Fast Company SA - Dec/Jan 2015 by Fast Company SA

D E C /J A N

SPECIAL BUMPER EDITION

The 2014 World’s

MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES R35.00

DECEMBER/JANUARY 2014/15 FASTCOMPANY.CO.ZA

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9 772313 330006

SA’s Top 25 contenders that can compete globally

GOOGLE LOOKS TO THE FUTURE:

Co-founder Sergey Brin, sporting his Google Glass eyewear

brandinc/56/e

THE RISING TIDE LIFTS

ALL BOATS

- J.F. KENNEDY

Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to the innovators who broke the mold in the past year. Your contributions to business not only changed the face of how things are done, but upped the ante for all of us. From one solutions provider to another, we salute you and are happy to be associated with you and the many who are our clients as well. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to new levels.

011 232 8000

solutions@nashua.co.za

AWARD-WINNING BRANDY COMES FROM THE HEART There’s a secret to creating a truly exceptional brandy. One that plays out amongst the copper pot stills of our Roberston distillery. Here our Master Distiller patiently strips away all the drops that don’t matter, until he gets to the drops that do. What he’s left with is something very special. It’s what we call the Heart of Gold – the purest essence of our brandy, carefully selected from copper pot stills to be smooth and full-bodied. Vat matured for up to 21 years, this is the exceptional craftsmanship you’ll discover in every drop of Klipdrift.

CONTENTS

Google tops the list not for the range of its activities, but because it executes at a high level— repeatedly. (page 22)

December/January 2014/15

THE WORLD’S MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES SA’S TOP 25

Our 2014 guide to the businesses that matter most

Begins on page 20

INTERN ATION AL HIGHLIGHTS

22 No. 1 / Google

For becoming a R385-trillion giant that lets loose almost too many innovations and milestones to count

34 No. 14 / Tesla

For talking smack to steal market share from its competitors

38 No. 18 / Rose Studio, Institute Sarita, Wild China, Mary Ching

For giving China’s swelling middle- and upper classes fresh takes on the country’s rich heritage

54 No. 30 / Philips

GUTTER CREDIT TK

For lighting the way in LED innovation

4 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

Art credit teekay

Contents

SOUTH AFRICA HIGHLIGHTS

64 No. 1 / HealthQ

For quite possibly saving wearables— and us—from an early death

68 No. 2 / Take A Lot

For taking out the Goliaths in the South African e-tailing space

70 No. 3 / Triggerfish

For showing the world that the small fry can also produce internationally acclaimed animated films

79 No. 8 / Propertuity

For transforming degenerated areas into thriving neighbourhood destinations

82 No. 9 / Siemens

For continuing its founder’s pioneering spirit for more than 160 years

84 No. 10 / SteadiDrone For giving us a new viewpoint

100 No. 22 / Cape Town Film Studios

For making the Mother City one of the most desirable filming locations in the world

SnapScan makes transactions simpler, better, faster—and cashless. (page 94)

6 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

Contents

106 Those that almost made the list 108 Top 10 in Africa 109 Top 10 in the UK

REGULARS 12 Editor’s Note 14 The Recommender 110 The Great

Innovation Frontier

We need to change what—and how—we teach our children so that good ideas can grow and develop BY WALTER BAETS

112 Technovore The cloud has a bright future—and it’s only getting started BY OM MALIK

114 Festive Best Buys 116 Fast Bytes 118 Fast Company SA Launch 120 One More Thing Why we must remember to embrace humanity in a digital-mad world BY BARATUNDE THURSTON

8 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

GUTTER CREDIT TK

Why do bright ideas fail to be turned into useful and practical products or services? (page 110)

Art credit teekay

Content Aggregation

Digital Rights Management

Content Archiving

Web Modules

Dynamic Mobile Apps

Innovating new ways to distribute content

100% success

Let us move your digital content together AFRICA’S LEADING DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM: Music • Backups • Corporate Documents • Magazines Newspapers • RSS Feeds • eBooks • Multimedia • PDFs • Video

The World’s media companies TRUST Baobab Suite everyday Utilising Amazon Web Services

PUBLISHER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Robbie Stammers

robbie@fastcompany.co.za

ART DIRECTOR

Stacey Storbeck-Nel

stacey@insightspublishing.co.za

EDITOR Evans Manyonga

evans@fastcompany.co.za

Raymond Biesinger, Gregor Röhrig, David Bloomer

DIGITAL PLATFORMS

CHIEF SUB-EDITOR Tania Griffin

By Digital Publishing Charles Burman, Catherine Crook

CONSULTING EDITORS

BACK OFFICE SUPPORT

ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR

Managing Director: Rita Sookdeo Account Manager: Ghameeda Idalene

keith@insightspublishing.co.za

PRINTER

Louise Marsland & Anneleigh Jacobsen Keith Hill

ADVERTISING MANAGERS Kyle Villet, Zaid Haffajee

OFFICE MANAGER

BOSS (Pty) Ltd

Creda Communications

DISTRIBUTION On The Dot

Taryn Kershaw

SUBSCRIPTIONS

taryn@insightspublishing.co.za

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Shan Routledge

shan@insightspublishing.co.za

SOUTH AFRICAN EDITORIAL BOARD Louise Marsland, Anneleigh Jacobsen, Prof. Walter Baets, Pepe Marais, Alistair King, Koo Govender, Abey Mokgwatsane, Kheepe Moremi, Herman Manson, Ellis Mnyandu, Thabang Skwambane

Joe Mansueto Mansueto Ventures

EDITOR

Robert Safian

PUBLISHER

Christine Osekoski

EXECUTIVE EDITORS Noah Robischon Rick Tetzeli

DIRECTOR, NEW BUSINESS VENTURES Bill Shapiro

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER OF GLOBAL MARKETING

PUBLISHED BY

Bernard Ohanian

Erica Boeke

GLOBAL EDITIONS DIRECTOR MANAGING EDITOR Lori Hoffman

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Max Chakin, Christina Larson, Jon Gertner, Anneleigh Jacobsen, Chana Boucher, Chris Waldburger, Anoeschka von Meck, Liron Segev, Om Malik, Walter Baets, Baratunde Thurston Cover: Greatstock/Corbis Sawdust, Jason Pietra, Kirsten Ulve, Ollanski, Carolin Wanitzek, Mick Marston, Shavonne Wong, Jonathan Snyder, Eduardo Higareda, Noel Spirandelli, Stoav Graphics, Kristiaan Der Nederlanden, Tony Law, Matjaž Tančič, Xiang Sun, Marco Goran Romano, Justin Fantl, Ian Allen, Guillaume Bonn, Nick Meek, Peter Oumanski, Kevin Van Aelst, Dan Matutina,

CHAIRMAN

The incredible team at Fast Company in New York, Bill Shapiro and Sarah Filippi for all their help over Thanksgiving holiday. The SA team’s Thanksgiving praise goes to you two!

EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS

ARTISTS

FAST COMPANY INTERNATIONAL TEAM

Florian Bachleda

PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR Sarah Filippi

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Managing Director: Robbie Stammers Physical address: 174A Main Road, Claremont, 7700, Cape Town Postal address: PO Box 23692, Claremont, 7735 Telephone: +27 (0) 21 683 0005 Websites: www.fastcompany.co.za www.insightspublishing.co.za

Carly Migliori

PRODUCTION ASSOCIATE Miriam Taylor

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Sarah Lawson

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.

10 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Innovation is on track Welcome to our final magazine of the year, which doubles up as a bumper December 2014/ January 2015 special edition. It feels like a split second ago we were unveiling our newly launched title and here we already have completed the third issue of Fast Company South Africa. This edition is based on one of the most successful themes of Fast Company US every year: the one in which we showcase the businesses that matter most; the ones whose innovations are having an impact across their industries and our culture. It has been no easy feat putting together the list of South Africa’s Most Innovative Companies of the year, and Evans details the process of how we went about this in his editor’s note (page 12). Suffice to say, we strictly followed the lead of our overseas counterparts, with the list illustrating how the Age of Flux continues; the speed of change and the breadth of ambition are more important than ever. I’m sure there will be some healthy (or not so healthy in some cases, no doubt) debate on why some of the companies have been included while others have not. It’s

always going to be a case of: ‘You can please some of the people all of the time; you can please all of the people some of the time; but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.’ The South African companies were decided upon in consultation with our esteemed editorial board and our consulting editors and, after much rigorous debate, we whittled the list down from 50 businesses to a final 25. It is important to note that the list is NOT in numerical order of ranking from 1 to 25, and the same applies to the list of the Most Innovative Companies in the World. The only ‘ranking’ that is in numerical order on both our lists is the number 1 position; the rest are all in ‘second place’, so to speak. However, to use the cliché, ‘they are all winners’— especially when one considers all the competing companies out there which did not make the list at all. We have chosen only 30 businesses from this year’s Top 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World from the US edition; some of these we felt were not relevant to our readership, even in the global village of today. We also wanted to include the Top 10 in Africa and in the UK. You can get some more insights into the world list from global editor Robert Safian, on page 18. Fast Company SA congratulates the companies that made our first inaugural list which, we believe, extends over a broad, diverse range of innovative spectrums. We hope you enjoy reading about them and we urge you to give us your feedback. Next year’s list could be completely different. It’s not a case of businesses suddenly losing their mojo, but in a climate

where the velocity of change is accelerating so fast, a year can be a long time and others may have more compelling breakthroughs for us to highlight. It has been an incredibly long, exciting and eventful year. I chose the above photograph as, at times, it felt so busy that we seemed to be going ‘off the rails’ but, in fact, it has all been ‘on track’. Now it’s time to grab a G&T, breathe, and take stock of the year behind us and the one ahead—but for just a short while, I want to sit back, look out the window and watch the world go by. Have a safe and happy festive season, and a successful new year. Thank you all so much for your incredible support thus far—we sincerely hope it continues in 2015 and beyond!

Robbie Stammers

Publisher robbie@fastcompany.co.za @daStamman

DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A 11

FROM THE EDITOR

The pace-setters of 2014 It’s unusual to think of a great opportunity as a great challenge. But that’s exactly how I felt while putting together this bumper edition. Out of so many innovations, advancements, and leaps in technology in various sectors, how could we possibly come up with an elite group of organisations that we felt had set themselves apart from the rest? Would it be about a company’s size, adding to human progress, or even the company’s popularity? The answer was more complex but, to sum it all up, we compiled our Most Innovative Companies list by considering both their innovations and the impact of those innovations in terms of business, their respective industries, and the culture at large—this would not be a ‘lifetime achievement award’, but rather a specific accolade for those fresh innovations.

We fully understand that innovation does not neatly sync up with the Roman calendar. Thus, there should be a clear, recent connection between the innovation and the impact. Some companies’ innovations are so bold that they don’t need to show ‘meteoric’ impact—while in some cases the innovation may be a few years old, but so bold that it is part of the story in 2014. In essence, our overall package is a reflection of the year from an innovation point, showcasing the big successes of 2014 and outlining either how the companies gained that success or how they have responded to it. We strive to have a good mix, thus we have selected companies from different sectors, of various sizes, name brands and ambitions—but with innovation being the standout element. Through this process, I became aware of several critical elements in our business landscape today. I have selected three to share: Tomorrow’s game-changers are busy today The innovations that will be game-changing and relevant tomorrow are being made today. In business, there is never time for one to rest on one’s laurels because innovation is a cruel beast that does not live in the past. If we spend too much time reflecting on past achievements, we risk staying in no man’s land and being discarded in the dustbins of history. Collaboration: The Big C is now the Big A Collaboration is still the vehicle that drives ideas forward. The global economy has made

12 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

collaboration more relevant than ever before. It may be the collaborative efforts across different industries—as is the case in the food sector and the science behind the products, or collaboration between software and hardware. Any way we look at it, collaboration makes business and productivity seamless. Our country (and continent) is not as idle as many would lead us to believe When selecting South Africa’s most innovative companies, our board found it difficult to leave out so many finalists because the competition was so stiff. I was pleasantly surprised to see just how far we have come in competing with the rest of the world because of the large number of groundbreaking innovations that originated in South Africa and the African continent. We are doing our bit, and the world is taking up our efforts at an unprecedented scale. Geographical location is no longer an issue, and the World Wide Web has been an invaluable tool in making this possible. I have no doubt 2015 will be an even bigger year, as there are so many companies already hard at work. The future is indeed bright, and we will be watching and participating every step of the way.

Evans Manyonga

evans@fastcompany.co.za @Nyasha1e

The South Africa of tomorrow needs answers that last. That’s why we’re building them today, with customers all over the country.

It’s why we’re designing our technology to last longer and use fewer resources. It’s why we’re helping our customers to improve their energy efficiency and increase their productivity. And it’s why we’re pioneering new answers with one of the world’s largest environmental portfolios. Yet, we’d never claim to have all the answers. That’s why we’ve been working with customers in South Africa for more than 150 years.

We’re helping develop South Africa’s infrastructure, promoting skills development and ensuring sustainable economic growth through projects across the country. In energy, industry, infrastructure and healthcare. We’re working with South Africa today to create answers that last for the South Africa of tomorrow.

siemens.com

THE RECOMMENDER

What are you loving this month?

Gary Novitzkas

Salome Sechele

CEO, Juniva.com

Former SA Latin Champion, dance instructor & fitness trainer

IPHONE 6+ I’m absolutely loving this phone! I was doubtful about it because of its size, but it’s super slim and light, so it doesn’t feel big. Coupled with a fantastic camera, it’s fast and responsive. The larger display is also kinder on the more mature eyes. Best phone I’ve ever had!

C A M D E B O O D AY S PA AT I R E N E C O U N T RY L O D G E

WHEN THE GRIND OF THE CIT Y GE TS TO ME, CA MDEBOO IN CENT URION IS THE PERFECT RE TRE AT TO UNWIND A ND GATHER M Y THOUGHTS. IT ’S SO PE ACEFUL A ND SERENE, YOU CA N HE AR N AT URE’S SOUNDS OF CHIRPING BIRDS A ND FLOWING WATER. YOU A LMOST FORGE T YOU ARE STILL IN THE CIT Y BECAUSE IRENE VILL AGE H AS A RE A L COUNTRY FEEL. ITS MILK SIGN AT URE TRE ATMENT IS M Y FAVOURITE! Nick Kaoma

Founder, Head Honcho

CUBAN CIGARS As soon as I was able to afford them, I schooled myself in the art of cigars. I prefer Cuban brands such as Cohiba, Partagás and Romeo Y Julieta. Few things bring me more joy than puffing on a Cuban while sipping on a good single malt or cognac.

Kheepi Moremi

T H E O R I G I N A N D E V O L U T I O N O F N E W B U S I N E S S E S , BY A M A R B H I D E The author shows that contrary to popular belief, most noteworthy businesses, bar a few exceptions, “have unremarkable origins”. Specifically, his research shows that only 12% of successful new enterprises surveyed attributed success to “an extra-ordinary idea”. The majority, however—88%—attributed success to “exceptional execution of an ordinary idea”. Net, entrepreneurial success is largely driven by the “hassle factor”. 14 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

gutter credit tk

General manager: Strategic Marketing and Branding, Eskom

Vanessa Gounden Creative director, Vanessa G London

NDIKHUMBULE NGQINAMBI

WITH ART BEING THE M AIN FOCUS OF M Y LONDON-BASED FASHION L A BEL, I’M A LWAYS ON THE LOOKOU T FOR UNIQUE PIECES OF ART TO GIV E ME THE INSPIR ATION FOR M Y NE X T COLLECTION. ON A TRIP TO DEL AIRE GR A FF IN STELLENBOSCH, I DISCOV ERED SOU TH A FRICA N ARTIST NDIK HUMBULE NGQIN A MBI, WHOSE WORK GRE ATLY INSPIRED THE VA NESSA G AW 14 COLLECTION, “E ARTH, WIND A ND FIRE”.

Loyiso “Dj Loyd” Mdebuka Social entrepreneur, radio and TV presenter & TV producer

IKASI EXPERIENCE Currently the largest and most attended township market, Ikasi Experience brings together key elements that make up the township: food, music, soccer, people and budding entrepreneurs. Immerse yourself in the diverse and colourful personality of places such as Khayelitsha and Soweto. This event happens once every two months in popular South African townships.

Rian Bornman

Nigel Pierce

Founding director, FlightSite.co.za and sister company FlightSiteAgent.co.za

Radio personality & MC

MAGICA ROMA, PINELANDS This is one of my favourite restaurants in Cape Town. Italians Ezio and Franco run the show. I’ve been going there for years, so I don’t look at the menu because either Ezio or Franco will ask what I feel like and will make it. Not once have they ever turned me and my guests away if I don’t have a booking. Their Romulus pizza (ham, salami and loads of chilli) is the best. They know I like lemons with everything! Their tiramisu is world-class; the beef medallions are superb; the fish is great; and the staff are brilliant. But don’t take my word for it—go try it for yourself!

F LYS A FA I R After a two-year break, the South African skies have welcomed a new low-cost carrier in FlySafair for the domestic travel market. With fares starting from R499 including taxes between Cape Town and Joburg, it is likely to be a driver for a more competitive landscape, which is great for local jet-setters! Followed regionally by FlyAfrica. com and FastJet.com, the once unthinkable concept of affordable air travel is finally taking off.

DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A 15

The Recommender

APP ALLEY Lindiwe Matlali

Chris Ogden

CEO, Prompt Research Insights

Founder, RubiBlue

I N B O X BY G M A I L I was lucky to receive this app (by invitation only) three weeks ago and, I must say, it’s great. I don’t miss important emails because they are automatically prioritised. What Inbox does differently to Gmail is present you with your information in a way that’s aimed at making content contextually relevant, instead of just presented as it comes in. Inbox has a number of great features such as Bundles (a way to group similar types of email together automatically, for instance, all receipts); Highlights, which brings up flight information, event details and media from close friends and family so you don’t miss them; and a variety of Google Now-type features listed as Reminders, Assists and Snoozes, which act as a built-in to-do list—it’s like an automated personal assistant.

MY BMW REMOTE

BMW’s ConnectedDrive remote service allows you to control your car, even when you’re not in it. It’s super clever: Your smartphone is a convenient remote control for your car via the app. Perhaps you’re not sure of whether you locked your car? Or you may not have your key to hand? Then you can lock and unlock your car with the app. And if you’re unable to find your vehicle in an expansive parking lot, you can flash the headlights and sound the horn using your smartphone.

Samantha Perry

Founder, WomeninTechZA website

HTC FETCH If, like me, you can generally find your car keys but have a complete blank spot about your phone, the HTC Fetch is for you. Used in conjunction with the HTC Fetch Bluetooth device, you attach the device to your keys, press the button, and your phone will sound an alarm. If you lose your keys, use the app to make the Fetch sound an alarm. It’s ingenious .

Samantha Marx

Founder, Hello Pretty website

BESIDES FIXING UP POOR LIGHTING IN M Y CAT PHOTOS, SN A P SEED (BY NIK SOF T WARE) IS M Y POCK E T SCA NNER. IF I NEED TO SIGN A ND EM AIL A DOCUMENT, I L AY THE SIGNED PAGE FL AT IN BRIGHT N AT UR A L LIGHT A ND TA K E A PHOTO WITH SN A P SEED. THEN, I BUMP THE CONTR AST A ND BRIGHTNESS RIGHT UP, CROP THE EDGES OFF, A ND DE -SAT UR ATE IT SO TH AT IT ’S BL ACK A ND WHITE. AVAIL A BLE FROM THE IT UNES A PP STORE A ND GOOGLE PL AY. 16 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

gutter credit tk

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SME MOBILE READINESS SURVEY Are South African SMEs ready for Mobile? Small and medium businesses across the country can use mobile to win customers, increase sales and add value to their customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lives. But how ready are SMEs to unlock the benefits that mobile can bring to their business, and which mobile services should they focus on first? The inaugural SME Mobile Readiness Survey will equip business owners with invaluable insight into the world of mobile. Take our 5 minute survey and be one of the first to receive a full copy of the report in February 2015. You also stand the chance to win a brand new iPhone 6.

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The World’s MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES OF 2014 What have we learnt BY ROBERT SAFIAN

I F YO U G O O G L E the phrase “faith-

based businesses”, the results point to companies that pursue a religious agenda. But there’s another kind of faith in business: the belief that a product or service can radically remake an industry, change consumer habits, challenge economic assumptions. Proof for such innovative leaps is thin, payoffs are long in coming (if they come at all), and doubting Thomases abound. Today, pundits fret about an innovation bubble. Some overvalued companies and overhyped inventions will eventually tumble and money will be lost. Yet, breakthrough progress often requires wide-eyed hope. In this special report on the World’s Most Innovative Companies, there are plenty of examples to make you a believer (“I’ve never been more excited about the possibilities ahead of us,” Nike CEO Mark Parker recently told me). Our staff have spent more than six months gathering and analysing data.

To generate our list of the Most Innovative Companies, we assessed thousands of enterprises. From all that work, I’ve pulled out 10 rising trends, which follow here. Risk of failure and collapse are always with us. But the culture of innovation across the globe is more robust than ever. We think that’s worth celebrating. Exceptional Is Expected The No. 1 company on our list, Google (page 22), did not land there for the range of its activities—despite the 29 achievements we list. In fact, today’s smartest businesses tend to laser-focus on just a few goals; broad ambition can distract from the nitty-gritty required to turn goals into reality. Yet, from Google Fiber to Google Glass to investing in new health technologies, Google executes at a high level repeatedly. That’s why it tops the list. Innovation is episodic Only a handful of companies on our list repeat year after year. That’s not because companies suddenly lose their edge; it’s because innovation ebbs and flows. As editor-at-large Jon Gertner explains in his eye-opening guide to breakthrough change at Philips (page 54), development of LED lighting has been under

18 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

way there for 50 years—but a specific 11-month deadline provided the essential innovative exclamation point. Making money matters Great ideas are captivating, but great businesses are self-sustaining. Unlike the many web-based companies launched pre-2008 whose business models rely on advertising for revenue (Facebook, Twitter, et al.), we have looked at enterprises that are transaction based—and are reaping the rewards. Sustainability has found a new gear Remember when operating a ‘green’ business was either a gimmick or a promise (or both)? No more. Today, energy efficiency, alternative fuels and recycling are core advantages for successful enterprises. Levi Strauss (page 46) produces more than 10% of its clothing with recycled materials, on its way to 100%. You don’t have to own a Tesla to see the impact. Unlocking global talent unlocks possibility In Kenya, a homegrown tech centre called iHub (page 48) is unleashing Silicon Valley-like potential, signing up 10 000 members,

launching 152 companies, and spawning similar efforts in Tanzania and Uganda. India’s Universal Identification Authority (page 36) combats the rampant fraud that cramps entrepreneurialism there. As an encouraging ad campaign in South Africa from Johnnie Walker (page 47) explains: “Our future will not be written by the great strides of yesterday, but by the ones we take today.” Passion is underrated Crowd-sourcing may seem like old news, but tapping into a genuine fan base is powerful. GoPro (page 50) has moved from extreme athletes to the mainstream. GitHub (page 44), home to the geek elite, is making collaboration the first resort for software development. Software beats hardware The hoopla around the latest iPhone or the newest car obscures the fact that software is the key source of progress today. Our autos are rolling computers, upgraded remotely and managing more of our driving tasks. Even lighting, thanks to LEDs and the folks at Philips, will be seen less and less as a physical product and more as an application.

“Made in China” is a compliment There was a time when artisans in China were considered among the world’s finest. That emphasis on quality is returning, as a new generation of fashion and luxury brands caters to the burgeoning middle- and upper classes. The pernicious idea that Chinese companies aren’t about innovation is a relic. Xiaomi (page 25) is reinventing the smartphone business; Beijing Genomics Institute (page 49) has become the world’s largest DNA sequencer. The biggest winner in the app economy remains Apple (page 30) Case in point: gaming. As mobile and social gaming have exploded, we’ve gone from the Doodle Jump era to the FarmVille era, from Angry Birds to Candy Crush. Yet, no new company has emerged with the profitability and stability of console-based enterprises such as Electronic Arts or Activision or Ubisoft. Meanwhile, Apple’s 2013 App Store sales topped R109 billion.

Dreaming big isn’t folly; it’s required Philips scientists calculated that LED lighting could cut total worldwide electricity use by 10%—saving some R2.74 trillion. It’s the reason they’ve put decades into developing it. Pharma researcher Medivation (page 32) believed it could attack cancer in a new way, and it got a breakthrough drug on the market three years faster than the norm. Is Tesla’s (page 34) vision of an international network of electric cars pie-in-the-sky? Maybe. But without the dreams, we’ll never find our way to what is truly possible. As Gertner observes in his Philips article, “The initial appeal of an innovation doesn’t predict the problems it may one day solve.”

DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A 19

The World’s MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 2014

20 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

Google FOR BECO MING A R385-TRILLION GIANT THAT LETS LOOSE ALMOST TOO MANY INNOVATIONS AND MILESTONES TO COUNT— BUT WE’LL TRY

PHOTOGRAPH BY JASON PIETRA

Glass

Makes wearables the next computing trend

Chromecast

Clever R600 bridge that beams web video to the TV screen

500 000 Driver-Free Miles

YouTube Originals

Creates Comedy Week, its own music awards show, and builds out state-of-the-art studios around the world

Live-Streaming

Any YouTube channel can now broadcast live.

Street View

Now depicts the insides of airports and train stations; users can add their own images.

Wi-Fi Delivery via Hot-Air Balloons

Google Ventures: Growth Accelerator

Floating Stores

The Low-Cost Internet Computer

Will bring broadband to Internet-challenged Kampala, Uganda (pop. 3 million)

Invests in more than a company a week—from Uber to Nextdoor, the ‘Facebook for neighbourhoods’

Cheap but Good Smartphones

Google Ventures: Cure Accelerator

ChromeOS runs the best- selling laptops from Acer, Samsung, Asus and others.

Fibre Boost

Brings gigabit Internet service to Austin and Provo, Utah, inspiring Los Angeles and Louisville, Kentucky to follow

Video Everywhere

Makes YouTube mobilefriendly, adding offline viewing and support for hundreds of devices, driving 40% of total viewing time

The Moto X and Moto G devices—surprisingly nice!

Search Anticipates

Google Now reminds users when their favourite band or author has a new release and when the last train is leaving— before it’s too late.

Maps Mojo

Integrates content from your calendar and other Google apps

Waze Pays

Traffic-incident reports from tens of millions of Waze users get woven into Google Maps just two months after buying the Israeli mapping startup.

Shopping Express

A same-day delivery experiment with both national and local retailers in the US

YouTube’s Revenue Project Link

It’s acquired robots that can walk and run, and smart- appliance maker Nest to advance the art of intelligent machines.

Debuts plans to build wireless networks in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia

Its autonomous vehicles pass this road-test benchmark incident free.

Reportedly R55 billion in 2013

Robots!

Funds such companies as Flatiron Health, which uses big data to find oncology insights

Chromebook Pixel

The high-end laptop shows off Google’s gadget prowess.

Image Aware

Can ID image-searched pics (It’s a dog! It’s a Coca-Cola logo!)

Search Becomes Conversational

Click the query-box microphone icon, say, “What is the Knicks’ record?” and Google reads you the answer. Then ask, “Why are they so bad?” and it knows what you mean.

Intends to create interactive showcases of its products—on barges in coastal ports

Hangouts: The Skype Killer

Slickly lets users group chat via video, voice, GIFs and emoji

Hangouts: The Destination

Woos celebrities such as the cast of The Hunger Games sequel to engage with fans

Hangouts: The Field Trip

Educational institutions such as the American Museum of Natural History use Hangouts to host virtual tours.

Tech Tattoos!

A patented temporary tattoo (not for sale—yet?) can be a microphone for a mobile device.

Google to Grim Reaper: Drop Dead

A spin-off company called alico states its awesome C mission: combat ageing. People can run a lot more Google searches if they’re immortal.

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With about R5 billion distributed last year, Bloomberg Philanthropies is among the largest foundations in the US. But it distinguishes itself by acting as its namesake, Michael Bloomberg, does—with sophisticated, data-driven solutions for every step of the process, from identifying priorities to monitoring progress to scaling pragmatic solutions. As a result, the foundation has been extraordinarily effective. Here, in five steps, is how global numbers drive local efforts.

Bloomberg Philanthropies FOR DOING GOOD, METHODICALLY

1 RANK THE PRIORITIES Bloomberg data geeks have simplified the top 10 global causes of death:

2 TARGET THE MOST PEOPLE More than 2.3 billion people (a third of the world’s population) in 92 countries are exposed to at least one proven antitobacco programme. To efficiently fill the gap, Bloomberg selected 15 countries which, combined, contain two-thirds of the world’s smokers.

BY FOCUSING ON TOBACCO CONTROL, THEY CAN ADDRESS

60%

PHILIPPINES 2%

OF THE LIST

EGYPT 1% POLAND 1% UKRAINE 1% PAKISTAN 2% TURKEY 2%

CHINA 28% BANGLADESH 2%

1. Ischaemic heart disease 2. Stroke 3. Lower respiratory infections 4. Chronic lower respiratory diseases

3 STUDY WHAT WORKS FOR EVERY AUDIENCE Studies have long shown that gross, graphic anti-tobacco TV ads lower smoking in highincome countries. But in January last year, new research found they also work in lowand middle-income countries:

5. D iarrhoeal diseases 6. HIV/Aids 7. L ung cancers 8. Tuberculosis 9. Road-traffic crashes 10. Hypertensive heart disease

BRAZIL 2%

INDIA 11% INDONESIA 5%

RUSSIA 4% VIETNAM 1%

THAILAND 1% MEXICO 1%

TEST In Bangladesh, tobacco-related illness and death cost around R7.2 billion annually. Bloomberg funded a four-week campaign showing lungs as a corroded sponge.

Results, after four weeks

5 FOLLOW THROUGH Graphic ads work, but Bloomberg doesn’t declare victory yet. It explores how to deploy other methods a s well, such as:

Adding warning labels to cigarette packages

Promoting smoke-free area laws

Helping governments set up programmes for smokers

58 %

84 %

85 %

70%

OF SMOKERS RECALLED SEEING THE ADS

40%

OF SMOKERS ATTEMPTED TO QUIT

91 %

GRAPHIC ADS

85.5%

SMOKERS’ TESTIMONIALS

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LOW-INCOME COUNTRIES THAT DON’T M ANDATE WARNING LABELS

GLOBAL POPULATION NOT COVERED BY SUCH LAWS

GLOBAL POPULATION LIVING IN COUNTRIES WITHOUT QUIT-ASSIST PROGRAMMES

ILLUSTRATION BY CAROLIN WANITZEK

PREVIOUS SPREAD: PROP ST YLING: ANGELA CAMPOS

Message acceptance

3 Xiaomi FOR REINVENTING THE SMARTPHONE BUSINESS MODEL

DOES IT BELONG

IN THE WORLD’S LARGEST MOBILE MARKET

ON THE LIST?

The upstart consumerelectronics company, just three years old, is a neophyte no more. Xiaomi released four new smartphones last year and sold almost 19 million of them, up more than 150% from 2012, staking out a significant piece of the Chinese market with its low-cost, feature-rich devices. A lthough founder Lei Jun is reflexively compared to Steve Jobs, Jun’s strategy is hardly the

5 Netflix

same as Apple’s: He sells his phones—in buzz-generating flash sales—at a razor-thin margin and then takes advantage of the longer potential revenue stream from software. (Another difference: Xiaomi actually shipped its smart TV in 2013.) Last year, revenue hit around R57.5 billion, another 150% bump, as users downloaded more than one billion apps, helping Xiaomi generate revenues from paid

apps, games, advertising and other fee-based services. Jun’s goal is to sell 40 million devices this year, pushing into India, Southeast Asia, and other emerging markets where the battle for the next wave of smartphone users will be waged.

FOR BECOMING THE EVERYTHING CLOUD Connect Your Apps New tools—called Saver and Chooser—make it easy for any app to integrate Dropbox. Now a developer only needs to drop in some code, and the app will let users save or pull up files directly through Dropbox. First big score: The service is built into Yahoo! Mail.

CHINAFOTOPRESS/GETT Y IMAGES (JUN SOURCE IMAGE); RICHARD PEREZ (NETFLIX); MICK MARSTON (DROPBOX)

2 Sync Your Games Its new Datastore service syncs app data among multiple devices—meaning you’re never trapped in one spot. Now, say, if you’re playing a game that uses Datastore, you can start a level on an iPad and switch over to a smartphone halfway through.

PORTRAIT BY OLLANSKI

NAY: I get it—Netflix shows are good. So? HBO has been making good shows for years. YEA: You miss the point. O riginal programming creates leverage with studios to get premium content such as The Avengers. NAY: That didn’t stop it from l osing the rights to 90-odd titles last year, including Titanic. The irony! YEA: Netflix isn’t sinking— it’s m aking waves. It has turned the TV network into an app, available on any device. Every channel, plus Amazon and Yahoo, are now following.

Dropbox

Dropbox doubled its users last year, from 100 million to 200 million. How? By constantly expanding itself into people’s digital lives (while fending off the likes of Apple, Google, Microsoft and others). “We want you to be able to say, ‘I know where all my information is— it’s in Dropbox. Everywhere I go, whatever device, whatever application, I know that I can pull things out of it,’ ” says product manager Sean Lynch. Dropbox can . . .

Creating great TV in a new context, using an already-proven model

3 Share Your Photos More Easily Dropbox customers used to have to go through a complicated process in order to create shareable photo albums. That function now requires just a single step.

YEA: Go was HBO’s Netflix. This isn’t just about delivery; it’s about content. Rivals, including HBO, are mimicking Netflix by ordering series made for binge-watching. It’s the era of the 13-hour movie, no cliffhangers or act breaks required. NAY: House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black had cliffhangers. YEA: The better to make you binge-watch. Arrested Development didn’t, though. It was the kind of thing only Netflix could pull off. Formbreaking TV is just getting started. NAY: Maybe I’m angry because I still pay for cable.

Follow You to Work Once marketed primarily to consumers, Dropbox has begun to court business users by adding project-management features for workplace teams. A year ago, it launched a new product that allows users to access personal and business storage from within the same account. 4

NAY: Like HBO Go, which came out three years ago?

Verdict: Yea—it’s No. 5 on the list! Successfully applying a proven model in a new context is innovative. Netflix added its own bravura to the cable-TV formula of growing through original programming, along the way strengthening its business, creating new freedom for TV showrunners, and cementing binge-viewing into the cultural landscape.

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2014 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

ZipDial FOR TURNING A CONSUMER CHEAT INTO AN ASSET

6 Nike F O R S E T T I N G A S U S TA I N A B L E E X A M P L E

Nike’s most exciting new product last year wasn’t a LeBron James sneaker (although the 11s are pretty sweet). It was an app called Making, which helps companies measure the environmental impact of using different materials. “Before, if you asked, ‘Which is better: hemp or cotton?’ nobody had that at hand,” says Hannah

Jones, Nike’s VP of sustainable business and innovation. “We created this enormous database of materials and turned it into an index for the entire industry.” Released in July 2013, the app evolved out of Nike’s push to eliminate the use of hazardous chemicals in the creation of its products by 2020. The company expanded

26 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

its ambitious Launch programme, which it created with NASA and the US State Department to take on global issues. “Sustainability can’t be just a single product line,” says Jones. “It has to be across everything we do.”

In India, friends intentionally call each other, let it ring once or twice, and hang up. That’s their way of sending a signal, like “I’m home safe”, without being charged for a call in a country with pricey telecommunications and limited I nternet accessibility. California native Valerie Wagoner moved to Bangalore, noticed the missed calls, and is now responsible for 416 million of them: That’s how many times people have used her company, ZipDial, to connect with brands including Gillette, Disney, Procter & Gamble and IndiaInfoLine. It works like this: She issues the brand a number, which it prints on its ads. Consumers call, hang up, and get a text or call in return—and thus are entered in contests, receive coupons, or place an order. She expanded to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and is now setting up in Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines. “Half the world’s population needs a better, more accessible mobile experience,” Wagoner says. She was once part of eBay’s international marketing team, but wanted to be truly involved in emerging markets—and knew she couldn’t do that from the Bay Area. “I was a rare entity, a foreigner and a woman running a startup,” she says of her early, rough start. “I didn’t know the right jokes in Hindi or come from somebody’s hometown, but I knew when to wear a sari.”

ILLUSTRATION BY MICK MARSTON

GUTTER CREDIT TK

Wagoner in Singapore, where she now lives while setting up ZipDial’s regional headquarters there

Art PHOTOGRAPH credit teekay BY SHAVONNE WONG

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Twitter FOR AGAIN PROVING THE POWER OF BREVIT Y, THIS TIME WITH VIDEO

How much awesomeness can be packed into six seconds, the time limit of Twitter’s video app, Vine? We asked Tonedeff—known as the world’s fastest rapper, whose new album is Polymer—for a Most Innovative Rap. Read the annotated version below, then see him fit it all into a Vine at fastcompany.com/vinerap.

00 0 1 “Vine is the app of the moment . . .”

00 02 “. . . that’s making all video sharing an art . . .”

Vine was the fourth-most-downloaded free app last year, and user growth was fast: By August, eight months after its launch, it had 40 million users.

Its six-second limit inspired a new medium with a new set of stars, from comedians to rappers, giving Vine a cool factor other video apps never achieved.

00 04 “. . . looping the scene, and forget it, B: Twitter been smarter. . .” The video’s looping mimics GIFs, but with sound—leading to punchy, visual gags that are far more fun than Instagram’s ad-driven 15-second video window.

00 03 “. . . and is tearing apart their competitors . . .” Vine forced Instagram and Snapchat to add video, and YouTube’s co-founders created MixBit. But Vine had answers, redesigning the camera and making video easier to edit.

00 05 “. . . they’re building new stars in the most innovative approach. . .” Vine doesn’t have ads, but it’s brand-friendly: Dunkin’ Donuts, Mountain Dew, Virgin Mobile and Trident have used fans’ Vines in their TV spots.

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00 06 “. . . and I bet that you’re gonna re-Vine—or restart.” Re-Vining, which was added in July, turned the best Viners into web celebrities. They also get a boost from YouTube, where Vine compilations draw tens of millions of views.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JONATHAN SNYDER

9 Apple

apps and entertainment, which together comprise more than R110 billion in annual sales for Apple. Perhaps even more important, it provides a glimmer of magic every time a user unlocks her phone with just a light touch, which helps explain why Apple is estimated to be selling two-and-a-half times as many 5S’s as its candy- coloured, less expensive cousin, the 5C, which doesn’t yet have Touch ID.

GUTTER CREDIT TK

FOR PUT TING ITS FINGER ON THE PULSE

Remember when the experts, having peered upon the form of the iPhone 4, declared the design of the smartphone was now set? To paraphrase Steve Jobs, they forgot one more thing: the button. Apple, by making the one control on the front of its iPhone 5S a fingerprint sensor, has pulled off a neat trick. Touch ID, as it’s known, makes it even easier for customers to use their Apple ID to download

30 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

ILLUSTRATION BY EDUARDO Art credit HIGAREDA teekay

Michael Kors FOR WINNING TWO F A S H I O N R A C E S AT O N C E

Michael Kors has built arguably the next great American fashion house, a R170-billion global power in the American tradition of Calvin Klein and Donna Karan. As of last November, the brand had another rocking quarter, with revenue up 39% and same-store sales up 23%. Since the company went public in 2011, its share price has tripled; Kors now operates 400-plus stores in 89 countries. The designer’s recipe: Keep his cred with the Anna Wintours of the world while selling clothes and accessories at price points for the average gal. Three women who tweeted pics and the phrase “my new Michael Kors” explain the appeal:

S O U M YA J A I N

Age: 26 Chicago

GUTTER CREDIT TK

“The designs are bright, vivacious, vibrant—as opposed to Chanel, which can be too stately for young people.”

Art credit teekay

ALEIGH H U STO N - LYO N S

Age: 25 New York

“It’s more secondtier luxury. He makes things that I can afford, and then he makes things for people who are rich.”

DANIELLE KERNIS

Age: 30 Sligo, Ireland

“When you’re holding a Michael Kors bag, you feel special, but you don’t feel that it’s too precious.”

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Medivation FOR FINDING THE VALUE OF TRE ATMENT S THAT OTHERS IGNORED

“People thought we were a little crazy,” admits Lynn Seely, discussing her company’s goal of finding a better way to treat prostate cancer. The chief medical officer of the San Francisco-based pharma company embraced the challenge because one in six US men will be diagnosed with the disease, and the common treatment— androgen suppression therapy—can lead to depression, loss of libido, and worse. Seely discovered that androgen blockers, which halt male hormones, can play a key role in battling the cancer. This was against a lot of advice from the medical community, which is still debating the blockers’ potential value. “But our company is focused on taking on serious diseases,” Seely says, “and we wanted to take on the risk.” The resulting drug, Xtandi, has been shown to extend the lives of patients with highly advanced cancer. Xtandi sped through the FDA approval process to reach the market in five years, three fewer than the industry average, and generated more than R3.7 billion in net sales. It’s now being tested on men in earlier stages of prostate cancer.

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Seely in Medivation’s new lab space in San Francisco

PHOTOGRAPH BY NOEL SPIRANDELLI

12 Amazon F O R S I N G L E - H A N D E D LY TRANSFORMING T H E R E TA I L L A N D S C A P E

Last year, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos told Fast Company US: “The balance of power continues to shift toward consumers and away from companies.” One exception: Amazon itself, which amasses more power daily. Membership of its two-day delivery programme, Amazon Prime, grew by millions in 2013; its grocery-delivery service expanded to Los Angeles and San Francisco, hooking customers into regular delivery habits; and its Kindle Fire HDX, with an instant-tech-support feature, became an attractive alternative to the iPad. Competitors such as eBay try to compete, but Amazon’s Sunday-delivery partnership with the US Postal Service—and its lofty promise of 30-minute drone delivery by 2015—put it far, far ahead.

13 Shazam F O R P L U N G I N G I N T O T H E A LW AY S - O N F E AT U R E F U T U R E

Shazam is like Pop Up Video for everyday life: Press a button and the app IDs any song, TV show, movie, or ad you hear. But its CEO Rich Riley believes we’ve reached a new smartphone era: “The world is going to an always-on state for apps,” he says. In December 2013, Shazam showed what that looks like with Auto Shazam, an opt-in feature that quietly keeps a diary of your day’s playlist for you. What’s the rationale?

1 No More Interruptions “Why do we force users to push a button?” Riley says. There’s no good answer anymore. A button forces users to interrupt what they’re doing—which can be either mildly annoying (at spin class) or downright dangerous (while driving). Now Shazam users can scroll through the catalogue when it’s convenient.

2 Users Aren’t Afraid Shazam stresses security— no audio picked up by the app is stored or heard by a human—and users seem to trust it enough to embrace an always-live microphone. In its first month, Auto Shazam logged 1 million daily recognitions. There’s plenty of room to grow: Its 80 million users typically log

15 million songs, shows and ads a day. 3 It’s Ad-friendly TV shows and ads account for 30% of Auto Shazam recognitions. With that info in hand, brands or bands can directly reach consumers who have already engaged with their content and may even be excited for the follow-up.

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14 Tesla

FOR THE BR ASH UNDERDOG, SMACK-TALK SPARKS BETTER PRODUCTS THAT R AISE THE COMPANY’S FORTUNES AND FORCE ITS COMPETITORS TO CHANGE

The one-two punch BY MAX CHAKIN

The art of talking trash—issuing the pitch-perfect insult, the awesomely immodest boast—is one that is barely studied in business schools or remarked upon by the press, but it goes a long way in explaining the rise of many disruptive companies. Some CEOs have special talents: Box’s Aaron Levie is a brilliant salesman; William Morris Endeavor’s Ari Emanuel is a master deal maker, tireless in seeking opportunities for his clients. And Tesla’s Elon Musk is a genius product designer. In an era consumed by niceness—in which companies hire for culture fit (no haters!), politicians plea for civility, and so many people fear a moment of genuine candour could get them roasted on Twitter. Musk has been one of the folks who has been able to use brashness as the spur of innovation, both in his company and the broader industry. “We will always say we want nice, likable people, but we respond positively to demonstrations of strength,” says Jeffrey Pfeffer, a Stanford professor and the author of Power: Why Some People Have It— and Others Don’t. Customers, Pfeffer says, “flock to winners, even if they’re unpleasant.” How does a relatively obscure CEO of a wildly unprofitable electriccar startup (that would be South African-born Musk) persuade tens of thousands of people to take a chance on the Tesla Model S instead of buying electric cars offered by the likes of General Motors? Well, for one thing, he argues (with extreme prejudice) that those other cars are 34 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

terrible by comparison, and then he sells Tesla as part of an outrageous vision of the future that includes Mars colonisation, electric jet planes and hyperloops. Musk’s snarky putdowns have allowed him to steal market share from gigantic competitors because his insults ring true for customers. Agencies can be myopic in pursuing clients’ best interests. Wireless contracts are expensive and restrictive. Traditional software companies’ cloud-storage products have been generally lousy. Major car companies remain timid in pursuing electric vehicles. Moreover, a CEO’s willingness to dis his competitors can have an empowering effect on his employees, inspiring them to create the innovative products that will ultimately back up the boasts.

Elon Musk, Chief Bragging Officer What he has to brag about Reached new heights in revenue (Tesla more than tripled all of 2012’s revenue in the first nine months of 2013). Launched an ambitious buildout of a national supercharger network for its vehicles. Sample bombast Musk played the PR crisis of the Tesla car fires as a sales opportunity, tweeting, “Why does a Tesla fire with no injury get more media headlines than 100 000 gas car fires that kill 100s of people per year?” Ripple effect The fires were forgotten, and Tesla continued its hot streak, selling roughly 20 000 Model S cars last year. GM may try to acquire Tesla; Musk once said hybrids are “a lawn-mower engine powering a sedan”. Self-defence “I think it’s important to tell the truth and to rebut things that are wrong,” Musk said at a conference last year.

CONFIDENCE Digital banking and payments are a work in progress. Their future will be built on trust. Mobile-enabled consumer authentication engineered to inspire confidence in online banking, mobile banking and card-not-present payments.

entersekt.com

15 Water-Gen

FOR CRE ATING WATER WHERE SOLDIERS NEED IT MOST

Universal Identification Authority of India FOR UPROOTING CORRUPTION WITH A 12-DIGIT CODE

In the past decade, India has combatted poverty through social welfare— guaranteeing jobs (and a daily wage of roughly R660) to poor villagers. But in a country of 1.2 billion people, only 200 million have a driver’s licence; most go without any ID. That has enabled rampant fraud. Billionaire Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Indian tech giant Infosys, is now helming a g overnment-backed solution: the world’s first robust identity system that can be fully verified online. New IDs have already been issued to 450 million people, which can also be useful anytime an ID is needed, such as for travel. Here’s how it works—and why it’s dramatically better than business as usual:

36 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

The government sends a worker’s wages in cash— because most rural villages are too far away from a bank.

BEFORE UID 2

As money takes its voyage to a village, officials along the way skim off a little.

2 AFTER UID

Aasha visits a UID enrolment centre and fills out a form. Her iris and fingerprint are scanned.

ILLUSTRATION BY STOAV GRAPHICS

Troops can’t always transport water. But now they can transport a water maker. The Tel Aviv, Israel–based company Water-Gen has developed three machines: one that turns air moisture into drinking water, one that purifies the dribbles of air-conditioning units, and one that purifies any water source (such as a small stream), even if it’s been poisoned by an enemy. Last year, it made sales to seven countries’ militaries: the United States, Israel, Great Britain, France, India, Mexico and an unnamed Arab state. The company’s revenue grew 50% last year, and it expects 300% growth in 2014. A former special-forces commander in the Israel Defence Forces created Water-Gen, and although the company may expand to other industries, for now it’s targeting only militaries. To hear how the tech works in action, Fast Company talked to Major Alisa Zevin, head of the Israeli army’s facilities and specialised equipment department. How big of a deal is this for the military? It is a revolution for us. Soldiers often can get water from the tap or water tankers, but some soldiers get disconnected from

Chunks of the cash are paid out to fake workers—really just officials with fraudulent work papers.

Aasha goes to the local post office, a designated pickup spot, to retrieve her wages.

their organic units. There are water sources in the field, but we don’t know their quality and don’t want to expose soldiers to contaminated water. In the military’s response to Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, we took one Water-Gen unit there as a backup. We also took it for testing at a field hospital there, if pure water was needed to sterilise instruments. Why is it important for soldiers to be able to purify their own water? If soldiers have an activity out in the field that takes 24 or 48 hours, they’re limited in carrying weight. We want to make them independent; it’s better for the supply chain and logistics. Can the system be improved? Water-Gen weighs about 15 kilos and can be carried on the back, but soldiers have said that’s a lot. So we’re trying to make it weigh less. Two 12-volts purify about 200 litres. The quantity is fine, but we want to make the battery last longer so a soldier doesn’t have to carry other batteries. But the quality of the water was good; the taste was good. None of the soldiers complained about that.

Aasha has to pay a bribe to get her money.

17 Fitbit FOR OUTRUNNING REAL ( A ND RUMOURED) RI VA L S IN WEARABLE TECH

Fitbit sold 67% of all fullbody activity trackers in 2013, besting Nike’s FuelBand and Jawbone’s Up in both sales and critical reviews. And as the future moves to smartwatches, Fitbit is already there, thanks to a recent software update that lets its latest device, Force, sync with iPhones to show an incoming caller’s name on its scrolling screen. It’s the sort of thing you’d expect to see from the iWatch—if it existed. The Force is a far more stylish device than the clunky Samsung Galaxy Gear (or any other smartwatch on the market), but Fitbit is poised to get even more chic: In January, the company announced a collaboration with high-end designer Tory Burch, who will make pendants, bracelets and wristbands for the Fitbit Flex activity band.

The postoffice official 6 deducts a made-up fee to process the payment.

Aasha counts the cash— it’s a slice of what she’s owed.

Within weeks, Aasha receives her 12-digit ID number. She can connect it with a bank account.

Aasha gets a text message that tells her exactly how much money she’s owed.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY KRISTIAAN DER NEDERLANDEN

Aasha goes to one of many local UID-friendly businesses that act as an ATM.

Aasha’s fingerprint 6 is scanned, her identity is confirmed, and cash is handed over.

Aasha counts the cash— it’s all there.

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18 Rose Studio Institute Sarita Wild China Mary Ching

38 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

FOR GIVING CHINA’S SWELLING MIDDLE AND UPPER CLASSES FRESH TAKES ON THE COUNTRY’S RICH HERITAGE

In the Land of Luxury BY CHRISTINA LARSON

ROSE STUDIO FOR REVIVING THE ART OF CHINESE EMBROIDERY AND CRAFTSMANSHIP

Guo Pei was born in Beijing in 1967, at a time when high fashion and international influences were both dangerous pursuits in China. “During the Cultural Revolution, so many things were destroyed in China,” she says. “Embroidery was

PHOTOGRAPH BY TONY LAW

one of them.” When she launched her business in 1999, it was difficult to find skilled craftspeople. Today, she employs about 500 artisans, including 300 embroiders, to create imaginative, elaborate gowns for Chinese celebrities and lavish ceremonial occasions. Last September, Guo showcased her designs in the US for the first

time, at the inaugural China Fashion Night gala in New York, where reserving a table reportedly cost R110 000 to R330 000. Her lavishly tailored gowns cost far more: Prices start at about R885 000. Guo at Beijing’s Rose Studio–Haute Couture Palace, amid her craftspeople and creations

I N S T I T U T E S A R I TA FOR MINDING THE MANNERS OF CHINESE BUSINESS

Elaborate dining and entertainment have long been part of business culture in China. But the old banquet format—endless toasts, Honghe cigarettes and rounds of the fiery grain-alcohol baijiu— doesn’t translate for today’s globally minded Chinese entrepreneurs. In 2013, Sara Jane Ho, a

Hong Kong native and graduate of both Harvard Business School and a premier Swiss finishing school, opened an etiquette school in Beijing, giving the oldfashioned concept of manners a modern twist. A 12-day course (R180 000) offers lessons on menu planning and how to gracefully incorporate shy visitors into a lively table conversation. Knowing how to bring together a crowd

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can be “a statement of your openness and awareness of the fact that people you are with may see the world differently,” says the poised 28-year-old, who counts many Chinese entrepreneurs among her students. In November 2013, she began holding regular charity dinners in Beijing to showcase “the art of the dinner party.” Ho at Institute Sarita in Beijing

PHOTOGRAPH BY TONY LAW

WILD CHINA FOR MAKING REMOTE CORNERS OF CHINA ACCESSIBLE

China’s tourism market is booming, generating more than R5.5 trillion last year and poised to more than double, to R13.2 trillion, by 2023. Mei Zhang’s Wild China caters to China’s new class of high-end domestic tourists, bringing to life previously inaccessible parts of the vast country. Instead of largegroup packaged tours that, Mei says, “overwhelm the destination rather than letting the traveller be overwhelmed by the destination,”

PHOTOGRAPH BY MATJAŽ TANČIČ

Wild China takes small groups on highly customised adventures with knowledgeable guides. Trips include retracing trade routes on the Ancient Tea and Horse Caravan Road and hiking through bamboo f orests with park rangers to understand giant pandas’ habitat. The Western-educated Mei has expanded internationally along with her customers’ tastes, bringing Chinese tourists to 18 countries last year, including Bhutan, Costa Rica and Italy. Mei in Beijing’s Ritan Park

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GUTTER CREDIT TK

PHOTOGRAPH ArtBYcredit XIANG teekay SUN

MARY CHING FOR REMIXING CHINESE OPULENCE, BRITISH ECCENTRICITY AND ITALIAN LEATHER INTO GLOBAL LUXURY

Alison Mary Ching Yeung’s tastes run toward the flamboyant, which coincides with the growing hunger she sees among China’s newly wealthy to “find looks that stand out”. Her daring red stilettos (R7 200), black lace-up boots (R17 400) and leopard-print

slippers (R2 550) do just that, embodying her philosophy that fashion is about “contradictions and tensions”. As she says, “You get your orgasm with the high heel and find Zen with the slipper.” Yeung grew up in the UK and travelled the globe for a privateequity firm before launching her Shanghai-based company, and she brings a playful fusion of national identities and symbols to her

work. In September 2013, she launched a new line of luxury leather shoes, Chinese Whispers, designed in Shanghai but made in Italy. And it’s not only Chinese fashionistas snatching up her footwear: London’s Victoria and Albert Museum acquired a pair of stilettos for its permanent collection on contemporary Chinese design. Yeung in Mary Ching’s Shanghai office

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2014 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

19 Shutterstock FOR OPENING THE APERTURE ON I N N O V AT I O N

Companies that go public are often accused of becoming slower innovators. But Shutterstock, the digital-image marketplace that IPO’d in O ctober 2012, has been releasing new programmes at a rapid clip, while delivering 40% revenue growth. Spectrum lets u sers search images by colour; Skillfeed offers online classes on video and imaging software; and Offset is a new site for higher quality v isuals. Shutterstock has also integrated with Dropbox and made its images available for free to Facebook advertisers (who had previously been littering the site’s ad space

with cheap, terrible photos). Jon O ringer, Shutterstock’s founder and CEO, explains the genesis of the Facebook deal: “They have 1 million advertisers, and buying ads is easy until you get to the part where you have to drop in an image. Grabbing something off the web can open you up to a lawsuit. All of Shutterstock’s images are ready to be used commercially. Facebook pays us a fee per image, and our contributors get about 30%. A dvertisers create more ads [without needing a photo budget], Facebook gets more advertisers, and we get to sell images.”

20 GitHub F O R B R I N G I N G O P E N - S O U R C E TA C T I C S

With more than 4.5 million users, 1.5 million added in 2013 alone, code collaboration platform GitHub solidified its position as king of open-source software development. Now, thanks to its introduction of “version control”—think Microsoft Word’s “track changes” feature, writ large—GitHub wants to banish that blizzard of email attachments that weighs down project-based work in companies. “Teams see how [the coders] are working,” says Tim Clem, GitHub’s SVP of product, “and they say, ‘Hey, why are we not doing that?’ ” GitHub built several new features to aid this vision: a new repository layout optimised for daily use, better text-editing tools, a mobile site and new file viewers for non-code documents such as maps and 3D files.

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ILLUSTRATION BY MARCO GORAN ROMANO

OLLANSKI (ORINGER)

TO TRADITIONAL BUSINESS

21 Square

FOR DESIGNING MOBILE PAYMENTS SO SIMPLE, THEY’RE INVISIBLE

In October last year, Square bucked everything you know about how to send money: Its Cash service requires no sign-in, no password, no download, and no (heaven forbid) Facebook connection. All you do is send an email, cc cash@square.com, and put a dollar amount in the subject line—and once you connect your email address to a debit card via Square, you’re all set. “It really harms a product when you have to think about—and don’t know—if the person on the other side can receive what you’re sending,” says Brian Grassadonia, head of Square’s Cash team. “We know everybody has email, so we know everybody’s able to receive money.” Even better, Square gives users access to their new revenue right away. “We don’t hold your money in an intermediate stored-value account,” Grassadonia says. “That’s one of the things we think has plagued peer-to-peer payments.” And another example of how Square’s designfree design solves these problems.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JUSTIN FANTL

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2014 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

Levi Strauss FOR REDUCING, REUSING AND RECYCLING The 140-year-old blue-jean and khaki giant is rolling in the green. Levi’s Waste<Less programme, launched in March last year, uses 20% recycled materials—about eight 350– 600ml plastic bottles—in each garment. In November, Levi’s Dockers brand debuted Wellthread, designed to recycle old mate ri al into new clothing and make sustainable apparel cheaper to produce. More than 10% of Levi’s clothes are made using its sustainable techniques, creating renewed vigour for the brand that’s reflected in sales—but most notably in profit. Net income for the first nine months of 2013 improved 135% from the previous year, to R2.3 billion on revenue of R37.5 billion. “With a capsule collection, we wouldn’t get the environmental impact we want,” says Michael Kobori, VP of sustainability. “But by applying it across our entire line, we do. Eventually, Waste<Less and Water<Less will make up 100% of our products.”

Michael Kobori, Levi’s champion of sustainability

23 Flipboard F O R A G G R E G AT I N G CONTENT AND PASSING THE PROFITS BACK

In March last year, Flipboard released its version 2.0—transforming itself from the tablet’s slickest aggregator to the publishing industry’s would-be BFF. The service lets users create personalised magazines from their favourite sources, be they news outlets or blogs, and now draws roughly 200 000 new users a day, for a total of more than 100 million. Flipboard created ad revenue–sharing partnerships with Condé Nast and Time Inc. titles (Fast Company US also works with Flipboard); later in the year, it added shoppable catalogues. When the political site, Talking Points Memo, accused Flipboard of ripping off smaller publishers, CEO Mike McCue parried by announcing plans for a similar revenue-sharing plan for the web’s indies. Flipboard 3.0 launched in October 2014 and features a new section called The Daily Edition: a few pages of stories picked by its team of editors.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY IAN ALLEN

24 Johnnie Walker

F O R T H I N K I N G G L O B A L LY, B U T P U L L I N G H E A R T S T R I N G S L O C A L LY Is Johnnie Walker just another phrase for “upward mobility”? For a new global middle class, it sounds that way. “There are opportunities in countries around the world to capture a zeitgeist, the sense of momentum,” says global brand director, Gavin Pike. The R33-billion scotch brand contributes about half of parent company Diageo’s total sales volume (Walker surpassed sales of 20 million cases for the first time last year). It does this in part by deploying local teams to plumb the collective psyche of its target markets—and then customising its “Keep Walking” campaign to speak to the new regions’ aspirations. The result: 80% of Walker’s 2013 growth came from emerging markets. Recent local efforts included . . .

1 Brazil Ads show a mountain transforming into a giant and walking off, as urban Brazilians stop to watch. The message, “The giant is no longer asleep,” hits how locals feel about their economy. 2 South Africa In TV spots, a black man in a suit strides through ghostly figures from a newly postapartheid past—as they vote, cheer or just play rugby. Voiceover: “Our future will not be written by the great strides of yesterday, but by the ones we take today.” 3 South Korea To capture the Asian market’s love of exclusivity, the brand opened a membership club called House of Walker in Seoul (its third on the continent), which hosts art, dinners and, of course, scotch tastings.

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Director of partnerships Jessica Colaço, left, and executive d irector Josiah Mugambi in Nairobi

iHub

FOR CONNECTING, AMPLIFYING AND ACCELER ATING AFRICA’S TECH COMMUNIT Y

“The idea was that we would work and talk together,” says Erik Hersman, founder of the Nairobi, Kenya–based technology centre iHub, “and that by putting a lot of smart people in the room, good things would happen.” So far, so good: Last year, the three-yearold iHub passed 10 000 members.

The starting point for the non-profit was Hersman’s realisation that the best way to foster Kenya’s nascent tech community would be to create a physical, well, hub. “There was nothing like it on the continent,” he says. Actually, there was nothing quite like it anywhere in the world. Hersman and a few dozen colleagues created the Nairobi centre as a hybrid between a co-working space and a university commons, a place that could house startups, offer superfast Internet connections to freelancers, serve as an office for Africa’s most ambitious coders, and link Kenyans to a host of outside companies—such as Google, Microsoft and Intel— seeking to connect with local technologists. Also, it had to have very good coffee. (Some things are universal.) Already, 152 companies have grown out of the iHub petri dish, many dedicated to finding technological solutions to Africa-specific

problems. A good example is Hersman’s own project, known as Brck—a portable, heavy-duty, battery-powered router that looks a lot like an actual brick and can deliver Internet access in even the most rugged environments. Although iHub has spawned similar venues in Tanzania and Uganda, it was never meant to be Africa’s take on Y Combinator. As Google’s Chris Kiagiri puts it, iHub is “devoid of any

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allegiances other than to the collective good of the community.” On a typical day, about 250 members stop by, allowing otherwise disparate corps of engineers to team up, exchange ideas and sometimes make business deals. As the tech giants’ interest in the African market grows, iHub has b ecome the place where execs such as Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and Google chairperson Eric

Schmidt decamp, declaim and debrief on their travels through the region. But, above all, it has helped permanently dispel the notion that Africa’s tech community is somehow lacking in ideas, talent or ambitions. “It’s too early to make comparisons to Silicon Valley,” says iHub’s executive director, Josiah Mugambi. “But there is vast potential in getting there.”

PHOTOGRAPH BY GUILLAUME BONN

26 Beijing Genomics Institute FOR MAKING DNA SEQUENCING MASS-MARKET By investing in more cuttingedge genome-sequencing hardware and training more a nalysts to make sense of reams of data output than any research institution or university in the world, BGI has turned itself into a go-to destination for global scientists seeking collaboration on ambitious projects to unlock the mysteries of plant, animal and human DNA. The Shenzhen, China–based institute (it was founded in Beijing) is now the most prolific s equencer of

DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST?

WhatsApp It’s disruptive, but that’s the easy part

h uman genomes, using technological advances to drive steep drops in the cost of sequencing complete g enomes, from R32 billion in 2003 to mere thousands today. Its goal is to organise the world’s biological information and make it useful and accessible to all—like a biological Google. Under its director, Dr Jun Wang, its projects are wide-ranging, from decoding rice genomes for improving agriculture to parsing the biological roots of h uman intelligence. In March

last year, BGI turned its attention to the West, acquiring California-based Complete Genomics—a leading developer and manufacturer of genome- sequencing machines—for R1.2 billion, g iving it even more firepower.

YEA: WhatsApp’s messaging service is at the very core of the digital revolution. We used to pay (way too much!) for SMSes from wireless companies. Now we don’t. Boom.

YEA: Its business model is totally sane and consumer- friendly: Use it at no cost for a year, then pay $1–some emerging-market users even get it completely free.

YEA: Well, it’s consistently among the top paid apps, so users seem on board. And unlike competitors, which sell virtual stickers and barrage you with One Direction ads, WhatsApp is clean and uncluttered.

NAY: Hooray! But when you just give away what someone else used to sell, you’re not exactly a scalable company.

NAY: Doesn’t that give all the other free messaging apps an opportunity to scoop up W hatsApp’s customers?

NAY: Nice—I’m sick of One D irection! But if WhatsApp isn’t adding new products, it’s just setting itself up for stagnation.

YEA: Adding 50 million active users a quarter to its total of 400 million— you call that stagnation? And it quietly opened up its platform for developers, which should lead to users sharing music and other content in the app. That’s what’s up.

Verdict: Yea—It’s No. 27 on the list! WhatsApp is wresting m essaging away from the Verizons of the world and commanding more attention from the under-25ers who used to love Facebook. But, equally important, it has a b usiness model that’s a r efreshing change for an ad-addled public.

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28 GoPro

FOR LET TING EVERYONE IN ON THE EXTREMESPORTS VIDEO ACTION

A white-tailed eagle wore a GoPro camera as it circled the French Alps last September. The footage went viral, which wasn’t just luck: The maker of hardy HD cameras and mounts, long loved by X-Gamers, cracked mainstream culture—and around R11 billion in sales—by encouraging, distributing and polishing users’ footage. “We want to show the cameras’ diverse uses,” says Wil Tidman, who runs GoPro’s 40-person production team. Its new app and software, released along with the Hero3+ camera, make it easier for users to edit and share online, leading to three GoPro-hashtagged videos uploaded to YouTube per minute from . . .

Folks With Dramatic Jobs: Pros, from soldiers to oil riggers, use GoPro in their work, and Tidman’s team scours the web for potential hits. He found footage of a firefighter rescuing a cat from a burning building, then obtained a licence for the raw footage and re-edited it. The resulting YouTube post, “Firefighter Saves Kitten”, got 18 million views.

Camcorder-Crazy Parents: “A father sent us footage of him throwing his baby into the air,” says Tidman. “The child had a camera on his head and you saw the excitement of their relationship.” GoPro aired it as a 30-second spot (set to Skrillex!) during last year’s Super Bowl.

Musicians Who Rock YouTube: GoPro equipped The Rolling Stones with 40 cameras for their 2013 tour. But Tidman’s team also helps indies: A re-edit of footage from a small Jamaican reggae band, Raging Fyah, earned some fame and proved to others that they, too, may want a GoPro bump.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY NICK MEEK

YouTube’s favourite viral eagle, a six-year-old named Fletcher, wears his GoPro at 3 200 metres above the French Alps

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iRobot F O R B U I L D I N G T H E B O T S T H AT L I V E A M O N G U S

iRobot may be best known for the floor-cleaning Roomba, but here’s the company’s full story: Revenue climbed by roughly R550 million last year to almost R5.5 billion, and investments in new technologies totalled more than R660 million. “We take an extremely long view of our role in the robotics industry,” says CEO Colin Angle. iRobot is ensuring its place in a mechanical future by researching and releasing new products and capabilities while still pulling in contracts for its established line of security and military systems. That is to say, its bots are among us.

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F I N D I R O B OT ’S B OT S ( B E LOW ) H I D D E N I N T H E B OT W O R L D A B OV E !

1. ARM-H

2 . PA C K B O T 5 1 0

3 . B R A AVA 3 8 0 T

4 . AVA 5 0 0

Co-designed with Yale and Harvard researchers, this arm (for military bots) is dexterous enough to use door keys.

This battlefieldproven bot, worn as a backpack, earned a R330-million US Army contract; iRobot sold R79 million worth of them to Brazil.

Meet the next-gen Roomba, which navigates well and uses a Swiffer-like cloth, and (along with an earlier version) has pulled in R264 million in sales.

Still in development, this videoconferencing bot manoeuvres to meetings and can follow individual workers around.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY PETER OUMANSKI

UNLOCKING ENTREPRENEURIAL CAPABILITIES The Business Place eKapa is a gateway to economic activity and independence

The Business Place eKapa marks its 10th anniversary in 2014. The centre oﬀers a friendly, accessible walk-in environment, requiring no appointment, where aspiring and existing entrepreneurs can access and be assisted with business consultation, company registration, information, referrals, training, workshops, networking and linkage to business opportunities.

CREATIVE COLLABORATIONS

The Business Place eKapa serves as an ideal delivery platform for other initiatives. It is open to engaging with all interested programme partners who have a common purpose and, in doing so, to pool scarce resources in order to improve long-term sustainability and avoid duplication of efforts in a particular sector. The company actively pursues partnership arrangements with key product and service delivery organisations to provide access to much-needed services for small and micro business. Such key service delivery partners and clients are able to benefit from the infrastructure, the access point from which to have engagement, and the delivery mechanisms provided by TBP eKapa and their staff who refer clients to programmes at the relevant stages of clients’ business development.

SERVICES

Navigation Free one-on-one consultation with navigators who can assist clients with their entrepreneurial journey. Business resources Access to meeting space, free Internet facilities and legal guidance.

Workshops Interactive sessions provide information on a variety of appropriate subjects such as marketing, writing a business plan, first steps to starting a business etc. Training programmes A need has been identified to address programmes targeting specific business needs such as branding and advertising, sales, project management, costing, cashflow management, stock control and marketing. Networking sessions These sessions focus on a particular business sector, for example tourism. Guest speakers from specific sectors are invited to address the sessions, and people running businesses in these sectors can then discuss common issues and learn—not only from the guest speakers but also from each other. Business breakfasts High-profile and successful business entrepreneurs, stakeholders in the entrepreneurial environment and the media are invited to seek solutions for the challenges facing the modern entrepreneur; subjects include policy issues, innovation, governance and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial master classes The aim is to develop leadership and to provide emerging entrepreneurs with existing businesses access to some of the knowledge and experience gained by successful, established entrepreneurs—within an informal setting.

For further details, please visit The Business Place eKapa at 1st Floor 7 Anton Anreith Arcade Foreshore Cape Town or contact us on 021 425 7816 or ekapa@tbp.co.za.

30 Philips

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EIGHT SURPRISING LESSONS IN INNOVATION FROM PHILIPS’ S 50 -YEAR EXPLOR ATION OF LEDS

Lighting the Way BY JON GERTNER

PHOTOGRAPH BY KEVIN VAN AELST

2014 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

N OT FA R F R O M its Amsterdam

headquarters, at the end of a hallway on the ground floor of a squat modern office building in the small Dutch city of Eindhoven, Philips has set aside space for what it calls an Innovation Lab. It looks a lot like a living room, with a large-screen television, soft leather couches and a plush beige carpet. There are no windows, and when the door shuts it seems easy to imagine nodding off to a soccer game and awakening in what you think is not a cozy den in the middle of Holland but a high-end apartment in New York or London. Of course, that’s the point. It’s incongruous that Philips, a global leviathan with offices in 60 countries, 114 000 employees and sophisticated electronics products that range from R400 DVD players to R11-million MRI scanners, would associate such an ordinary space with anything groundbreaking. And yet this room was the incubator for a companydisrupting (and, possibly, worldchanging) idea. The Innovation Lab is banal so that Philips can gauge the effect of something radical, in this case the impact of new types of LED lights—lights that turn cerulean blue or sunset pink; lights that dim or brighten wirelessly; lights that pulse along with the rhythms of speech at a command given from the iPad of George Yianni, a young, bespectacled engineer with dark, tousled hair and a casual manner.

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In 2011, Yianni’s superiors in the lighting division asked him to create a device that, in Yianni’s recollection, “would make a splash”. They gave him 11 months. So he started spending most of his days, and many of his nights, in the lab trying to perfect the applications for Hue, a wireless lighting system that went on sale just over a year ago. “What we really wanted to do with Hue was change how people think about lighting,” Yianni tells me. “We’ve been making lighting products for 120 years, and until last year, for the home, all they did was turn on and off. We thought: Why not do more with it than just turn it on or off?” Hue allows you to ‘tune’ your lights to up to 16 million different colours. You can control them remotely so that you don’t walk into a dark house. You can adjust the colour or intensity to increase concentration or relaxation, based on years of studies on the effect of light on human behaviour. Hue can even produce gentle reminders, so that your hallway lights automatically turn blue on a rainy morning (Bring your umbrella today) or so your house lights dim steadily beginning at 8 a.m. (Time to catch the train). Thanks to the ability of LEDs to accept digital signals, in other words, home illumination isn’t only about seeing or feeling better. It is an atmospheric conveyor of information, too. When I first heard about Hue last year, I wondered if it was just another luxury product for those eager to jump on the new-gadgetry bandwagon. This turned out to be correct in some respects—at around R4 000 for three bulbs and the hub that links them to your phone or tablet, Hue is not cheap. Yet, I soon came to see this as a terribly narrow view of the product. Hue is the culmination of about 50 years of innovation with LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, a technology pioneered in large part by Philips that may prove to be one of those once-in-a-lifetime ideas that we’re always on the lookout for but rarely identify until after the fact. For Philips, LEDs are the vehicle for its next-generation innovations and the engine for its future growth. “Right now, 30% of what we sell are LEDs,” Eric Rondolat, CEO of Philips Lighting, tells me when we meet in his Amsterdam office, situated in a sleek high-rise tower next to the Amstel River. “We believe it will be 45% to 50% in 2015.” That jump, which represents approximately R22 billion in sales, shows just how rapidly Philips’s business is shifting. And yet, in terms of its potential impact, LED is a fairly young technology. So far, early buyers are drawn to the durability of LEDs (lasting not just years but decades) and their extraordinary energy efficiency (using just 15% of the electricity of an incandescent bulb). This is already sparking global changes. “If you look at the energy savings, it’s really quite stunning,” says Kathleen Hogan, a deputy assistant secretary at the US Department of Energy. The DOE estimates that LED technology has the potential to reduce by half the amount of electricity used for lighting in the US, which would save the country about R2.7 trillion over the next 20 years and reduce carbon dioxide emissions dramatically. But environmental impact is just the starting point for LEDs. Philips execs including Yianni and Rondolat believe that Hue signifies the end of the beginning of LEDs. “Okay, we understand LEDs are more energy-efficient,” says Philips’s chief strategy and innovation officer, Jim Andrew. “But it really gets interesting when you start thinking about all the things you can do with lights when you switch from analogue to digital.” In a future where all lights are LEDs, lighting fixtures as we know them—with a screw-in bulb and power cord—may cease to exist, replaced by something far more futuristic (glowing walls, say, or glowing carpets) or, better yet, something wholly naturalistic, such as permanent ‘skylights’ that change in colour and intensity as the day progresses. At Philips, they’re asking: How far can the technology progress beyond just saving ILLUSTRATION BY DAN MATUTINA

How the LED Alters the Future

Calm and Concentration Based on Philips’s research in Europe, LEDs can be set to wavelengths that appear to measurably improve education environments. The lights can boost concentration or alertness, or aid in relaxation.

Health and Wellness Specific light recipes have been shown to speed patient-recovery times in hospitals. Meanwhile, new home medical devices are reaching the market in Europe which utilise intense blue LED lights to ease back pain.

Durability and Efficiency Unlike incandescent bulbs, LEDs will last decades—many are rated for lives of 20 or 22 years. The bulbs use a fraction of the energy of older technologies, which means they’ll have a profound impact on carbon dioxide emissions.

Tunability Allowing employees to create personal lighting environments that vary in colour and intensity could boost job satisfaction and (quite possibly) productivity.

Safety Thanks to the customisable nature of LEDs, they can provide better light where it’s needed— helping pedestrians and drivers navigate pavements or twisting roads.

Command and Control Due to their digital and connectable nature, LED bulbs—such as Philips’s Hue—can be accessed and controlled from anywhere there’s an Internet connection, via a smartphone app.

Sensory Intelligence LED lights fitted with sensors can automatically know how much illumination is needed, and where it should be directed. The lights will adjust to a crowded party or to a dark parking garage.

Urban Farming In horticulture, plants respond differently to various light wavelengths. Tailoring the output of LEDs for greenhouse growing has already been shown to increase crop yields. Art credit teekay

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energy and more creatively illuminating a room? Can LEDs improve your health, your sleep, your life? Can they ease pain, revolutionise agriculture, boost retail sales, reduce traffic accidents, improve urban safety? For a company that may well be undermining a lot of its own sales (Who needs to change a lightbulb when your LED lamp lasts 22 years? And what will happen to all those ‘How many people does it take’ jokes?), the answers may lead to its next great revenue stream. “This technology,” CEO Rondolat insists, “is limitless.” To Andrew, the key to the potential of LEDs is that they can be both connected and intelligent. “There aren’t many things where the measure of what’s connected can be in the billions,” he says. He lists cellphones and computers, but soon lights as well. “That’s just a world that we were never really in,” Andrew says, “so people don’t even know the questions to ask.” Well, here’s one: How did Philips take the LED to this point, and where does the LED go next? Which leads to another: If the LED happens to be much more than just a better light—that is, if it happens to be an innovation, like the PC or cellphone, that alters the world in a significant way—what can it teach us about how big innovations happen, and why?

To understand where the LED is going, it helps to understand where it came from. An LED is not a lightbulb, really—it’s a light source, tiny and not much larger than a pencil dot, lodged deep within a larger package of plastic, metal and glass that has been constructed to resemble a lightbulb mainly because consumers still prefer a familiar, time-tested shape. If you were to crack the glass top off a Hue bulb, or any Philips LED bulb, you would see anywhere from six to 26 small LEDs embedded within the chassis. Each of these LEDs are tiny sandwiches of semiconducting materials that, when connected to a power source, emit a stream of light. Without a glass cover to soften and disperse their emissions, LEDs are too glaring to behold. Indeed, in a naked state, the LEDs for a soft-white bulb usually appear as an unpleasantly piercing blue, or an exceedingly harsh white. An uncovered Hue bulb is a bit more varied but still harsh: Bluewhite LEDs are joined by several red and green LEDs. These lights are what combine in various ways to create millions of colours. In the beginning, the LED came in one

colour only—red—and was barely functional. Invented by Nick Holonyak in the early 1960s at General Electric, the first LEDs were seen as a scientific breakthrough but not yet a consumer product. The notion that this would one day be the world’s fundamental lighting technology would have likely seemed absurd at the time. By the 1970s, red LEDs were beginning to be incorporated into clocks and other appliances. Yet, what really changed things was the 1994 invention of the blue LED by Shuji Nakamura at Nichia in Japan. “The blue LED was the critical invention in the industry,” says Pierre Yves Lesaicherre, CEO of Lumileds, the California division of Philips which makes the LEDs for Philips’s lighting products. “It allows us to make white light. You can’t make white light out of a red LED.” In fact, lighting engineers soon realised they could coat or shroud the blue LEDs with a material known as a phosphor and transform the colour from blue to white. This discovery suggested that, in theory, blue LEDs could be adapted as replacements for ordinary lightbulbs. That is, if they could ever make it out of the lab. “Now an LED is so blinding that you can’t even look at it,” Lesaicherre explains. “But in the early days, the scientists here would make an LED, go in a dark room and yell out, ‘It lights up!’ They were so excited.” All of which is to say that an invention is not the same as an innovation. At the start, it is very difficult to predict whether a breakthrough can evolve into something that will actually change the world.

If the LED wasn’t quite an innovation in the early 1990s, then what made it potentially revolutionary a decade later? Early on, the challenge for the LED, as with any fledgling innovation, was straightforward: It must do something either better, or cheaper, than the existing product it is trying to displace. To look at the future of light in the mid-1990s was to see that the LED did neither. It was expensive, hard to make, dim. Yet even then, a few people saw

The second wave of lighting will involve harnessing the intelligence these devices can contain—software and sensors that can allow LEDs to understand where light is needed.

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the early trends and predicted that the technology may be able to achieve astounding gains, given the right amount of research, funding and time. One of these people was Roland Haitz, who formulated a statistical rule for the rapid improvement (and steadily dropping costs) of LEDs. What became known as Haitz’s Law would eventually be seen within the LED industry as having the same kind of prognosticating power that Moore’s Law had for the computing industry. In 1999, Haitz and several scientists collaborated on a landmark paper that made the case for a national research programme to hasten the development of LEDs. The scientists maintained that LEDs may eventually be able to achieve a new benchmark in lighting—a measurement pegged as 200-lumens-perwatt—that would be twice as efficient as fluorescent lamps and 10 times more efficient than incandescent lamps. Such an accomplishment would not be trivial. “This new white light source,” they wrote, “would change the way we live and the way we consume energy.” The authors calculated that with such a bulb in widespread use, the worldwide amount of electricity consumed by lighting would go down by 50%, and the total amount of electricity consumed worldwide would go down by 10%. So the main reason for investing federal and private-sector dollars into LEDs—which is what eventually transpired, hastening the work at Philips and other companies—was the tantalising possibility of immense gains in energy efficiency. “Our instincts when we wrote that paper were, ‘Yes, this could really happen.’ This is really a big deal in energy consumption,” Jeff Tsao, a scientist at Sandia Labs and one of Haitz’s co-authors, says. “But we also wrote that paper because the challenges were really daunting. And a lot of people were really sceptical.” It turned out that they had good reason to be.

Software is different from hardware. Software spreads rapidly and cheaply, and often almost effortlessly; hardware like the LED does not. In the early 2000s, Philips believed that the product could only achieve scale or impact—the very definition of an innovation—if its manufacturing costs could be reduced and its quality greatly improved. The only way to get there was to gain one modest step at a time. Thus, Philips had to improve manufacturing processes,

experiment with new materials, and make a host of improvements to help the LED surpass existing lighting technologies. And it had to imagine all the possible applications, no matter how small, because of a strategic reality: A radical new product will need to infiltrate markets at the margins before it can claim the centre. To make the lighting device better, or cheaper, or both, Philips and its competitors had to search for crevices and footholds. The company also looked to what history could teach it. For instance, long before the transistor—probably the greatest innovation of the 20th century—was used in small radios or computer processors, it made its debut in hearing aids. Philips first began to scale up by successfully incorporating the technology into cars—brake lights, especially—and also in traffic robots. The product’s durability and efficiency was the selling point; the fact that repair crews wouldn’t have to change robot lights as often was a bonus. For consumers, meanwhile, the notion in 2008 that LED lamps may take the place of a common 60-watt incandescent bulb still seemed unlikely. That is, unless you may consider it a deal to pay, say, R500 for a mediocre lightbulb.

How to bring the cost down further? How to do it faster? With novel hardware, it often requires the resources of a large company to support a product during the long haul preceding its mass manufacture. At the same time, government policy and funding often help push a breakthrough innovation into the market. It’s worth remembering that Google actually began as a Stanford Library project funded by the National Science Foundation, and that Tesla was only able to build its flagship Model S thanks to a huge federal loan allowing the company to refurbish an old GM factory in Fremont, California. LEDs enjoyed government largesse, too: a decade of research funding that helped improve the technology, and legislation in dozens of countries resulting in policies to halt production of incandescent bulbs, thus clearing out market competition. In the US especially, another valuable boost came in the form of a R110-million prize—the L Prize, it was called—sponsored by the DOE in 2010. The DOE’s challenge was for a private company to build a 60-watt replacement bulb with LEDs which was far better than anything in existence. The bulb could use only 10 watts or less to produce 900

lumens of light, and it would have to emit a pleasing glow as judged by several standard industry measures. Philips’s global R&D team spent nearly a year on the project. In the end, the company was the only one to submit a design that met the L Prize criteria. The victory seemed to prove that achieving the ‘better’ part of the better-orcheaper challenge was doable. The L Prize demonstrated that a Philips LED bulb could now provide light that was just about as good as an incandescent and measurably better than a typical compact fluorescent. But the ‘cheaper’ aspect was still a problem. Even in 2010, the prices of Philips’s 60-watt LED bulbs, at about R400, were still stratospheric.

Human beings have a tendency to underestimate how long it takes for a scientific breakthrough to become a practical innovation. Consider the silicon solar cell, for instance, the ancestor of every photovoltaic panel in the world: It was on the front page of just about every newspaper in the US when it was unveiled, in 1954, as a device that would forever change how we generate electricity. But in 60 years, solar power has achieved only a small part of that promise, in large part because its costs have dropped so slowly over time. The LED, with origins in the early 1960s, has progressed only slightly faster. But what likewise seems true is that adoption rates can change quickly, just as they did with smartphones. As costs plummet and quality improves, a new technology can suddenly achieve an accelerating, global popularity. In Lesaicherre’s office in San Jose, a display traces the evolution of the 60-watt-equivalent Philips LED bulb. With each passing year, the designs are increasingly sleek. More striking is the descent in price. In 2010, a bulb that used 12 watts cost $39.97 (R440); in 2011, a similar bulb cost $24.97 (R275); and in 2012, it cost $22.97 (R250). By 2013, the bulb used only 11 watts to achieve the same output of light, but cost $19.99 (R220). “We don’t show it here,” Lesaicherre notes, “but the latest generation of lights went to $15 (R165), then to $12 (R132), and then to $8 (R88).” The price drops reflect Philips’s ability to build better LED components for less cost, as well as its ability to use fewer high-powered LEDs (or, in some cases, more lower-powered LEDs) in each lamp. At this point, Philips estimates that LEDs are improving by 15% annually in terms of light output while decreasing about

10% annually in cost. The main question is whether consumers will refuse such a deal: a lamp that pays for itself in a few years in energy savings and lasts 15 years beyond the payback.

So efficiency and economics can explain why LEDs will soon infiltrate our homes and offices—but not how the technology may subsequently evolve. The reasons behind the initial appeal of an innovation don’t predict the range of problems it will someday solve. The transistor, for example, was developed as a new kind of amplifier and only later became the main component in computer processors; the laser was developed for communications, but now does everything from reading DVDs to assisting surgeons. Or consider the early cellular-phone systems, which were first deployed in Chicago in the early 1980s. The notion that such phones would evolve into pocket supercomputers that organise social life and global commerce was unthinkable to all but the most imaginative futurists. Phones were meant for conversation. What comes next for LEDs? To Bob Karlicek, a professor of Electrical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the “second wave” of lighting will involve harnessing the “intelligence” these devices can contain—software and sensors that can allow LEDs to “understand” where light is needed, and at what intensity and colour. But the wave likely goes beyond that. LEDs’ ‘tunability’ (recall Hue’s 16 million colours) can make them useful in areas such as horticulture and urban farming. “We’ve sold lights to greenhouses forever,” Andrew, Philips’s chief innovation officer, tells me. “And you could make the light better, stronger, but it was still a light. Now you come along and say: We can put in LED lights with the correct light recipe for a given crop. And growing a tomato, and what optimises a tomato, is different from what optimises a strawberry. And now you can change the intensity, the colour and, if you actually optimise the recipe, you can get higher yields.” You often hear the phrase light recipe around the Philips offices. It’s used as readily to describe applications for plants as for human beings. For the past 100 years, scientists have studied how artificial lighting affects humans, but mostly in the realm of white or fluorescent light. The LED opens things up. The research is still at an early stage, but Philips has already demonstrated

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in academic studies that certain wavelengths of light, delivered by LEDs, can shorten hospital stays for patients by as much as half a day. And they seem assured that special LED light recipes will soon be available to influence our circadian rhythms in a beneficial way. (Circadian rhythms are known to have an impact on sleep, obesity and even cancer.) On Hue, some light recipes already offer settings so users can “relax,” “concentrate” and “energise”. The descriptions arise from Philips’s r esearch on how settings in schools can improve student concentration, and how particular wavelengths have a relaxation effect. They’re not the whim of an app designer.

Listening to Philips executives map out the future can lead to a realisation: Older digital technologies—the Internet, for instance, or smartphones—accentuate the impact of newer digital technologies such as the LED. This is most apparent in a product like Hue. Internet connectivity makes the product controllable by smartphone, but also endows it with a vast capacity for improvements. “You could buy it now and it will keep getting better,” observes Yianni, “because the evolution is now more in the software and in the app.” As Karlicek puts it: “Lighting took the 20th century off. Everybody was working on microprocessors and things like that.” The upshot, adds Karlicek, is that with so much work going into lighting now, developers can piggyback on other technological gains of the past half-century. Big data, the buzziest of recent trends, plays into the LED future, too. Because LEDs are controllable and connectable, they can follow instructions from remote sources. But they can also relay data back. As Andrew tells me, “We can control how much light, the colour of the light, the intensity of the light—almost any dimension. And because you do that, you can get more and more refined in your measurements.” Everything, as Andrew explains, can then be analysed by the question: If you use light recipe x, then what happens to y? In other words, what happens to your store revenue, or foot traffic, or your holiday sale merchandise, as you tweak the illumination? A store owner could track how a certain lighting choice or intensity influences sales of scallops or neckties; she could do it by the minute, conduct a rapid data analysis, and make improvements as needed, or have them done automatically. A city with outdoor LED lighting could track accident rates on highways based

An employer could adjust its office LEDs and track changes in employee turnover, or productivity. on intensities or colours of light, or monitor crime rates in neighbourhoods where LEDs, fitted with sensors, respond to foot and car traffic and brighten as the sun goes down. An employer could adjust its office LEDs and track changes in employee turnover, or productivity. In the end, the LED may be just as much about information as about illumination.

There is a downside to every innovation, and LEDs are no different. What if your company’s main product is something that effectively never needs replacing? And what if it will soon become a low-cost commodity? Disruptive innovations don’t just disrupt markets or change the way people live; they disrupt old business models, too. There seems to be a consensus within Philips that the shape, colour, price and functionality will soon make the LED device as common as the incandescent bulb. Yet, there also seems to be a consensus that the market for the devices will rise steadily until about 2019 or 2020 and will then level off or drop from saturation. “Clearly, after that there will be a significant opportunity as well as a challenge,” Bruno Biasotta, the CEO of Philips Lighting Americas, says. Readying itself for a post-2020 shakeout, the company must bet on what will differentiate its business. The fact that Philips has done more to move LED lighting forward than any other firm is small comfort. History is littered with companies like BlackBerry that were destroyed by the technology they helped unleash. There may indeed be large opportunities for selling LED products—physical stuff—as our lights and lamps evolve. At Philips’s R&D centre in Eindhoven, a vast campus of modern buildings fringed by small groves of birch trees, a team works in a large warehouse on the development of enormous assemblages of glowing panels, covered with light fabric and programmable to virtually any recipe or image—a rising sun, say. Across campus, a different team works up next-gen fixtures to capitalise on LEDs’ small size and flexibility. What if your salad bowl were luminous? Your tabletop? Still, the larger challenge to Philips is a future in which lighting ceases to be a

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physical product and is viewed more as an application. In many respects, the company’s future depends on this transformation. Light could increasingly come to resemble a utility, like water or gas, whereby a company such as Philips builds the infrastructure to provide it where it’s needed, and then gets paid for it. A client—a small town, for instance, that needs new streetlights—could offset that cost via the energy savings made possible by LEDs. “Why should a city or a business buy all the capital around lighting, anyway?” asks Andrew. Cities don’t want to invest in light poles or electricity. “What they really want to buy is light.” In a conversation in his Amsterdam office, Eric Rondolat, the global CEO for lighting, pushes the idea even further. While it’s true that new technologies become commodities as they get cheaper and better, he asserts that digital lighting will allow for a product that can be decommoditised, too. In the future, says Rondolat, “you can select a light because you want a given application.” Selling LEDs would thus be selling not an output but an outcome— growing certain kinds of fruit in an urban farm under an optimised wavelength, so as to increase yields; outfitting hospitals with customised light recipes so patients undergoing MRIs are more relaxed and imaging is therefore improved; providing schools with LEDs to help students settle themselves when the teacher needs to speak. The company that understands outcomes and applications will be the company that thrives. And what if the market isn’t quite ready for this? “You didn’t have an iPhone seven years ago,” Rondolat says. “You didn’t even know you needed one.” Technologies like Hue strike him the same way. Soon everyone will know that a better light has been discovered, and that its benefits are there for the buying. “The world is moving fast,” he says with a shrug. It’s just a matter of time. gertner@fastcompany.com

Additional Most Innovative Companies reporting by: Sarika Bansal, Skylar Bergl, Jane Black, Austin Carr, Frances Dodds, Jason Feifer, Jon Gertner, Jillian Goodman, Sarah Kessler, Hillel Kuttler, Nicole LaPorte, Christina Larson, David Lidsky, JJ McCorvey, Matt McCue, Jennifer Miller, Nancy Miller, Jacob Musselman, Saritha Rai, Chuck Salter, Erik Sofge, Jennifer Vilaga and Jess Weiss

M&CSAATCHI ABEL/11150/E

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SA’s TOP 25 COMPANIES 2014 62 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

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The (digital) picture of health BY ANNELEIGH JACOBSEN

HealthQ THE FUTURISTIC LIFEQ BIO -TECHNOLOGY COULD QUITE POSSIBLY SAVE WEAR ABLES— AND US—FROM AN EARLY DEATH

Photography by Gregor Rohrig

2014 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

THE FIRST THING you see when you walk into the red-brick offices of HealthQ on the outskirts of Stellenbosch is a large noticeboard in the centre of the office which reads, “100 days to CES”. The calm, relaxed atmosphere belies the furious testing and preparation that’s going on in anticipation of the global launch of the LifeQ technology being developed and industrialised by HealthQ at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January next year—the biggest innovation platform in the world. You’d be forgiven for thinking Dr Riaan Conradie is an academic as he sits on the couch in his office, stroking one of the five dogs that roam around the premises; his PhD, beard and button-down jersey could easily give you that impression, but as soon as he starts talking, you see the drive and entrepreneurial focus that has acquired HealthQ the backing of five global bluechip families—with more knocking at the door. “The investors are encouraging, but the response of the wearable companies is, wow! Their passion [for our work] is the most promising, exciting thing right now.” They’re so excited about the prospects, in fact, that many of these global brands (described as

“among the top 20 technology brands in the world”, but which are all still under nondisclosure agreement discussion) are flying their teams to South Africa to come and work with HealthQ’s engineers. Conradie is a specialist in computational systems biology: a field that has only been enabled by the dramatic improvements in computational power in the last decade or so, and so new that currently there are only a handful of researchers actively publishing in it worldwide. HealthQ is a startup that has its origins in a business competition in which Conradie and one of his co-founders, Dr Franco du Preez, pitched a portable indirect calorimeter in Cape Town. There he met Laurie Oliver, a veteran venture capitalist based in the United States, who “wasn’t interested in our simple snapshot project at all, but he was interested in us as a team.” Fuelled by Oliver’s vast access to international partners and funding, that interest quite quickly grew into investment and the establishment of HealthQ to further develop and industrialise the futuristic LifeQ technology they believe will not only save wearable tech from an early death, but may well save us all from our bad habits. LifeQ, in short, is a combination of

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computational biology, science and tech that will stand behind wearable technologies and fix the key issue with current wearables: They don’t really tell you anything useful. Christopher Rimmer brings a pragmatic commercial head to the table with a background in management consulting and SABMiller, and his is the task of landing these world-changing ideas in a form that is both practical and saleable. But he’s no less passionate about the potential here: “The one sentence that really sold me that very first day I spent with Riaan was, ‘We’ll be able to predict if you are going to have a heart attack.’ And that’s not even using the really deep analysis— that’s just in the first tier!” “We’re not interested in building the gadgets,” Conradie says, “and we don’t see the wearable as the sensor. Your body is the sensor. And the LifeQ algorithms then work to not only model your system and tell you how things are going, but also give you suggestions and solutions via your app or wearable tech.” And that is why the biggest brands in the world are lining up at the door. There are two parts to the technology which HealthQ is refining. The first is the optical sensor and first-level analysis that will be included in the branded gadgets, and

The Story of a Startup Gregor Röhrig is documenting HealthQ’s establishment and growth as a startup, as part of the Definitive Process (see definitiveprocess.com), which is equally as innovative. He compares himself to a wedding photographer, but for a startup or project—visually documenting its life cycle and experience.

which can do things such as tell you how many of the calories you’ve just burnt were from stored fats versus protein—without so much as piercing your skin. The second, and possibly even more amazing, part is a massive cloud-based computational biology platform where the actual magic happens: Here, the algorithms not only churn your data to give you insights into how your body is doing right now, but also use advanced calculus and biological modelling to make specific, personalised suggestions as to what you could do to support your physiology or train more efficiently or eat more healthily. These are not generic ‘miracle diet’ cures; these are data-driven, customised insights into your own body and healthy—or unhealthy—way of life. This is information that could, quite literally, save your life. With the LifeQ solution, the data generated by wearables will no longer offer singledimension measurements of heart rate, distance, calories and so forth; the product will be able to create an on-demand record of every aspect of your physiology—effectively a model of your body and how it’s working—which will enable it to manage and predict your health. And this, as Rimmer says, “is where we get into the Star Trek stuff!” Imagine going to your

doctor when you feel unwell and, instead of checking your blood pressure and looking at your throat, he or she can access your LifeQ profile and see a model of your entire physiology over the past year or longer. How much more accurate could diagnoses then be? But it goes further: You or your doctor could input variables, and LifeQ will use simulations of your physiology to predict the impacts of, for example, cutting down on alcohol or exercising more frequently. Put another way, the model could give you, HealthQ estimates, a month’s advance warning of a heart attack and could then help you figure out how to avoid this. At a wearable (or embedded chip, or whatever comes next) level, if integrated into the biomathematical engine, your device would no longer simply tell you that you’re sleeping badly—you already know that—but it could also analyse your full history and tell you the reason for the insomnia is because you’ve been eating too many carbs late in the day, or tell you that you sleep better when you get your heart rate up above 150 at least three times a week. LifeQ could save you from your own bad habits. But how will LifeQ make money? Conradie mentions their technology partner won’t be setting out to make money from

selling or licensing the gadgets at all; the real interest is in the data that will be generated. Long term, the value will be created by getting the data, generating real individual and— importantly—population-wide insights and then charging for access to those insights (not the data itself, Conradie is quick to emphasise). While the individual will obviously be a user, and individuals and medical practitioners will be able to buy into the service, one of the key target markets will be the highly profitable segment of risk-based businesses such as medical aid schemes, insurers and reinsurers. So, ultimately, your data could help make insurance more costeffective, more accurate and more relevant to you and everyone else. And wouldn’t that be worth sharing your data for? “Imagine,” Conradie says, thinking one step forward from there, “if you could do a trial period with your insurance company: They give you cover for free if you wear the gadget and then, after the trial period, they will propose a customised insurance rate just for you, based on your own health and life data. There would be complete transparency for everyone involved. “Ultimately, we see LifeQ becoming a beacon in this space—something that protects the space of the health tech industry and helps people gain greater knowledge and control over their health. We want it to improve the future of human health,” Conradie says quietly, as if HealthQ is contemplating something as simple as scrambling eggs. And when you step back from it and see the big picture, they really do seem to be standing by their goal so far. They’ve gathered under one roof biologists, engineers, mathematicians, physicists, software developers, a commerce specialist and various techies. What they’re actually proposing is to be able to give each of us an affordable way of knowing what our bodies are really doing and needing, and ultimately passing the cost on to our insurance companies. And that is something we’re pretty sure everyone will applaud. www.healthq.co

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2014 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

WITH INNOVATION IN ITS SLING, TAKEALOT.COM IS CONQUERING ITS COMPETITORS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN E-RETAILING SPACE

Big shot

takealot.com

In his book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants, Malcolm Gladwell writes: “Why do we automatically assume that someone who is smaller or poorer or less skilled is necessarily at a disadvantage?” When takealot.com officially launched in 2011, its biggest competitor was Kalahari.com (or Kalahari.net as it was known when it first started in 1998). Kalahari. com was the go-to e-commerce retailer for the South African consumer wanting to purchase items such as books, music, DVDs, games, electronics and the like. Take2, on the other hand, had a few years under its belt, but had yet to gain any real traction in the market and couldn’t really be considered a threat to Kalahari. However, when it was acquired by United States investment firm, Tiger Global Management, and Kim

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Reid in October 2010, it was rebranded as takealot.com and had one goal in mind: to be the largest, simplest, most customer-centric online shopping destination in Africa. No small feat for a new entrant into a market that some may say was created by the dominant player, Kalahari.com. Elsewhere in Gladwell’s book, he writes: “Power can come in other forms … in breaking rules, in substituting speed and surprise for strength.” Anyone who has been a customer of takealot.com would agree this rings true for the quirky e-tailer. Everyone loves a story about the

Founder and co-CEO Kim Reid says takealot.com will continue to delight its customers

A LOT OF FUN It’s clear that while takealot.com means serious business, showing no signs of slowing down, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Fun is one of the company’s values and this comes through in its marketing material, communication with customers and advertising campaigns. A recent example of this is the Adopt-aTrolley movement. Takealot.com joked about taking responsibility for the thousands of shopping trolleys that were no longer in commission as a result of the rise of e-commerce in South Africa. As part of the campaign, takealot.com asked customers to join the movement by virtually adopting a trolley or ordering one that had been repurposed.

underdog defeating the giant, and takealot.com didn’t just become a major thorn in its biggest competitor’s side, but recently announced it would be merging with Kalahari.com, following years of the latter reporting losses. So what secret weapon did David (takealot. com) use to battle the giant? In a word: innovation. Takealot.com has become the fastest growing, most innovative e-commerce retailer on the continent. Reid, who had been involved in the very early stages of Internet evolution and e-commerce in South Africa at an executive level within the Naspers Group and other companies, and his new co-CEO Willem van Biljon, know how important innovation is to the success of the company. They know what it takes to nurture and maintain it. The company believes “innovation is not about ground-sweeping changes, but about consistent, everyday, iterative improvement”. For takealot.com, the best people, rather than systems or resources, are the most important assets of any business. Another aspect of the company’s culture, which has surely contributed to its rapid growth, is the value of speed. “The success of any business today depends on quick decisions and decisive implementation. Big does not beat small, but fast definitely beats slow,” reads takealot.com’s vision. More, more, more Since launching, takealot.com has evolved rapidly. It opened and expanded warehouses in Cape Town and Johannesburg, and broadened its product categories to include home and kitchen, baby and toddler, health and beauty,

and sport. It also took control over its own logistics when it purchased a controlling stake in Mr Delivery (now trading as Mr D). This acquisition put takealot.com at the forefront of last-mile-home deliveries. Spreading its wings even further, in August the company announced it had acquired a curated, design and apparel-centred online retailer called Superbalist.com. Superbalist is said to be focused on the millennial generation. “The millennial generation is deemed to be the most powerful and relevant market on the planet, and we have managed to acquire a business run by millennials, focused on millennials,” said Reid. Speaking of power and relevance, takealot. com has invested in the all-important mobile space. Customers can shop from their mobile devices either by downloading the takealot. com app or via the improved mobile website. Takealot.com redesigned the user interface and improved the user experience of the site. It enhanced site navigation, product listings and the checkout process. Using a similar campaign to that of groupbuying sites such as Groupon, takealot.com also introduced Daily Deals. While it didn’t follow a group-buying model, it did provide customers up to 70% savings on selected products on a daily, first-come-first-serve basis. Each deal was open for a 12-hour period, or while stocks lasted. Looking ahead In May 2014, takealot.com revealed it had raised more than R1.3 billion for “continued expansion in South Africa and sub-Saharan

Africa” from Tiger Global Management. The company remained fairly tight-lipped about what exactly the money would be used for, but Reid said: “This will allow us to accelerate growth and drive scale while continuing to delight our customers.” Next year is likely to see the merger between Kalahari.com and takealot.com implemented, as it was still subject to approval by the Competition Commission. According to the two entities, the move will bring customers the benefit of a wider selection of products and categories as well as a broader delivery service. While both companies said they were concerned about competition from local brickand-mortar retailers as well as foreign players such as Amazon and Alibaba, the outlook for e-commerce in South Africa is a positive one. Currently, online retail only accounts for around 1.3% of the total consumer goods market in South Africa. Hardly an impressive figure, but when looking at the market share that e-tailers hold in developed markets such as the US and the United Kingdom—up to 14%—the potential for the businesses is enormous. For takealot.com, the business’s success hinges on its ability to delight customers with superior customer service. Its mission is to be the most customer-centric online shopping destination in Africa and it is built around the age-old (but often forgotten) concept that the customer comes first. As its website boldly states: “Welcome to the world of takealot.com, where extraordinary people come together to do extraordinary things, bringing world-class online shopping to the people of South Africa!”—Chana Boucher

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Triggerfish, the studio behind Adventures in Zambezia and Khumba, two internationally acclaimed animated films, have put the South African film industry on the map. And it’s not stopping there. The long-term goal is to become the best animation studio in the world—and to anyone who has seen its first two films, that is not an unrealistic proposition at all.

Triggerfish HOW DOES A TINY MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT STUDIO IN CAPE TOWN CREATE AND RELEASE A SERIES OF GLOBALLY SUCCESSFUL FILMS?

Adventures in Animation BY CHRIS WALDBURGER

IN TRIGGERFISH’S OWN words: “We have a master plan for

world domination as a global media and entertainment company that brings a unique, creative voice from the heart of Africa to audiences around the world.” The first feature, Adventures in Zambezia, tells the story of Kai, a highspirited peregrine falcon, who leaves his strict father behind at their remote home and travels to the big bird city of Zambezia above Victoria Falls, where he has to learn the importance of ubuntu and teamwork. The film was estimated to have the biggest budget ever for any African film, and was released worldwide, making over R330 million at the box office. To boot, it featured the voices of Hollywood giants Samuel L. Jackson, Abigail Breslin and Jeff Goldblum, among others. A total of 86 animators worked on Zambezia, and it was picked up by Sony along with 30 other international distributors—making it the first South African animated film to be distributed by a major United States studio. The film would go on to win Best South African Feature Film at the Durban International Film Festival, where it was selected to close the event, and was chosen for screening at the prestigious Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Not bad for a tiny studio out of the Mother City which, in effect, represents the entire animation industry in our country. 70 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

A year later, Triggerfish repeated the trick with Khumba, the tale of a zebra born with only half his stripes who, alienated by his drought-devastated herd, leaves his home in search of the magical waterhole where the first zebra won his stripes. Featuring the vocal talents of AnnaSophia Robb, Richard E. Grant, and Catherine Tate, Khumba would be another financial success for Triggerfish, sitting at the top of the national box office for a week last year. The film would also win great critical acclaim, being nominated for Best Film at the Annecy International Animation Festival, and winning Best Animated Film at the Africa Movie Academy Awards. It would also gain official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival. Memorably, it would premier on South African television on Heritage Day 2014, being screened in Afrikaans, English and Zulu. Next up is Sea Monster, a film about an ancient and magical sea monster discovered by an aspiring biologist in the depths of the ocean off the west coast of southern Africa. A fourth film, provisionally titled Seal Team, pitting Cape fur seals against great white sharks, is also in the works. At the launch of Khumba, CEO of Triggerfish Stuart Forrest, who was recently named one of the 100 World Class South Africans by City Press, spoke of his excitement about working with such a young and dynamic team: “Our average age at Triggerfish is less than 25. What we have is a generation of South Africans with a new narrative, a global outlook, of optimism and hope.” In short, the team at Triggerfish is too innocent to realise South African film is not meant to be internationally competitive. Forrest, in a recent interview, stated his belief that Triggerfish is poised to capitalise on some of the major shifts under way in the global film industry. “We believe the Internet and digital distribution present massive opportunities for independent studios to get closer to their audiences. “We’re also excited by what we see in the gaming space as the Internet brings multiple opportunities to build an audience with high-quality entertainment experiences. We can already see this disruption happening in Hollywood, with mobile and tablet technology transforming the way we consume media. “There is pressure on film budgets to come down, and Triggerfish is a world leader in developing original content at sensible price points.” So how did Triggerfish manage to be entrusted with such massive budgets—thereby allowing it to become a global player?

The company was founded in 1996, and became known for clay-animation shorts and its commercials. By 2001, it was producing animation for the local version of the US children’s show, Sesame Street. After winning a multitude of awards for this work, which involved coordination among 10 studios across the country, Triggerfish was commissioned to produce animation for the US version; over the next six years, the studio completed animation for three seasons of the local show, Takalani Sesame, and four seasons of the US show. Forrest joined Triggerfish as a junior animator in 2002 when the studio was producing Takalani Sesame. In 2004, he and James Middleton became partners in Triggerfish and in 2005 became the sole partners when the original founders left the company. By 2007, the company had made the decision to move away from stop-frame animation and relaunched as a computer-animation studio, which then began to explore the possibility of producing motion pictures. When a San Francisco company invested in 2006, Adventures in Zambezia entered the writing phase before going into production in 2009. Forrest describes securing funding as being the most important barrier Triggerfish had to break through in order to make it big. “Without money, you only have an idea, but the money makes it a reality.” And securing funding only came about because the studio had a proven track record of high-quality animation. Triggerfish had been involved in animation for over a decade before funding for a feature came through—with its Sesame Street experience looming large in this regard. Off the back of the success of Adventures in Zambezia, the studio now has plans to release a feature film every 18 months. Triggerfish also recently established the Triggerfish Labs division, which will be responsible for publishing games, eBooks and other digital content deeply integrated with its films’ intellectual property. Adventures in Zambezia has just been published as an eBook and is available for purchase on iTunes. And all of this action takes place in a massive barn on an old farm in the historic suburb of Constantia in Cape Town. Triggerfish demonstrates yet again that South African film has the talent to play on a global stage. Perhaps all that is currently lacking is increased investor confidence. The wild success of Triggerfish should put paid to that. www.triggerfishstudios.com

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Christiaan Brand (co-founder) and Schalk Nolte (CEO)

Entersekt F O R S E C U R I N G B A N K I N G T H R O U G H I N N O VAT I V E M O B I L E - P H O N E T E C H N O L O GY

Entersekt’s solutions transform just about any mobile phone into a powerful weapon in the fight against account-takeover fraud. Its patented technology picks up where password-based approaches have failed, by introducing an isolated communication channel between phone and financial institution, which avoids reliance on the open Internet for user- and transaction verification. Its approach harnesses the power of digitalcertificate technology with the convenience of mobile phones to provide organisations and their customers or employees with full protection from account-takeover fraud.

Entersekt’s solutions authenticate millions of transactions globally each day, and its effectiveness is reflected by the fact that none of its clients has experienced a successful phishing attack on their systems. The product, Transakt, lies at the centre of the company’s solutions. Using industrystandard X.509 digital certificates and proprietary validation techniques developed specifically for the mobile phone, Transakt achieves two things: • It converts the mobile device into a trusted second factor of authentication; and • It ensures no communications can be decrypted or spoofed by anyone at any point

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between the device and Entersekt’s FIPS 140-2 Level 3 hardware appliance, safely installed behind a bank’s firewall. Based in Cape Town, the company’s global presence has expanded to Europe and North America. In 2014 it opened offices in Amsterdam, got its Netherlands Patent awarded by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and the Transakt software product was certified as a FIDO Ready™ U2F token. Entersekt came second in the 2014 PwC Vision to Reality Awards, and its Nedbank App Suite won last year’s MTN Business App of the Year for Best Consumer App on Android. www.entersekt.com

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wiGroup FOR ENABLING RETAILERS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF NEW GAME- CHANGING MOBILE APPS

With its mission to simplify and improve the way in which the world transacts, wiGroup is a true pioneering business. Founded in 2007 as a mobile wallet, the company was faced with the massive challenge of convincing retailers to do costly and time-consuming upgrades to their point-of-sale systems in order to accept the wallet—or any other new mobile transacting tech. In the spirit of innovation which has become a hallmark of Cape Town’s tech companies, wiGroup changed its business model to offer a platform that would sit on top of the pointof-sale software. wiPlatform enables any kind of current or future mobile transaction service through a single integration, allowing retailers instantly to take advantage of game-changing new mobile payment and transaction apps as well as services at the point of sale. The response has been remarkable. Today, wiPlatform is live in over 50 000 till lanes across the country and has processed over R2 billion in the last 12 months. wiGroup counts two of Africa’s largest retailers (Shoprite Group and Pick n Pay Group), two of the continent’s largest network operators (MTN and Vodacom), a number of national restaurant and hospitality chains including KFC, Primi Piatti and

Col’Cacchio and some of South Africa’s largest brands (Unilever, SABMiller, brandhouse and P&G) among its extensive client list. 2014 has been a big year for wiGroup: The company won the Card and ePayment Africa Award in the category Best Alternative Payments

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Programme; the Maverick Award for Technology Innovation; and the inaugural PwC Vision to Reality Award. wiGroup’s CEO and co-founder Bevan Ducasse is one of the local innovators profiled in Destiny Magazine’s ‘The power of 40 before 40’ report

for 2014; he was also one of only 29 high-impact entrepreneurs globally to be accepted into the Endeavor Entrepreneur programme, and was chosen as this year’s inaugural Under 35 Mavericks Award winner. wigroupinternational.com

Arthur Attwell, founder and director

Paperight F O R M A K I N G B O O KS M O R E A F F O R D A B L E A N D A C C E S S I B L E

Paperight is a fantastic publishing innovation that creates access for scholars and students to legal but inexpensive textbooks all over South Africa. It is basically a ‘print on demand’ service: Learners can go to one of the more than 200 Paperight-registered print shops, schools, colleges and other outlets and buy a cheap book licence—there are no complex rights agreements, no waiting period, no need for a credit card and no long (costly) distances to travel to a bookstore in a main centre, only to discover the book is sold out. Now learners are able to buy their own legal copy of a book (there are more than 1 400 available) and have it printed at a fraction of the cost of photocopying it—a practice often found in low-income areas due to the high prices of textbooks in particular. Many member outlets are in places where no bookstores exist, such as Peddie in the rural Eastern Cape and the business centres of Khayelitsha on the Cape Flats. The outlets pay publishers and authors a small once-off licence fee per book from their prepaid account with Paperight, which takes a 20% cut; publishers are still able to make the same margins they do with their ‘normal’ books, as expensive distribution and printing costs are cut out.

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Paperight is managed by Electric Book Works, an organisation that assists publishers to make better use of technology to produce better books that more people can buy. Both were founded by entrepreneur and Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow, Arthur Attwell, who is also the brains behind Book Dash: On a single day, teams of writers, illustrators and designers work fast to create print-ready children’s storypicture books for ages 1 to 5, which anyone can translate, print and distribute. Last year, Paperight was named the Most Entrepreneurial Publishing Startup at the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Startup Showcase in New York and the Best Startup at the CONTEC Frankfurt International Publishing Startup Showcase at the

Frankfurt Book Fair; in the same year it won the Digital Minds Innovation Award at the London Book Fair and the Apex Award for the most innovative small company at the Accenture Innovation Index Awards. www.paperight.com

Oscar Masinyana, content department

enquiries@seartec.co.za | 021 447 2349 | www.seartec.co.za facebook.com/SeartecSA @SeartecSA

Eran Eyal, founder and CEO

Springleap FOR GETTING BRANDS, AGENCIES, D E S I G N E R S A N D FA N S T O U N I T E O N C R E AT I V E B R I E F S

Springleap has access to a global talent pool of more than 300 000 members. It then sources a huge diversity of unique designs for any brief, while engaging the brands’ target audiences and the ever growing Springleap community in viral social-media campaigns. The strong social-voting component of the contests provides viral exposure for brands on social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter, and a platform to engage their own brand fans to bring together meaningful, measurable statistics while filling fans with a sense of loyalty and ownership.

Springleap’s design contests are embeddable. Its unique technology allows clients to run their campaigns in multiple places simultaneously—such as on a Facebook page, website and partner sites— while it runs at Springleap. This enables users to focus on their marketing and engage their fans in their space, while providing the talent of the creative community. The Springleap Shop can provide users with a custom online Shopify e-commerce shop to round off their experience and monetise their fan base with high-quality fan merchandise. Users can run the shop at Springleap and embed it into their Facebook page or website. Best of all, Springleap

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Additional services • Stand-alone corporate and promotional printing solutions • Retail-quality product sourcing, ranging from custom mobile phone cases to wall art • Facebook/social media ad spend management and consultancy services via Springleap’s division, iCanHazSocial

handles all the administration, logistics and distribution. To date, Springleap has awarded creatives with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash prizes as well as ongoing royalties for solving a wide variety of brand design problems. Springleap was placed second at the prestigious Industry Standard Innovation 100 Awards, beating the likes of Apple App Store, Threadless, Amazon, Zazzle and eBay. Recently, it was voted the top company by 40 mentors at MentorCamp Atlantic Canada. springleap.com

Propertuity U SIN G ART, D ESIGN, ARCHITEC TURE AND CULTUR AL AC TIVITIES TO TR AN SFORM D EGENER ATED ARE A S INTO THRIVIN G NEIGHBOURH O OD D ESTINATION S

For decades in the post-war era, mass suburbanisation, cultural fragmentation as well as a heady dose of brutal modernist architecture all combined to drive capital—and people—away from city centres. As a result, these urban spaces became a network of dark alleyways in the shadow of massive box-like tombs; vacant, post-industrial centres of crime.

BY CHRIS WALDBURGER But now, Johannesburg is fast becoming an African leader in revitalising the city centre. This has been achieved via collaborations with the private sector and mechanisms such as the Urban Development Zone tax incentive. This, in turn, has led to new marketplaces, new public transport and, above all, a new type of architecture and property development that allows for a more human way of urban living. And property company, Propertuity, has been at the forefront of this development— demonstrating not only a new type of urban investment but equally a new path for the private sector in community development as a whole. Along with the nearby Braamfontein Improvement District, with its urban neighbourhood Maboneng, Propertuity is working toward a completely redeveloped city centre. In 2008, this property company bought and transformed the old DF Corlett offices and warehouses in the southeast corner of the city centre. The result, in collaboration with architect Enrico Daffonchio, was Arts on Main: a collection of studios and offices and retail space, headlined by the studio of the country’s pre-eminent visual artist, William Kentridge. The idea then spilled over into the surrounding district as Propertuity extended its development into a neighbourhood that now consists of approximately 40 newly developed buildings, complete with public spaces in between. The flagship residential building is Main Street Life, which is a transformed 1970s industrial construction that houses a variety of establishments. The top floor is taken up by the 12 Decades Art Hotel, where each individually designed room represents one of the past 12 decades of Joburg’s history. Besides the hotel, Main Street Life includes apartments, a rooftop events venue and retail stores. On the ground floor, Joburg’s independent cinema, The Bioscope, screens local, international and classic films that don’t usually make it to the mainstream circuit. The area is now known as Maboneng, meaning ‘Place of Light’, and is home to loft

apartments, a hotel, a museum, offices, galleries, entertainment venues and restaurants, with the goal being a fully integrated urban living area occupied by a multi-class citizenry. Perhaps the key feature is the multi-use nature of the buildings, which lend themselves not only to work but an integrated neighbourhood lifestyle. This may be the core lesson to be learnt from Propertuity’s success: Urban development must target neighbourhoods, and not isolated buildings. And so Propertuity has developed simultaneously office, retail, studios, residential property, restaurants and hotels alongside services such as security and litter collection—thereby creating an ecosystem of renewal in which people can live and work. Jonathan Liebmann, founder and CEO of Propertuity, began his business career with a chain of laundries around Joburg. After travelling the world, he realised that firstworld countries offered an urban lifestyle completely foreign to the city. When first pitching the idea, he was told he was crazy. “There were residents who had not been into the city centre for 20 years. There were 25-year-olds who had never been!” But with funding from an international financier, and Propertuity’s integrated approach, there are now more than 1 500 residents in the Maboneng precinct. Liebmann believes the reason is simple: People are desperate to be able to walk the streets. And you can do that now in the city centre in a way you never could. “Inner-city regeneration seems cyclical,” he says. “New York City centre was a ‘no go’ in the 1980s, as were parts of London. Both cities were turned

around pretty quickly. If a city’s fundamentals are good, it will make a comeback.” Liebmann says one of the great challenges of inner-city renewal is urban management—in particular lighting and refuse collection. But even there, new private entities are coming into play to take up the slack. He believes Maboneng provides a “counter theory to the apartheid era”. His goal is to fashion an integrated community that will ultimately provide accommodation for people earning between R3 000 and R100 000 a month. It is here that Maboneng faces criticism, however, with some accusing the neighbourhood of commercialising a development process which, in turn, imposes a gentrification from above on a pre-existing community who is then left in the cold—in this case, the nearby Jeppestown communities. By re-commercialising the area, the space is taken from the locals, and made inaccessible by its revaluation. It becomes too expensive. This paradox has led to critics questioning whether in reclaiming the city, the city is claimed by those who come in from the outside. It is clear from Liebmann’s housing plans that he is aware of the paradox, and would rather Maboneng were viewed as a beginning instead of an end, when one speaks of the neighbourhood in relation to urban renewal. Maboneng is rather a gateway to the city, an environment that provides a platform for further engagement with the problems of integration and housing. What it does begin to do is revitalise urban life in South Africa, which allows for a greater sharing of space among diverse communities. propertuity.co.za

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FAST COMPANY PROMOTION

The right tools for the job: “Our propriety-developed Telephone Management System allows us to respond easily to our customers’ needs. They really love it,” according to De Wet.

A SENSE OF EUPHORIA Introducing Euphoria Telecom— a young South African company disrupting the incumbent practices of business telephone service providers with its proudly South African cloud-based business telephone service, www.euphoria.co.za

wo business technology entrepreneurs, George Golding and Conrad de Wet, decided four years ago that it was time to right a wrong. The unnecessary long-term contracts, high call costs and opaque billing were a huge problem. The fact that important management features were inevitably expensive was also galling. This was compounded by the complete lack of customer service and support, leaving clients powerless, but tied into a contract and a system that did not fulfil their needs. From their experience, they knew a revolutionary solution was not only possible, but desperately needed. They sourced the necessary funding and developed a solution, based on their own past challenges. It had to be a superior and all-inclusive business telephony solution that was powerful, affordable and easy to use. At the least, it had to offer all the benefits of a sophisticated, on-site PABX system—but without the drawbacks. More importantly, customer service and support had to be a key focus.

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Do it yourself: George Golding says the ability to take control of one’s business telephone system is empowering.

Today, Euphoria Telecom is an information and communications technology company that provides an innovative business telephone service to over 500 SMEs including Galaxy and Co., Future Life, Altech ISIS and Groupon. The advantages and inherent benefits for SME businesses are immediate. With cloud telephony, there are no maintenance and running costs involved, as there is no physical hardware (PABX) on the premises. Business owners can easily view cost and productivity reports, make changes to their system with a few clicks, and add or remove extensions (users) across all their offices. Golding says the ability to take control of one’s business telephone system is empowering. “Once you have experience with the system, you can never do without it. Would you use a bank that does not offer Internet banking? The answer is always a resounding NO. It is disempowering and makes you dependent on outside assistance that is usually inconsistent and unreliable. “As this type of technology naturally permeates business, it will inevitably become the norm. Nobody likes waiting for help from a call centre agent or for a reply to an email support request. You simply take a few minutes and do it yourself,” he explains. De Wet says the cloud subscription model means you only pay for

what you need and allows you to increase your functionality as your business grows. “The automation functionality of the cloud-based system means lower costs and higher efficiencies, while giving business owners direct access and agility to respond to changing demands.” The transformational quality of Euphoria’s cloud telephony system is the centralised, consolidated view of the business costs in real time. It offers tight integration with systems such as SalesForce CRM and can easily integrate with proprietary systems. This increases automation, and simplifies management reporting and activity tracking. Euphoria includes remote support and offers change management, technical expertise and on-site assistance that is affordable and reliable. Connect with us! Cape Town: 021 200 0500 Johannesburg: 010 593 4500 Website: www.euphoria.co.za Twitter: @euphoriatelecom Facebook: euphoriatelecom

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At 75m each, the blades of the Siemens gearless 6MW wind turbine are the longest in the world

Siemens

INVESTMENT INTO NEW IDEAS AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES IS PART OF SIEMENS’S DNA

Pioneer country BY CHANA BOUCHER

It’s hard to think of global corporate giant, Siemens, as the entrepreneurial venture of a German engineer in 1847. But back then, Werner von Siemens had vision and skills that were very rare. He constructed a pointer telegraph far superior to existing products. His small precision-engineering workshop—which made products such as electrically triggered warning bells, water meters and seamless insulation in addition to the electric telegraphs—soon became one of the world’s leading electrical firms. His company started receiving orders from Russia at the beginning of the 1950s, followed by business in England and other international destinations. In 1860, he concluded the company’s initial project in South Africa. He installed the country’s first telegraph line, linking Cape Town and Simon’s Town. More than 160 years later and his vision, innovative approach and pioneering spirit have not been the least bit diluted. “Investment into new ideas and new technologies is part of our DNA. In fact, we have more than 29 000 researchers and developers worldwide who helped us discover over 30 new inventions per workday in our last financial year,” said Sabine Dall’Omo, 82 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

Siemens South Africa CEO. As an integrated technology company, Siemens has played a constructive role in South Africa’s development. It was responsible for a number of the country’s vital milestones and groundbreaking projects over the years in the fields of automation, building technologies, drive technology, healthcare, energy and mobility. In 1897 the first Siemens medical x-ray unit arrived in South Africa. The year 1927 saw the company electrify Table Mountain’s cableway. Siemens was responsible for the first fleet of heavy-haul locomotives to be introduced into South Africa in 1978. In 1994 it supplied

the PABX network for the Independent Electoral Commission during the country’s first democratic election. The list of projects goes on, even including some key involvement in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. But enough about what has been done in the past—what is happening at Siemens presently, and what is there to look forward to in the future? Dall’Omo said the company’s range of innovations stretches from the world’s largest wind turbine to the fastest train, first wireless ultrasound unit and Africa’s first science-and-

South Africa. It is committed to playing an active role in the country’s renewable-energy drive after receiving multiple orders to build some of South Africa’s largest wind and solar farms. Siemens has four manufacturing operations across the country where specialist skills, technical human resources and manufacturing capacity, employment, small-business creation and strong industry partnerships are receiving a huge injection. But the company’s efforts have not gone unnoticed: Siemens South Africa was recently ranked as the industry leader for Electronics &

Siemens’s range of innovations stretches from the world’s largest wind turbine to the fastest train, first wireless ultrasound unit and Africa’s first science-and-technology high school.

technology high school. “Companies across the world need to stay relevant to their consumers. Innovation development is one of our key strong points at Siemens. Our products and solutions have an effect on many areas of day-to-day life: whether in electrification, manufacturing, transportation or healthcare. New technologies are developed and brought to market-ready maturity in all areas of our business,” she added. Taking the rapid rate at which society is evolving, Siemens’s digital engineering technology is already helping some of world’s biggest brands keep up. Dall’Omo highlighted some high-profile examples including Adams Golf Clubs, Red Bull Racing’s F1 car, the BP Volkswagen rally team, and NASA. “The Mars Curiosity rover, currently on the red planet, was designed virtually before being put to actual prototype. These are but a few examples of how Siemens is helping merge the virtual and real worlds through automation and digitalisation.” Siemens holds leading market positions in the fields of electrification, automation, digitalisation, urban infrastructure, and new solutions for healthcare. The company is forging ahead with research and development on a massive scale. Zooming in on the local arm, Siemens currently employs around 1 530 people in

Engineering in the CRF Institute’s Top Employers South Africa 2013/2014. With the vision of being a pioneer, Siemens is not just about new ideas; it seeks to answer the biggest questions to make a sustainable

difference. In South Africa, this has entailed hospitals, the electricity grid, transportation, infrastructure, sports venues, buildings, mines and factories. The company’s men and women are from a multitude of cultures and diverse backgrounds and have the expertise, persistence, experience and commitment to solve problems facing every town, city, province and the country as a whole. Dall’Omo said: “Siemens is a company that prides itself on innovation and staying ahead of the innovation curve—or creating it. We are constantly involved in trend analysis, both from development cycles as well as people development.” According to her, if it weren’t for this approach, Siemens would lose ground to competition globally. For companies such as Siemens, it is vital to stay current and relevant in order to make a mark—something Siemens has known for a very long time and has been able to do. This not only benefits the company in terms of results and growth, but has an impact on the countries in which it operates. “As a technology partner to governments and utility-sized companies across the world, we help stimulate economic development and facilitate prosperity in society.” www.siemens.co.za

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THE INNOVATIVE AIR-PHOTOGR APHY DRONE IS THE BR AINCHILD OF DUR AN DE VILLIERS, WHO IS CONSTANTLY LOOKING TO FIND SOLUTIONS FROM ONE LEVEL HIGHER

Eye in the sky BY ANOESCHKA VON MECK

They are young, dynamic, creative, super hardworking, thinking out of the box and living in an orbit of upward-projecting inspiration most inventors only dream of reaching.

SteadiDrone Although not many locals outside the technology field may know that innovative air-photography drones are being built right here on our doorstep, when Duran de Villiers of SteadiDrone was awarded the Sanlam Outstanding Achievement Award at the recent 2014 Sanlam Knysna Awards on November 6, people took note. The energy around the dynamic young couple of Duran (30) and Alexa (32) de Villiers makes them a real inspiration, but without the hype. They are humble and easy-going, looking more as if they may soon be on their way to the

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beach rather than running a team of young technical entrepreneurs who have placed their products and their brand on the cutting edge of this specialised industry worldwide. “Alexa, I couldn’t have done any of this without you,” Duran said as he took to the stage at Simola Hotel to receive the award. Last year, SteadiDrone had won the Business Technology Innovation Award at the same event, which had them invited to Italy as finalists. There is something vibrant and geekishly exciting

discovered that the technology I wanted—to offer clients footage that was unattainable unless one used remote-controlled helicopters—wasn’t available,” explains Duran. Realising there was a gap in the market for a product that would address this frustration, two years later SteadiDrone emerged as Duran’s brainchild. Today the De Villiers’s company is rapidly becoming one of South Africa’s most exciting technological exports, raking in R14 million in turnover in its first financial year, 2013. Duran began to design and develop their first drone, which he conceptualised and built himself.

SteadiDrone is rapidly becoming one of South Africa’s most exciting technological exports, raking in R14 million in turnover in its first financial year, 2013

about walking into a workspace in Knysna Industrial, which immediately reminds one of the modern chill-out working environments where Bill Gates began what would eventually become an empire. This self-funded startup, which is currently one of the leaders in its market internationally, began with the way Duran viewed things. It also began with a life-changing friendship with a beautiful girl to whom he has now been happily married for 10 years. It may be argued that building drones—which allow all types of cameras to be mounted onto what is essentially a flying tripod—is an exact technological manifestation of Duran’s take on life: someone who does not see limitations, but who finds a passion for the things he does and who is constantly in a zone of technological inspiration, “looking at finding solutions from a level higher”. From that height, new innovation is a constant flow, simply needing to be tapped into—an altered viewpoint from most. De Villiers, who immigrated with his family to New Zealand, took the risk of returning to Knysna to pursue the girl who had once taken guitar lessons from him. He was only 18 years old, and two years later the couple were married. After trying to find work in the media-production scene in Cape Town, he returned to Knysna and, using the experience he had built up making 200 DStv productions for a local church and shooting weddings, he took the next step. In 2012 the couple began a small media-production company, Motion Pixel. “I

“I immediately fell in love with the technology and it kind of just snowballed from there.” Within three months, SteadiDrone had its first unit available for sale, and within a year Duran transformed his media-production company into a drone manufacturer. SteadiDrone now has dealerships in South America, North America, Canada, the United Kingdom, most of Europe, the United Arab Emirates and Australia. “I taught myself everything I needed to know about the technology,” he says, now spending most of his time in expanding SteadiDrone’s products and establishing its brand. The company currently markets three drones and will be launching its fourth at the end of November. The drones, which are gaining in popularity and able to out-compete many pricey overseas brands, are used for anything from aerial photography for filming, commercial shots, real estate and farms, and 3D mapping to plotting power lines and even aiding anti-rhino poaching units. Watch this space. The De Villiers’s faith and hard work are bound to unfold in a destiny of success. www.steadidrone.com

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CliffCentral.com FOR PROVING THE NAYSAYERS WRONG WITH 1.8 MILLION PODCASTS DOWNLOADED

CliffCentral.com started in South Africa on May 1, 2014, spearheaded by Gareth Cliff. Tired of being shackled to outdated broadcasting regulations and constantly been made to sit in the naughty corner, Gareth decided enough was enough—so he headed out into the Wild Wild West (www) realms of the Internet. Six months on, the naysayers have been proven wrong, yet again. The show is not dead but is growing as the CliffCentral team are finding their rhythm, throwing out what doesn’t work and focusing on what does. But the big question remains: Is there an audience? I scheduled an interview with Gareth to ask him some questions about the show and to enquire directly about his numbers. In complete unscripted, unradio style, instead of conducting the interview in the office, I found myself talking into the mic and conducting my interview LIVE on air during the morning show hosted by Gareth and Mabale Moloi. No pressure. It was incredible just how many people called in the second Gareth posed the question: “For how long do you listen?” Caller after caller told us they listen for hours on end. What was even more incredible was the large number of people who listen via podcast. That is big. With traditional radio, you listen as you meander through traffic. As soon as you arrive at your

destination, you switch off the radio. Here endeth the show. With CliffCentral, this is not the case. People listen while driving to work via the WeChat app but, when they get to work, they download the podcast of the show and continue to listen when they can. Callers described their ‘binge’ habit of listening to three or four podcasts in succession, essentially creating their own playlist; their own unradio show. I was even more intrigued with that kind of feedback. So I asked Gareth to be specific in sharing the actual numbers. He did. Make no mistake: CliffCentral are a tech-savvy bunch—perhaps not ‘traditional’ techies, but they have their finger on the pulse. After my morning interview-by-fire on air, Gareth pulled out the latest stats: 1.8 million podcasts since June (so over a three-month period, that’s about 600 000 podcasts downloaded per month) 47 000 followers on their Facebook page 34 000 Twitter followers 1.7 million page views on CliffCentral.com 120 000 people added CliffCentral on WeChat This is staggering. I cannot find a larger podcast supplier in South Africa, let alone Africa. So what’s next for CliffCentral.com? Remember that a radio show, with its large audience, will have podcasts as an

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add-on. But CliffCentral IS the podcast! So people across South Africa are making a conscious decision to switch off their car radio and tune into the live stream and then download the podcast on several devices. It’s an unbelievable feat for a sixmonth-old show. Gareth would not divulge any secrets, but I have a feeling the next few months will be even better.— Liron Segev, The Techie Guy

caption

Radio’s naughty boy Gareth Cliff is striking out on his own and pulling in millions of listeners

12 Lightstone Auto FOR DRIVING CHANGE IN THE MOTOR INSURANCE INDUSTRY

Identifying and then solving problems by developing smart solutions is what innovation is all about in business. Lightstone Auto—provider of comprehensive data, analytics and systems on various assets, specifically automotive— has mastered this. The company has developed nifty products that allow an entire industry to overcome a challenge it has been plagued with for decades. One such product is the awardwinning LIVE Inspect app, which Lightstone Auto believes could “revolutionise” the industry it was developed for. Lightstone Auto embraces technology—not only to make the work the company does as smooth and seamless as possible, but it is also an important component in the suite of products it offers. Serving three industries, namely banking, motor dealerships and insurance, the company gathers information about vehicles and people. It then uses the data to produce models and statistics that are easy to understand and which provide valuable insights into the automotive sector. But where Lightstone Auto has really excelled most recently is in the

two apps it has released. The first, simply called LIVE, targets motor dealers. It assists them in verifying and validating vehicles at an early stage, and makes the entire process easier. Building on the success of LIVE, Lightstone Auto then released LIVE Inspect. LIVE Inspect is tailored to the requirements of the short-term insurance industry. It identifies stolen and rebuilt vehicles as well as provides salvage code status so that the insurer has a clear picture of the

challenge for the sector. Lightstone Auto’s innovation is not only being recognised by the industries benefiting from the apps, but it has also bagged two prestigious awards. At the MTN Business App of the Year Awards held in August 2014, LIVE Inspect won the overall award as well as for Best Android Enterprise App. Jasper van Heesch, head of business development insurance at Lightstone Auto, says:

How it works LIVE Inspect scans the licence disc, verifies the details contained on the barcode and validates it with Lightstone Auto’s data sources and internal analytics department. Photos capture the exact state of the vehicle and are stamped with a GPS location and time detail. This is then sent directly to the insurer, who can ensure correct pricing. It also highlights anything that is incorrect about the vehicle. The databases are in real time, so insurers receive accurate, comprehensive information on the exact state the vehicle is in at that specific time.

asset when a new policy is initiated. LIVE Inspect identifies the exact make, model and type of vehicle—allowing the insurer to determine a more accurate price. This is especially helpful for parts pricing and will assist when it comes to underwriting correctly. LIVE Inspect also helps prevent claim fraud, which remains an enormous

“[The LIVE Inspect app] will assist in changing the way pre-inspections are conducted in the insurance industry, and assists Lightstone in fighting the battle against fraudulent activity within the motor industry.” He adds that the apps are just the beginning of even greater things to come for the industry. www.lightstoneauto.co.za

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FOR MAKING ENERGY USE MORE EFFICIENT

Energy Partners’s expertise and services span the full spectrum of energy, from generation sources to efficiency in usage— committing to the delivery of results relevant to various business needs through utilising innovative energysaving technology. It works with its clients, both large portfolios (more than 150 sites) and single sites, to develop strategies that yield optimal results. Its focus is on food retail, retail, healthcare, hospitality, food processing and logistics. Clients include Pick n Pay, Fruit & Veg City, Netcare and Parmalat, among others. Energy consumption is measurable and quantifiable, yet it very quickly becomes complicated to track consumption across both a site and a functional level. Accurate recording of realtime energy consumption can be achieved only through independent electricity meters. Energy Partners’s innovative solution is based on its team installing meters with a view of energy management further down the line, which is critical for measuring consumption. Consumption is then typically recorded in 30-minute intervals and communicated to a central repository. After thorough data analysis and investigation, the company’s Energy Intelligence informs all further energymanagement initiatives. The company was a finalist in this year’s PwC Vision to Reality Awards. energypartners.co.za

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GUTTER CREDIT TK

Energy Partners

(From left to right) Cofounder Shane Dryden, director Paul Galatis and co-founder Andrew Smith

Yuppiechef FOR HOLDING WOOLWORTHS RANSOM

GUTTER CREDIT TK

Online kitchen and home store, Yuppiechef, has grown from its humble beginnings eight years ago in a living room in Cape Town into an award-winning e-commerce leader in South Africa.

It has become one of the country’s favourites due to its small but personal touches such as adding a handwritten thank-you note with every (free) delivery of a product, wrapped like a gift with a little badge or fridge magnet inside; shipping all knives with a coin (a ‘penny’ to maintain a good relationship between the giver and recipient); and encouraging customers to tweet photos of their pets inside the packaging. This year Yuppichef’s experts built their own warehouse management system from scratch, using an Android tablet’s capabilities such as touchscreen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and battery power. And the Yuppiechef Online Cooking School offers its members various video-led cooking courses presented by food-industry celebrities. But one of its proud achievements is winning the 2010 Gold Loerie award, which honours the finest in South African brand communications. Yuppiechef won in the Digital Viral category—for a prank, no less. “We have your lovebirds,” read the ransom note it sent to retail giant, Woolworths. “If you want your lovebirds back, you must match every rand donated to Soil For Life by Yuppiechef fans between now and 14 February or the lovebirds get it. Woahahahaha”. All this because Woolworths mistakenly omitted the letter ‘s’ from the URL on its Valentine’s Day “Lovebirds” campaign advert, which encouraged customers to tweet their secret love in order to win their share of R50 000 in gift cards. So the website address read www.woolieslovebird.co.za instead of www.woolieslovebirds. co.za. Yuppiechef registered the correct domain name and redirected traffic to its own site, then sent Woolies the ransom note. The retailer agreed to raise the money and told Yuppiechef to continue what had then become a viral sensation. Soon other big brands such as Standard Bank and Philips joined in and more than R100 000 was raised for Soil For Life, which teaches rural communities how to tend soil properly so they can plant their own fruit and vegetables. www.yuppiechef.com

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Head of operations Kabelo Kale, with owner & founder Anisa Kale

Keys Communications FOR BRINGING BR AND AWARENESS TO THE TOWNSHIPS

This small media company saw the gap for a different format of outdoor advertising that is more suited—and speaks more effectively—to the huge emerging consumer markets within South African ‘townships’: areas that were historically racially designated for black people, but now are often the heart of our dynamic, evolving culture. Keys Communications employs mural artists and customises each outdoor billboard to its location with an exceptionally high level of artistic execution; the boards often look so good, it’s hard to believe they have been hand-painted. Its work can often be seen in painted wall media for popular brands such as Coca-Cola SA, Nedbank, Eskom, Wimpy, Nike and Top TV, among many others. Keys also empowers the communities by hand-painting the walls of township houses and financially rewarding the homeowners. www.keyscommunications.co.za

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TrashBack FOR REDUCING WASTE AND EMPOWERING S T R E E T P E O P L E AT T H E S A M E T I M E

This social enterprise is reinventing how recycling is done, and helping the truly poorest of the poor—those living on the streets of Cape Town—to earn a living and regain some sense of self-esteem. TrashBack’s main aim is to turn those traditionally known as ‘waste pickers’ into formalised waste collectors. It has created a framework to aid these people to organise themselves and develop local strategies for participation in existing waste-management systems. These ground-level recyclers collect recyclable waste and bring it to a network of local collection depots (instead of remotely located compacters—the transport costs are unaffordable for these collectors). Here they can create and maintain a personalised, secured ‘account’ using biometric fingerprint technology, from which they can either request cash or pay for beneficial items such as food and clothing at a network of local retailers that use the same fingerprint system. In this way, TrashBack is able to monitor the service these collectors provide and ensure the deserving ones are rewarded accordingly. The broader community reaps the rewards of a cleaner environment and the associated health and safety benefits. www.trashback.org

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ArcAqua F O R T U R N I N G TA P WAT E R I N T O A POWERFUL SANITISING AGENT

ArcAqua is dedicated to developing a suite of innovative ozone-delivery products that make the oxidising properties and benefits of O3 accessible to many professional industries. It intends to meet the growing global demand for green tech solutions by delivering an effective, affordable and chemical-free sanitisation alternative.

The company has developed a patented method of using ozone, nature’s sanitiser, as a safe and environmentally friendly sanitising solution for the food industry as well as medical and domestic applications. At the forefront of its innovative solutions is The ArcAqua TMS Series 1, which is a revolutionary ozone-based system that converts cold water from an ordinary tap into a powerful sanitising agent that kills 99.9% of all known bacteria. It does this by using a patented nozzle design that breaks the tap flow down into a

spray of water droplets and efficiently coats them with ozone. Ozone occurs naturally when sunlight, lightning or friction adds an additional oxygen atom to an oxygen molecule to make O3. It is a powerful antimicrobial agent that rapidly oxidises organic molecules, thereby killing them and then reverting to oxygen. While bacteria and microbial counts are part of everyday life, they can pose serious problems if not managed effectively. From microbial spoilage in food and perishables to more serious health problems such as food poisoning and infection, bacteria needs to be kept under

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Ozone • is the most powerful oxidiser available • is environmentally friendly • rapidly destroys pathogens and is able to kill any virus known to man • oxidates DNA • eliminates odour-causing compounds • does not taint food and produce taste • leaves no harmful chemical residual • needs no chemical storage facility • improves profitability, being cost-effective and extending the shelf life of fresh produce control. This management of bacteria has significant cost implications. ArcAqua was a top 10 finalist in the PwC Vision to Reality Awards Programme in 2014. www.arcaqua.com

The TMS Series 1 • uses very little water when compared to other water-based cleaning alternatives • uses no consumables other than tap water, which has a significant saving on chemical spend • eliminates bacteria so that food stays fresher, smells better and is usable for longer, thus enhancing shelf life • produces no harmful byproducts

DYNAMIC. FLUID. ADAPTABLE. Independent Mediaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s audience is diverse and expressive. Why should our application be different? The new My.Independent app for tablet and mobile. Now available for iOS and Android Find out more at www.myindependent.co.za

SnapScan

FOR BRINGING THE CASHLESS SOCIETY CLOSER TO REALITY

Winner of the 2013 MTN Business App of the Year Award, SnapScan is revolutionising the way consumers pay for goods. And all you need is your smartphone—no cash, no card swipes. Consumers can download the free app (which falls under technology incubator, FireID) on Apple iStore, Google Play or BlackBerry World, input their credit card details and create a PIN. There is no fee for sign-up, setup or installation; neither is there a monthly fee (except normal banking charges and mobile data charges). Although the app is powered by Standard Bank, SnapScan can be used with any MasterCard or VISA credit or cheque card, as well as selected debit cards, issued by any bank in South Africa. At the store, the merchant’s QR code is scanned into the app and the correct amount entered. After the PIN is keyed in, the transaction is complete and the merchant receives notification of the confirmed payment. Consumers’ card details are encrypted and stored only on their phone. Over 14 000 merchants across South Africa have already signed up with SnapScan. Even merchants without bank accounts—such as vendors of The Big Issue magazine— can make use of SnapScan. At the end of the business day, they can get a voucher code and input it at any Standard Bank ATM, or exchange the voucher for cash at any Spar. www.snapscan.co.za

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WILDLIFE ADVENTURES www.simonsays.co.za | 7141

AWAIT

• Shamwari Group offers a private collection of award-winning luxury game reserves in Southern Africa • Superb 5 star accommodation • Free-roaming Big 5 • Diverse range of flora and fauna • Unique day and night game drives with qualified rangers • Guided Big 5 safari walks & bird watching • Family friendly facilities, including a Kids on Safari Programme • Explorer Camp – an exclusive, tailored 2 day walking safari in Big 5 territory, sleeping in mobile tents

conserving a vanishing way of life www.shamwarigroup.com | T: +27 (0)41 509 3000 | reservations@shamwarigroup.com

Q-7141- Shamwari Group Oprah Mag FP ad April2014.indd 1

2014/03/28 9:21 AM

Daily Dish FOR REDUCING TIME SPENT I N G R O C E RY S T O R E S A N D THE KITCHEN

When you don’t have time to go shopping and work out recipes, Daily Dish will do it for you. Offering three menu choices—classic, low-carb and vegetarian—Daily Dish delivers a box of beautifully printed, step-by-step recipe cards as well as every single raw ingredient exactly portioned (spices, dairy, meat, veg, everything!) for four mid-week dinners that serve either two or four people. It’s a subscription service for which you are charged a week in advance and which you can switch on and off on a weekly basis as suits you. So if you go away on vacation, for example, you simply pause the service until you’re back—there are no contracts. You start your subscription before 4 p.m. on a Wednesday and Daily Dish delivers everything the following Monday. There’s even a handy countdown

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clock on the website to indicate how much time is left to place an order. Diane de Villiers and Jo-Pierre Lerm were so frustrated with all the frantic dashes to crowded grocery stores after work, and the same old boring meals and sad takeouts, that they decided to find a service that would deliver either fresh ingredients or ready home-cooked meals. But they found online shopping a nightmare and the cooked meals “looked worse than boarding school fare”. So they created Daily Dish to cater for ordinary home cooks like themselves, who want to make quick, delicious meals every day from the best ingredients. They purchase only from vendors with stringent foodquality and ethics standards, and plan their menus in such a way as to keep costs down. The quick and simple recipes

(they’re all designed to take around 30 minutes to make), the quality ingredients, the fact that you cook the meals yourself but don’t have to shop for complicated ingredients or even think about what to make for dinner every day are all fantastic. The best thing is that there’s no waste: no veggies going off before you use them; no bottles of stuff you needed for one recipe, languishing in the cupboard for the next two years! www.dailydish.co.za

Issue 3 2

D E C /J A N

T H E D I G I TA L VERSION OF

SPECIAL BUMPER EDITION

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IS NOW AVA I L A B L E on A P P L E I PA D and A N D R O I D TA B L E T S

GOOGLE LOOKS TO THE FUTURE:

Co-founder Sergey Brin, sporting his Google Glass eyewear

SA’s Top 25 contenders that can compete globally

NOVEMBER 2014

DECEMBER/JANUARY 2014/15

MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES R35.00

Fast Company South Africa

Pharrell Williams | YouTube | Sorbet | Vinny Lingham

The World’s Most Innovative companies of 2014

The 2014 World’s

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SuSaN WojCiCki rEbooTS YouTubE

TYra baNkS goES To Harvard

WHaT iS goodvErTiSiNg?

Issue 2

Creative lessons from sa entrepreneurs Vinny Lingham Ian Fuhr Ndumiso Madlala Pharrell Williams | YouTube | Sorbet | vinny Lingham

The Talented Mr Williams Pharrell’s Secrets To Success

november 2014

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novembeR 2014 fastcompany.co.za

Co-working Spaces Is this the death of the Cubical Nation?

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9 772313 330006

The New Photo Economy Your Face is their Fortune

2014 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

20 WooThemes

Yola.com

FOR HELPING PEOPLE SELL ANYTHING—

FOR GIVING SUBSCRIBERS ITS FULL SUPPORT

B E A U T I F U L LY

WooThemes co-founders, Norwegian Magnus Jepson and South African Mark Forrester, set out to create website themes that could compete with the best-looking sites in the world, but which would be flexible and easy to customise. Club members have access to WooThemes’s catalogue of WordPress themes and also receive two new themes each month. They also receive updates and fixes to existing themes. WooCommerce is the most popular WordPress e-commerce plugin—and it’s available for free. Packed full of features, it is perfectly integrated into a self-hosted WordPress website for users to market and sell their wares. Payments WooCommerce is bundled with PayPal (for accepting credit card and PayPal account payments), BACS and cash-ondelivery. The service has various specific payment-gateway extensions. Shipping WooThemes offers clients an opportunity to set up shop with the options of free or flat-rate shipping; and catering for specific distribution logistics such as table-rate shipping, through a variety of shipping extensions.

Marketing Run complex coupon campaigns offering a range of discount options, usage limits and product/ user restrictions as well as free shipping. Inventory Users can easily manage their digital or physical products with their intuitive and WordPresscentric UI. Store managers can also be assigned to handle the dayto-day inventory management. Reporting Users can easily keep a bird’s-eye view of incoming sales and reviews, stock levels and general store performance from their WordPress backend. WooThemes hosted the firstever WooCommerce Conference this year in San Francisco. www.woothemes.com

Yola was created in 2007 in Cape Town as the brainchild of Vinny Lingham, the pioneer behind innovative digital marketing company, Clicks2Customers. The company now has more than nine million users and 60 permanent workers in its San Francisco and Cape Town offices. Its awardwinning Sitebuilder is available in six languages: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Yola makes it easy for clients to set up a website. The Sitebuilder runs in one’s web browser, and requires no installations or plugins. The intuitive site-creation interface is implemented using cutting-edge web standards: JavaScript talking to Web Services that have evolved to expose a rich suite of basic and advanced functionality. And best of all, it’s free. It also offers hosting, so users can publish their customised site to the web virtually instantly with the click of a button. And through strategic partnerships, members can edit photos using Aviary, import Flickr photos and YouTube videos, and create custom Wufoo forms. Simple drag-and-drop toolbars make adding Google Maps, photos, links and even an online store a breeze. For the more techinclined, HTML code is also an option. If members run into problems, assistance is always at hand. With 24/7 online customer support, a knowledgeable community as well as online tutorials, videos and webinars, Yola’s customer service is top-notch. www.yola.com

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Yola.com is but one of a number of successful, cutting-edge online ventures founded by South African-born Vinny Lingham

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID BLOOMER

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Double feature THANKS TO ITS SPECTACUL AR SET TINGS AND SET-MANUFACTURING CAPABILITIES, THE MOTHER CIT Y HAS BECOME ONE OF THE MOST DESIR ABLE FILMING LOCATIONS IN THE WORLD

BY CHANA BOUCHER

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Cape Town Film Studios

2014 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES HOLLYWOOD IS SO five years ago. Nowadays, film and television producers are looking for more interesting places to make movies outside of North America. And with a world-class studio offering what many others cannot, it’s no surprise that Cape Town tops the list. In fact, Cape Town Film Studios has become such a hot filming spot that Nico Dekker, the company’s CEO, says he’s had to turn away up to 30 major productions since October 2013. Sure, the Mother City is beautiful and offers breathtaking backdrops for those wanting to incorporate this, but what’s actually attracting the big names to Cape Town Film Studios—and seeing the biggest impact on the film industry in South Africa—is that it positions Cape Town (and the rest of the country) as a manufacturer rather than just a location. Dekker explains that the company becomes part of the creative process of making a new film or TV series—something that is quite unique for a studio. “I read the scripts, study lines and see how the studio can cater for the film.” The biggest production to date for the studio is the high-end series Black Sails, now in its third season of filming at the Cape Town Film Studios. The series, says Dekker, is a great example of the studio’s manufacturing capabilities. “The producers of Black Sails couldn’t come right in any other parts of the world. Here we were able to build what they needed—including two tanks, a beach, an island and more—for them to build the set on. We understand the key elements needed and are involved in the infrastructure development. We accompany them on the journey,” he says. Set in 1720s Bahamas, the sheer magnitude of the Black Sails production proved a challenge for the studio, one it would gladly accept. Dekker says everything from the costumes to the ships and sets had to be created locally, which was a boost for the entire country, as it created a huge number of jobs. There are close to 2 000 people, many of whom are previously disadvantaged, working at the studios every day. He adds that the studio is continuously working and investing in infrastructure for this series. To give an idea, the tanks alone required an investment of R30 million. But he says the studio’s willingness to commit to the production was a key factor in securing the client. Build it and they will come Dekker says when he joined the company in July 2008, the studio hadn’t managed to get off the ground. He then redesigned it, suggesting major changes to how it works. Disappointingly, he says, around 95% of the local industry initially said it wouldn’t work—but he has now proven otherwise. During the early stages, he kicked off a marketing campaign that saw him visiting the big stages in the United States, United Kingdom as well as other international players with projects lined up and money to invest. For three months he studied what other studios were doing and established relationships with the decision makers in the global industry. Dekker found the executives at the likes of companies such as Disney and Warner to be extremely generous when it came to sharing advice and experiences. He asked them what they would do differently if they were building their studios today and what

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CEO Nico Dekker says he reads scripts and studies lines to see how the studio can cater for a film

What the big shots have to say “I’m no stranger to new studios, and what Nico has done with the tanks [for the production of Black Sails], the facilities and the craftsmanship truly exceed what I have seen in the US. I went to South Korea last year, I’ve been to Jordan and the Czech Republic, and they all want to be involved in this business, but I’ve never seen the degree of investment and courage as I’ve seen in South Africa.”—Vance Van Petten, executive director at Producers Guild of America “In terms of technology, South Africa is actually ahead of the curve in many respects. Those sound stages at Cape Town Film Studios are incredibly advanced, and beyond anything I have seen before.”— Kate Beyda, senior VP of physical production at Warner Bros “We had the opportunity to go to the Cape Town Film Studios and they are state-ofthe-art, and the level of craftsmanship on top of that far surpassed any expectations. I was also able to validate numbers in terms of crew rates, and I look forward to bringing movies here.”— Sara Spring, senior VP of feature production at Paramount

their dream scenario would be. He then tried to follow these suggestions at Cape Town Film Studios, keeping in mind the financial limitations. With a clear idea of what was needed to bag international producers of the highest calibre, Cape Town Film Studios—the first customisable studio of its kind in Africa—was built in 2009 and opened in December 2010. To date, just under R400 million has been spent on developing the studio, an amount that Dekker says is “not much” in the world of film. Most studios in other countries spend at least €600 million (around R8.2 billion). The first major production to happen at the Stellenbosch-based studio was the 3D action film, Dredd. Currently there are 7 000 square metres of high-specification soundproof stages spread over four buildings. They have dedicated support facilities including greenrooms, wardrobe, rest and dressing rooms. Each stage offers two furnished luxury star rooms to keep the rich and famous comfortable in between shooting. The rooms have a queen-size bed, makeup station, kitchenette, dining area, work station and a high-tech audiovisual lounge area. Other facilities at Cape Town Film Studios include a 37-seater 2D/3D grading cinema; fully equipped production offices; two workshops for set construction, wardrobe or storage; backlot facilities for outdoor set-building; full audio and video post-production services as well as high-speed broadband connection. While Dekker’s relationship with the decision makers helps to attract major productions to Cape Town, he says it’s word of mouth that is really shining the spotlight on Cape Town Film Studios. “It is the most powerful form of marketing. Directors are sharing their experiences and we are creating a track record that is unbelievable.” Most recently, South African director Gavin Hood concluded filming Eye in the Sky at the studio. Two of the movie’s stars, Hollywood legend Helen Mirren as well as Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul, could be spotted roaming the streets of Cape Town throughout filming—great for the local film industry, but even better for tourism! While he remains tight-lipped about some of the other major productions lined up, Dekker says there are big films coming in on a regular basis to use the facilities and infrastructure on site. To be continued… The owners of Cape Town Film Studios have recently made the decision to build a new double stage. Dekker says the plan is to start building a workshop and the stage next year, as soon as production allows. With its first profitable year in sight (something that was initially expected to take decades to achieve), he says there are talks of more stages in future. “We have a good reputation and have shown that there is a market, now we need to expand so that we don’t lose traction. We are currently turning away people of the highest calibre,” he adds. The studio is backed by national, provincial and local government, but has two private majority shareholders: Videovision Entertainment and Sabido Investments. Videovision is filmmaker Anant Singh’s production company responsible for films such as Yesterday and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. Media investment holding company, Sabido, owns e.tv. According to Dekker, the studio has played a vital role in changing the perception of the country. “International filmmakers now trust us to do things that are highly technical.” He adds that they are now doing things people didn’t know were possible for a “country in Africa”. “We are showing them that South Africa is filled with people who are able to do things and who have a make-do attitude. We tackle things that seem impossible.” www.capetownfilmstudios.co.za

FOR CHANGING THE RULES OF BUSINESS I N C U B AT I O N

23 Raizcorp “One size does not fit all for small business development strategy,” says Allon Raiz, founder and CEO of Raizcorp, the only non-funded, privately owned business incubator in Africa. But the company prefers to call itself a business ‘prosperator’, as the word ‘incubator’ evokes images of illness. Instead, Raizcorp focuses on the notion of prosperity. By drawing on the best practices of global business incubators, Raizcorp has pioneered a unique model known as ProsperationTM, which invests in the entrepreneur, and not the business. After a rigorous selection process, it provides fullservice business support programmes and personaldevelopment modules to those who show the most potential. This service offers the new startup everything it needs to grow to prosperity and overcome the challenges that small businesses often encounter: marketing, finding office space, connecting electricity and water services, setting up telephone lines and Internet, transporting stock, purchasing equipment, and meeting market demands. Raizcorp also trains new entrepreneurs in basic business principles such as accounting and administration, as well as generating sales leads. Should these businesses require further assistance, Raizcorp provides experienced bookkeepers and accountants, and assigns a mentor to the managing director. To date, Raizcorp has helped almost a thousand entrepreneurs become the owners of successful businesses.

www.raizcorp.com

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Aweza FO R TE ACHING SOUTH AFRIC AN S TO SAY HELLO IN 11 L AN GUAGES

Aweza is the first truly multilingual South African phrase translation app for Android & iOS. With crowd-sourced audio pronunciations, it aims to leverage mobile technology to bridge the language divide in the country and encourage intercultural engagement.

was not necessarily an award, it’s an accolade that we hold in very high regard, and a list of which we are honoured to be a part. How have people responded to the app? The response has been great. We have been featured on television, radio, in newspapers and magazines, and various online publications. The feedback from our users is the feedback we value most, and they have been incredibly encouraging about the app and the Aweza initiative as a whole.

Glenn Stein, CTO of Aweza, gives Fast Company SA more details about the app and its conception: From where did the idea originate, and what was the motivation? As a South African who has travelled through rural areas across our beautiful country, I have had many first-hand experiences with the language barrier that is consequential of a nation with 11 official languages. When faced with such barriers on a day-to-day basis in one’s own country, one has to wonder what the socio-economic impacts of such a challenge on a nation could be. With this question in mind, we conceptualised a way to leverage the fast-growing influence of mobile technology to build a tool that could function as a step in the right direction toward bridging the South African language divide— the result was Aweza. How has your reach and effectiveness improved since inception? The first version of Aweza, which was called PhraZApp, was designed for J2ME-enabled feature phones and BlackBerry Legacy devices. Within six months of launch, our reach grew to a user base of 30 000, being the 11th most downloaded app off the Vodacom App Store. PhraZApp was limited, in that it translated only between five of the 11 official South African languages, and contained no audio. We have since rebranded Aweza and launched the app with all 11 official South

African languages, crowd-sourced audio pronunciations and a completely new interface optimised for iOS and Android smartphones. Aweza is currently still in Beta mode and has been downloaded more than 5 000 times. Have you made any progress in bridging the language divide in SA? With the collective number of downloads of Aweza and its predecessor, as well as exposure in the media, we believe progress has been made in encouraging South Africans to join the effort in bridging the language divide in our country. Our user base is getting bigger every day and we are working to keep those numbers growing steadily—because we know that the bigger the Aweza family grows, the bigger the impact on society it can have. Which awards has the app won? PhraZApp, the predecessor to Aweza, won in the Best Garage Developer category of the MTN App of the Year Awards in 2013. This year, Aweza was listed as one of the top 10 most innovative companies in Africa for 2014 by FastCompany. com. Although the latter

104 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

What are your future plans for the app? Aweza Quest We are currently developing a prototype for the next generation of Aweza: a gamified language-learning app for mobile devices, called Aweza Quest. Users will be guided on a quest to learn conversational isiXhosa while becoming acquainted with the native culture. We are extremely excited about this project and its potential to scale and impact lives in South Africa.

Raising capital We are exploring various channels for raising capital, so that we may be able to commit our time fully to realising the first beta for Aweza Quest in multiple languages, while building a family of products focused on corporate campaigns as well. Expanding to other countries Once the Aweza releases have reached a point of establishment and maturity, we will ultimately look to expand the app across other regions in Africa and, ultimately, the rest of the world.

At Source Handmade Food FOR BREATHING LIFE—AND MOISTURE— INTO DRIED FRUIT

Handri Conradie, a sixthgeneration fruit farmer in the Bokkeveld near Ceres— South Africa’s thriving deciduous fruit-growing capital—founded At Source Handmade Food in 2002. The company has a proud heritage of growing and sundrying fruit, and handcrafting these into artisanal products. Soft-eating dried fruit is its flagship product, manufactured in partnership with Koelfontein Farm and using world-first technology created by At Source’s in-house research and development team. This special rehydration staged process—perfected after a year of food-science studies—slowly adds moisture back into the dried fruit to create an extremely soft and flavourful product, which is available exclusively at Woolworths. At Source believes this entirely new process has turned many previous non-consumers into loyal dried-fruit eaters. Transforming this old and boring food category has seen Woolworths almost doubling its market share in dried fruit. At Source has created more than 200 jobs in an extremely rural area for a large percentage of women who would otherwise have relied on seasonal fieldlabour employment. These ladies are so passionate about their jobs that they wear their hairnets into town on Friday afternoons so that everyone knows where they work!

Founder Handri Conradie (left) with Anton Erwee, technical manager

source.co.za

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IN THE MIX There were many fiery debates, to-and-fro emails, back-slapping agreements and the occasional discontented grumble, but in the end the editorial board eventually agreed on the Top 25 South African companies that deserve to be included in the list of this year’s Most Innovative Companies. However, we feel it is important to mention a few other companies that are either waiting in the wings or that need to be recognised for consistently being innovative in their approach to business; those that might not necessarily have done anything ‘new’ in the last 12 to 24 months to qualify for the positions.

WE GIVE KUDOS TO THE COMPANIES THAT CONSISTENTLY CONTINUE TO INNOVATE AND THE ONES WE ARE WATCHING FOR NEXT YEAR AND BEYOND

THE NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK TO WATCH IN 2015 Uber South Africa A smartphone app that allows you to register for the Uber taxi service with your credit card details, and pay the fare without handling cash.

GoMetro GoMetro has created the ‘Cape Town on the Move’ mobile app that presents realtime transport information for the rail and bus network, allowing commuters to post their own updates regarding the status of transport at their particular train station or bus stop. Soon to launch in Johannesburg and Durban.

PriceCheck

BitX

PriceCheck, in partnership with MTN Group, has launched a new co-branded version of South Africa’s very popular price comparison and shopping discovery app, now with product reviews, store details and a barcode scanner to double-check prices.

Bitcoins are like digital cash and were designed to be used over the Internet. BitX allows you to conveniently and securely send, receive and store Bitcoins with minimal transaction fees.

Baobab Suite Baobab Suite by Afrozaar is a platform for content providers and publishers who want to source, package and manage access to their content across mobile, web and social app platforms.

Micket

KINGLY

This startup allows users to purchase virtual mobile tickets (‘mickets’) for events using their mobile handsets, delivered via e-mail or SMS.

A mobile and web UI/UX design and development studio that produces digital campaigns and builds iBeacon apps.

Nifty250

Mellowcabs

An online printing service that connects with your Instagram account and easily lets you select the images you’d like to have printed.

The Mellowcab is a short-distance electric microcab that produces no carbon omissions and is manufactured mainly from recycled materials.

106 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

Impress Me This simple iOS and Android app by Byte Orbit allows job seekers a chance to visually impress potential employers by submitting a unique video clip of themselves, pitching why they think they are right for the job.

Vula Developed by Tiger Bytes, this app connects students, teachers or lecturers at the University of Cape Town to allow them to stay up to date with course work, materials and announcements.

Rekindle Learning An education-technology company that delivers learning solutions that apply the latest pedagogies so that learning actually takes place.

Blink Tower This explainer-video production company helps clients rise up in Google search rankings and reach more people by creating unique story-driven explainer videos that include illustrations, animation, voice-overs, sound and music.

THE CONSISTENT INNOVATORS

These guys might not have made the list, but they are always above the curve with their innovations

Retroviral Online communications agency that’s behind some of the groundbreaking marketing and advertising by casual-dining restaurant group and progressive brand, Nando’s.

RLabs

the biggest solely owned media and news network.

Reconstructed Living Lab is a social enterprise that provides innovative solutions and creates an environment where people are empowered to make a difference in the lives of others.

Woolworths One of SA’s largest retailers, selling everything from food and clothing to homeware and electronics, to financial services. ‘Good Business Journey’ is its award-winning sustainability strategy.

2oceansvibe.com South Africa’s first and most successful digital/Internet radio station, and now

SPECIAL MENTION Bandwidth Barn

A fully networked business incubator that encourages IT entrepreneurship in Cape Town.

Freedom Day and the 20th anniversary of SA’s democracy, Coca-Cola created rainbows over the Johannesburg skyline, by capturing sunlight at specific angles through a mist of non-potable recycled water.

Coca-Cola #RainbowNation Microsoft BizSpark campaign A programme that gives software During April 2014, in the buildup to

development startups access to

Canonical Founded and funded by Mark Shuttleworth, the company ensures Ubuntu runs reliably on every platform from the PC and the smartphone to the server and, crucially, the cloud.

BOS brands “Not just an ice tea”, BOS operates in the realm of the cool and the contemporary, employing African mythology and rich symbolism to articulate its message. (If we had done our first list in 2010 or 2011, BOS would have been number 1.)

Microsoft tools and training, connects them with key industry players, and provides marketing visibility—all for free.

Silicon Cape Initiative A non-profit, community-owned and driven movement that aims to improve the environment in the Western Cape to create more and better startups as well as increase access to capital.

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THE TOP 10 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES IN AFRICA AFRICAN STARTUPS, NON -PROFITS AND BIG BUSINESSES ARE TACKLING A R ANGE OF CHALLENGES, FROM SHOPPING TO SOCIAL GOOD

BY FAST COMPANY STAFF

1 iHub

3 One Acre Fund

For connecting, amplifying and accelerating Africa’s tech community (see page 48)

For fostering a new generation of farmers in Africa

Erik Hersman’s iHub has become an important resource for Kenya’s tech community. The non-profit is a hybrid co-working space and university commons, which has grown to more than 10 000 members in just three years and has led to the launching of 150 companies—many of which are dedicated to finding technological solutions to Africa-specific problems.

The model is simple, but the impact is huge. One Acre Fund estimates it will represent Africa’s largest network of small farms in just a few years. The company provides farmers seed and fertiliser on credit, delivers the materials nearby for pickup, trains the farmers to use them, and helps them sell the harvests. Since launching in Kenya in 2006, One Acre Fund has expanded to surrounding Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania, reaching more than 180 000 farmers and aiming to hit 200 000 by the end of 2014.

2 Sanergy For bringing sustainable sanitation to sub-Saharan Africa

4 Rocket Internet For betting on US-style

More than 12 000 people living in Kenya’s slums are now receiving daily portable toilets containing toilet paper, sawdust, soap and water thanks to Sanergy’s sustainability model: Local residents purchase and manage the sanitation facilities, allowing them to become micro-entrepreneurs. Every day, the waste is collected and transported to a management centre where it’s treated according to the governmental standards and turned into fertiliser for use by East African farmers who can’t afford the otherwise high prices.

commerce in Africa This venture firm has launched more than 100 companies in Africa since its founding in 2007. Among its efforts: online food delivery with FoodPanda, real estate with Lamundi, hotel booking with Javogo, and Amazonlike shopping with Jumia—which is the most popular online shopping site on the continent. While the company runs much of the business from its Berlin headquarters and many are very similar, its work to bring new opportunities to Africa is vital to the continent’s growth.

108 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

and local retailers (through direct sales support and guidance) to make available safer, greener and more efficient cook stoves, water purification technologies and solar lights.

8 Daptio For championing the new wave in education: adaptive learning

5 Konga For making the online shopping experience more secure On Konga’s recently launched Marketplace, electronics to clothing to home appliances and beyond are available for secure online purchase—with more than 200 000 products on offer. And the sellers include merchants from small Nigerian villages as well as large, international companies. Through focusing on buyer and seller protection, Konga is betting that as Nigerians continue to embrace broadband, they will also turn to e-commerce platforms such as its Marketplace.

6 Sterio.me For taking the infrastructure out of education The young startup is rolling out a trial of its mobile e-learning service to 75 schools in Nigeria. The service uses SMS messages that give students access to material and lessons to which they listen outside the classroom. The lessons are prerecorded by the educators and sent as a free voice call when triggered by a specific SMS code. Educators can be immediately notified of which students finished the lessons and how they performed, saving them grading time and helping them prepare for the next class session.

7 UpEnergy For making it safer to cook in rural Africa Millions of people in rural Uganda are still using inefficient and dangerous means of cooking, such as three-stone fires and kerosene. UpEnergy has set out to both protect the environment and people by supporting distribution channels that benefit both large businesses (through carbon credits)

With online education becoming more prevalent, the next step for many platforms is to shirk the typical lecture format in favour of an adaptive learning one. The goal has become finding a model that allows students to receive the right content at the right time, ultimately leading to higher understanding and better grades. With Africa seen as the next frontier for the expansion of online learning— growth of the mobile learning market in Africa over the next five years is 39% and expected to make e-learning a R5.8-billion market by 2017—Daptio’s presence is making it a reality.

9 PrepClass For preparing the next generation Another education-oriented company on the list, PrepClass is an online portal for students preparing for standardised tests in Nigeria, such as the JAMB, WAEC, GCE or NECO. Students pay to take practice tests that prepare them for an online or paper test and receive personalised feedback to improve for test day. To be as available as possible, PrepClass has partnered with more than 1 000 Internet cafes across Nigeria to give students places with the necessary resources to use the platform.

10. Hotels.ng For making the hotel booking process smooth and simple Founded in 2012, Hotels.ng has raised the bar in the Nigerian e-commerce industry. Its business model is simple: Don’t charge the consumers and don’t make them register. Instead, charge the hotels a commission for every reservation made on the platform. Currently, Hotels.ng has more than 5 000 hotels registered on its platform. It has 30 full-time employees, has seen more than R25.2 million in transactions, and has achieved more than R400 000 in monthly revenue—with an annual revenue of R5.27 million.

1 Dyson For advancing everyday tools to the point of perfection Engineer James Dyson’s bagless vacuums and bladeless fans have made innovation a household word in the UK. Today, 85% of Dyson machines are sold to global markets, up from 30% in 2007. The company invests more than R22 million weekly in research and development, yielding such products as the recent Airblade Tap: a 10-second digital, motor-powered water tap that both washes and dries (using 720km/h wind).

2 Shazam For plunging into the always-on feature future (see page 33)

Shazam is like Pop Up Video for everyday life: Press a button and the app IDs any song, TV show, movie or ad you hear. With 350 million users worldwide—and with the company adding 10 million more per month—there’s plenty of room to grow.

3 Mind Candy For creating entertainment for a new generation Winning the hearts of 80 million children, Mind Candy’s online phenomenon Moshi Monsters allows kids to adopt their own virtual pet. The franchise now includes books, magazines, TV shows and toys, all of which fuel its R524 million in revenue. Founder Michael Acton Smith, who recently launched an innovation centre called Candy Labs, uses the online space as a testing ground to build strong, character-based games and apps before taking the products offline. The company’s first animated film, Moshi Monsters: The Movie, hit UK and Ireland theatres in December last year with the help of production partner, Universal Studios.

4 ARM Holdings For putting the smarts in 95% of the world’s smart devices The Cambridge-based ARM designs low-energy, high-performance microprocessors that are embedded in most of our smartphones and tablets. Its 64-bit

chips power the hit iPhone 5s, and ARM is now ramping up semiconductor production for the surging market for the Internet of Things. That means the company—which will now have thermostats, fridges and washing machines to toy with—will expand its reach further into our daily (digital) lives.

5 Spotify For validating the streaming-music business by putting artists first Headquartered in London and Stockholm, Spotify’s quest to stabilise the still-shaky music industry is paying off, both for artists and for the company. Thanks in part to new features that make it easier for listeners to discover music (and concerts), Spotify has grown to nearly 26 million active users—6 million of whom pay ₤9.99 (around R170, but not yet available in SA) for ad-free access. The company claims to pay out nearly 70% of its revenue in royalties (nearly R5.4 billion last year), which has drawn scepticism to its business model. Spotify, however, has been partly credited with lifting music revenues in Sweden by 5%, and earlier this year it was able to drop its time limit for free web listening—proof that its formula is working. Even the mighty Apple is chasing Spotify’s success with the monochrome iTunes Radio.

6 Burberry For fashioning a tech revolution in traditional British retailing With annual sales of more than R34 billion, the 1856 luxury brand is an object lesson in leveraging digital media, with live-streamed runway shows and whimsical online marketing initiatives such as Burberry Kisses, plus a high-tech Regent Street Burberry flagship that brings its online trench-coat customisation site to life. The company credits digital investment

THE TOP 10 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES IN THE UK and online sales for a 14% uptick in revenue at the end of last year.

7 Heatherwick Studio For achieving groundbreaking design in one of the world’s oldest cities Thomas Heatherwick has been likened to a modern-day Leonardo da Vinci: His London-based design practice, Heatherwick Studio, employs 110 architects, industrial designers and model makers. The studio’s recent projects include the 2012 Olympic cauldron, a revamped double-decker bus, a Bombay Sapphire gin distillery, and plans for a pedestrian Garden Bridge across the River Thames, replete with wildflowers, grass and trees.

8 Raspberry Pi Foundation For hacking together a ₤24 credit card-size programmable computer The Raspberry Pi computer came out of the University of Cambridge to help teach the world’s kids to programme with a tiny, accessible machine that plugs into a TV and keyboard. Now a registered charity, Raspberry Pi allows anyone to build and prototype new products quickly and cheaply. Scrappy Raspberry Pi-enabled programmers have already used the technology to build everything from baby monitors to weather stations and even robots.

9 Berg For inventing quirky, cloud-powered products London-based design consultancy, Berg, is responsible for whimsical gadgets such as the Little Printer,

BRITISH INNOVATION IS GOING STRONG AS EVER

BY FAST COMPANY STAFF

which prints out a custom newspaper from web-sourced content, and a recent prototype of a tweet-powered cuckoo clock (in collaboration with Twitter UK, of course). The company recently partnered with Treviso, Italy–based Fabrica to launch Sandbox, a collaborative research and development programme. Based on the company’s Cloud platform, the initiative aims to help academics and businesses create products and services for the Internet of Things.

10 Marks & Spencer For pruning its sprawling stores into greener, leaner machines Marks & Spencer has taken a systemic approach to sustainability, resulting in a 23% decrease in carbon dioxide emissions since 2007, zero waste to landfill, and carbon-neutral stores, warehouses, offices and delivery fleets in the UK. With web and mobile sales up nearly 17%, the R170-billion traditional British retailer is refocusing its resources on building an international multichannel brand with a popular new mobile app and a London-based digital lab.

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THE GRE AT INNOVATION FRONTIER

Innovators in waiting

TO TA P I N TO T H E W E L L S P R I N G O F H U M A N I N G E N U I T Y A N D C R A N K U P T H E I N N OVAT I O N CA PAC I T Y O F O U R S O C I E T Y, W E N E E D TO C H A N G E W H AT—A N D H O W — WE TEACH OUR CHILDREN

We are living in the age of boundless innovation—or so we are told. Most companies, governments and academic institutions will insist that innovation is the key to unlocking greater productivity and competitiveness and that it is our best bet for solving some of the world’s greatest challenges such as sustainable energy, mass unemployment and universal healthcare. Yet, these same organisations remain remarkably resistant to creating the conditions that may allow this innovation out of the starting blocks. It’s a problem that has its roots in an entrenched schooling system that, by and large, does more to extinguish creativity than spark it. As Stephan Turnipseed, president emeritus of LEGO Education North America, has remarked: “At two years old, when you do the standard creativity test, we are all—almost 100% of us—creative geniuses. By the end of 12 years of education, only 3% score at that same level.” And of that 3% who go on to study further and invent and create in the laboratory, all too often their bright ideas fail to make it over the great wall that still exists between academia and the rest of the world, to be turned into useful and practical products or services. This is because innovation is not just about bright ideas and technology. One can invent the most fantastic things, but without enabling mindsets and processes, they may never see the light of day. And what is the value of an invention that is never used? Increasingly, academic institutions are trying to put in place structures to bridge this gap, from technologytransfer offices to innovation labs—but few of them are getting it right on a significant scale. A notable 110 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

WE NEED TO BUILD AN ECOSYSTEM WHERE GOOD IDEAS CAN GROW AND DEVELOP FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL STAKEHOLDERS.

Walter Baets

exception, of course, is MIT. MIT is widely regarded as the world’s top innovation university, and for good reason. The Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, together with other initiatives such as the famous MIT Media Lab, have been nurturing tech entrepreneurs and churning out an astonishing number of startups since the early 1990s. Between 2000 and 2006, MIT graduates started more than 5 800 companies, and the institute produces more patent applications than any other university in the world (179 in 2011). It does this, in part, by creating the right environment; one that encourages the crosspollination of ideas, people and finance—without restrictions and without pretension. Recognising (in the words of William Weldon, former chairperson of healthcare giant, Johnson & Johnson) that innovation is no longer just about money but about climate, it has created spaces where people are allowed to flourish and take risks. As a result, MIT has not just lowered the barrier between ideas generation and the realisation of new products and services, but it has blown it right out of the water. On this continent, where the challenges are often overwhelming and the opportunities for innovation similarly vast, there is no reason we can’t build an MIT of our own, and a national culture to match. It is not an expensive thing so much as a question of focus and a choice. And it starts with what and how we teach, both at schools and universities. That which you strengthen gets stronger, so let’s broaden the curriculum to include such topics as the basics of management, design thinking, entrepreneurship and the technology human interface. Over and above that, students need to know they have the freedom to think without restrictions, and they should also be encouraged to consider the purposefulness of what they do. How can they make a contribution to society, and do so sustainably? Beyond the classroom we need to ensure there are multiple platforms and spaces that encourage co-operation and interchange between academia, business, civil society, government—and communities. In essence, we need to build an ecosystem where good ideas can grow and develop for the benefit of all stakeholders. Authors Vijay Vaitheeswaran and Iain Carson have argued that human ingenuity is the one natural resource the world has left in infinite quantity. There is an innovator-in-waiting in every one of us. Let’s make sure we nurture children from a young age and give them the space to do what we need them to do. Walter Baets is the director of the UCT Graduate School of Business and holds the Allan Gray Chair in Values-Based Leadership at the school. Formerly a professor of Complexity, Knowledge and Innovation and associate dean for Innovation and Social Responsibility at Euromed Management—School of Management and Business, he is passionate about building a business school for ‘business that matters’.

TECHNOVORE

THE CLOUD’S BRIGHT FUTURE C LO U D C O M P U T I N G H A S B E E N U N D E R E ST I M AT E D A S A T R A N S F O R M AT I V E F O R C E I N B U S I N E S S . A N D I T ’ S J U ST G E T T I N G STA RT E D

THE DISRUPTION THAT cloud computing has had on business is so profound that it’s hard to believe the concept came about only eight years ago, when Amazon announced a rudimentary on-demand storage service called S3. It took me another three years to truly understand the size and scope of the cloud, and why everyone from large technology companies to investors routinely underestimate its influence. That’s when I asked Werner Vogels, Amazon’s chief technology officer and the public face of Amazon Web Services, “What is the cloud?” His answer has always stayed with me. The cloud, Vogels explained, is the freedom to tinker, a licence to experiment.

The arc of cloud computing can be roughly divided into three phases: experimentation, essentialness and experience. Currently, cloud computing can rightly be considered an essential part of business, which means that its best days are still to come, as it weaves ever more into our increasingly connected society. To understand how we got here and where we’re going, let’s start by assessing the experimentation era. In its earliest form, the cloud freed developers from thinking about hardware, storage, servers and networking gear. Or, as technologists like to say, it abstracted the infrastructure. This fundamental shift in thinking allowed developers to come up with apps that took advantage of computing power as a service. Amazon Web Services helped Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger launch and turbocharge Instagram, and it allowed Dropbox to grow from an idea into an Internet utility used by hundreds of millions of people. Our embrace of mobile tech has only accelerated cloud computing because 112 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

THERE ARE EXPECTED TO BE 28 BILLION CONNECTED DEVICES BY 2020. WE’LL NEED THE COMPUTING SCALE THAT ONLY THE CLOUD CAN PROVIDE TO LEARN FROM THEM.

Om Malik

smartphone apps can do even more amazing things when their real power resides in the sky. Now the rising popularity of data analytics means that even more businesses are open to deploying the processing muscle that the cloud provides cheaply. Cloud computing has changed how startups are built and companies are scaled, and now the largest enterprises are realising its value. Why buy hardware when you can pay by the month, based on how much oomph you need? Even the CIA doesn’t want to bother with buying traditional infrastructure. Amazon provides the agency with a virtual private version of what it sells companies like Netflix and Comcast. If the growth so far is astonishing, the big boom is yet to come, driven by the increasing presence of sensors in our world, including next-generation weather-monitoring systems and cars such as the forthcoming Tesla D. The latest iPhone 6, for example, includes a barometer to figure out how many steps you climbed. It is easy to imagine a near future in which sensors track soil conditions, climate and humidity to manage farms. Smart garbage cans could send pings when they are full. The research firm, International Data Corp., forecasts that there will be about 28 billion connected devices by 2020—and they will be a $7.1-trillion (R77.7-trillion) business by then. The one thing all those sensors do is generate a lot of data—data that’s going to be streamed to central locations where it can be made sense of in real time. We’ll need the computing scale that only the cloud can provide. Not surprisingly, Amazon, whose Kinesis product can process data at a massive scale, is best positioned to usher us toward this real-time world. The story of Amazon Web Services is an analogue for cloud computing itself: It has gone from being an experiment to a multibillion-dollar business that supports many other multibillion-dollar businesses. As it becomes the backbone managing the sensor explosion, it will spark even more experimentation. The cycle begins anew. Om Malik is a partner at True Ventures, an early-stage investor. He is also founder of Gigaom, a Silicon Valley–based, tech-focused publishing company.

Illustration by Raymond Biesinger

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Township® produces a vibrant collection of uniquely designed fabrics that are used in the manufacture of clothing, accessories, jewellery and home decor items. All fabrics are proudly South African, made out of 100% natural fibres. Tel: 021 534 8558 / www.township.co.za

114 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A DECEMBER /JANUARY 2014/15

If you’re in the vicinit y of Sedgefield on the Garden Route, pop in at Glass Roots Studio for exquisite art glass homeware, unusual handmade glass jewellery, and architectural art glass panels and installations. Gift-seekers are always welcome! Tel: 082 900 5163 / www.glassroots.co.za

CakeGoed produces qualit y, handcrafted and handprinted decorative items from sustainable timbre. Products range from small boxes for remotes to trinkets to placemats, gift tags, charging stations, magazine boxes, toy boxes, medicine boxes, braai boxes and even umbrella boxes! Tel: 084 517 2527 / www.cakegoed.co.za

Bring the beaut y and joy of nature indoors with a range of luxurious soft furnishings, tote and toiletry bags, as well as hand-cast ceramics from Veldt, which all combine practical, natural substrates with designs drawn from nature. Tel: 082 551 1910 / Veldt.co.za

Enjoy a bit of ‘me time’ with a cuppa brewed in a collector’s teapot shaped as an African woman—it’s voluptuous, sensuous, colourful, quirk y, endearing and fun. Each teapot is signed, dated and comes with a verse or the unique story that inspired the artist’s creation. Tel: 082 375 3830 / www.teapots.co.za

For indoor or outdoor use, U MAKiT’s functional art is made from recycled building rubble and concrete. Products are handcrafted individually, and are sturdy and solid: from planters for flowers or herbs, to bowls for decorative or food-serving purposes. Tel: 082 849 3166 / www.umakit.co.za

Re-Sails’s high-end aspirational products are recycled out of unwanted ‘past-their-sell-by-date’ sails, including bespoke one-off bags such as duffels, totes and toiletry bags, to name a few. The overall look is crisp and sport y with designer elements, attention to detail and, most importantly, qualit y. Tel: 061 812 2990 / www.resails.co.za

Gaya Schatz, founder of Little Bo Babies, turns kids’ art work into lovingly hand-stitched plush toys. For her latest project, The Remembrance Doll, she encourages parents to send in their children’s drawings of late former president Nelson Mandela. Twent y percent of net profits go to the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital. Tel: 071 493 1825 / Littlebobabies.com

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BYTES

Fast Company SA takes a look at the innovative new ideas and products currently making waves in South Africa and abroad

SA Giant Flag project to be a ‘game-changer’ for tourism Deputy Minister of Tourism Tokozile Xasa officially launched the Giant Flag project in the Camdeboo region in the Karoo, which will see the construction of a 66-hectare South African flag made up of millions of plants and a solar field, visible from space. The Giant Flag administrators describe it as “a legacy project of vast proportions; a celebration of the spirit of South Africa and her people. We are building a giant flag made up of millions of coloured desert cacti and succulents, and a four-megawatt solar field, in an area that was previously completely barren. Effectively, viewable from space and the size of 66 soccer fields, the Giant Flag will not only claim its place as a natural wonder, but also as a new model of economic stimulus for previously disadvantaged communities.” Members of the public can purchase planting units or a section from colours in the SA flag. Red will be made up of a desert plant called the Mexican fire-barrel cactus, blue will be the blue butterfly bush, and yellow will be golden-barrel cacti, costing about R110 each per unit. The white lines in the flag will be a white gravel road costing around R1 000 a unit, and black will be made up of the solar panels at approximately R2 700 a unit. At the launch, which took place on October 23, Xasa said the Camdeboo region had a stifling 40% unemployment rate, and the aim of the project was to create a cycle of socio-economic development that addressed this. All jobs linked to the Giant Flag will be considered ‘green collar’ and will favour Camdeboo citizens.

Nokia launches iPad lookalike in bid to revive brand Finland’s Nokia launched a new brand-licensed tablet computer that is designed to rival Apple’s iPad Mini— just seven months after the company sold its ailing phones and devices business to Microsoft for over R74 billion. Nokia, a name that was once synonymous with mobile phones until first Apple and then Samsung Electronics eclipsed the Finnish company with the advent of smartphones, said the manufacturing, distribution and sales of the new N1 tablet will be handled under licence by Taiwan’s Foxconn. The aluminium-cased N1, which runs on Google’s Android Lollipop operating software but features Nokia’s new Z Launcher intelligent home-screen interface, is due to be in stores in China in the first quarter of next year for an estimated price of $249 (about R2 700) before taxes, with sales to other markets to follow. Sebastian Nystrom, head of products at Nokia’s Technologies unit, said the company was looking to follow up with more devices and will also look into eventually returning to the smartphone business by brand-licensing. In midNovember, Microsoft dropped the Nokia name on its latest Lumia 535 smartphone, which runs on its Windows Phone 8 operating system, but still uses the brand for more basic phones. After the Microsoft sale, Nokia was left with its core network equipment and services business plus its smaller HERE mapping and navigation unit and Nokia Technologies, which manages the licensing of its portfolio of patents and develops new products such as the N1 and the Z Launcher.

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Facebook preparing new office version of its social networking site

“Facebook is secretly working on a new website called ‘Facebook at Work’, which would allow users to ‘chat with colleagues, connect with professional contacts and collaborate over documents’,” according to the Financial Times. In October, Facebook reported its quarterly profit had nearly doubled to $802 million (R8.8 billion), but saw its stock pounded after outlining a plan to invest heavily in the future instead of revelling in short-term riches. “We are going to continue preparing for the future by investing aggressively, connecting everyone, understanding the world, and building the next generation in computing platforms,” Facebook founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg said at the time. “We have a long journey ahead,” he added. Facebook, which has 1.35 billion monthly active users worldwide, has been seeking to broaden its offerings, unveiling an application that lets people chat anonymously in virtual ‘rooms’, evoking the chat rooms from the early days of the Internet. It is also testing a feature that lets users of the leading social network make purchases by simply pressing an on-screen ‘Buy’ button. Facebook completed its multibillion-dollar deal for mobile messaging application, WhatsApp, on October 6.

NASA partners with Siemens to develop Mars rover The Mars rover Curiosity travelled through space in a protective capsule at speeds of up to 112 600km/h. On August 5, 2012 it entered Mars’s atmosphere at 20 900km/h and slowed to under 3km/h, just 6.4 metres from the surface. As it hovered above the ground, the module carrying Curiosity lowered it on a crane to a gentle landing with no assistance from Earth. There was only one chance to get it right. So NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) first ran hundreds of simulations to plan for multiple conditions—some impossible to replicate on Earth. This meant enlisting large teams of scientists and engineers across the country to work with the most advanced software and hardware available. “The Curiosity landing is the hardest NASA mission ever attempted in the history of robotic planetary exploration,” said John Grunsfield, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. For this unprecedented challenge, NASA partnered with Siemens PLM Software, employing its solutions to help develop this amazing spacecraft. JPL implemented NX™ as an end-to-end mechanical design platform. NX provided JPL with a fully integrated CAD/CAM/CAE (computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing/computer-aided engineering) system, which it used to develop the mechanical portions of the rover, including structural modelling and simulation using Femap™. JPL also uses Teamcenter® software, which enables a single source of structured product and process information management throughout the digital life cycle. As a result, the widely dispersed development team at JPL was able to digitally design, test, assemble and simulate the entire Mars rover before a single physical prototype was created, while accounting for every step of the process in real time.

SA’s tech startups rewarded The 2014 edition of Startup Knight was concluded on November 8 when the winners were announced at a cocktail function held at the Radisson Blu in Granger Bay, Cape Town. Startup Knight—initiated by Byte Orbit in 2012—promulgates, supports and embraces tech startups in South Africa. Tiger Bytes won in the startup phase category with its Vula Application, an online learning tool used by staff and students at the University of Cape Town. First runner-up, MediaBox, boasts a hardware device that is similar to the Apple TV, but runs on Android and introduces 3G integration along with more input sources. Mobisurance was the R100 000 cash winner in the concept phase category. It aims to adopt mobile and satellite technology to provide insurance to low-end crop farmers in rural areas where standard insurance is inaccessible. The first runner-up in the concept phase, LanteOTC, is a marketplace that connects SMEs with investors, while the second runner-up, Twanga, is an all-in-one loyalty card. “Since its inception in 2012, the Startup Knight competition platform has grown exceptionally over the past three years. It is also evident that the quality has increased and the number of entries has grown to more than 150 entrants this year,” said Martin Ras, chief operations officer of Byte Orbit. The 2014 Startup Knight winners will be given the opportunity to further promote their businesses at the Standard Bank Fintech Innovation Showcase in Johannesburg on December 5, 2014. “Startup Knight is an ideal platform to showcase innovation at work, and we congratulate the winners of this year’s competition. In our continued journey to bring innovative solutions to our customers, we look forward to exploring partnership opportunities with these inspiring tech entrepreneurs,” said Paul Steenkamp, head of innovation capability at Standard Bank.

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LAUNCH

200 guests from a cross section of business and media attended the launch of Fast Company SA on October 16, on the top floor of East City Studios in Cape Town. Mayor Patricia de Lille was the special guest speaker, and the New York Fast Company team, headed by editor Bob Safian, sent their messages of congratulations to the South African group via video link.

1 2

4 1 The launch edition of Fast Company SA 2 MC Dave Levinsohn, Andrea Osler, publisher Robbie Stammers, Seth Rotherham, Christiane & Takuan von Arnim 3 Braam Malherbe, Sue Anderson, Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille 4 Alistair King & Robbie Stammers

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Other highlights included a tombola with gifts from Cape Craft and Design Institute members; an Instagram photo booth by Nifty250; and the Haute Cabrière sabrage, slicing off the corks of the bubbly with his sabre.

12 5 Guests listening intently to the mayor’s speech 6 Editor Evans Manyonga, Mayor Patricia de Lille, Keolebogile Makung 7 Entertainment by Golovorez 8 A word from the publisher 9 Christiane & Takuan von Arnim 10 Lucky Khoza & Madambi Rambuda 11 Haute Cabrière’s sabrage, Takuan von Arnim 12 Advertising manager Zaid Haffajee and Rene Fortune

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Tech needs a hug

W H Y W E M U ST R E M E M B E R TO E M B R AC E H U M A N I T Y I N A D I G I TA L- M A D W O R L D

LET’S STOP USING the word technology to describe companies. Remember when we had retailers, news organisations and taxi companies? When the way a company described itself provided some insight into what it actually did? Now everything is a tech company. And it’s not because they make or sell technology, but rather because they want a mindless way to align themselves with the future, innovation and higher valuations. Saying you work at or run a “technology company” in 2015 is as meaningful as saying you just adopted a “cute puppy”. At least with the latter, you get to think about a cute puppy.

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IF THE PHRASE ‘TECH COMPANY’ IS GOING TO STAND FOR A FUTURE WE WANT TO LIVE IN, WE HAVE TO MITIGATE THE CHANGE IT PRODUCES.

Baratunde Thurston

Our fetishisation of tech is more than just semantic trendiness: It suggests a certain ethos, and that’s the problem. When politicians get rhetorical mileage from pandering to ‘tech’ as the solution that will save our cities, states and nations by turning any geopolitical region into the Silicon Valley version of itself, I wonder if these politicians have actually visited Silicon Valley. Have they experienced the traffic jams? The wealth disparity? The return-to-the-dorm-type living arrangements that people in their 20s embrace to get a piece of that venture-backed American pie? It’s as if the word comes with a built-in Jedi mind trick that leads many of us to forget that there are people on the other end of all those products and services. Think about social media. Antisocial people are the ones making our social tools, which is highly unfortunate because they can reimagine the world in code, but they lack the soft skills and everyday experiences to relate to the people they’re serving. People’s needs aren’t prioritised in the product road map because creators don’t stop to ask uncomfortable questions such as, “Have we considered the implications of monetising customer information?” Our obsession with tech means that we ignore the implications of the sudden and dramatic transformation it creates in people’s lives. In response, we need to phase in radical change. Sure, you can introduce real-time pricing for a service consumers have taken for granted for decades as having a fixed price, but only if you spend as much time communicating that change as perfecting the engineering. You can turn labour into a massive, transparent, highspeed market, but only once you’ve adjusted for the downward pressure that shift will put on wages. Without explaining the purpose of such new capabilities—and without managing their implementation—their major contribution to the world is only volatility, uncertainty, and the distribution of risk away from companies and toward individuals. If the phrase ‘tech company’ is going to stand for a future we actually want to live in, then we have to mitigate the alienation that comes with it. In another part of the business world, we’ve seen the rise of the social enterprise. Companies such as Method, Patagonia and Warby Parker hold themselves to a so-called triple bottom line: profits, people and planet. Ideally, tech companies (and all businesses) would be ‘social enterprises’ accounting for human and ecological cost and benefit every step of the way. We don’t need a new buzzword. We don’t need to stop using technology. What we need is to keep in mind that, ultimately, it’s human beings who are making, using and being affected by the work of ‘tech companies’. Baratunde Thurston is the author of The New York Times best-seller How to Be Black and CEO and co-founder of Cultivated Wit, a creative agency that combines the powers of humour, design and technology.

Illustration by Kirsten Ulve

Celine Grouard

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