby captain Bob Skinstad to the team.
Venture Capital firm Knife Capital shows that investments in deserving startups can lead to great exits
Investing in innovation-driven ventures Knife Capital seeks to invest in South African companies with a clear strategy for international expansion. Recently, the company has started to broaden its mandate to include companies from other geographies, but as an active investor, the ability to add value to such portfolio companies needs to be obvious. With their focus on scale and transition to international growth, the company enables their portfolio of innovationdriven businesses to achieve scalability across different markets by optimising the business model and customer acquisition process. They also assist businesses with transition to international growth by providing market access that expands customer validation to other countries. “The technology space is broad and our portfolio includes radar technologies, process analytics, mobile financial services, restaurant technology, ticketing, Internet of Things (IoT), AI & Machine Learning (ML), Software-as-a-Service and e-learning,” says Van Zyl. Choosing the right investment By adding a blend of exit-centric business building skills, and the diversified experience of a credible investor base to the deep subject matter expertise of selected entrepreneurs, Knife Capital provides a unique value add to its portfolio companies. “As ‘every journey ends’ at some stage, we take all key strategic decisions with this end in mind. This doesn’t mean that we build to flip but rather that we build for value,” says Bohmert. DataProphet is one such company. Cape Town-based ML
Photographs by: Courtesy images
Knife Capital investment partners: (counterclockwise) Keet van Zyl, Eben van Heerden, Bob Skinstad and Andrea Böhmert
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Photographs by: Courtesy images
startup DataProphet, received a multi-million dollar funding round from Knife Capital in March 2018 that aided in accelerating its global expansion. “We were delighted to welcome another incredible investment partner like Knife Capital on board who became actively involved in strategic elements of the business and to open up their market access networks in pursuit of growth,” says Frans Cronje, co-founder and MD of DataProphet. They now have an international client base, including BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Expanding beyond Africa Knife Capital expanded into London after introducing the Draper Gain Family Office as a strategic investor. “The London office will accelerate the international growth of companies within Knife Capital’s South African investment portfolio. But it also allows us to invest in companies outside of South Africa. This is becoming more relevant as we find that many great South African technology companies are creating offshore structures for fundraising and intellectual property protection reasons. We can now participate in this,” says Van Zyl. The company has secured its first European investment by participating in a R22 million funding round by Stockholm-based Mobile and Sensory Technology (MOST). MOST is a hardware and software startup focusing on innovations that can be applied to the rapidly expanding IoT sector. Exit readiness “A good idea does not always transform into a good business, and a good business is not necessarily a good investment. It is challenging to strike the right balance between finding a great company, and then ensuring that it becomes a good investment. This includes many things such as culture fit, fair valuation metrics, achievable growth milestones and continued value-add from our side as investors,” says Bohmert.
ADVICE FOR ENTREPRENEURS RAISING FUNDS Study the investment mandates of potential funders, build an investor universe of preferred partners and do some homework to figure out a way to get referred. Build a financial model and make it granular. We know there will be pivots, delays, underestimation of costs, corporates who pay late, etc. But we need to agree on the basic set of metrics that reflect the commercial DNA of the business. Funding. Always have the following elements at hand: a one-page teaser document containing a summary of the business and funding requirements; a business pitch deck, a detailed financial model and a virtual data room containing key business documentation for investor scrutiny. Show traction. Investors thrive on pattern recognition and extrapolation. Momentum can be gained in many ways, so find ways to move the key business metrics forward from early on. Think exit! Every journey ends. The entrepreneurs who meticulously plan for it, create more wealth. Interesting things happen to interesting companies, so don’t be caught off guard when a potential acquirer comes knocking.
Knife Capital recently invested in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence company, DataProphet
Knife Capital also believes in playing a long-term game, building sustainable businesses that are exit-ready in partnership with entrepreneurs spanning years. “It gives us an immense sense of achievement to see the oncebootstrapped entrepreneurs we invested in create wealth for themselves. Most often through an exit to a strategic partner, but also when the companies start gaining meaningful traction and increase in value. Naturally, our upside is linked to this, but it is more than just the monetary rewards. It is a deep sense of achievement to be a part of creating something successful, disrupting industries, creating jobs, and impacting countless lives,” says Bob Skinstad. Future plans The company is focused on making the right investments and engineering their growth in an exit-centric manner. “We are seeing really good quality deal flow via our UK office, and will build our portfolio both in South Africa and internationally,” says Van Heerden. The team plans to expand slightly, but will remain a relatively close-knit group, making niche investments and partnering with co-investors where feasible. Their SARS section 12J Fund: KNF Ventures is still open for investment where investors can deduct it from taxable income. They are also launching their fourth Grindstone accelerator programme in partnership with SME market access specialist, Thinkroom. Grindstone is best described as part-business accelerator, part-investor and partadvisor and was the first programme of its kind in South Africa. The yearlong programme takes 10 businesses with proven traction through an intensive review of their strategies and provides them with the necessary support to build a foundation for growth through the transfer of skills and introduction to relevant business networks. Knife Capital: proof the venture capital model can work in South Africa Venture capital as an asset class is still questioned by many institutional investors, government, as well as international funders. Through the years, many naysayers have said that this model can only work in places like Silicon Valley and that South Africa is more suited to Enterprise Development investments and the odd isolated gem, but that it will be impossible to build up a portfolio of these investments and exit successfully. “With our last exit (orderTalk to Uber) we closed out the R150 million HBD Venture Fund. It has provided a significant return to the investor, Shuttleworth, proven that you can build internationally competitive companies from South Africa that are of interest to global acquirers and that it is worthwhile for fund managers to pursue a career in venture capital. It is a long journey but the venture capital model has been validated,” concludes Van Zyl. JULY/AUGUST 2018 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A 15
YOU’VE GOT MAIL! Subscription boxes are the latest craze to hit South African shores. These scheduled ‘surprises’ are sure to brighten your day, whether it’s making cooking easier or satisf ying your cravings. By: Elske Joubert
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THE GIN BOX: THE NEW SUBSCRIPTION-BASED GIN OFFERING Julia almond Roca, dehydrated grapefruit garnish, star There’s nothing quite like anise and a Cruxland tot measure. Also included in the receiving a package in the mail. beauteous box was comprehensive distiller’s notes and The suppressed (or sometimes cocktail recipe ideas. explicitly expressed) excitement This gin, inspired by the indigenous, nomadic is evident from the moment you inhabitants of the Kalahari, hints at secret hear the mailman say, “a treasures in the sand – the rare Kalahari delivery for Miss or Mister Cruxland premium Desert truffles, one of the botanicals that So-and-So”. I experienced boutique infuses the Cruxland gin. this exact childlike handcrafted gin A labour of love, the team at The Gin excitement when my Gin from KWV was Box takes special care in preparing these Box landed on my desk. awarded best packages so that the overall experience I unwrapped the package South African – from ordering online, to receiving the with much delight and what London Dry Gin at the World Awards package at your door – is a pleasant one. I found inside exceeded in 2018. The Gin Box also offers three whatever subconscious subscription options for you to choose expectation I had. Inside the from, so you can decide how often you’d like to receive box, neatly packed and laid out, your box. was a bottle of exclusive Cruxland gin, with a beautiful leather cap strap, two bottles of Little Wolf Cape tonic, a bottle of Copper Fox gin and tonic, Gracious Bakers Beetroot crackers, Winston &
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HOW DOES THE GIN BOX WORK? • Visit theginbox.co.za • Browse through the various gins on offer • Simply choose which offering you want • Proceed to checkout and pay
UCOOK
David Torr and Chris Verster Cohen noticed a gap in the market for convenient, healthy dinner solutions, and thus founded UCOOK. The boxes consist of preportioned ingredients, meaning you don’t have to make trips to the supermarket – ensuring cooking is a breeze. David and Chris were soon joined by friends after launching the business in 2015 and started operating the startup from a garage in Cape Town, packing the boxes themselves. The subscription model is flexible: you have the option to order three to four meals a week, with all the ingredients and instructions you need delivered to your door. You are free to cancel anytime. UCOOK has established itself as South Africa’s favourite dinner kit service in its three years of existence, going from 24 boxes in their first delivery round to tens of thousands in 2018.
THE BOOK CASE
Every month, The Book Case sends a ‘bookish’ box tailored to a fantastical, pre-released chosen theme to its subscribers. All the boxes include a highly anticipated, newly released novel, exclusive book-related goodies, and other mysterious gifts linked to the chosen theme. You can check online what the specific theme of the month is and order according to your interest.
M Y C H O C O L AT E B O X
My Chocolate Box is a specialised monthly subscription box dedicated to the love of chocolate. Sign up and you’ll receive a monthly box on your doorstep, filled to the brim with decadent local and international chocolate goodies. The boxes are always different and often contain limited edition delicacies and exclusive products that haven’t yet hit the shops. Members also receive exclusive discount offers and tickets to chocolate-related events.
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LEADING VOICES
INNOVATION AN D W HY ENTREPRENEURSHIP MATTERS Just over a decade and a half ago, an amazing new term took centre stage. It was used in almost every meeting, it became the key to strategies, marketing campaigns and if you could somehow weave it into your job title, then it gave you almost supernatural-like powers and started opening up new and exciting doors. The term was “innovation”. By: Jayshree Naidoo 20
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Those of us who were fortunate enough at the time to realise the supernatural nature of innovation began working together, collaborating, sharing thoughts and strategies, and for the first time linkages started to emerge across industry sectors, age groups, the multi helix and indeed, wonderful, magical futures were imagined. Innovation fuels economies, and in a developing country like South Africa, it becomes the driving force of success and long-term sustainability. As groups and teams in our own little offices, we quickly began to realise that if it was easy everyone would do it. So, what was the key ingredient to driving innovation? The answer was entrepreneurship. The output of entrepreneurialism was innovation, and just like that the code was cracked or, so we thought. Many of us were in large corporates at the time, further away from entrepreneurial thinking than any of us wanted to admit. But in order to drive innovation, we had to start by driving entrepreneurial thinking; we had to embrace entrepreneurs, understand their world and bring them closer into ours, creating eco-systems and platforms that could add value. In doing so, we hoped it would somehow rub off onto the corporate culture we were in. It’s no wonder a decade or so later the term “entrepreneurship” has made its way to corporate strategies, marketing campaigns and even presidential addresses. Like innovation, entrepreneurship is not new, but it is novel enough for the smart consultants and agencies to latch onto, in order to make their clients look even more appealing to society. In my previous life as a corporate custodian of changing lives (my interpretation of my roles), I had the privilege within a couple of organisations to work with both innovation and entrepreneurship functions. During the many public addresses that I had to give as part of my role, my favourite was to quote a line from Spiderman: “With great power, comes great responsibility”. The relevance of this line was addressed to large corporates. They indeed have great power, in terms of their size, scale, reach, resources and funding. With that power comes the responsibility to do more, be more and give more. Even though I love being an entrepreneur myself, I have to admit, being able to use a corporate’s cheque book to change lives and make an impact, has been my second favourite role. I’ve spent almost two decades working for corporates. I am fully aware that the responsibility we are seeking from corporates is not always easy to extract, or for them to volunteer, especially when the bottom line is what drives most corporate strategies and decisions, despite what the marketing campaigns would have us believe. However, there are organisations all around the globe that have invested in great initiatives that support entrepreneurs, and this support has translated into bottom line benefit. Imagine that: being able to do good and make money while growing the support systems required for entrepreneurs and ultimately improving the innovation stack, not just of the corporate but of the country. Some of these initiatives include departments that drive
a focus on developing entrepreneurs. They act as incubators, providing spaces for growth and development or simply access to infrastructure that encourages open innovation and working spaces that entrepreneurs and clients can use. All of these provide opportunities to leverage the resources of the corporate for the benefit of the entrepreneur. More recently, we have seen the emergence of several platform businesses that are designed to rapidly increase the impact on creating access to market opportunities, showcase products and services more broadly and even out the playing fields so that the township entrepreneurs have the same level of access to an opportunity as an established business. This is not some futuristic plan of action, all the above examples can and have been done. They have contributed positively to job creation figures, access to markets and showcasing opportunities and have assisted entrepreneurs positively with their growth and advancement. There have been discussions and debates around incubators and entrepreneurial programmes not having the desired benefit or not making an impact, but I have witnessed first-hand the real impact that these initiatives can have if run properly with adequate funding and a long term runway, strategic intent and the right level of support and funding for the entrepreneur from the organisations that run them. In addition to physical infrastructure and face-toface engagements, corporates have also partnered with global recognition organisations that provide platforms for innovative entrepreneurs to showcase their products and services both locally and abroad. These have opened up new opportunities for raising much-needed funds, collaboration linkages and new market access. The use of e-commerce platforms and opportunity marketplaces by corporates has meant that entrepreneurs that have benefited from high-touch initiatives can now also access further opportunities by being visible on online platforms. The common thread and major success factor across all of these approaches is access to markets. Entrepreneurs need clients and those clients are either the corporate that has created a touch point through any or all the above initiatives and approaches or through the vast ecosystem that surrounds the corporate. Very often these ecosystem players include other corporates, industry bodies, academic institutions and international organisations and regulatory, government or state departments. South Africa is one of the few countries that has great funding instruments and codes that are designed to specifically focus on the development of entrepreneurs and additional and increased benefits for those that open supply chain opportunities and provide funding to entrepreneurs. With all of the positive benefits and the associated impact that these can have on the economy, it’s actually quite surprising that only a fraction of corporate South Africa has embraced and leveraged this opportunity. So maybe it’s time to change my favourite Spiderman quote to: “With great power comes great opportunities”. These opportunities will ensure we build the thriving ecosystem for entrepreneurs to produce more innovations – innovations that will continue to fuel our economy.
“ S OUTH AFRICA IS ONE OF THE FEW COUNTRIES THAT HAS GREAT FUNDING INSTRUMENTS AND CODES THAT ARE DESIGNED TO SPECIFICALLY FOCUS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENTREPRENEURS.”
Jayshree Naidoo is a thought-leader in the space of innovation and entrepreneurship. She has led the innovation and entrepreneurship functions of large corporates in South Africa. Her last corporate role was the head of the Standard Bank Incubator. She is currently a consultant in the space of innovation, incubation and entrepreneurship. JULY/AUGUST 2018 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A 21
EXCELLENCE THROUGH PEOPLE For AYO Technology Solutions, excellence is shaped and delivered by its people. Being the largest black-owned, JSE-listed company in South Africa, they have proved that transformation is indeed at the core of their business philosophy.
By: Mark Keohane
From left to right: Siphiwe Nodwele, Chief Investment Officer Xolo Motswasele, Client Partner Kevin Hardy, Chief Executive Officer
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Kevin Hardy never talks in the singular. He references the collective, and at the essence of each discussion is the value of his people and the inspiration of a team. Hardy is at the helm of AYO Technology Solutions, but whether he’s discussing those within AYO or those who AYO serve, it’s always done with an emphasis on transformation – in both people and South Africa’s digital space. Hardy is inspired by his father, who instilled in him the core values of respect and a work ethic that commands respect. “The old man was to the point. You look someone in the eye and you appreciate their story. You find inspiration and you learn from every interaction. And, ideally, you hope that your story inspires a similar response,” says Hardy. “It’s about really making a difference and influencing change. It’s about wanting to make a ‘real’ contribution to South Africa. It’s about investing in the many amazingly talented and skilled people this country has.” Another of Hardy’s inspirations is Dimension Data’s Group CEO Jason Goodall. “He [Goodall] was direct in his approach, inspirational in his thinking, but as impressive in his work ethic. It was a privilege to experience his leadership and he certainly has been an influence on my leadership,” says Hardy. Hardy delights in the DNA of this transformation. AYO is 77% black-owned, and women make up 33% of that ownership. “We are fortunate to have the quality of people within our business whose aspirations and actions are defined by excellence and innovation,” he says. Hardy’s roots are in the Eastern Cape, as is AYO’s Chief Investment Officer, Siphiwe Nodwele. The relevance in this? What you see is what you get, and what you get is a reminder that a handshake and look in the eye constitutes a contract to which there is accountability. Sophistication and intellect are givens among AYO’s people, but these qualities are strengthened because of the humility of an executive duo who were schooled in the power of simplicity. Functional and emotional intelligence complement the impressive postgraduate degrees and academic distinctions. Integrity, says Hardy, comes from within. And it is the integrity of those within AYO that will define their legacy. The first six months, post the JSE listing, have been about resolve and real commitment to staying the course. AYO has shaken an industry that is comfortable to be in a coma. It was, says Hardy, an industry that needed to be woken. “AYO is looking to disrupt in everything it does and to challenge the status quo in the industry. We are truly transformed and we are about being the most innovative market leader.” AYO’s financial results and track record of delivery over many years have been staggering, but given the infancy of its listing, and the company’s new long-term material deal to manage Sasol’s global IT requirements, is a statement of intent. AYO will provide and manage Sasol’s entire global technology network, communications and security services. “Sasol is a pioneer in digital transformation and, most importantly, true transformation of their business with regards to the B-BBEE codes and ICT charter. “The contract with Sasol is a huge vote of confidence in AYO, specifically in terms of its professional capacity, but also for empowering change in the South African ICT sector,” says Hardy. “Transformation in the ICT industry has been extremely slow and we are very proud to have concluded our first substantial contract, which we believe is the first of many steps to transform the ICT sector
in our country.” Client Partner, Xolo Motswasele heads up the Sasol contract and will lead the team delivering services to the South African-based multinational customer. “Xolo is a great leader and someone who I have a lot of respect for. She leads with a people-first policy and is as real as you get. She will set the pace for the black women leadership we are looking to attract to our business. I believe women have a massive part to play in our industry where we have lost the customer centricity element and Xolo understands that wholeheartedly. She wears customer values on her sleeve.” Chief Financial Officer Naahied Gamieldien is another inspirational woman transforming AYO and steering the company towards a profitable and sustainable future. “Naahied brings a wealth of experience and has also worked closely with the respective groups’ leadership teams for many years,” says Hardy. British Telecommunications South Africa (BTSA), where Hardy was previously MD, through an alliance agreement is an important part of AYO’s potential growth and transformation prospects. AYO also holds a 25% market share of the South African public hospital sector and manages the national health laboratories, which positions the group perfectly for the health sector’s revitalisation under the National Health Insurance (NHI) plan. “The market confidence – locally and internationally – in AYO’s ability to deliver on its mandate is firm. At the time of listing, AYO
“ I T’S ABOUT WANTING TO MAKE A ‘REAL’ CONTRIBUTION TO SOUTH AFRICA. IT’S ABOUT INVESTING IN THE MANY AMAZINGLY TALENTED AND SKILLED PEOPLE THIS COUNTRY HAS.”
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Naahied Gamieldien, Chief Financial Officer
Naahied Gamieldien, Chief Financial Officer Gamieldien completed her articles with PriceWaterhouseCoopers in 2005. She has held several positions within the AEEI group, including AEEI Group Financial Manager and AYO Technology Group Financial Officer. Having worked closely with the respective groups’ leadership teams for many years, Gamieldien brings a wealth of experience and insights into steering the company towards a profitable and sustainable future.
“ N AAHIED HAS A BRILLIANT COMMERCIAL BRAIN WITH LOADS OF OPERATIONAL EXPERIENCE. WHAT’S EVEN BETTER IS HER GROUNDED APPROACH TO EVERYTHING, WHICH KEEPS US FOCUSED.” – AYO CEO KEVIN HARDY 26 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY/AUGUST 2018
had a market cap of just under R15 billion and we see further value being created over the years to come.” Hardy is hugely passionate and has confidence in the country and its people. He has no doubt that those within AYO, who have been entrusted to translate a vision into an operational reality, are a reflection of the youthful dynamism within South Africa’s new generation of business leaders. Siphiwe Nodwele is a mirror of the quality of a young leader responsible for Hardy’s enthusiasm and optimism. Nodwele, just 32 years old, is one of the youngest directors of a listed multibillionRand company. “Age is a number,” says Nodwele. “I judge myself, and will be judged, on delivery. I’ve been given an incredible opportunity at AYO to work alongside fantastic people and to also showcase my skill set. “The environment we are creating encourages innovation and change, but the principles of success remain the same: respect, work ethic and humility. It’s the ethos from the top down.” Nodwele qualified as a lawyer, but entrepreneurship can’t be restricted to a single career path, and his experience as Head of Mergers and Acquisitions at EOH Industrial Technologies only added to this spirit of adventure. “My grandmother was the pioneer in our family. She marched into the unknown to deliver a better life for her children. Her spirit will always drive me and her story will always humble me. “Her adventure, sacrifice and hard work ultimately made my life better and, for me, success at AYO will mean being able to seamlessly make people’s lives better – whether it’s how they bank, insure, get medical provision, shop or travel. “AYO Technology will offer a full stack of ICT services based on infrastructure platforms consisting of applications, security, managed services, networks and data centres. These platforms will be enablers for our major focus in digital transformation services, as well as vertical industry-specific offerings,” says Nodwele. “We’re about challenging ourselves in finding solutions and the next innovation and creation. For the first time in our history we have the largest black-owned, JSE-listed ICT company in the country, and I get to be a part of it. “That’s the opportunity, but our legacy will be in how we deliver on this opportunity.”.
“ X OLO MOTSWASELE IS A GREAT LEADER AND SOMEONE WHO I HAVE A LOT OF RESPECT FOR. SHE WILL SET THE PACE FOR THE BLACK WOMEN LEADERSHIP WE ARE LOOKING TO ATTRACT TO OUR BUSINESS.” – AYO CEO KEVIN HARDY
Photographs by Paul Shiakallis and Dylan Louw
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C t es
WE ASKED INTERNET SOLUTIONS, KAYA LABS, METACOM, AND SQWIDNET WHAT THEIR IDEA OF A FUTURE, SMART AND DIGITAL CITY IS. THIS IS HOW THEY'RE MAKING IT A REALITY.
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Building smart cities through partnership
By: Roger Hislop
Senior Research Engineer, Internet Solutions
Creating the city of the future requires using resources in the most efficient and optimised way.
If a city is going to be smart, it has several options. It can take on the ambitious task of rebuilding itself as a fully integrated ‘city of the future’, with everything connected, streamlined and packed with tech. Or it can take the incremental approach, implementing various point technology projects that solve service delivery problems and drive efficiencies. However, before a city can become smart it must know the problems that it needs to address. A smart city allocates and uses the resources available to it in the most efficient and optimised way. It reduces unnecessary waste. And it manages its risks by knowing exactly what is going on in key places. Whether going big bang with a total smart city reinvention, or picking a couple of priorities to deal with right now, there are a few things that a city needs to do. First it must have the right infrastructure in place. It must put in place a multiplicity of data sources in the form of devices and sensors. It must have ubiquitous connectivity that allows all the devices to connect to the Internet and transfer data. And it must have the capability to store huge amounts of data from these sources. Of course, it almost goes without saying that all three of these areas require specific and special skills. Local authorities should really look to partner with service providers who can deploy and manage these systems, with added services such as data analytics and machine learning, connectivity assurance and data governance. It is imperative that the smart city takes meticulous care of the security of its mission critical: highly personal and irreplaceable data.
There is no ‘smart’ without sensors Just as we humans use our amazing brains to sense, interpret and understand our physical environment so that we can bend it to our will, so the smart city needs physical sensors. Lots of them. Sensors that detect when a dumpster is full, an intersection is congested, warn of a massive pipe leak or even tell us if the air is healthy to breathe. With technology that has come out in the past five years, all this sensing has become affordable. Sophisticated sensors can cost a few hundred Rands or less, require no external power supplies and communicate over pervasive networks for years without needing attention. 30
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There is no intelligence without connectivity A smart city uses the intelligence in its data networks to steer data from any source to any destination. To do this, however, it needs ubiquitous connectivity. Cities need to start by creating a hybrid, meshed network that devices and sensors can connect to over a prolonged period. This is where internet service providers can play an important role – building and interconnecting the networks that will allow cities to transfer data. An important aspect of an “everywhere network” is being able to speak to a multitude of devices using the most efficient technology – for example, high speed fibre for real time video and low power wide area networks (LPWAN) for individual sensors. Once this data has been gathered, it needs to be sent to the correct endpoint – reliably, and irrespective of whether it is to an internal municipal system, a hyperscale cloud service or some hybrid.
Data assets must be stored Smart cities must employ structured sets of cloud data storage. It is said that “data is the new oil.” Data will become a huge asset for smart cities and they will need to manage it as such. This means storing it in the most cost-effective way, that can be exposed flexibly and securely. Cities will have to develop strategies for how they will convert their stored data into usable outputs. Hyperscale and hybrid storage solutions will become common solutions for storing the masses of data a city generates and cities will need to look to outsourcing as a cost-effective option. In the future we will begin to see niche cloud providers dedicated to this purpose, in the form of a smart city cloud.
Data value must be kept safe Data security for smart cities will grow in importance for two reasons. Firstly, the more devices you connect to your network, the more data you’re collecting. Eventually these devices will operate more and more smartly at the edge to process raw data, and only send back the critical data to the cloud. This means “security from accidents” must be considered. The second reason is that the data collected by smart cities will become extremely valuable over time. Data may be “the new oil”, but like oil it will take a long time for the basic ingredients to morph and become rich in value. As more and more historical data is paired with new data sources and overlaid with machine learning, it will provide valuable insight into the behaviour of citizens, of how the municipality operates, of trends and insights. In an open environment such as the one envisioned as part of a smart city strategy, it is crucial to protect this data. The smart city of the future will have a myriad of data sources that will connect through ubiquitous networks to a variety of data storage systems, which will interact flexibly with other systems, or even third party service providers that buy access to the data to provide new services to the community. A smart city means lots of data which will generate massive value over time: it will need protection. Smart cities of the future are going to need to partner with companies that have essential knowledge of data storage, hybrid and open platforms, and data protection if they truly want to reap the rewards of being more efficient and optimised.
“ W HE T HER GOING BIG B A NG W I T H A T O TA L SM A R T CI T Y REIN V EN T ION, OR P ICK ING A COUP L E OF P RIORI T IE S T O DE A L W I T H RIGH T NO W, T HERE A RE A F E W T HING S T H AT A CI T Y NEED S T O DO.”
The Foundation for Digital Cities
By: Wesley Diphoko
Founder and CEO of Kaya Labs
For cities, the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution has signalled a new wave of digitisation, with the transportation and economic sectors not being immune. Map data is the crucial tool needed to uncover the wealth of treasure at the end of the hunt.
Imagine a South African city with autonomous cars, robots distributing goods and services, and street lights equipped with automatic sensors. This future is on the horizon, but in order to ensure its successful arrival, cities need comprehensive map data. This is still a work in progress for South Africa. Cities, such as Cape Town, will have to invest in the process of developing data infrastructure in order to get a foot in the door. Conquering the digital divide A problem affecting all major cities in South Africa is the dearth of digital information made available, which provides critical information on public transport routes, including minibus taxis. This hasn’t stopped key tech startups, such as GoMetro, from rising to the challenge. CEO and founder Justin Coetzee introduced his idea of a compact data managing tool for public transport at a MEST Incubator in Cape Town earlier this year. The app targets software engineers and planners in the transport sector, allowing them access to data relating to all modes of transport – even walking and minibus taxi routes. The data collected will aid in attracting investors to fund research and new infrastructure that will see South Africa at the heart of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Next version of mapping The process of mapping Cape Town illustrated what is necessary to make life easier for transport users. The first process of mapping in Cape Town, an initiative spearheaded by tech solutions organisation Kaya Labs in 2015, was instrumental in laying the foundation for transport information. The future of transport in South Africa requires a similar intervention but on a much wider scale. This data resource will be critical in building digital cities of tomorrow. The next generation of the mapping process needs to prepare South Africans for autonomous cars that are able to communicate with each other and the smart city at large (such as connecting with street lights to turn on when driving by). Dubai is an example of a city that is working towards creating a digital city by first laying the foundation through mapping. In carrying out this process, Dubai is using a live high definition (HD) map for driverless cars as it hopes to get 25% of public transport to be autonomous by 2030. The aim is to map Dubai with high definition technology for the first time, to assess environmental data, car positioning, and traffic congestion. HERE Technologies has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai on a long-term tech collaboration to support the deployment of autonomous cars at Expo 2020, which Dubai will be hosting. The company will be working on conducting a number of pilots aimed at enabling HD Live Map, which self-updates to provide vehicles with accurate information about what is happening on the road. The City of Dubai will use the HERE Open Location Platform (OLP) as a system to intelligently connect vehicles with each other, as well as with the road infrastructure – such as traffic lights and sensors on pavements – making the transport systems selfaware. OLP will enable multiple automakers to transmit live, anonymised sensor data that is then aggregated with high-precision location data, and transmitted back to cars in the form of near real-time and geo-targeted information about changing road conditions. Laying the foundation The Fourth Industrial Revolution presents cities with an opportunity for development through data. At the same time, it presents an opportunity for skills development. The work of creating digital cities should start by laying the foundation through training and the development of nationwide data that will become useful for autonomous cars and critical elements of the city of the future. JULY/AUGUST 2018 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A
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Fast cities need reliable interconnectivity Although Metacom is in the process of developing a number of products in the Internet of Things (IoT) space, what the company believes to be the core to any smart city is reliable communication, or more specifically, reliable interconnectivity of everything and anything anywhere.
According to Réan van Niekerk, CEO of Metacom, companies are developing specialist intelligent products for smart cities that one can develop and offer to the market. However, key to their success is ensuring that the backend offers reliable connectivity and communications to the centralised control systems, otherwise no matter how sophisticated the products, they are doomed to fail. Van Niekerk does not believe that there will be a universal fit for all IoT software management systems or ecosystems. “There will be more than one application to fulfill all the IoT needs required of a smart city and its population. It will require numerous highly specialised verticals with specific requirements that they fulfill,” says Van Niekerk. He equates the traffic on South Africa’s roads to communications on an electronic network: the traffic lights, stop streets and traffic circles are the routers trying to optimise and regulate the flow of traffic. An example of the different systems working together is that there will be one system highly focused on traffic control and optimising the flow of traffic, while there is a different system taking care of certain aspects of healthcare in the community. These systems have nothing to do with each other, but they 32
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are collectively seen as the so-called IoT. “We haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of what a fully intelligent interconnected city will look like in 20 years’ time, nevermind in 100 years! However, regardless of what innovation does occur, or what specialised systems will be developed, you will always need a reliable communication infrastructure which is what we specialise in,” adds Van Niekerk. To take this a step further, he also believes that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will be core to virtually everything in terms of smart and connected cities. “There will be very few – if any – systems that will rely on predefined rules and processes as envisaged by their developers.” For traffic control, you develop a system that will by definition have a combination of AI and ML which will adjust the flow of vehicles better and better over time. The system will automatically adjust and calibrate itself depending on the time of day, time of year, school and university holidays and the seasons. Traffic flow will automatically be regulated and altered every minute of the day to optimise the traffic as it is at that point in time. That is fundamentally a practical application of AI and ML, so that systems will adapt depending on the current circumstances and the area of specialisation to which they are applied. “Whatever we predict for the future, taking into account AI, ML and different verticals, it is going to take more than one system to integrate all the IoT systems needed for a smart city. At the heart of any smart city there needs to be a reliable communications backend to drive the processes unhindered and connect devices.”
“ T HERE W IL L BE MORE T H A N ONE A P P L IC AT ION T O F UL F IL L A L L T HE IO T NEED S REQUIRED OF A SM A R T CI T Y A ND I T S P OP UL AT ION. I T W IL L REQUIRE NUMEROU S HIGHLY SP ECI A L ISED V ER T IC A L S W I T H S P ECIF IC REQUIREMEN T S T H AT T HE Y F UL F IL L .”
Digital innovation for an easier future
By: Phathizwe Malinga Acting CEO, SqwidNet
A digitally innovative smart city will grant its citizens creative freedom to build a quality future.
Future I subscribe to the notion that we create our own future. Through a series of daily micro decisions, whether individual, as a collective or as a society, we consciously shape what tomorrow will look like. If my notion is right, then the question I would rather ask is: "What should a future that I want to live in look like?" And my answer is: one where the quality of life is better than yesteryears. A better quality of life can be seen by a society that pursues happiness, rather than spending hours trying to secure the basic needs for survival. Things like safe water should be available on tap, pun intended. Things like safe renewable energy should be ubiquitous and cost far less than energy solutions available today. Smart A smart city is one that becomes a net positive consumer. An example of this would be the Svart Hotel in the Arctic that will produce more renewable energy than it will consume over the next 60 years. A smart city recognises that shared resources are finite and takes steps to ensure that these resources are used sparingly, so that they may continue to benefit not just us, but our children's grandchildren as well.
A smart city ensures that it is aware of these resources, their condition or levels at any point in time, so that it may proactively protect them. Digital A smart city increases its shared resource awareness through constant monitoring, and digital is the biggest enabler of this. Digital today is finally able to allow a company to, at a very low cost, connect all its assets, be they fixed, in-transit or remote. Today's digital solves the problem of where to keep all of this Big Data that is generated all the time by all of these assets. The answer is cloud. The cloud offers one the ability to store and access large amounts of data from anywhere in the world. Innovation Not only will this future be digital in order to be smart, but it will enable citizens and societies to innovate. And this is the key. Innovation is about improving how you do something. Once you have all this data in your cloud, you can look for patterns in behaviour that can inform your city on how to stretch these shared resources further. You can empower society itself with these insights so that they change their behaviour for the better. We have seen insurance companies like Discovery Insure empower its members to become better, safer and less risky drivers and this has resulted in lower claims for the company and a better quality of life for the rest of us – non-members included. Imagine such a model weaving itself into every fabric of society to make us better users of shared resources like water, electricity and air quality. SqwidNet not only imagines this future, but we consciously work towards it. We do this by providing South Africa with an IoT network that is nationwide and business-grade. Our IoT network allows for society to connect all its assets at the lowest cost possible. Non-powered assets can be connected in a way that makes the battery last for an average of 5 to 15 years. And for assets in-transit, our technology cannot be easily jammed, allowing for assets under distress to always be able to ask for help. And all of this is only made possible by the reputable ecosystem of channel partners who have been trusted and remain trusted technology partners to South African businesses. This is the future smart, digital city that we live and create every day. JULY/AUGUST 2018 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A
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CONNECTING CITIZENS The building blocks required for a bright digital future include interconnectivity and data sharing. SAP Africa is leading the way in creating a prosperous and connected society. By: Paige dos Santos, Digital Lead at SAP Africa
Close to 64% of the South African population resides in urban centres, and this number is steadily climbing. City infrastructure is constantly stretched and service delivery frequently slips. As fiscal pressure mounts, it is imperative that the public sector finds mechanisms to reduce costs and improve service delivery within urban centres. Correctly implemented, the connected citizen concept presents a remarkable opportunity to create impact across multiple spheres. There is much to be gained by better understanding citizen behaviour and engaging and empowering South Africans to play a more active role in their communities. We need to make sure we build towards creating a digital South Africa that makes these opportunities tangible. Connecting citizens enables the public sector to communicate effectively with the population, pre-empting certain events and making sure citizens are notified of critical information. But the opportunity goes further than just being able to send and receive information. As the general population spends more and more time on smartphones, this captive audience provides the perfect vehicle to shape and drive a better tomorrow for our country. Through the utilisation of behaviour design techniques, we can better understand how citizens make decisions, shaped by social bonds, choice framing and circumstance. This insight can be used to reward positive citizen behaviour, creating more impactful policies, and stimulating community upliftment. By creating a single point of connection with
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citizens and providing value to their daily lives, the public sector can initiate a process of stimulating positive behavioural changes in line with broader policies. In addition to this, the ability to understand how citizens move through the various systems, both digitally and physically, offers a myriad of costsaving opportunities. Information collected can be used to create easy-touse self-serve options. As reported by The Economist, a digital transaction is typically 20 times cheaper than one by phone, and 50 times cheaper than a face-to-face transaction. Streamlined digital interfaces also save citizens considerable time and effort. In Boston, just moving paper forms online is estimated to have saved citizens almost 10 000 hours. In a South African context, where many citizens spend long hours queueing for a variety of public services, often taking unpaid leave from work, the impact is even more notable. The vast and rich data pools that can be collected across multiple channels can reveal many insights regarding societal needs and opportunities. The public sector’s response to meeting the needs unearthed by such data sets will understandably be limited to the resources available to build or deploy suitable solutions. These constraints provide an opportunity to create platforms for Application Programming Interfaceenabled (API) entrepreneurship. By providing entrepreneurs with secure API access to anonymised data sets, social enterprises can be incubated, providing for the needs of citizens and cities. However, bringing these benefits to life is not as simple as implementing one or two systems and solving the data access barrier. To take advantage of the considerable benefits of enabling truly connected citizens, we need to get the fundamental building blocks right.
CONNECTED GOVERNMENTS BEFORE CONNECTED CITIZENS With many government departments making moves towards enabling connected citizens, pockets of excellence are emerging. The true value lies in being able to connect data from multiple government departments in order to generate deep insights and identify areas where value can be created, and costs saved. Integration with multiple back-end systems remains a reality. Making this less complex is a priority.
CITIZENS NEED TO TRUST BEFORE THEY ARE WILLING TO CONNECT In 2018, SAP asked a group of representatives from more than 45 countries what they wanted from their future cities. The results painted an interesting picture: many millennials wanted more efficient public transport systems, but at the same time, they were unwilling to engage with services that invaded their privacy. Trust and transparency is imperative to effective citizen engagement. Customer identity and access management platforms such as SAP Data Cloud enable citizens to see exactly how their data is being used and manage their preferences instantaneously. According to a 2016 report by Accenture Interactive, 70% of individuals will opt in to allowing data use – provided they know how it is being used.
UNLOCKING CITIZEN POTENTIAL THROUGH A FOCUS ON DESIGN Citizen engagement can be a powerful tool in creating positive change in societies. Engaging citizens to drive positive
behavioural change requires more than just an omni-channel communications plan. It requires a focus on the psychology of what makes communities tick. Utilising behavioural design techniques in campaign design can lead to higher levels of impact in shorter periods of time. An example of this is a water shortage crisis that took place in Columbia. Initially, a state of public emergency was declared and a traditional communication programme warning inhabitants of the coming crisis was launched. This only increased water consumption and hoarding. A change in strategy saw the government sending out volunteers to explain the best water conservation measure, publicising daily water consumption figures and naming those who were cooperating with the effort, as well as those who were not. The result was reductions in water usage that persisted long after the crisis was resolved. To reap the benefits of a connected citizen strategy, we need to implement cohesive technology strategies, and combine these with a deep understanding of human behaviour. Such an approach paves the way for a connected future where we can effectively measure the impact and value trade-offs of policy decisions. A future where our leadership has the transparency required to make investment decisions that propel our country forward, and every citizen feels empowered to make a meaningful impact.
“ CONNECTING CITIZENS ENABLES THE PUBLIC SECTOR TO COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY WITH THE POPULATION, PRE-EMPTING CERTAIN EVENTS AND MAKING SURE CITIZENS ARE NOTIFIED OF CRITICAL INFORMATION."
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FAST COMPANY DRIVES
A force of nature The Maserati Levante shares its name with a temperamental wind that blows across the Mediterranean, but can this powerful Italian SUV be everything for everyone? Walter Hayward spends a day with the new turbo-petrol S version to judge its all-round ability.
It was the American composer Lin-Manuel Miranda who once tweeted: “You stare at your coffee, hoping it gives you perspective and sanity, and the ability to make sense of it all, and that’s a lot to ask of your coffee.” As I pay for my takeaway cup of filter coffee, I gaze at the parked Levante S across the street. Perhaps we’re asking a lot from Maserati’s first SUV. Can it truly be the spacious, 5-seater family off-roader with a sporty disposition we’ve come to expect?
EXTERIOR It certainly has kerb appeal. Its front features the trademark Maserati grill that gapes like a basking shark, flanked by slim bi-xenon headlights. The iconic trio of vents is found on the front wheelguard and the car has powerful rear haunches. It’s modern and sleek, and fits in perfectly with other high-end SUVs. From the long, sweeping bonnet to the pert rear, the entire car has a unique wedge shape, with the Italians claiming it has the best aerodynamics in its class. The Levante can be described as ‘exotic’ without being ostentatious. Pillarless doors are a rarity in the SUV market, adding to the car’s appeal, though you’ll have to train yourself not to touch the glass and leave oily fingerprints everywhere. The Levante is available in GranLusso and GranSport trim with the former recognisable by metallic-look front skid plates and roof rails, GranLusso badges on the front wings, black-painted brake callipers and 20-inch Nereo wheels. More sport-biased, the GranSport models have a gloss black front grille, skid plates and roof rails, GranSport badges, redpainted brake callipers and 21-inch Anteo alloys. JULY/AUGUST 2018 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A 37
FAST COMPANY DRIVES
INTERIOR The Levante’s interior boasts gorgeous craftsmanship and sumptuous leather throughout: exactly what you’d expect from the Italians. In GranLusso trim, you have the choice of an Ermenegildo Zegna silk and leather combination interior or, if you’re more sensible, fine grain Italian leather upholstery. The GranSport features sportier fittings inside, including sport seats, a sport steering wheel with gearshift paddles and carbon fibre cabin trim. Both trim levels
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have 12-way electrically adjustable ‘comfort’ seats, though, after driving the Levante for a day, even its standard lumbar support couldn’t soothe my aching lower back. They’re lovely to sit in and touch, but longer journeys will see you having to get out and stretch. Maserati didn’t skimp on interior features, however. The Levante is a veritable tech fest with a lovely 8.4-inch touchscreen with navigation and smartphone connectivity, automatic climate control, a Harmon Kardon premium
sound system (blasting Vivaldi never sounded this good) and a panoramic sunroof. They’ve also included all-round parking sensors and a 360-degree camera system that make squeezing the giant into a parking bay so much easier. Rear passenger space is average for the class, with knee- and headroom being forsaken for aesthetics – and the intruding sunroof. The boot is on the smaller size compared to rivals, and thankfully features an electric tailgate as it raises quite high up and out of reach.
As an option, you can customise your Levante with an Ermenegildo Zegna silk and leather interior.
PERFORMANCE This is arguably the Levante’s best feature, the Ferrari-built 3.0-litre twin-turbo direct injection engine, with 316 kW and 580 Nm of earth-moving thrust. I had to shut Vivaldi up at one point as the aural experience from the glorious V6 was unparalleled. The pure power and allround flexibility of the bespoke engine make for a grin-inducing experience. It emphasises its sporty credentials in a way that’s as certain as a slap in the face. The petrol-powered S feels like a much more balanced car than its diesel counterpart. According to Maserati, the S can blast from 0-100 kph in 5.2 seconds and reach a top speed of 264 kph. Its smooth 8-speed ZF auto gearbox has been upgraded too, providing even quicker shifting that was evident from the near seamless acceleration up a mountain pass. Driving this uber-SUV, I never felt out of depth thanks to its power distribution via the Q4 Intelligent All-Wheel Drive system. The exhaust system, the source of the Levante’s aural signature, is controlled by pneumatic valves that can alter the noise levels depending on which of the three drive modes you’ve selected – Normal, Sport, and Sport Plus. Needless to say, it becomes more verbal with each ascending mode. Also worth noting is the standard active air suspension, which provides six different height levels, the highest for off-roading and lowest for when you’re feeling naughty. The Levante’s ride comfort is exemplary in any of these levels, despite it riding on 21-inch wheels. For the 2018 model year, the Levante range has switched to a new electric power steering system, replacing the old hydraulic setup. The manufacturer says this system better supports the different driving modes and supports a number of new driver assistance functions. The steering feels a bit numb on the highway, but becomes beautifully weighted when you start throwing it around corners.
0-100 KPH in 5.2 seconds
TOP SPEED
264 kph F E R R A R I - B U I LT V 6
316 kW & 580 Nm
Active air suspension
20-inch wheels
PRICE
R1.95 million “ T HE L E VA N T E C A N BE DESCRIBED A S ‘E XO T IC’ W I T HOU T BEING O S T EN TAT IOUS.”
VERDICT The Maranello-powered turbo-petrol S derivative definitely adds to the Levante’s charm. If you want agility, exclusivity, and Italian heritage in an SUV, this Maserati ticks all the boxes. It even affords you the luxury of bringing the family along with you. However, the exclusivity of owning this all-round performer comes
at a price – the S derivative starts from R1 950 000 and with some enticing optional extras, it could cost you close to R2.3 million. Nevertheless, asking the Levante S to be everything for everyone is unrealistic, yet it comes surprisingly close. Who knew Maserati’s best car would be an SUV? Price correct at time of print
Art credit teekay
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REDUCING RESISTANCE TO CHANGE
As large scale digital transformation projects are mobilised within global organisations, one can’t forget about the impacts of this change on the end user. A user will either accept or resist a change in ways of working on new technology depending on how well the organisation prepares them for the change.
By: Michael O’Carroll, Associate Director – Strategy Execution and Change, PwC South Africa
The resistance to a new change can be measured on a ‘change curve’ where the user moves from denial to resistance to eventual acceptance. In the middle of this transition to a new way of working is either a deep or shallow resistance trough. The depth of this trough can be reduced if the organisation works with its people in building trust that the value promised to them will be realised with time. With this trust, the user is then willing to shift from denial to acceptance with ease and invest personal time in changing old behaviours. Building this level of trust requires more than communicating the value of new technology which is being deployed. An overarching change management and strategy execution programme needs to abide by the below human-centric principles, which will help flatten the change curve through the transitional challenges:
1. PAINT A CLEAR PICTURE OF THE FUTURE If a person understands where they are heading and believes in the future state of working, then any new process or technology aligned to this vision seems more palatable to adopt today. An example of this would be defining a simple four-year vision on how work will be conducted in the future, taking into account applicable personas impacted.
2 . S H OW T H E VA LU E O F T H E C H A N G E Trust requires more than just telling someone about a future vision – people need to be showed, through demonstration, the value of the pending transformation and success stories along the journey. Experiential demonstrations or gamification of the new technology has the ability to connect with people and at the same time show the value of the change. Instead of training people to install the technology, get them to interact with colleagues and compete in teams to complete certain activities in the solution. These games show the user an experience which is hard to forget and helps with the adoption challenges post deployment.
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3 . L E A D P E O P L E T H R O U G H CHANGE The leadership of an organisation can’t expect to reduce the resistance phase of the change curve by telling others to act while not leading the change themselves. Role modelling the adoption of a new way of working from the top has the power to break old habits and help those who have made the effort to transition. Leadership endorsement and adoption of new ways of working also gives a leader the self-awareness to acknowledge the pros and cons for the transition period. People relate to a transparent adoption experience with self-aware leaders working with them through the transition period.
4. MAKE THE EXECUTION OF ST R AT E GY O BV I O U S As the user transitions through the digital transformation journey, they need to see where they have made progress. Trust is developed as people see and feel that progress is being made. Regular town halls and internal corporate communications campaigns can showcase the status of the business transformation projects and new value created. Not only internal, but also external marketing of the successful transition to a new way of working will be valued by future talent and customers.
5. VA LU E T H E U X The installation of a new cloud solution brings an opportunity to change and simplify an old process and consider the end User Experience (UX). The simplicity of Twitter personified the user experience by only allowing a short sentence to be tweeted with two simple clicks. They could have included more functionality but the user didn’t require it. Less is more if the basic user needs are addressed. Large scale Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) installations should follow a similar approach, keeping things simple and aligned to user needs. 42 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY/AUGUST 2018
6. STORYTELLING
“TRUST REQUIRES MORE THAN JUST TELLING SOMEONE ABOUT A FUTURE VISION – PEOPLE NEED TO BE SHOWN, THROUGH DEMONSTRATION, THE VALUE OF THE PENDING TRANSFORMATION AND SUCCESS STORIES ALONG THE JOURNEY.”
It’s inhuman to value perpetual change as nobody loves the idea of being in a constant state of transition. Therefore, people need skills to accept that change is made up of iterative and progressive versions of the final state. This agile approach helps deployment teams and end users accept the continual improvement mindset, rather than perfection from day one. Training programmes in agile methodology or iterative experimentation can help users transition through the change curve. However, more important to training in this area, would be the use of storytelling from senior stakeholders talking about how, from personal experience, change was okay and how they pivoted around roadblocks towards realisation of new value. If business transformation projects take into account the above human-centric principles, then the resistance to change can be reduced. Once these principles are mastered, trust starts to build with the employee who in turn starts to accept that any new change is a good thing and will, with time, bring new value. This is evident in global technology companies like Google or Apple, where their annual customer events are attended by people from around the world. These exciting, well-marketed events are in theory new technical solution enhancements released by the company which carry very little, if any, resistance to change from the end user. This is mainly due to the fact that users have developed a level of trust that anything new from Google or Apple will be aligned to their needs and offer a great user experience. This trust, challenged at times, has been built over many years of successful deployments or enhancements, making the product’s end user ‘change ready’ for anything new that is released. Companies like Google or Apple can focus their efforts on leading users into new ways of working rather than pushing or forcing them through a resistance period of adoption. The lower the resistance to change, the higher the adoption of a new way of working plus a larger return on investment. For global organisations, wanting to rapidly transition to new ways of working, they need to place these human-centric change principles at the heart of large-scale business transformation projects.
Priming the future workforce We can’t predict the future, but we can help prepare those who will work in it. By: Professor Alwyn Louw, President and Academic President, Monash South Africa
For most people, the year 2028 seems like the very distant future. But when you consider that 18 years have already passed since the prospect of a new millennium had the world in a panic over what would happen to their computers and data, the next 10 years are sure to fly by at a similarly eye-watering pace. Interestingly, while the number of days per year is never going to change, the pace at which the world changes every day is guaranteed to keep accelerating. While it’s possible that predictions of driverless cars, wearable smartphones, and voicecontrolled appliances will have become our lifestyle realities in 2028, the one area in which complete transformation is guaranteed, is the world of work. Thanks to a combination of elements, not least of which are rapid technological evolution, massive urbanisation, and fast-diminishing energy, water and food resources, the relationship between industry and broader society is set to quickly and radically change. This is the true impact of the so-called ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’, not just that the role of technology is growing, but that this increasing technological impact demands a completely new way of thinking about the work we do and the impact we have on society through it. Of course, it’s very difficult to contemplate this future when we can’t really define it. For example, it’s been posited by numerous trend analysts that the hottest, most sought-after jobs in 2028 don’t exist yet. Then there are the other transformative forces that will shape the way we work in a decade’s time, the most notable of which are almost certain to be the prioritisation of innovation over function; the massive growth of large corporations, but the shrinking of physical work spaces as remote and contract employment arrangements reduce on-site staff counts; and the rising importance of social and environmental sustainability commitments as the essential cornerstones of employee, employer, customer and investor value propositions. Most analysts broadly agree that these workplace changes are inevitable, but the one area in which futurists appear unable to reach consensus is whether or not the stellar advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation will mean that, in 10 years’ time, robots are performing the majority of functions currently done by humans in the workplace. While this is understandably a source of worry for those who feel their roles could be done by robots, the fear of robotic advances is typically tempered by the argument that the rise of
technology and AI will, in fact, create untold new work opportunities. These will, however, be very different in shape, form and function from the jobs most people currently hold. All of this begs the question: how can the learners and students of today ensure that they are prepared for future work roles that can’t be clearly defined? Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer. There’s also no denying that universities, governments and employers have a vital role to play in helping today’s students become tomorrow’s thriving employees, managers and leaders. The first, and arguably most important, step towards delivering on that responsibility is to focus less on leveraging technology and automation as merely a means to greater profitability, and more on how the workforce of the future might engage with technology for the mutual benefit of corporations and society. Ultimately, it matters little what the world looks like in 10, 20 or even 100 years’ time. What’s really important is that the people who live and work in that world have been equipped to stay firmly in touch with their humanness. So, while robots may be doing a lot of the work, and the concept of full-time employment for life will probably have become somewhat archaic, the focus of the workplace should, and will, always be on people. More specifically, that focus will need to be on how to best equip and enable employees to engage with technology to achieve the types and levels of outputs that we probably cannot contemplate today. This means that preparing today’s young people to be productive employees tomorrow, will require a shift in education focus and employment criteria from purely academic-based learning outcomes, to the demonstrable ability to access and leverage knowledge, acquire, adapt and grow skills sets, and engage meaningfully with others and the world at large. Because, while competition, capitalism and commoditisation may well be at alltime highs by 2028, an agile and innovative human workforce with a sincere commitment to ethics, sustainability, fairness and the greater good, will ultimately always differentiate the successful future organisation from the failed one.
“ T HERE’S NO DENYING THAT UNIVERSITIES, GOVERNMENTS AND EMPLOYERS HAVE A VITAL ROLE TO PLAY IN HELPING TODAY’S STUDENTS BECOME TOMORROW’S THRIVING EMPLOYEES, MANAGERS AND LEADERS.”
Professor Alwyn Louw is the President of Monash South Africa (MSA). He brings more than 20 years of academic and management experience to his role and is responsible for the academic leadership of the organisation. A sociologist by training, Louw is passionate about driving social change and development through academic innovation and technology. He is committed to strong learning outcomes and a student-centred approach. JULY/AUGUST 2018 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A 45
Uplifting Africa’s Tech Entrepreneurs Now in its 10th year, the Melt water Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) is a pan-African training programme, seed fund and incubator for technology entrepreneurs in Africa, providing investment and critical skills training in soft ware development, business and communications. By: Elske Joubert MEST is celebrating their 10th anniversary this year. What have been some of the ma jor challenges and successes? In our 10 years on the continent, MEST has invested over $20 million (R278m) in total, funding more than 50 companies, with nearly 300 entrepreneurs trained. We’ve also had four exits and have seen over 400 highly skilled jobs created through our incubator companies. Today, we’re excited to say we are truly the first pan-African tech incubator of our kind. We’ve expanded across
the continent, launching incubators in Lagos and Cape Town, with Nairobi and Abidjan to follow. Each territory has its own unique challenges as each tech ecosystem is unique. We’re fortunate in that we have highly experienced teams leading each hub, and they are driving incredible growth and impact. You recently held a summit in Cape Town focusing on technology companies looking to scale into new African markets. What were some of the outcomes?
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The goal is to bring together African entrepreneurs, corporate executives, global investors, media and hubs that are driving real change and growth across the continent, and we feel we accomplished that at this year’s summit. This year it also served as a celebration of MEST Africa’s 10 years on the continent, highlighting our portfolio companies, as well as the partners we’ve collaborated with over the years. We feel the continent was represented well – from Nigeria, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire to Kenya and
South Africa – resulting in well-balanced and fruitful discussions. From agritech to blockchain to fintech, we were able to dive deep into some of the core topics around innovation on the continent and cover them from a panAfrican perspective. We discussed how we can collectively pave the way for more female founders to take positions of leadership, ways we can shape forprofit businesses to also focus on impact, and how new technology is enabling digital cities to work harder for urban populations. The pitches were incredibly successful. Following presentations from some of our all-star MEST portfolio company founders, including Asoriba, Amplify, Leti Arts, Qisimah, TroTro Tractor and AF Radio, the summit concluded with the
finals of the MEST Africa challenge, a pan-African pitch competition that sought out the continent’s most promising scaleups. Nigeria’s Accounteer, a smart accounting software, was announced as the winner and welcomed into the MEST family. One of the topics covered at the summit was on leading women in Africa. What are some of the challenges that women in tech often face? The Female Founders panel was inspired by the founder of the Africa Technology Business Network, Eunice Baguma Ball, who recently launched #FoundingWomen, a book showcasing 20 leading African female founders and their journeys to building successful technologies. The panel,
Above: Aaron Fu, MEST Managing Director. Left: (from L-R) Jorn Lyseggen, Yusuf Kaka, Peter Awin, Mary Mwangi, Russel Luck, Adegboye Niyi and Julien Decot. Opposite page: MEST judging panel.
which gathered some of the leading female founders in the African tech space, expanded on the conversations started in this book. The discussion touched on the underrepresentation of women in the African tech space, and how inclusion was vital for the socioeconomic development of the continent. The panellists themselves highlighted some of the real challenges they have faced as female founders and offered insight into what we can do collectively to open doors for young women who aspire to be on that stage, as the reality is, it’s still not an easy road. They also spoke about the challenges all founders face – irrespective of gender. Another interesting topic is music tech.
How are African artists working to get a foothold in new markets? We had a phenomenal panel on Creative Meets Tech. In terms of music, MEST portfolio company Qisimah, for instance, is really making waves by using data to help artists better understand their audience, collect their royalties and discover the best markets for their music. They’ve brought radio stations online across the continent and are collecting data around radio airplay, which is provided to all stakeholders in the music industry – for the first time in Africa. They’re empowering music artists to receive consistent royalties. Tech has enabled artists to take control of their own artistry and choose to align themselves with the right partners.
In your opinion, what can startups do to forge new relationships with corporates and find strategic partners? Our panel on Cracking the Corporate Code launched into a great discussion on this topic. It really is a twoway street. For Merck’s Munya Chivasa, who heads their accelerator programme, they decided to work with external partners, partly to change the thinking internally. So they leverage their existing resources with amazing external ideas from startups. He sees value in partnering with startups as it will allow Merck to learn from their digital and agile innovations that can complement the work their scientists are doing. Getting ideation going means looking at things in a different way, inspiring innovation and creating
workshops to help change the way we are so used to thinking. So, why not work with startups? On the other side, Eyram Tawia spoke about waiting until you are ready as a startup to approach corporates, discussing the challenges he’s seen startups face. He says startups are eager to enter agreements, but can get disappointed with the corporate structure. But to be successful, they need to sit back and observe the process first. If you are a startup, work with corporates when you are ready to scale, not when you just start, and be ready when you start speaking to them. Spend time aligning your mission and vision before you approach corporates. Priscilla Fasoro of Covington encourages both parties not to be daunted by the legal formalities. Once you know
what you are doing and how you plan to engage, she says, a 70-page contract doesn’t have to be daunting, because you know what you are looking for. What is next for MEST? Building businesses that are truly pan-African in nature means that we ourselves need to have a truly pan-African presence and support networks across Africa. We’re off to a great start with Accra, Lagos and Cape Town. I’m excited to announce that we will be launching a full scale incubator in Nairobi, as well as growing our existing teams. We’re also looking to forge even stronger partnerships with corporate businesses on the continent and around the world, who want to connect with and support African startups on the early stages of their journeys.
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Reshaad Sha describes himself as a technology strategist by nature, who challenges the conventional approach of achieving success, both personally and professionally. He has worked in the telecommunications and technology sector for almost 22 years, holding a number of prominent roles, the latest being the CEO of Liquid Telecom. Fast Company SA talks to Sha about the role of creativit y in the IoT industry.
Liquid Telecom is the leading independent data, voice and IP provider in eastern, central and southern Africa. It supplies fibre-optic, satellite and international carrier services to Africa's largest mobile network operators, ISPs and businesses of all sizes. It also provides payment solutions to financial institutions and retailers, as well as award-winning data storage and communication solutions to businesses across Africa and beyond. Could you explain what IoT is and why it has become such an important aspect to businesses, big and small? The Internet of Things (IoT) is the internetworking of connected things (devices, vehicles, buildings, machines, wearables and a multitude of other objects) that can collect and exchange data. This opens up numerous opportunities for innovation to increase productivity, respond to – or even prevent – emergencies; track assets, aid decisionmaking and enhance life beyond what we can imagine. IoT is a key capability that enables digital transformation journeys for
any customer. That customer could be a business, small or large corporation, municipality, national government or a country’s defense force. How would you say the thinking around creativity or creative industries has evolved in recent years? The availability of the increased amount of data has, to some extent, played a role in creative problem solving. I say this because now more than ever, the ability for organisations to make the connections between unrelated phenomena is possible through analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI). In recent years, more organisations have begun adopting a design-thinking approach to product development, as well as problem solving. For complex issues especially, I usually start out with a design-thinking approach. However, I find that to bring a team along the path of design-thinking, we need to start with simpler matters until they get used to the approach. What role does creativity play in harnessing the potential and opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution? The Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is already upon us, demands a creative approach, since the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres are being blurred. The traditional approach in a more resource-constrained world, and with the complexity of what digital makes possible, does require an approach that has creativity embedded in it. Would you say that the marriage of culture, creativity and commerce is what’s necessary for brands to stand out from their competitors? In this era of globalisation, corporations need to be in a position to cater for what current and future customers require. Creativity, innovation and what technology makes possible must be key considerations for corporations. How does Liquid Telecom use creativity in problem solving? I have just started at Liquid Telecom and am thus still learning about the various approaches. However, I know that I will drive a design-thinking approach to both problem solving and innovation in the organisation.
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PROPERTY INVESTING SIMPLIFIED Propert y mogul Julie Solomon believes investing in real estate should be made more accessible. She chats to Fast Company SA about simplif ying the concept of propert y investment.
The South African property market has seen an increase in the price of the average-sized family home from R75 000 to over R1.2 million in just 22 years – an increase of ±1 650%! It is true that 53% of the world’s wealth is held in real estate and that 90% of all millionaires achieve this status through owning property, but it begs the question: why are more South Africans not purchasing property? It was this very question that led Julie Solomon to launch her real estate investing coaching business, The Wealth Builder. Offering free seminars, her business not only shares the tried-andtested fundamentals of property investing, but also teaches innovative and creative strategies that will allow many of her fellow South Africans to start and grow a multi million Rand property portfolio without having to initially purchase a property. From being a financially broke single mom and
sole breadwinner, to owning a multiple property portfolio, Julie has successfully created and secured her own financial future and is now thoroughly enjoying coaching others to do the same. Julie remembers that it was not that long ago when she had no choice but to send her young daughter to school with only water in her juice bottle because she could not afford juice. It was not long after that that she decided she had to pull herself out of this circle of financial despair for the sake of her daughter’s future. She took Warren Buffet’s quote to heart: “The best education you can get is investing in yourself and that doesn’t mean college or university.” What followed was a highly successful career in real estate, becoming one of the top selling estate agents in Durban, and winning multiple awards and accolades for her achievements. However, it was not until she realised that she had to invest in her own education and had to discover the secrets to property investing that her life finally began to improve for the better. Attending educational property seminars and reading real estate investing books fed this desire to own her own property portfolio. Julie began by purchasing investment properties, typically adhering to the more traditional investment methods of buy-to-let, buy-toflip and building her property investment portfolio. “I prefer the smaller properties, one- or two-bed sectional title units, as rentals are increasingly in demand. I find
the management of them more cost-effective,” she says. “I’ve made mistakes, have learnt from them and I tell my students not to learn from their own mistakes, but to rather learn from mine – that’s a far more costeffective way to do it. In the fast paced world we live in today, we can’t afford the luxury of mistakes so rather just learn from others.” Having purchased her first property at the age of 23, Julie failed to understand the difference between owning her own home and owning an investment property. “It’s not something our parents teach us, simply because they do not know. No one taught them the difference. It’s all very well to buy rather than rent, but we must understand that living in your own property is not necessarily an investment, it is more of a liability. When you rent out a property you own, having your tenants pay the rent, pay your rates and levy, that’s when it starts making you money and not costing you money.” Julie has been involved in thousands of property transactions worth billions over the last 15 years, not only working as a real estate consultant, but also a property investor of which the last four years have been in her own real estate business,
“ I ’VE MADE MISTAKES, HAVE LEARNT FROM THEM AND I TELL MY STUDENTS NOT TO LEARN FROM THEIR OWN MISTAKES, BUT TO RATHER LEARN FROM MINE – THAT’S A FAR MORE COST-EFFECTIVE WAY TO DO IT."
Julie Solomon Property, based in Durban. Julie is now a sought after property coach, trainer, master of ceremonies and international speaker in not only real estate and property subjects, but also training for estate agents in her ‘Brand More Sell More’ series. She empowers others through mindset, passion and inspiration. The Wealth Builder property seminars were launched this year and after a tremendously successful national tour with her strategic partner, Julie has seen hundreds of attendees who are now motivated, excited and educated to build and grow their own wealth through strategic property investing. Julie regularly attends property seminars both in South Africa and the USA and retains the services of a business coach to hold her accountable and to bounce off her creative and energetic ideas. When asked what her secret to her success is, Julie doesn’t hesitate to say “hard work, the willingness to roll up my sleeves and get the job done, integrity, being upfront and transparent, friendly and loving what I do… that’s my recipe! We simply cannot wait or expect anyone to take care of us in our old age, we need to educate ourselves on how to take care of our own financial wellbeing.”
Julie and her free Wealth Builder seminars will be in Cape Town, Gauteng and Durban in July, and Richards Bay, Pietermaritzburg and Durban in October. For more information, visit www.thewealthbuilder.co.za
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THE FUTURE OF AI IN AFRICA: ARE YOU READY? Artificial Intelligence has the potential to uplift struggling African communities, but only if it is used constructively.
By: Obenewa Amponsah & Akiva Beebe
In 2017, the World Economic Forum (WEF) published The Future of Jobs and Skills in Africa, warning that the rise of robotics, automation, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will replace many of the jobs available today. On a continent in which nearly 50% of university graduates are unemployed, this outlook could be devastating; or it could be an opportunity for innovation and growth in new industries – provided we have trained talent with the skills future roles will require. The WEF, alongside the African Development Bank and other entities, has provided detailed insights into how we can immediately address the skills gap and nurture our own home-grown talent, focusing on African solutions to African problems – which will undoubtedly provide solutions for the broader global community. AI, in the words of Thomas Sankara, former President of Burkina Faso, is an invitation to “dare to invent the future”. Yet, the hype surrounding AI often keeps us from productive conversations about it and its potential to advance equitable, socioeconomic development. Elon Musk describes AI as “our biggest existential threat” and the late Stephen Hawking said it “could spell the end of the human race”. Looking beyond these dire predictions, let’s take a more realistic look at AI.
DEMYSTIFYING AI Here’s an AI crash course: most of our AI today is called Artificial Narrow Intelligence, or “weak AI”, because it is highly specialised and solves
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only the problems you give it, such as beating the world chess champion, Amazon being able to accurately predict what you want to purchase, or Rwandan drones delivering medicine. However, don’t be fooled by the term “weak AI” as it was the culprit of the 2010 Flash Crash whereby bots (AI robots) trading on the Dow Jones lost $1 trillion within five minutes and then self-corrected this error within about three minutes. The two types of AI that Musk and Hawking warned against are 1) Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), commonly referred to as “Strong AI”, or “Human-Level AI” and 2) Artificial Superintelligence (ASI), which is perceived as the new data deity that creates provocative debates about “human extinction” or “immortality”. AGI will do all human problem-solving and thinking. ASI is a quantum leap into sci-fi – it’s not just a little smarter than humans, but trillions of times smarter, faster and leaves our slowly evolving brains in some forgotten data warehouse. AGI and ASI are speculative and no one knows when they will be a reality, let alone the consequences they will have on our future. Instead of focusing on sci-fi and getting distracted by the hypothetical, let’s turn our attention to harnessing the opportunities currently presented by AI. Most of us already use AI on a daily basis, whether it’s Apple’s Siri, or Google Maps providing us with the best routes to almost anywhere. We are not ignoring the darker side of AI, which is usually what makes headline news, such as the Cambridge Analytica debacle. Cambridge Analytica used Facebook’s data to manipulate voters’ opinions in the recent US and Kenya elections. Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, deems this a “breach of trust” and it violates US election law. These are complex issues which require in-depth input from regulators, businesses and society, in terms of privacy, transparency and democracy. Rather than oversimplifying these issues here, let’s explore what’s required to design equitable partnerships across all sectors of society, and welldesigned AI.
W E L L- D E S I G N E D A I Well-designed AI helps us with better decision-making in an increasingly complex and globally connected world. Once we’re clear on what problem we’re addressing and what data we can access to build an algorithm, the machine (AI)
becomes our super-smart assistant that sifts through otherwise unmanageable amounts of data to identify relevant patterns and make recommendations. These super-smart assistants can work on our toughest challenges at lightning speed. From forecasting drought and combating climate change, to predicting epidemics like Ebola. Responsible use of AI can help to ensure that scarce resources are efficiently deployed, resulting in greater access to economic opportunities, healthcare, and increased food security. When AI is designed to serve humanity, and is functioning as our super-smart assistant, we can move from being mechanical workers, to unlocking greater creativity. Instead of us being overwhelmed by an info-overload, AI can provide us with time to think differently. Rather than using technology to replace people, we can design it to address our biggest societal problems and achieve previously unthinkable results. In Tim O’Reilly’s masterful book What the Future (WTF) Holds and Why It’s Up to Us he says, “it isn’t technology that puts people out of work, it’s the decisions we make about how to apply it.”
DESIGNING OUR NOBLEST INTENTIONS How we apply AI and other disruptive technologies is indeed up to us. If we are to harness the opportunities presented by AI to realise the vision articulated by the African Union for “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the international arena”, then we must embrace new types of partnerships and new modes of thinking. Ensuring that AI is truly utilised as a tool to advance equitable socio-economic development in Africa, will require rigorous engagement from each of us – so much, that some may be inclined to “sit this one out”. But that would mean being left behind as individuals, countries, and a continent. In the words of American tech executive Sheryl Sandburg, “The upside of painful knowledge is so much greater than the downside of blissful ignorance.” Unleashing the developmental potential of AI will require, among other things, redefining what constitutes a “good” and relevant education for the 21st century; governments reassessing policies, regulatory frameworks as well as public spending priorities; and the private sector committing itself to people over profits, not only in word, but in deed. Are you ready?
A K I VA B E E B E
Akiva Beebe is an expert in digital transformation and culture change. He helps large organisations outperform the competition and redefine their industry. He is the Regional Director for the Centre for Creative Leadership, globally ranked top 10 for developing Fortune 500 leaders, such as Google, PayPal, NASA and Airbus. He is researching the future of work and recently presented in Asia, Europe, North America and concluded with a TED Talk in South Africa titled “Embracing the Inevitable Future”.
O B E N E WA A M P O N S A H
Obenewa Amponsah is the Executive Director of the Harvard University Centre for African Studies’ Africa office. Based in Johannesburg, Obenewa provides strategic and operational leadership for the centre’s work throughout the continent. Her interest is in fostering Pan-African solutions to advance development in Africa and the Diaspora. A life coach, public speaker, and an Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity, Obenewa’s work also focuses on equity and inclusion. JULY/AUGUST 2018 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A 53
BRINGING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO AFRICA Fast Company SA chats to Chairman Roy Bannister and Event Director Nick Bradshaw about this year’s most anticipated AI event, the AI Expo Africa. What is your vision for the AI Expo Africa 2018? To build the largest business-focused Artificial Intelligence (AI) community in Africa, committed to economic growth and social good; and to create a long-term sustainable pan-African forum that will be at the forefront of sharing knowledge across the continent for the greater good of Africa. The AI Expo Africa 2018 will see the largest pan-African AI community gather under one roof with a shared vision of harnessing Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Data Science, Robotic Process Automation and Internet of Things (IoT) for the benefit of African enterprise and startups alike. Why is there a need for a conference of this nature on the African continent? Artificial Intelligence and the Fourth Industrial Revolution are hot buzzwords in the media at the moment, especially given the potential for disruption of all business and government sectors in the future. Businesses are not fully prepared for the disruption this technology will bring, nor do they understand the regional supply base. Businesses need to understand how to implement AI, and harness it for increased efficiency and profitability. The academic and technical communities are well-served with a multitude of events, but there were none that catered to the business community using the format we have created. An event is needed that will bridge the gap 54 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY/AUGUST 2018
between the academic and technical pursuit of AI and its real-world applications. What makes this event different to similar events on Artificial Intelligence? Firstly, we believe the traditional event model is broken and often out of the reach of many companies and delegates purely in terms of the price charged and formats that are run. Secondly, we are building a community; a movement of people focused on the real-world business application of these technologies that aims to be inclusive and represents all aspects of the user community. Our event is merely the manifestation of our rapidly growing AI business community seeking a long-term view to a sustainable AI industry. It’s underpinned by inclusivity, where the biggest enterprise and smallest startup can mix with venture capitalists, enterprise buyers, government, educators, AI talent and ecosystem enablers. We are offering affordability on the entry price for all, allied to 400 free training places for young AI engineers and data scientists, interns and learners. All of these unique characteristics make AI Expo Africa unlike any other event that follows the traditional trade show formula. Will you be looking at Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning etc. in an African context? How will you ensure this? Most definitely, as one of our stated visions is harnessing AI for the greater good of Africa. We’re reaching out to leaders across the continent – from Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and other countries that have excellent innovative AI ecosystems – and looking to include them in our pan-African community. Knowledge-sharing, skills-development and the fostering of a shared vision to harness AI in fields such as healthcare, poverty alleviation, finance, service delivery, agri-business and other sectors, will result in benefits for all. We are also partnering with various ecosystem partners such as Silicon Cape and the Machine Intelligence Institute of Africa to ensure the right people are involved and our message reaches far and wide. What can attendees expect over the two days? We have a packed two-day conference with over 30 keynote speakers. Leaders in the AI field will unpack real-world case-studies for delegates with the aim of promoting the AI offerings available today for businesses and organisations. There will be practical AI, IoT and VR demonstrations, as well as 50 vendors in the Expo Hall, with exhibitors like Hikvision, Di Data, BCX, and SAP. Delegates can also look forward to the Innovation Café, housing 20 AI startups, as well as a free AI workshops, catering to 400 students and engineers.
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Fast Company SA takes a look at the innovative new ideas, services, research and news currently making waves in South Africa and abroad
FACEBOOK ANNOUNCES NEW LIVE VIDEO FEATURES
R&B SINGER AKON LAUNCHES A NEW CRYPTOCURRENCY Cryptocurrency has had its fair share of celebrity backers. Now Smack That singer Akon is coming out with his own cryptocurrency which plays on his name AKoin. The Senegalese musician announced plans for a new cryptocurrency that he hopes will form the base of a radical new city he plans to build in Africa. Like Bitcoin, the AKoin cryptocurrency would function outside the realm of governments and traditional financial institutions, meaning it will “bring the power back to the people”. Akon hopes that the new virtual currency will be at the centre of a “100% crypto-based city” called Akon Crypto City – set to be built in Senegal. 56
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Facebook announced several new live video features that will allow creators to make their live streams more like games with polls and quizzes. The features are similar to those that creators on YouTube have had access to for months through the recent addition of the ‘Community’ tab. These new features could entice established creators to migrate to Facebook’s video platform. According to Facebook, these features will reinvent traditional entertainment formats as more “community-centric”, and noted a trend in more collaborative video consumption that relies on audience participation. YouTube integrated polling and collaboration with audiences when the company announced its Community tab last year. With this feature, creators are able to ask their audiences what they should broadcast next and build anticipation for upcoming video series, for example. New ways to profit from video content will soon arrive on Facebook. The company will allow more creators to add commercial breaks and monthly subscriptions. It will also introduce a new way of finding paid partnerships with a feature known as ‘Brand Collabs Manager’.
FAST BYTES
ICT FIRM UNVEILS R1 BILLION SMART FACTORY Yekani Manufacturing, an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) company, officially launched a R1 billion ‘Smart Factory’ in East London Industrial Development Zone (IDZ). Funding for the project was a combined effort from various stakeholders that included the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), private financial institutions and a significant portion from Yekani’s coffers. The technologically-advanced facility is aimed at pushing the limits of technological innovation. It is an investment that is estimated to create approximately 1 000 jobs, not only for the East London community, but also for the province. The 100% black-owned electronics contract manufacturer and ICT giant has already heeded the call made by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his maiden State of the Nation Address to re-industrialise intermediate cities and stimulate manufacturing in the country.
SCIENTISTS MAP THE GENOME OF TESTICLE CANCER Researchers from the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Centre and a consortium of other institutions have successfully mapped the genome of testicular cancer, the most commonly diagnosed cancer among men ages 15 to 44. The results could help physicians better determine future treatment options for the disease, as well as give patients information about the biomarkers to watch for if their cancer returns. Mapping the testicular cancer genome was carried out as part of the larger Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, an initiative with the goal of comprehensively characterising different types of cancer. By studying the cancers in as much detail as possible, the researchers hope to better understand the relationships between these data types.
WHATSAPP LAUNCHES PAYMENT SERVICES FOR BUSINESSES WhatsApp’s newly launched payment services are being tested by over one million users in India. The Facebook-owned company is working hand-in-hand with numerous banks, the government and the National Payments Corporation of India to expand its payment operations in the country. The Unified Payments Interface-based service, which will come with the addition of chatting and social media, will be in direct competition with apps like Google Tez and Paytm.
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Local conferences, talks and meetups we think are worth attending
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Southern Sun Hotel, Cape Town
Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Sandton
Wanderers Country Club, Illovo, Sandton
Ticketpro Dome, Northriding, Johannesburg
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THE INTERNET SUMMIT 2018
AFRICA’S NEXT CEO Cost of tickets: R1 500pp
Cost of tickets: Free The Internet Summit is an annual multi-stakeholder ICT conference gathering the ICT business and technical community together to discuss issues and challenges specifically in the world of the internet. This year, the aim is to discuss the fifth generation countdown of 5G and the migration and efficiency for better overall network performance within the internet spectrum. The event prides itself in creating platforms to discuss trending topics in the ICT sector, accessibility, crossindustry collaboration, cybersecurity, more connections and the 5G roadmap.
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LEARNING INNOVATION AFRICA
SMALL BUSINESS EXPO Cost of tickets: RSVP
Cost of tickets: R8 950pp Africa’s Next CEO is the continent’s leading executive mentorship and coaching programme. It accords senior and young corporate leaders an opportunity to be mentored by CEOs, directors, and chairpersons from leading companies and organisations. Africa’s Next CEO brings to the stage mentors that think differently and are market leaders in their own right, thus according upcoming executives an insight into the know-how, experience and strategies of leading successful companies and organisations. Africa’s Next CEO aims to catapult the career of young executives to dynamic heights, and to position them to take the reins at the highest level.
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In this disruptive age, learning and digital methodologies are constantly evolving – do you know about and are you using the latest cutting edge innovations in learning? The Learning Innovation Africa conference is designed to showcase what is new and innovative, what other organisations are doing and to create a platform to share best practices. In this year’s event, attendees will be exposed to some of the biggest change disruptors, such as microlearning, gamification, augmented reality, key trends in Africa, next-generation learning technology and demystifying the cloud.
The Small Business Expo is devoted to the development of small and medium sized enterprises, providing an invaluable platform for small businesses to market their services and interact with prominent business leaders and representatives from a number of corporate companies. It’s the ideal platform to stimulate business growth and motivate both current and aspiring entrepreneurs.
FAST EVENTS
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Cape Town Stadium
Kyalami International Convention Centre, Midrand, Gauteng
Cape Town International Convention Centre
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AI EXPO AFRICA
SA INNOVATION SUMMIT
Cost of tickets: R4 900pp
Cost of tickets: R 5 995pp
This year’s AI Expo Africa focuses on real world applications and trends driving the Artificial Intelligence (AI) economy in Africa and seeking to build an AI business-focused community across the continent. With 400 delegates, 27 speakers, 5 keynotes, 4 workshops, 28 AI exhibitors including Innovation Café housing 20 AI startups. The event is aimed at CxO, decision maker, investor and innovator delegates with the primary goal of educating business leaders about AI applications and opportunities impacting the enterprise today, as well as generating real business opportunities for sponsors, speakers and AI startups across the region.
The SA Innovation Summit provides a fantastic opportunity for national and international technology-based companies, entrepreneurs, investors, financiers and other technology commercialisation partners to access the latest and best tech offerings from South Africa’s universities, science councils, and companies supported by the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) and other government and private sector commercialisation support organisations. Apart from its core programme, the summit wants to showcase the coolest and most innovative technologies from South Africa, the continent and the world.
AFRICACOM
SINGULARITY UNIVERSITY SOUTH AFRICA SUMMIT
Cost of Tickets: R 12 150pp
Cost of tickets: R16 500pp Singularity University is a global community that uses exponential technologies to tackle the world’s biggest challenges. With it’s community of entrepreneurs, corporations, development organisations, governments, investors, and academic institutions, the summit has the necessary ingredients to create a more abundant future for all. The summit serves audiences with a range of products to help them understand rapidly accelerating technologies and how to apply them to positively impact billions of people.
AfricaCom is the largest and most influential Africa-focused technology event in the world, bringing together 400 exhibitors, 13 000 attendees and 450 visionary speakers. A business-critical delegate experience incorporates a 16-track conference programme with hot new agenda topics, including blockchain, e-commerce, digital health, agritech and more, plus brand-new networking experiences for 2018. In addition, 400 exhibitors offer innovative solutions to your most pressing business challenges with a showcase of some of the newest technologies across two large-scale exhibition halls.
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TOP 20 UNDER 30 YOUTH ISN'T WASTED ON THE YOUNG. THESE INDUSTRY LEADERS USE THEIR AGE TO THEIR ADVANTAGE, AND PROVE IT'S NOT A SETBACK.
62 PASCALE HENKE
76 NKULULEKO LEGEND MANQELE
64 SIYA BEYILE
78 CYNDY STROEBEL
66 BOITUMELO TUMI MENYATSWE
80 FRANS CRONJE
67 DANIEL SCHWARTZKOPFF
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68 MICHAEL DEON & KYLE HAFFENDEN 69 GIFT LUBELE 70 DOUG HOERNIE 7 2 ZAID OSMAN
BULUMKO NAPAKADE, ASANTE NXUMALO & KEENO KOOPMAN, VELANI MBOWENI
82 KHANYISELA DAYI 83 MICHAEL ZAHARIEV, KIARA NIRGHIN 84 TEBOGO NAKAMPE, LUKE WARNER, MATTHEW HENSHALL
74 BEN SHAW & KYLE BRADLEY
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PASCALE PASCALE HENKE HENKE (28) (28) Founder: Brownie Points, CEO & co-director: The Happiness Network
P OSIT I V E IMPACT Can you give us a brief overview of your business? Brownie Points is an online platform connecting people and corporates to NPOs, driving skilled and unskilled volunteerism and rewarding people for their good deeds. These rewards are ‘brownie points’ that can be converted into over 60 different rewards, like food, data, and investment vouchers. With over 175 000 NPOs in South Africa, Brownie Points will make it easy for you to find an organisation close to your heart and make a difference. I worked as a Business Systems Analyst and co-founded the social impact initiative at GetSmarter before I took the leap to work on Brownie Points full-time in August 2015. Since then, we've had the privilege of being in the top 10 startups of Singularity University's Global Impact Competition in 2016, as well as participating in Startupbootcamp Cape Town's inaugural programme in 2017.
What about this specific industry appealed to you? I love working with passionate people who want to use technology to make the world a better place. For me, there is nothing cooler and more fulfilling than applying your mind to a scalable solution that
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has the potential to impact so many lives.
What have been some of your major challenges and successes? I guess my major challenges were also my major successes. My first major challenge was getting through my first two years as a student, fondly referred to as my "dark ages", and discovering what I really wanted to do. My major successes were starting Brownie Points, building a great team and empowering individuals, non-profit organisations and companies to have more impact. We also launched Africa's Biggest Cleanup, a Shoprite Group initiative that empowers thousands to participate in over 500 cleanups in 10 countries, probably our biggest project thus far.
What’s the status quo of social tech in South Africa? Social tech is definitely on the rise. There is increasing interest to not only make a profit, but to impact society positively while doing so. I believe Africa, including South Africa, is on the forefront of this movement, due to our unique history and social development challenges. More and more social tech businesses
are popping up to solve social and societal challenges with innovative technology. And there is a reason for that: there are challenges with pure forand non-profit business models, which the social enterprise model solves. Technology has the potential to scale impact significantly. There seems to be a growing consciousness on an individual and organisational level to balance people, planet and profit.
How has the role of women in tech advanced in recent years? While there is still huge room for improvement, the rate of women in tech is definitely increasing. I mentor UCT teams and I am always so inspired to see more women taking on the intriguing world of tech. I've also noticed more women taking on project management and analyst roles.
What more can be done to promote women in leadership roles where the tech space is concerned? More exposure to success stories, more guidance and support through mentorship. Essentially, we need to increase awareness and establish a more supportive environment to inspire more women to take on tech leadership roles.
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SIYA SIYA BEYILE BEYILE (24) (24) Fashion designer, blogger, model, influencer
FA SHION-FOCUS SED Siya Beyile has become a household name, but where did your journey begin? Fashion is deeply rooted in the way I experience my own culture. I take great pride in being African. Growing up, my family enthusiastically celebrated cultural traditions. The outfits they wore on these happy occasions really inspired me. I used to think "Wow, I come from African royalty" and soon realised that as people of colour we don't flaunt where we come from enough, probably because we’re too afraid we won’t fit in. Looking at fashion globally, I saw that Africa was embodying the idea of how the world perceives us to be rather than who we truly are – bold and unique. Fashion is an expression of identity and I wanted to make other Africans feel as good as I do about my heritage.
Our identities – to some extent – shape our careers. So who is Siya Beyile, the individual behind The Threaded Man? I’m a young man driven by love; love for those around me, and for God. I care about a lot of things, sometimes so much that it hurts. I’m grounded by my tribe – family and friends – whose love and support have helped me to become the success I am today. I thrive being in a space where I’m
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constantly challenged to grow and become my best self.
You are affiliated with leading brands like Adidas, American Swiss, H&M and Hugo Boss. Let us into your process as a fashion ambassador? In business, I refuse to compromise myself or my platform. I must first understand whether a brand aligns with my values and beliefs before sitting down at the negotiating table. Once I have an idea about what a particular designer or brand wants to achieve, and what role I can play in that purpose, I then ask myself how they can help my own business objectives.
Your brand is primarily concerned with the African man. Have perceptions of black masculinity changed since your involvement in the fashion industry? Yes, I think they have. Men across the race and culture spectrum today feel more encouraged to express themselves through fashion. Long overdue conversations around masculinity are happening, and society is also beginning to accept that being gay, straight or bi isn't a “look” or fashion trend.
You fashion-directed the SAMAs and MTV Africa Music Awards at the age of 22. To what do you attribute your huge success? Listening to your heart can be the scariest thing in the world, but my instincts have led me on some incredible adventures. Often people live according to what is expected of them or what they feel it is they deserve. I don't come from a wealthy family, but I’ve always believed in the power of my dreams and chasing them no matter what stands in my way.
You told the media fairly recently about your battle with depression. What advice can you give young entrepreneurs who find themselves feeling isolated? Being an entrepreneur is really, really tough. Building something of your own while trying to nurture relationships with friends, family and colleagues, takes its toll both physically and emotionally. When body and spirit aren’t aligned, your business cannot thrive. I’ve learned there is no shortcut to caring for your body, heart and mind. It’s important to make time to love yourself; go on holidays, do things outside of your business, exercise and occasionally unplug yourself from the world.
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BOITUMELO TUMI M E N YAT S W E ( 2 8 ) Entrepreneur Comfortable in the startup world and boardroom, Boitumelo Tumi Menyatswe has established herself as an entrepreneur and innovative thinker in an often maledominated tech ecosystem. Her focus combines her technology startup and corporate background to understand and propel answers and frameworks for how ecosystem enablers, like Silicon Cape, can help in growing skills for the digital economy and facilitate wider ecosystem collaboration. Tumi’s passion for entrepreneurship and development constantly fuels her belief that, with a pinch of innovation and a touch of technology, socially driven innovations will provide new opportunities for driving positive and sustainable change in Africa. As a woman in technology and entrepreneurship, she describes success as an ability to inspire people and bring them into a community that moves, shares, connects and imagines together. She is an active contributor to the ecosystem, who lists curiosity, logic and tech as her preferred resources for solving life's biggest puzzles and problems. In addition to her work, she also advocates for inclusion and diversity in the city and volunteers her time at GirlHype, an organisation aimed at increasing the pipeline of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). 66
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DANIEL SCHWARTZKOPFF (29) Founder & CEO: Invictus Capital Serial entrepreneur Daniel Schwartzkopff is a South African business executive with a proven background in the technology and finance sectors. He currently serves as the founder and CEO of Invictus Capital. Invictus specialises in cryptocurrency financial services and provides a complete range of data sciencebacked fund choices for the investor wanting diversified exposure to the cryptocurrency market. Invictus currently has over R1 billion of assets under management. Daniel previously co-founded DataProphet, a venture-capital backed machine learning company. It has an international client base for its defectreducing manufacturing product, Omni, including the likes of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and GKN.
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MICHAEL DEON (26) & KYLE HAFFENDEN (25) Founders: Augmentors Michael Deon and Kyle Haffenden are the founders of the augmented reality, multiplayer mobile game, Augmentors. The game is built on blockchain, putting the player in complete control of fantastical creatures that they own “in real life”. It was founded in 2016 when Michael approached Kyle with a concept that he believed had a ton of potential. They decided to work together to co-found the company and have since accumulated a number of accolades to their name. Augmentors boasts the first
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Shark Tank investment backed in Bitcoin and they held the first-ever token sale in South Africa – the most successful international mobile gaming token sale at the time.
What would you say has been the key to your success? Michael: Having a positive mindset is the most crucial thing for me. If you have a positive mindset and you do what you love, then anything is possible. I also try to make sure that I don’t let important tasks carry over to the next day. I’ll always work as hard as I can to make sure we’re on track. Kyle: I believe that our determination has had a big influence on our success. We’ve always pushed through to find
innovative solutions to challenges. We’ve made the decision to surround ourselves with a team that has diverse skills and viewpoints, which means we have the best support and guidance. We’ve learned to be open to suggestions and to embrace change, and that it’s very important to be transparent with the community – they’re so passionate about the project that it’s good to keep them in the loop.
What is next for you, as individuals and as a business? Both: Augmentors will never be complete, we have such an engaged community that we’ll always release updates and new features.
GIFT LUBELE (21) Founder & CEO: G N LUB, Director: Leadership for S ocial Change Gift Lubele is a young South African leader on a global scale. He is a postgraduate Business Management student at the African Leadership University in Mauritius, the founder of G N LUB, and the director of the Leadership for Social Change at YUVA Academy in Mauritius. He launched G N LUB in 2015, a recycling company that enables people to recycle trash using their smartphones. Collected trash is converted into new innovative products like paper coal, fertiliser and road building material. Lubele believes in a world where trash is seen as treasure. The initiative’s first innovation was a plastic bag carrying device, called the Smart Holder. The device lessens the discomfort of holding a heavily filled plastic bag and is made from recycled plastic.
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DOUG DOUG HOERNLE HOERNLE (28) (28) Educational technologist, philanthropist, humanitarian
CA N’ T S TOP, WON’ T S TOP Your entrepreneurial flair was sparked from a young age – take us back to the beginning. My first taste of entrepreneurship came in primary school at St Stithians College, where I sold school-branded bracelets and donated the proceeds to charity. Later in high school, with the help of some friends and Habitat for Humanity, I raised funds to build a house for a homeless woman. This rewarding experience left an indelible mark, and the joy of making a difference continues to motivate me today.
Can widespread access to information help us to overcome socio-economic challenges in South Africa? Yes, most certainly. Getting material to students is one of the biggest impediments to learning within our education system due to the high printing and distribution costs of textbooks. Mobile technology provides a more affordable alternative to physical delivery of content, especially today, when the vast majority of learners own a smartphone. Rethink’s platform allows easy access to educational
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material for students at any time, in any place.
Your businesses service the education sector, but have already started to expand outside of the EdTech industry. How so? When Rethink Education launched in 2012, we started off providing maths and science content to high school learners using mobile technology. Working in communities throughout South Africa, we were then approached by non-educational organisations eager to deliver content of their own. So we built a system to allow organisations distribution of data-light courses via mobile. Today, we have all manner of clients able to deliver relative content to employees, customers and stakeholders directly to their phones through our platform.
So where does Karri Payments come into the picture? Operating in the education space I became privy to the bugbears in schools for parents, one of which was constantly having to send their children to school with cash
– often in exact amounts – for various activities or events. Their frustration was echoed by teachers who were left to collect funds and track payments, taking up valuable classroom time. Early in 2016, I founded the mobile app Karri Payments, facilitating quick, precise payments to schools. The app tracks which parents have paid for what, when and how. Now partnered with Nedbank, Karri has over 200 registered schools in South Africa and collects payments from more than 250 000 parents. Going forward, we plan to launch collections for other organisations, such as churches.
What piece of advice would you give young entrepreneurs who are passionate about making a difference? There’s opportunity waiting around every corner. I’ve always believed in challenging myself and making the most of every situation I find myself in. Fail fast, move quickly, and don’t be afraid to make big decisions and follow them with absolutely everything you’ve got.
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ZAID ZAID OSMAN OSMAN (25) (25) Founder: Sneaker Exchange (SXC) and Grade Africa
Not everyone has the drive and know-how to turn their passion into profit, but at the tender age of 25, Capetonian Zaid Osman has managed to catapult his obsession for sneakers and streetwear culture into a fully fledged movement that is captivating the nation. As the owner and founder of Africa’s largest sneaker exhibit, Sneaker Exchange (SXC), and the recently released online boutique, Grade Africa, Zaid’s vision to elevate African fashion and sneakers to a global scale continues to go from strength to strength. Less of a 9-5 job and more of a genuine lifestyle, his love for where he comes from and aim to inspire the youth, is what fuels his ventures along the way. Fast Company SA asked the young businessman about his entrepreneurial journey.
Growing up in America, what are some of the biggest differences you’ve noticed between their sneaker culture and that of South Africa? The sneaker culture in the US has always been there. A lot of it is influenced by basketball players and rappers. In South Africa, I guess a lot of it is influenced by the US culture, but also by local people on the streets. Cape Town can relate a lot to the old school basketball
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sneakers – whereas Joburg is more hype-driven.
Is the South African sneaker culture still heavily influenced by international trends or are we seeing more local brands come to the fore? To an extent – we now get a lot of the rare sneakers that release on a global scale, and they sell out instantly. But we are now in a time where the rest of the world is looking at Africa. It is all about changing the mindset of people – an imported brand is still perceived as being better than a local brand, or considered to be of higher ‘status’. Although I think that is slowly starting to change.
Why did you start Sneaker Exchange? I needed money to fund my sneaker store, Lost Property. It was crazy how it came about – I had accounts that I needed to pay, and I didn’t know how I was going to get the money. I also had a lot of my own shoes that I thought I could sell. So I decided to start this event called “Sneaker Exchange” at a small coffee shop in Woodstock, Cape Town. I was quite overwhelmed by the response, as I was only expecting 30 people to attend. 80 people later, and a couple of decent trades and sales, I decided this event needs to go further. I did the event in
Durban, Cape Town, and Johannesburg – then decided to get my partner Tebogo Mogola on board to take it to the next level.
In what ways do you ensure that Sneaker Exchange gets bigger and better every year and how does it remain current? Honestly, when you are so in tune with the culture, you just do what feels right. When it comes to performers at the event, it’s all guys we have a personal relationship with, most of them we’ve sold shoes to as well. However, as the brand grows you need to investigate cool activations and align with brands that are pushing culture as well.
Being a successful business founder at such a young age is not an easy feat. What are some of the major challenges you experience? We are constantly up against corporate companies that have a lot more money to spend. What I see often is they pretty much copy our ideas and try to do the same thing. However, it lacks culture. The way I look at it is that they are working a 9-5, we are living a lifestyle.
What is your business philosophy? Just have fun and inspire people to be the best they can be.
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BEN SHAW SHAW (27) (27) AND AND BEN KYLE BRADLEY BRADLEY (26) (26) KYLE Founders: HouseME
YOUNG, DRI V EN A ND A MBIT IOUS Technology has a major impact on how we live our daily lives, including how we experience the world around us. It is therefore not surprising to see more and more (firsttime and highly experienced) entrepreneurs taking advantage of the unique business models made viable purely by the power of technology. Ben Shaw and Kyle Bradley are two such entrepreneurs. The duo combined their diverse professional backgrounds and gave life to their startup, HouseME.
Every business seeks to solve a problem or simplify a process somehow. What inspired you to team up for HouseME? Ben: My experiences with finding rental accommodation always left me feeling quizzical as to whether a fair deal had been struck. Neither I nor the landlord knew the right price, and most certainly a big factor to successful placement was whether he or she made a positive snapjudgement on my ability to pay. These experiences – as well as watching friends of mine have tremendous trouble finding places to rent due to unfair discrimination – became the core problems that HouseME stood to solve. Kyle: Even though I was
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part of the initial team at my previous company, the idea and vision weren’t my own, which ultimately led me to lose interest. One weekend, while looking through my idea book (notes all over my PC) for inspiration, I ended up developing a product and started on an idea called MomentUs during my off-time. It was around this time that Ben approached me around the initial concept of HouseME. I decided that it was time to make the scary but necessary leap of pursuing this idea full-time. It became evident that HouseME was seeing the growth and validation we were looking for.
What is your role in the company, and what has been your biggest achievements as individuals within the company? Ben: We co-founded the company and I am serving as Chief Executive Officer. In a space of about two years, we’ve redefined residential leasing for more than 1 000 clients, grown to a team of close to twenty people, serviced properties across four provinces, and are now growing by 250 users a week. Kyle: My role within the company is technically Chief Technology Officer, but being in a startup and a founder you
end up being involved in all aspects of the business. In this role, I have assisted in raising four funding rounds based on a product I scoped. Between two of these rounds I have had to rebuild and redesign the entire system in the space of six months.
Entrepreneurs wake up to a new challenge every day. In other words, they always have a list of objectives to fulfil. What pushes you to make sure that you get the job done? Ben: I can’t honestly say that running a startup is a healthy, balanced way of life. Reading when feeling tired, having meetings when feeling creative, putting headphones on when I need to concentrate on a single task and being accessible to the team for only certain parts of the day are all great ways to get through a to-do list. I also believe in resolving conflict as quickly as possible, to never leave something hanging over one’s head and affecting sleep! Kyle: A healthy and wellbalanced routine. I have a specific diet and workout – that way when the rest of your life gets hectic, you have that consistency to fall back on. The other example is that I have a strict ‘no work after 10:00 pm’ rule. This allows for downtime.
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NKULULEKO LLEGEND NKULULEKO EGEND MANQELE (29) (29) MANQELE Founder: Bar Leader TV
T HROUGH A NE W-AGE L ENS Durban-born entrepreneur Nkululeko Manqele made his way to South Africa’s entertainment hub, Johannesburg, with a head full of dreams and aspirations. Passionate about the television and film industry, Manqele landed a job with one of the major production companies in the country – a role that perfectly positioned him to learn about the industry. “I have a deep love and appreciation for this particular industry. Looking back, I always had a desire to better it. During the early stages of my career, I often observed how the people I worked with loved the business so much, but could not express themselves fully,” says Manqele.
A new era of television “There was a deep need to create a space that would mean more to myself and to others as well. A space that ensured that creativity is not stifled,” he adds. Simply put, that is how the Bar Leader TV was founded: from a deeply entrenched vision to accommodate concepts and approaches (in terms of creativity and perspective) that the older industry players
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weren’t so keen on. Known to his peers as “Legend”, Manqele has managed to secure a few highly revered and well-received projects with his company. Mostly in the space of reality television, a category of the industry which is still finding its feet in South Africa. “Since inception, I’d say the most outstanding breakthrough for us has been to practically redefine what a company of the future really looks like.”
Smart hiring “My motto in business is that to be a good leader, one needs to equip others to be even better leaders. I always aim to apply this approach to every facet of my business and all other business ventures I want to embark on in the future. This enables my team to have ownership of and accountability for the projects they are involved in,” says Manqele. Manqele believes in creating an enabling environment in order to produce groundbreaking shows. The company has, through various other partnerships, produced shows such as Being Bonang and Living The Dream With Somizi – which were
commissioned by DSTV. He credits the success of his projects not only to the on-screen talent, but also the structures that the company has set up.
A dream realised “I started my business to change the game and I think I did that in a very short space of time. I managed to create a sustainable business model that is unique and innovative in the way it breathes new life into the South African film and television industry,” he enthuses. “Our groundbreaking approach relies heavily on the latest technology. The way we approach each of our shows is intrinsically innovative with the technology we use to produce our projects.” To stay in top form, Manqele harnesses his inspiration in many ways. Whether it is through physical exercise, travelling or engaging with peers from various industries, Manqele finds it imperative to remain flexible. “I try and remain as malleable as possible by alternating my circles constantly and reading as much as I can,” he concludes.
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CYN CYNDY DY STROEBEL STROEBEL (29) (29) CEO: Skyrove
UP T HE L A DDER Starting out as a receptionist, Stroebel considers the developments in her career as a fascinating experience that came with various encounters, allowing her to build a solid foundation for herself. Working her way up in every organisation she has ever been employed in, cultivated her desire for the next challenge, and this ultimately led her to being at the helm of Skyrove.
Started from the bottom “Most of my previous professional roles have consisted of being a receptionist, personal assistant, staff or operations manager and it was in June 2014 when Skyrove saw my potential to take on a new path in sales," says Stroebel. “Taking the path into the ICT industry was not something I was aiming for, but with the business model of Skyrove, I was able to get involved in an aspect of events as well as break into the ICT industry simultaneously. I have never been shy of a challenge or learning new things,” she adds. With her ambition getting bolder with every leap, Stroebel felt the need to break out of the administrative roles she had become accustomed to and try her hand at a more enterprising role. 78
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Turn risk into opportunity That would prove to be a challenge, especially with no corporate background in business development. Shortly after joining the company, the leadership at Skyrove decided to take a chance on her by allowing Stroebel to join the company’s business development division. “I have always been fortunate enough to experience great growth within the company. I started as a sales engineer in June 2014 and became the CEO in January 2017. “I have not only achieved many personal goals, but I’ve exceeded every one when I took over as CEO. My greatest breakthrough to date is turning the company (after 12 years of being in existence) into a profitable and sustainable business,” says Stroebel. Heading up a company puts one in a different position as opposed to being a subordinate, exposing Stroebel to some of the organisational challenges that executives are faced with daily, such as the human factor and helping navigate the company through the unpredictable market climate.
Looking ahead After four years with Skyrove, Stroebel is very excited about
what is on the horizon for the company under her leadership. However, she adds that the only way to achieve those objectives is to maintain the consistent work ethic she has gotten accustomed to. “When I have a task at hand, I hit the ground running until it’s completed. Let’s just say I am quite the perfectionist! A huge frustration in daily business is coming across the mentality of ‘why do it today when I can do it tomorrow’.” While overseeing most of the internal organisational processes, Stroebel believes that being hands-on with the daily running of the company is the main reason she managed to pull Skyrove out of a phase flagged with losses to becoming profitable consistently. Skyrove has been involved with many groundbreaking projects ranging from the launch of the BMW M4 to the Cape Town Tens as the main Wi-Fi provider. “My plan for Skyrove is to continue changing the structure of the business and including new strategies and products. How we started gave us great leverage and knowledge to move forward and grow, but it’s imperative to keep up with trends and ever-changing needs,” she concludes.
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FRANS CRONJE (29) Co-founder & MD: DataProphet Frans Cronje is the managing director and co-founder of DataProphet, a Cape Town-based consultancy, specialising in the development of machine learning algorithms for the manufacturing industry. Since founding DataProphet in 2014, Frans has been involved in a wide range of machine learning projects, spanning emotion recognition with computer vision to eDiscovery with Natural Language Processing. Before starting DataProphet, he completed his Masters of Science in Mathematical Statistics and his Honours in Actuarial Science at the University of Cape Town; in addition to working at the management consultancy, Bain and Company.
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BULUMKO NAPAKADE, (20) ASANTE NXUMALO (21) & KEENO KOOPMAN (19) Runners-up of the British American Tobacco (BAT) ‘Battle of the Minds’ Competition The three finalists’ business proposals were shortlisted from thousands of submissions from over 40 countries. After a rigorous selection programme, Bulumko Napakade, Asante Nxumalo and Keeno Koopman proved their mettle and proudly represented South Africa on the global stage in London.
VELANI MBOWENI (25) Co-founder:LÜLA Velani Mboweni co-founded LÜLA – the mobility-as-a-service platform that focuses on the convergence of public and private transport. LÜLA provides mobile and physical ticketing for passengers and operators and serves as a data and analytics platform to help improve the efficiency and operations of transport companies. “In a nutshell, LÜLA makes commuting from A to B safe, accessible and convenient through
Why did you decide to choose the “Play to Learn” challenge out of all other challenges? We essentially wanted to find a market in which we could develop a product with an edge which would allow us to achieve massive hypothesised growth. We needed to find a market that allowed for seamless penetration and exponential proliferation, and the gaming market fit this criteria very well. One of our team members, Keeno, is passionate about gaming and that further convinced us to choose this topic as we would have the necessary knowledge of the market in order to formulate an exciting business proposition.
intermodal shared transportation across rural and urban environments. Using mobile technology, users are able to pay for transport using their phones through a realtime ‘schedule-less’ experience, whilst operators are able to make sense of their operations through data insights and telemetry at a fraction of the costs." Since its inception, the company has achieved recognition and a number of accolades. The African Union recognised LÜLA as one of five innovations shaping Africa at the 2017 African Economic Platform.
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KHANYISELA D AY I ( 2 6 ) Founder: Accvisory S olutions Khanyisela Dayi has a passion for numbers, and along with grit and determination, has managed to reach the goals she set for herself. In founding her business, Accvisory Solutions, Khanyisela has realised that reaching one’s dreams is by no means a clear-cut journey. “One of my biggest mistakes was not doing proper research and not quite understanding my clients." Khanyisela says she found her entrepreneurial journey to be challenging, but simultaneously is grateful for the fact that she’s learned some important lessons along the way. “I learned to get to know the client first, to research their business and the industry that they are in. Knowledge is power and preparation is key. Whenever I do something or deal with a client, I need to know everything about their business; everything that I do needs to be done with the utmost excellence, therefore research is of extreme importance. Never leave things half done. I found that failure is not the end of the world and you can always re-evaluate your strategy and try again.”
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MICHAEL ZAHARIEV (26) Entrepreneur Known as a driven individual with a strong work ethic, Michael Zahariev believes it’s the combination of these two traits that pushed him to start his own ventures while still studying at UCT. Michael currently co-owns three companies: Luxity – South Africa’s biggest pre-owned luxury retailer, B Online – an advertising agency, and HiCarByeCar, a tech platform that matches car sellers and dealers to ensure consumers are able to achieve the highest price when selling their cars.
KIARA NIRGHIN (18) Protecting the environment through innovation Kiara developed a unique, superabsorbent polymer that holds hundreds of times its weight in water when stored in soil. This polymer is biodegradable, inexpensive and free of harmful chemicals. Made entirely from waste products, it improves the environment, increases the chance for plants to sustain growth by 84% during a drought and can increase food security by 73% in
Would you say that you’ve faced particularly difficult challenges in business because of your young age? A good salesman will use any circumstance to create an opening and differentiate themselves. Me and my business partner’s youth and inexperience have allowed us to be more flexible and accommodating to our clients, giving them a level of service that many companies who are set in their ways wouldn’t be able to do effectively. I also believe in a strong delivery, which has helped us build valuable, long-term relationships.
disaster-struck areas. Since developing the polymer, Kiara has received a number of awards. Today, Kiara actively promotes the importance of protecting the environment through innovation. By the end of 2018, Kiara plans to successfully implement the polymer in her community and explore other solutions for agriculture worldwide. She also hopes to use her international platform to encourage other young girls to pursue innovative solutions to the challenges that their own communities face.
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T E B O G O NAKAMPE (27 )
LUK E WARN ER ( 27)
CEO & co-founder: Africa Business
Founder & CEO: Intergreatme
Integration (ABI) Born and bred in Gauteng and Limpopo respectively, 27-yearold Tebogo Nakampe is the CEO and co-founder of Africa Business Integration (ABI), an Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup that works to provide technologically innovative, virtual and augmented reality solutions to African businesses. “It was in my final year at the University of Pretoria where I was introduced to the Science of Data Analytics and Neural Networks by Dr Alta de Waal,” says Nakampe. Coupled with his work experience as an innovation analyst on a variety of computer vision projects for the Smollan Group, this ultimately laid the foundation for his desire to help African businesses harness their full potential, using specialised intelligence software and systems. With a strong passion for the upliftment of rural communities, Nekampe believes there is an opportunity for AI solutions to level the playing field, not only between Africa and developed nations, but also amongst different regions in Africa in terms of job creation, lower labour costs and productivity in the modern enterprise sector. “Labour costs are generally not lower in African countries than in their potential competitors. If they cannot compete on the strength of low labour costs, they should compete on the strength of their productivity. But African firms are relatively unproductive, and thus there is an opportunity for AI solutions to help society,” he says. Specifically, he mentions Integrating Machine Intelligence and Mixed Reality (MR) technologies as a means to provide employment for African youth at lower labour costs for manufacturing and service firms. Given the global advancements in AI, and the fact that AI and MR makes it possible to deliver “actionable information to any location where work is done – on site, on the shop floor, or in the field,” Nekampe asserts we are truly in the early stages of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
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Luke Warner began his entrepreneurial journey at the age of six, selling products door-to-door in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town. After completing his Honours degree in Electrical Engineering, he spent four years at Standard Bank, where he grew influential relationships and a broad understanding of the banking industry. Intergreatme is an identity verification platform, which supports the ecosystem of personal information and the everyday applications thereof. The company gives you control of your identity and the ability to protect your personal data, so that you never need to fill out forms again. It follows a consent-driven principle, and all transactions and data are encrypted end-to-end, complying with POPI law.
How and where did the idea of Intergreatme originate? The inspiration and drive to build Intergreatme came from three personal frustrations: • Filling out a hundred different application forms in the healthcare industry when my wisdom teeth were removed. • Being asked for FICA/proof of residence on a regular basis when I do not own property or have a utility bill in my name. • Companies like Standard Bank and MTN receiving major fines for not complying with regulation. These were the trigger points to start a business to solve these problems.
Have you found it more difficult to be taken seriously as a relatively younger person in your industry ? At first, yes. It gets easier as you build a team of smart and mature people who support your vision and help you refine and de-risk the business.
Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs? 1. Screw the NDA at first, tell everyone exactly what your plans are, even your “competitors”. 2. Take bold action and sell, sell and sell some more. 3. Get real customers before you build anything technical. 4. Once you have customers, start building the best team to deliver on the promise.
MAT THEW HE N SHA L L ( 27) Co-founder: SkillUp Tutors Laying the right foundations As co-founder of SkillUp Tutors, Matthew Henshall helps run a company that matches students and tutors, focusing predominantly on high school mathematics, science and languages. Matthew has always had a passion for youth empowerment and education, and it was this passion that led him to start his business. “I often tell people that I didn’t start an educational company because my education was perfect. I was fortunate enough to go to a resourceful school, get into engineering at the University of Cape Town and ultimately get on track to where I wanted to go. Imagine having one of the top five education systems in the world in the next ten years, or being one of the safest countries in the world. That’s where we need the youth. They have to fundamentally question their position in the global community.” Good, quality education means the opportunity to lay the right foundations and to put the country on par with its international peers. “The youth of South Africa needs to question everything the way it is currently. The country has a lot of ladders to climb in the global community, and we’re not going to climb it by doing things the same way we always have. We shouldn’t accept that we have one of the worst education systems in the world." He also highlights the dangers of ignoring the hardships that is part and parcel of entrepreneurship. “I think starting your own business is often perceived as easy because you only ever hear about the entrepreneurs that have reached certain newsworthy milestones. The most difficult thing is that it always falls on you: every decision, motivation and daily effort.” His vision going forward? Matthew believes education has so much more potential to be meaningful. “It is an opportunity to equip the youth to be confident, think critically and understand the world around them. South Africa really needs to begin to put goals in place; goals that address education, crime, and health.”
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NEXT By Syed Danish Ali
Certified Specialist in Predictive Analytics
The importance of technological innovation in the actuarial industry The Fourth Industrial Revolution brought about by Artificial Intelligence has caused a tidal wave of possible change in the actuarial profession. Their success will depend on how they adapt to future innovation.
Actuaries were the original data scientists (apart from intelligence societies in the militaries) and insurers were innovators of their time in being data-focused, predating calculators or computers. Current actuarial functions are at full capacity but arguably not at full potential, with the key drivers being an outdated tech stack, being handcuffed to legacy systems and data science methodology creeping in fast. Technology can most certainly be leveraged to impact the actuarial profession. It will depend though on how actuaries react to these changes: Requiring a different mindset: The technologies are not always familiar to most actuaries. It will require a bold mindset that is kept updated due to the rapid pace of these technologies. Having a beginner’s approach instead of expecting to be an expert and open-mindedness to future possibilities is a must. Changes required in skill sets: Programming, strategically evaluating the results of these technologies and understanding the context of the new models is crucial. Enabling different business models: Peer-to-peer insurance, crowd-wisdom pricing insurance instead of traditional, blockchain-based Insurtechs – this is leading to many corporate insurance giants disrupted in various market segments through models which promote a newage social impact approach. Tech changing meta-trends: Technology is radically changing the broader social context for actuaries as well. The future of work is changing due to an on-demand workforce, flexible sharing collaborates, telecommuting and crowd-wisdom startups. The future of education is also changing. Will this ‘secret society of specialised experts’ and logic of professions still be relevant in crowd collaboration and hive-mind theory? And how do actuaries fit into all of these meta-trends? Or more importantly, what is the future of actuaries in the exponential tech society? Is it being augmented or automated away? Will its usefulness be downgraded as a profession? How is the actuarial profession preparing for the tech singularity? How do we encourage risks and 86 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY/AUGUST 2018
“ W E CANNOT BE INNOVATIVE AS ACTUARIES IF THE MAJORITY OF OUR EMPLOYERS ARE RISK-AVERSE AND FROZEN IN TIME.”
innovation rather than labelling it as failures or spearheaded by misfits? We are increasingly prone to being siloed as quantitative analysts instead of corporate leaders. It is rare to find actuaries in Fintech/Insuretech and trailblazing areas. We are thus stepping up and joining the future makers instead of serving the conventional R&D departments, which usually abhor research and futurist thinking. Technology, futurism, emerging risk analysis; these are the frameworks of what we need in terms of mentality. Our usual scientific thinking is too critical and sceptic to allow for innovation. Of course, new startups and trends will have huge uncertainties, but we shouldn’t be looking for definitive proof of success and only then adopting these trends. That is the path to complacency. The traditional culture within an office is shifting. If the culture is risk-averse and the executive committee abhor research people and label them misfits, then the pressure to conform will lead to a few deviant actuaries opting for creating the future. “You are what your employer is”. This is as simple as that. We cannot be innovative as actuaries if the majority of our employers (i.e. insurers) are risk-averse and frozen in time. In our opinion, the South African actuarial industry is not only stepping up to the challenges mentioned, but in certain circumstances leading the charge.
Syed Danish Ali is a Certified Specialist in Predictive Analytics from the iCAS Institute of Casualty Actuarial. He is an expert futurist at TechCast Global and a member of CNN Global NewsView Community. He has over eight years’ experience as a consultant in the Middle East and South Asia, and has recently joined Virtual Actuary.
