Fast Company SA - July 2015

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World’s Most Creative People in Business 2015 PLUS SA’S TOP 50 including Gareth Cliff, Maira Koutsoudakis, Ludwick Marishane, Ashley Uys, Siya Xuza, Ravi Naidoo, Kirsten Goss

How commerce and comedy keep her looking up

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CONTENTS

July 2015

THE WORLD’S MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE IN BUSINESS 2015 + SA’S TOP 50

Meet this year’s most inspiring leaders in technology, media, music, energy, marketing, science, social upliftment, education, and more Begins on page 22

Now you see her, now you don’t Some of Amy Poehler’s most fulfilling roles lately have been behind the scenes. (page 24)

4 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY 2015

Back in the day, alarm clocks didn’t have snooze buttons Nowadays, however, procrastination is just a snooze button away. And for business owners, hitting the snooze button and delaying making a business decision, could mean missing out on the next big opportunity!

We say: don’t snooze. Go out and make it happen!

If you believe that your business could be more successful, contact us and we’ll help you achieve your business goals.

SMS your name and the words Fast Company to 44332.

One of our Entrepreneurial Scouts will then give you a call to discuss how we can help you accelerate your business’ success.

Contents

INTERN ATION AL HIGHLIGHTS 24

36

42

Amy Poehler’s multiplatform takeover

Seeding Samsung’s future

Keeping Nike on its toes

38

44

Power of speech

Gadget god

The Saturday Night Live veteran and former Pawnee councilwoman is thriving as a new-media entrepreneur

BY BENJAMIN SVETKEY

32 Fighting Ebola with tobacco

Charles Arntzen’s plant-based drug-developing technique is a pharmacological breakthrough

BY ADAM BLUESTEIN

An offer the world can’t refuse Prof. Charles Arntzen is considered the godfather of pharming— engineering plants to produce specialised vaccines and other drugs. (page 32)

6 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY 2015

David Eun injects startup spirit—and talent—into a behemoth

Iraqi parliamentarian Vian Dakhil has attracted global attention to her people, the Yazidis, who are being persecuted by ISIS

BY JENNA KRAJESKI

Greg Hoffman defines how consumers around the world experience the apparel giant

Tech reviewer Marques Brownlee has earned a huge audience on YouTube

56 Six-second celebrity

Vine and Snapchat star Jerome Jarre is charming the world a few seconds at a time

Contents

Clothes make the businessman Nicholas Haralambous proved he could develop an e-commerce business using a combination of free technology platforms. (page 74)

SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHLIGHTS 66 Maira Koutsoudakis

69

Gareth Cliff

Founder, CliffCentral For retuning radio

70 Ashley Uys

Founder, CEO, Medical Diagnostech For making science his business

74

84 Kirsten Goss Founder, Kirsten Goss Jewellery For polishing up her business

85 Ravi Naidoo

Founder, Design Indaba For showcasing SA to the world

87

REGULARS 12 From the Editor 14 The Recommender 20 Off The Map The Waze app jettisons urban-planning

Siyabulela Xuza

Founder, NicSocks For investing in the sock market

Harvard graduate and member, Africa 2.0 Energy Advisory Council For rocketing to success in energy engineering

conventions and takes a data-driven route

78

91

Internet-connected toys such as Hello Barbie. Why isn’t manufacturer Mattel worried?

BY EVIE NAGY

Madoda Khuzwayo

Sammy Rabolele & Tebogo Mogale

Nicholas Haralambous

Founder, chairperson, head of product development, OpenTenders For changing the status of small businesses

80 Barbara Mallinson Founder, CEO, Obami For turning virtual learning into reality

Co-founders, BTE Network For showing the world that Africa’s got talent

91 Martin Ras

Director, Tiger Bytes and COO, Byte Orbit For being a startup’s knight in shining armour

8 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY 2015

62 Everyone Is Listening A recent privacy scare has targeted 92 The Great Innovation Frontier

Africa’s immense development challenges combined with its youth bulge could be the fuel needed to ignite innovation on the continent

BY WALTER BAETS

94 Fast Events 96 One More Thing A radical proposal for how we handle consumer data

BY BARATUNDE THURSTON

GUTTER CREDIT TK

Founder, CEO, LIFE Group For making design her life’s work

PUBLISHER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Robbie Stammers

robbie@fastcompany.co.za

ART DIRECTOR

Stacey Storbeck-Nel

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EDITOR Evans Manyonga

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DIGITAL PLATFORMS

CHIEF SUB-EDITOR Tania Griffin

By Digital Publishing Charles Burman, Catherine Crook

CONSULTING EDITORS

BACK OFFICE SUPPORT

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PUBLISHED BY

Robert Safian

PUBLISHER

Christine Osekoski

EXECUTIVE EDITORS Noah Robischon Rick Tetzeli

DIRECTOR, NEW BUSINESS VENTURES

GLOBAL EDITIONS DIRECTOR Bernard Ohanian

MANAGING EDITOR Lori Hoffman

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Evie Nagy, Baratunde Thurston, Benjamin Svetkey, Nikita Richardson, Maciek Jasik, Adam Bluestein, Chris Gayomali, Lynne D. Johnson, Maccabee Montandon, Jenna Krajeski, Chuck Salter, Jillian Goodman, Walter Baets, Rene Frank, Julia Roth Cover: Eric Ogden Dan Matutina, Mauricio Alejo, Kirsten Ulve, Celine Grouard, Eric Ogden, Lane Savage, Toshihiro Mori, Evan Bech, Alexis Facca, Ryan Pfluger, Bratislav Milenkovic, Mother Volcano, Jeff Brown, Witchoria, Dan Monick, Timothy Goodman, Carla Eráusquin Bayona, Ali Arkady,

EDITOR

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EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS

ARTISTS

Joe Mansueto Mansueto Ventures

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER OF GLOBAL MARKETING

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

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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

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PRODUCTION ASSOCIATE Miriam Taylor

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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 JULY 2015

FROM THE EDITOR

Our most creative people in business Fast Company US has been running The Most Creative People in Business franchise for the past several years. Before we started working on our first local equivalent, we were excited—and also petrified. What would be the sectors to look at? How would we possibly choose 50 individuals out of a country that has more than 50 million potentials? How would we measure the impact of their creativity? These were some of the questions that flashed through our minds.

Thankfully, Fast Company SA has a star-studded, hardworking and dedicated team. We sat down, thought hard, deliberated and debated, wrote and rewrote. And after what felt like an eternity, we finally settled on the inaugural list of The Most Creative People in Business in South Africa.

We commend and applaud these people for their tenacity, disruptive thinking and energy—but, above all, we hope to have others on this list in future. For each annual instalment of The Most Creative People in Business franchise, we select 50 international individuals and 50 locals whom we think have shown a large degree of creativity in their fields of business. Each year we’ll have to identify

SOUTH AFRICA

new individuals, as we can’t profile those who’ve been featured in the magazine before. So I put forward this future opportunity to you.

I’ve noted two individuals who stand out in this first instalment, one from the international scene and the other from South Africa. (If I could, I’d sum up each person’s contribution. Fortunately, all you have to do is flip through the pages and you’ll get the full picture.)

Charles Arntzen This professor from Arizona State University is widely considered the brains behind a field of research known as pharming, which is essentially engineering plants to produce specialised vaccines and other drugs. This form of research contributed to creating ZMapp, an injectable synthetic serum made of genetically engineered antibodies grown in tobacco plants.

It’s currently the most promising drug treatment for people infected with Ebola, and the technology used to produce it can combat other infectious diseases and threats—from HIV to cancer.

Alexandra Fraser Currently the vice chair of the Silicon Cape Initiative, Fraser has evaluated over 4 000 startups through three tech-focused juggernauts. The main one is the Silicon Cape Initiative which was, in her words, “established by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs”. They aim to drive collaboration, speak as one voice and build an inclusive, vibrant startup and tech sector in the Cape.

We hope you enjoy this edition, and that you get inspired and work toward being one of those featured among the 2016 Most Creative People in Business.

Evans Manyonga evans@fastcompany.co.za @Nyasha1e PS: Don’t forget to LIKE our Facebook page (fastcompanysa) and follow us on Twitter (@FastCompanySA).

The digital version of Fast Company South Africa is now available on Apple iPad and Android tablets

12 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY 2015

THE RECOMMENDER What are you loving this month?

Favourite books Danilo Acquisto

Afternoon Express & GoodHopeFM presenter

Finding The Next Steve Jobs by Nolan Bushnell: Kgomotso Mautloa

Owner & creative director, Green Robot Design

There’s a Tsotsi in the Boardroom by Muzi Kuzwayo: Bhut’

Muzi explores cultural insights and hits home with some familiar landscaping on how marketing works in reallife situations around townships. I’d recommend this book if you’d like to build techniques and strategies by using your own surroundings, context and frame of reference as a source.

With incredibly insightful examples, the author details what’s missing in the corporate world: true innovation. Looking at the complicated life of Steve Jobs, the book shows how to nurture creatives to become the next geniuses who change the world—in a way only creatives can.

Jess Mouneimne Founding director, Jam Media

Make Yourself Heard by Monique Rissen-Harrisberg:

I’m in love with this book right now! RissenHarrisberg, founder and CEO of The Voice Clinic, has written this stepby-step guide to getting what you want out of life through communication.

I did a public speaking course through The Voice Clinic some time ago and the book is a lovely reference on articulation, breath and dealing with stress, as well as building confidence—which are important tools for success.

14 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY 2015

Favourite décor item Andrew Pittaway

Owner, Wizardz Design and Print

Instant canvas: I’ve recently discovered instant canvases that are custom-printed, folded into a box mount shape, and stuck onto a wall with double-sided tape. It’s instant art gratification, leaves no holes in your walls, and is incredibly lightweight.

Favourite beer Craig Ross

COO, voice artist & coach, Venturescape Studios

BrewDog Punk IPA:

I love craft beer, and after much research— and by research I mean drinking in Cape Town— I’ve come to believe BrewDog Punk India pale ale is the best beer on the planet.

Favourite tour Justin Kable

General manager, STA Travel South Africa

Nomad Africa Adventure Tours—Botswana Highlights: This

Favourite baby accessory Jolene Roelofse

Founder, Mum and Baby Affair expo

Momsterbox: I became

a mum quite recently and am in awe of all the amazing products made by mums for babies. My all-time favourite item to date has to be the Momsterbox. It’s a solid oak toy box that has a cushion on top, which means it can double as a seat in the nursery.

The main purpose is, of course, to store all those tiny toys and stuffed animals that tend to gather nothing but dust the first couple of months of the baby’s life. With the Momsterbox, all of them are now out of sight.

week-long taster of the Okavango Delta, Chobe National Park and breathtaking Victoria Falls is a perfect way to cleanse the soul and rejuvenate the mind. With Meru Safari tents, comfortable beds and ensuite bathrooms in the Delta camp, an early-morning punt in a mokoro along the silent waterways will make you appreciate slowing down your all-too-busy schedule. Top this off with a safari cruise on the Chobe River, white-water rafting on the great Zambezi and some staring in wonderment at the mighty Victoria Falls, and the frustrations of daily life will be long forgotten. Leave your phone at home for this one.

Favourite cookware Neill Anthony

Celebrity private chef

AMT “The World’s Best Pan” range: I love using these

non-stick pans across the range, offering great versatility from stovetop to oven. And I’ve found a ‘new’ old favourite in the pressure cooker, which cuts down my braising time for tougher meat joints and intensifies the flavour of everything I cook in it.

JULY 2015 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A 15

The Recommender

App Alley

Simon Black,

Founder & director, Black Pepper Properties

V1 Golf Digital Coaching System:

Gareth Pon

Photographer, filmmaker & Africa’s Top Instagrammer

Snapseed 2.0: I’ve always been a

Tyrone Bradley

fan of Snapseed since it originally launched a few years ago, and recently an update plus some amazing new features were added.

It’s really become the go-to app for a lot of Instagrammers. Apart from having all the usual editing features, they’ve added some classic photography tools such as dodging and burning, a live histogram, a healing tool, the ability to edit highlights and shadows, and some other additions that make it one of the most wellrounded photography apps out there. The new Snapseed has also received an amazing interface makeover and is now clutter-free, which already puts it leagues ahead of any other photo apps.

This is currently my favourite app for the iPhone. I’m obsessed with the game, and this platform allows me to compare my swing with some of the best golfers.

Each great player has solid fundamentals; however, each plays with his unique characteristics that are fun to analyse and copy. I’m constantly tinkering with my swing and trying to find ways to improve it. My wife thinks I’m crazy.

Kathi Clarke

Industrial psychologist & business coach, Building Best Business

Amazon Audible: As an

experienced business growth expert, I’ve learnt that in order to grow a bigger, better business, you need to grow a bigger, better you. In order to do this, you need to read or listen to experts like Zig Ziglar. I’m enjoying Amazon Audible at the moment because you simply download the app and it turns your car into an audio university.

16 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY 2015

Catherine Black,

Co-founder, Black Mountain

GridWatch: Created by News24, this app lets me search a database of locations and save specific areas applicable to me (e.g. where I work and live) onto a dashboard. I can then see loadshedding schedules for up to two weeks for all three stages. The app also sends me notifications of stage changes and other news that may affect my saved areas.

FAST COMPANY PROMOTION

DISRUPTION AHE AD DigiCash is positioning for the rebirth of financial technology

By Stef Terblanche

A serial entrepreneur with an established footprint in the high-tech world of modern finance, Paul Brown, CEO of Cape Town-based DigiCash, foresees major changes in the payments and cash-movement industry in the next decade and beyond. He expects a serious disruption in terms of technology, systems, regulation and the way we do business in the sphere of corporate finance solutions—much the same as what happened with Uber in the taxi industry and Netflix in the movie and TV business. And, as a man with a mission and hungry for new investment opportunities, he is positioning himself and his company to be part of the action when it comes.

Brown founded DigiCash in 2011 and grew it into one of the biggest payments companies in South Africa, moving close to a billion rand a month of third-party payments. His ultimate vision for DigiCash is to be able to source and settle money to and from any device, in any country.

He describes himself as a man with a passion for technology, who is entrepreneurial, analytical, insightful and always looking “for the gap” while setting high ethical standards. These are indispensable qualities to succeed in this kind of business, he believes.

Technological advances and high levels of trust are key.

A large part of his mission is to invest in other businesses or incubate new startups within the payments industry space in order to gain greater market share or wider access to technology.

His work philosophy is centred on leading a highly creative team that is given the freedom to generate their own ideas. Mistakes are allowed, but their repetition not.

18 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY 2015

As a startup leader, he places a premium on his team having to consist of A-players—and not be held back by B-players. The people in his business are carefully selected, both in terms of the high ethical standards required and for their ability to function rationally, independently and creatively.

Brown’s entrepreneurial passion was kindled at the early age of 12, buying candy from the local café on the weekend, and selling it at a premium to his schoolmates in Johannesburg. After school, he worked in the Internet service provider field and gained a solid background in, and passion for technology. Not satisfied to simply work for others, and spotting vast opportunities to properly

“WITH CONCEPTS SUCH AS CURRENCY AND BANKING AS WE KNOW THEM BEING SERIOUSLY QUESTIONED, THE PAYMENTS INDUSTRY IS ON THE VERGE OF FUNDAMENTALLY SHIFTING.”

connect business to the then new and burgeoning Internet industry in South Africa, he decided to start his first information-technology company at the age of 23.

He later became briefly but successfully involved in property development in Knysna before his passion for technology again got the better of him. He settled in Cape Town and created Iperion Billing, which functioned as a reconciliation engine applying reverse factoring for very large enterprises—saving them millions of rands.

He soon sold Iperion and launched DigiCash as a natural spin-off based on parallel technology.

Brown keenly anticipates the major disruption he

Thinking ahead Brown says the prevailing tech in the payments industry is dated, so his company is working at creating new opportunities from current and future payment technologies.

believes will hit the payments industry within five years.

“The appearance of companies like Uber and Netflix had been unpredicted yet, looking back on it, their explosive growth seems obvious because there was a need that had to be addressed. With concepts such as currency and banking as we know them being seriously questioned, the payments industry is on the verge of fundamentally shifting.”

An advantage of being in the digital payments business is that it is based on a universal requirement.

“Everyone has bills to pay. Money makes the world go round, but who makes the money move? That’s the business I am in.”

Moving forward, his company has projects under way to develop new payment technology and methods, and expanding into Africa. He singles out, as an example of fintech advances in Africa, the “incredible technology” introduced by M-Pesa in Kenya, citing it as a perfect example of an opportunity that was waiting to happen.

The UK and US also offer new opportunities. Brown believes that payments technology being developed here in South Africa can easily be rolled out globally and in first-world countries.

Fascinated by different business models that he closely studies, Brown says the IT business model is ideal. It is not restricted by physical size of stock or space as in traditional retail, for instance. The same technology can accommodate one or a million customers. But the prevailing technology in the payments industry is dated, so his development team spends a lot of time thinking about how to harness and create new opportunities from current and future payment technologies.

This creative environment within DigiCash is strongly driven by Brown’s philosophy around the concept of “emergence”—referring to patterns that emerge from apparent chaos that’s not predictable by any person or mathematical model. “I look at that for my team and apply it in my business. I try not to be too restrictive with the level of rules that are applied. The members of the team are given a mandate and they take ownership of their ideas. So this pattern evolves and, besides having a motivating effect on my team, leads us to places that no one could have predicted beforehand.”

For more information, email Paul Brown: paul@digicash.co.za

JULY 2015 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A 19

Next

FAST CITIES Eisnor, Waze’s head of growth and the person in charge of Connected Citizens. In March, the city encouraged drivers to report potholes via Waze and committed to filling each one within 48 hours.

“It’s government meeting the expectations of a mobile world,” Eisnor says.

RIO DE JANEIRO The city used data from Waze to adjust its distri­ bution of traffic-control personnel on Brazil’s presidential election day last October. More important, Waze is the primary way Rio will inform residents of traffic changes related to preparing for the Olympics, which the city will host next year.

BOSTON Boston’s notorious drivers create notorious traffic jams, and the city is partnering with Waze to help clear them up.

Via Connected Citizens, driver-inputted data will go directly into the city’s traffic-management centre, where engineers can adjust the timing and duration of robots and other signals to get traffic moving more quickly.

Off the map WA ZE I S THROWIN G O U T THE CO N V ENTI O N S O F U R B A N PL A NNIN G A ND TA KIN G A DATA-D RI V EN RO U TE

20 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY 2015

Waze, the Israeli-born navigation service that Google acquired for more than R12 billion in 2013, has never been a typical map app. Its maps incorporate data input by users in real time, giving drivers unprecedented control over how they navigate their cities.

Now, Waze is taking its approach a step further with Connected Citizens, a programme that connects those drivers directly with urban-planning personnel

in 30 municipal groups around the world—with some 80 others to follow soon. Launched last October, Connected Citizens has already had measurable impacts in some of its partner cities:

WA S H I N G T O N , D C The US capital is using Waze as part of what it calls Potholepalooza, according to Di-Ann

SY D N E Y “This was an interesting test for us, since we don’t have a lot of users in Sydney,” Eisnor says.

Nevertheless, Waze found in a study last year that 30% of what Sydney users were seeing on the app was new to them. What’s more, 47% of the time, information made it to Waze before it made it to government news sources, despite the low penetration.

Illustration by Dan Matutina

WHAT IS PAYFAST?

facebook.com/payfast @payfast

PayFast is a payments processing service for South Africans and South African websites.

We enable easy, secure and instant transfer of money from online buyers to sellers.

There are no setup or monthly fees and we allow sellers –individuals, businesses and charities– to accept secure payments from online buyers in a variety of ways. www.payfast.co.za We Process

THE

MOST 100 CREATIVE

22 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY 2015

IN PEOPLE BUSINESS

2015 Illustration by Timothy Goodman

JULY 2015 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A 23

MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

Earning her stripes

Gutter Credit Tk

After seven years on Saturday Night Live and another seven on Parks and Recreation, Amy now has launched a second career as a new-media entrepreneur.

24 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY 2015

Art credit teekay

FOR M A K ING COMEDY GROW Amy Poehler

ACTRESS, PRODUCER

By Benjamin Svetkey Photographs by Eric Ogden

JULY 2015 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A 25

THERE’S A LARGE OIL PAINTING IN AMY POEHLER’S WEST H O L LY W O O D OFFICE OF A CE N TA UR C AV O R T IN G IN A F O R E S T.

It has the head of the 43-year-old actress, the body of a horse, and the naked torso of a Las Vegas novelty act. “Make sure you mention that in the article,” Poehler wisecracks, nodding toward the canvas. “It’s important for the readers of Fast Company to know that I have a real nice rack.”

Another important thing to know about Poehler: She isn’t afraid of change. In fact, inside this art-filled cottage on a leafy side street off trendy ­Robertson Boulevard—the headquarters of her company, Paper Kite Productions—she’s transforming into a multifaceted creature in her own right. She’s parlaying her successes in old media—seven years mocking mom jeans and impersonating Hillary Clinton on Saturday Night Live, seven more playing the irresistibly earnest Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation—into a second career as a new-media entrepreneur, increasingly working behind the scenes.

Between acting gigs (she contributed her voice to Pixar’s Inside Out released in June, and next year will star opposite Tina Fey in the movie Sisters), she is taking an active role in bringing new talent to new audiences on new platforms.

It was Poehler who boosted Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer’s Broad City from a tiny YouTube series to a cult hit on Comedy Central, for example, and Poehler who will introduce Billy Eichner and Julie Klausner to the digital-TVwatching world when the series Difficult People debuts on Hulu in August.

While many creative people in Hollywood are floundering in the media sea change, Poehler is surfing—which is what she’s been doing her entire career, starting with her earliest days as a member of the Upright Citizens Brigade, the comedy troupe she helped form in Chicago in the 1990s. “It all goes back to improv,” she says. “It’s all about flexibility, about not knowing what’s going to happen next. You have to listen and stay in the moment. You have to play with people who will support you. You have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

And, of course, you have to be willing to risk it all.

There’s another picture in Poehler’s office, a small, unframed photograph from 15 or 20 years ago, propped on the mantle. The three

26 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY 2015

Set design: Eric Hollis; hair: Jen Atkin/The Wall Group; makeup: Brett Friedman/Art Department; styling: Karla Welch/The Wall Group

MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

Bold moves Failure doesn’t frighten Poehler.

“The question is, How do you want to fail?” she says.

JULY 2015 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A 27

MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

men in the photo—Upright Citizens Brigade co-founders Matt Besser, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh—are standing as if in a police lineup, staring straight ahead at the camera, deadpan serious. But Poehler, who at 1.57 metres measures about to their chests, looks up at them with her head cocked, an endearingly crooked grin on her face.

“She was like a surreal anarchist punk comic back then, a total maverick,” says actress Natasha Lyonne, who has known Poehler for 20 years and who filmed a sitcom pilot for NBC last year which Poehler produced (called Old Soul, about a 35-year-old woman with the personality of a 12-year-old girl; it didn’t get picked up).

“I wasn’t part of UCB, but I was an early lurker at the shows back in the ’90s. Amy was fearless.

She had such a bent way of thinking. A skit would be going along in one direction and Amy would come in and take it to some completely different track. She was always doing things her own way on her own terms, but in a collaborative way that didn’t shut anybody out.”

“There’s a thing in improv called the ‘Yes, and...’ rule,” adds Poehler’s Parks cast mate

­ ubrey Plaza (who was part of UCB in the A 2000s, after Poehler had moved on to SNL). “It means that if you’re in a scene with someone and they set up a premise, you have to say ‘yes’ and go along with it. If your partner says, ‘You’re a doctor and I’m your patient,’ you can’t say, ‘No, I’m not, I’m a fireman.’ Because then the scene is over. Amy has let the ‘Yes, and’ rule bleed into her daily life. She never shuts you down. She always listens and wants to hear what you have to say. But at the same time, she knows what she wants. And you always feel very safe having her in charge, because there’s just this underlying sense that she can steer you in the right direction.”

Poehler, who grew up with high-schoolteacher parents in a working-class town in Massachusetts, discovered the thrill of on-stage collaboration early on, opposite a dog.

During a fourth-grade performance as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, the tiny poodle playing Toto wandered off-script. Young Amy improvised a line and got a big laugh. After graduating from Boston College, she moved to Chicago and started performing with Second

City and ImprovOlympic. At the time, most ambitious comics were building solo careers on the comedy-club circuit, standing with microphones in front of brick walls. Poehler, however, preferred the hive energy of a larger group. Comedians who got their start in stand-up often remark that if the going gets tough, they can always just go back on the road, and “that’s how I feel about improv,” says Poehler, who still owns the UCB, attends fundraisers, and drops in at the branches in New York and LA to teach an occasional class.

“It all goes back to improv,” Poehler says of surviving the changes in media. “You have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

Life as art Poehler’s memoir, Yes Please, speaks to creatives of all kinds.

Art credit teekay

Lane Savage (Broad City)

ALL THE MEDIA WORLD’S A STAGE “It’s been a huge inspiration. The sense of collaboration, of performing to get better, of performing just for the art of performing...”

And, of course, the failing.

“I’ve failed a million times on stage, just not getting laughs,” says Poehler. Over the course of her career, she adds, “I’ve listened to notes that I knew weren’t right. I’ve pitched ideas and let other people change them, knowing that it was the wrong choice. The question you have to ask yourself is: How do you want to fail? Do you want to fail in a way that feels like it respects your tastes and value system?”

Parks and Recreation, the sitcom about an eternally optimistic small-town bureaucrat with Oval Office ambitions, came close to succumbing on numerous occasions; NBC shifted the show’s time slot constantly. “We had to fight against a lot of ideas of what the show was going to be like,” she says of its rough first season. “People were like, ‘Is it an Office spin-off? Or, ‘She was on SNL—is she doing her Hillary Clinton?’ ” Eventually, Poehler and the writers found their footing, and the show became a critical success, earning 12 Emmy nominations, including five for Poehler. Still, after seven seasons, Poehler knew it was time to jump onto a different wave. “It was emotional,” she says of the show’s finale on February 24. “But I was excited to do other things.”

She’s choosing projects now much the way she does everything—by improvising. She wrote her recent best-selling memoir, Yes Please, mostly as an exercise in pushing past her comfort zone. (“It seemed like a daunting task to me, writing a book, but I’m finding more and more that’s the sort of challenge that turns me on.”) Sisters, about siblings who throw one last house party before their parents sell the family home, was all about working with Fey again. “Tina and I speak the same comedy language,” she says of her three-time Golden Globes co-host. And Inside Out, Pixar’s bittersweet latest, which animates the inner emotional life of a young girl who moves to a new city and new school—Poehler does the voice of Joy while Lewis Black is Anger and Bill Hader is Fear—was too good an opportunity to pass up. “It’s an artistic endeavour that I feel truly adds value to the world. I don’t know if I’ve worked on another film where I could say that,” says Poehler. Although, she quickly adds, “There were days when I’d show up and be like, ‘Guys, Joy is going through some personal problems. She’s going through a blue period.’ ”

Lately, what interests Poehler most is helping other people find their voice. “I love the big thinking that comes along with it, the macro of it all,” she says of producing. “It feels like it’s been a really nice, natural, long progression for me to go from being the person who’s been the jester in the room to being secure enough to be a creator for people other than myself.”

She’s currently taking meetings for season 2 of Welcome to Sweden, a sitcom she helped her brother, Greg, get off the ground at NBC, and is looking at freshly cut footage of Difficult People. “Right now, what I’m really into is this idea of surgically taking someone’s small idea—like a web series—and planting it into a bigger host,” she says, describing exactly what she did with Broad City, Comedy Central’s irreverent show about two scrappy New York twenty-somethings (Jacobson and Glazer, both of whom cut their comedic teeth at UCB) which Poehler discovered in 2009, when it was a minuscule web show on YouTube with only about 2 500 regular viewers. “Part of her value as a producer is her sense of other talent,” says Kent Alterman, Comedy Central’s president of content development and original programming (who, as it happens, helped launch UCB’s two-year show on Comedy Central in the late 1990s). “She was great at helping [Abbi and Ilana] see their own strengths and what to focus on, whether it was character development or storyline or whatever. She’s a real producer in that regard.”

“It was huge for Amy to just appear on an episode of the show, let alone become its executive producer,” says Jacobson. “It had a small, loyal audience—people who watched it watched every episode. But it never went viral.

So when Amy came along, it was the best day of our lives. Ilana even quit her day job.”

“Amy has a lot of power,” Glazer says. “She has power in who she is and in her voice. And she wants to use that power as a producer to seek out fresh talent. It’s wonderful to see.”

“Yes,” says Poehler. “I do love power. Put that in the article.”

Comedy, it goes without saying, has always been a tough business for women, particularly women with children (Poehler has two boys, Archie, 6, and Abel, 4, with ex-husband Will Arnett; they divorced last year, and she’s now involved with comic Nick Kroll). Strides have been made—­people like Poehler have made them—but, Comedy Central president Michele

Amy Poehler has spent the past year bringing comedy to nine different platforms— and heartfelt sincerity to four L I V E C O M E DY Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre OWNER AND CO-FOUNDER

With four locations in New York and LA, UCB holds the distinction of being the only accredited improv

chipper Leslie Knope, a bureaucrat in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana.

LIVE TV Golden Globes CO-HOST

Poehler and Tina Fey hosted for the third time in a row last January. Their telecasts routinely drew high ratings.

CABLE TV Broad City EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

and sketchcomedy school in the US. Many of the best students go on to join the theatre’s national touring company.

ONLINE COMMUNITY Smart Girls at the Party

Under Poehler’s guidance, UCB alumnae Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson turned their web series into a halfhour show for Comedy Central; it was renewed in January for a third season, hours before the second season premiered.

CO-FOUNDER

Videos, interviews and essays posted on the seven-yearold website emphasise intelligence, volunteerism and activism over ‘fitting in’. Today, the Smart Girls community (which is also welcoming of the opposite sex) includes more than 1.6 million “Smarties” in 45 countries.

NETWORK TV Parks and Recreation ACTOR, PRODUCER, DIRECTOR, WRITER

In February, Poehler ­com­­­pleted her seventh and final season as the

Welcome to Sweden EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Poehler teamed up with her younger brother, Greg, to exec-­produce a show based on his real-life move to Sweden in 2006.

The sitcom is broadcast on Sweden’s TV4 as well as NBC; season 2 premieres in the US on July 10. (continued)

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MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

(continued)

REAL LIFE

F E AT U R E F I L M

Worldwide Orphans Foundation

Sisters

AMBASSADOR OF ARTS

The non-profit organisation helps ­o rphans and young trauma victims form positive attachments and thrive in the world.

Poehler has spent the past five years actively promoting and raising funds.

NON-FICTION Yes Please WRITER

Poehler’s lighthearted, dishy, ­a dvice-filled ­memoir, released last October, has spent 23 weeks (and counting) on the New York Times’ Best Sellers list, two of them at No. 1.

ACTRESS, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

This December in the US, Poehler reteams with ‘life partner’ Tina Fey— plus fellow SNL alumnae Rachel Dratch, Maya Rudolph and writer Paula Pell—for a sibling comedy directed by Pitch Perfect’s Jason Moore.

D I G I TA L T V Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp ACTRESS

A N I M AT E D F I L M Inside Out VOICE ACTRESS

For the Pixar film, released in SA in June, Poehler lends her voice to Joy, one of the emotions inside the mind of a young girl.

In July, Poehler will reprise her role as overbearing camp counsellor Susie in Netflix’s eight-­ episode prequel to the 2001 cult film, Wet Hot American Summer. (­David Wain returns as director; Kristen Wiig, Bradley Cooper, Paul Rudd, and Jon Hamm co-star.)

Difficult People EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

The half-hour show, which starts streaming this August, stars Billy on the Street host Billy Eichner and comedy writer Julie Klausner as hard-to-please New Yorkers. Last year, Hulu ordered it straight to series. — Nikita Richardson

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“I have these meetings with really powerful men, and they ask me, ‘Where are your kids?

Are your kids here?’ It’s such a weird question.”

Ganeless notwithstanding, it remains a maledominated field.

“I have these meetings with really powerful men and they ask me all the time, ‘Where are your kids? Are your kids here?’ ” she says with a sneer. “It’s such a weird question. Never in a million years do I ask guys where their kids are.

It would be comparable to me going to a guy, ‘Do you feel like you see your kids enough?’ ” For all her confidence and determination, Poehler still sometimes finds herself uncomfortable. She spends a surprising amount of energy analysing her own attitudes.

“It’s a struggle for me to remain open,” she admits. “To not shut down because I’m defensive or scared or maybe my ego is getting in the way. And the other side of that is just believing that I belong where I am and deserve to take up space. I fight constantly between those two things, between not apologising for what I want and staying vulnerable and creatively supple and not thinking I know better than everyone else.”

“I often look to men to model behaviour,” she goes on after a pause. “Not because I want to squelch what’s feminine about me, but because sometimes I want a little more action, a little less feeling in my interactions.

I’ve been doing this thing lately where I try to talk slower at meetings. I take a lot of meetings with women and we all talk really fast. But every guy talks so much slower.

Maybe there’s a scientist who could tell me why, but I think men are just a little bit more comfortable taking up conversational real estate. So I’ve been seeing how slow I can tolerate talking. I’m doing it now. Let me tell you, it’s really hard for me.”

Many of Poehler’s producing projects involve emerging female talent. “It’s selfish,” she insists. “I just like working with women.”

But many fans see her as a feminist activist, changing the world one laugh line at a time.

“She never apologises for being a woman, and always does things ­exactly the way she wants,” says Lyonne. “It’s just her way of existing. And it trickles down into all her projects, like helping all these young female comedians.” And not just comedians. Poehler and friends Meredith Walker and Amy Miles launched a digital series in 2008 to boost young girls’ confidence (in every episode, Poehler talks to a regular girl with a unique interest or ability, always ending the interview with an impromptu happy dance).

Smart Girls at the Party, as the show was called, was first on YouTube in 2012 as part of Google’s Original Channels Initiative. It eventually became an expanded website renamed Amysmartgirls.com and was bought

by Legendary Entertainment last October. It currently has about 5 million viewers and nearly a million likes on Facebook.

She has also been helping people find their voice in even more meaningful ways. Among her various charity causes, she’s most ­attached to the Worldwide Orphans Foundation. “When I’m with my kids, I feel so lucky to have all this love in my life,” she explains. “But these orphans have nobody who lights up when they come into the room, and that’s really, really heavy.”

Poehler “gets totally involved”, says Jane ­Aronson, the organisation’s CEO and president.

“When we do an event, she wants to talk about how to do it, what we should talk about. We have meetings all the time. We talk, we text.

I took her to Haiti with me; she’s going to Ethiopia with me in the fall. She’s better than a board member, she’s a partner.”

Before getting back to work—she has pitch meetings all afternoon—Poehler shows off some more of the artwork in her office. Turns out the centaur picture, an old prop from Parks and Recreation’s third season, is just the beginning of a tour that includes a surreal watercolour by famous graffiti artist David Choe (“That’s Aubrey Plaza as a demon-beast impregnating me with a lizard penis...”) and a canvas given to her by Parks producer Mike Schur depicting the show’s cast as dystopian, Mad Max–like figures wearing leather halters.

She pauses for a moment in front of that picture, raising her eyebrows ever so pointedly at the image of her character in a skimpy bustier that leaves little to the imagination.

“Let your readers know,” she says. “Let them know.”

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The secret life of plants Arntzen is artfully developing drugs via a technique known as pharming.

32 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY 2015

Photograph by Maciek Jasik

FOR FIGHTING EBOL A W ITH TOBACCO Charles Arntzen REGENTS’ PROFESSOR, ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY’S CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND VACCINOLOGY

As the Ebola virus swept through West Africa in 2014, health experts could do little but try to quarantine the sick and watch helplessly as thousands died. There was no known cure, no vaccine. Then two American health workers, who had been infected in Liberia, became the first human recipients of an experimental drug called ZMapp, and they both

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recovered. One of the Americans credited God. Perhaps he also should have thanked Charles Arntzen.

A professor at Arizona State University, Arntzen is considered the godfather of a growing field of research sometimes called “pharming”: engineering plants to produce specialised vaccines and other drugs.

ZMapp, an injectable synthetic serum made of genetically engineered antibodies grown in tobacco plants, is currently the most promising drug treatment for people infected with Ebola. Just as significant is the technology used to produce it, which could be employed to combat other infectious disease threats and lower the cost of expensive drugs used to fight cancer, HIV and other chronic health conditions.

Arntzen was a director of biotechnology at DuPont in the 1980s, but he found his life’s mission in the early 1990s with the announcement of the Children’s Vaccine Initiative, a collaboration between the Rockefeller Foundation, World Health Organization, World Bank and Unicef which aimed to expand vaccine availability worldwide. “I knew the vaccine field was changing fast,” he says. Improvements in biotechnology meant that vaccines could be produced in new, more economical ways— from engineered proteins, say, rather than from live v ­ iruses. Arntzen wondered if it could be done using bioengineered plants.

In 1992, Arntzen succeeded in engineering tobacco plants to create a human hepatitis B antibody, and for the next decade he tried numerous ways to coax plants into producing other drugs for humans. For some time, he worked on what he now calls “an academic’s naive dream” of ­engineering banana plants whose fruit would contain an edible vaccine against norovirus, a potentially deadly diarrhoeal disease.

After the US Army granted his group more than R40 million in 2002 to develop plant-based methods for producing defences against pathogens that could potentially be used in terrorist attacks, Arntzen started focusing on Ebola. Partnering with San Diego–based drug company, Mapp Biopharmaceutical, Arntzen gathered a diverse team of ­experts in plant molecular

34 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY 2015

biology, antibody engineering, and protein analysis. First, they successfully ‘humanised’ Ebola ­antibodies taken from mice, removing all of the mouse-specific DNA so that the human body wouldn’t reject them. Next, they planned to genetically modify tobacco plants to produce the antibodies—but soon recognised they would have trouble producing the quantities necessary to create a drug.

Then, about a year into the project, Arntzen changed his approach. Rather than

Pharming could be the key to responding to future threats from Ebola and other outbreaks. using plants to produce antibodies—the conventional strategy at the time—he started engineering viruses that attacked plants, effectively using them as Trojan horses for the humanised Ebola antibodies. Infect a tobacco plant with the virus, he discovered, and as it spreads, the plant spins out millions of copies of the antibody, which can be purified and formulated for injection. “It has been a revolution for the field,” says Nobuyuki Matoba, a professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, who works on plant-based manufacturing of HIV and cancer drugs.

The Ebola project got a fortuitous boost in 2009, when the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), in response to that year’s H1N1 influenza pandemic, created the Blue Angel initiative, which invested around R1.2 billion in new technologies for developing, testing and quickly massproducing vaccines. Some of that money went to Kentucky BioProcessing—a hightech tobacco grower, now owned by tobacco giant, Reynolds American—­allowing it to expand its operation and work with Arntzen and his ­colleagues to produce a far greater supply of antibodies, which were then tested on monkeys.

“The amount spent directly on ZMapp, by

the time it went into humans, was approximately $5 or $6 million [R60 or R75 million],” says Arntzen. (It can cost as much as R12 billion to develop fully approved drugs.)

“It was a very modest, part-time project.”

The drug still wasn’t approved for human use when it was given to the healthcare workers in Liberia last year, and Arntzen didn’t even find out about the real-life trial until after the fact. But by the time he got the news, the patients were showing rapid improvement, “which was very exciting”, he says. Because the drug has so far only been used in emergencies, not in controlled clinical trials, it’s premature to conclude that ZMapp saved the lives of the health workers (and at least three others who recovered after receiving it), who also benefited from stateof-the-art medical care in top Western facilities. But it is widely considered the most encouraging Ebola therapy, and last September, the US Department of Health and Human Services pledged up to R520 million in funding to speed the development of more serum. By February, there was enough supply to begin clinical trials in Liberia and the US. Although the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has slowed, the threat of recurrence is real— and the risk of similar epidemics may be increasing. Pharming could be the key to responding to these future threats, providing a large supply of drugs or vaccines at epidemic speed.

As the focus with ZMapp has moved from research to testing and manufacturing, Arntzen has taken on a “cheerleader” role, he says. In his lab, he’s currently concentrating on devising low-cost methods for producing plant-based vaccines for the developing world. Meanwhile, Big Pharma, which previously viewed plant-based drug manufacturing as too risky to invest in, has come ­calling. The behemoth now sees it as a scalable, affordable alternative method of creating valuable therapies, including ‘biosimilar’ formulations of blockbuster cancer drugs like Herceptin and Rituxan.

“There is a huge global market for cheaper— equivalent or ­better—versions of these drugs,” says Arntzen. Tobacco as a major ­lifesaver—that’s an idea that may take some getting used to. —Adam Bluestein

KEVIN WELL MAARTEN SIERHUIS

F OR DR I V ING U S T O WA R D T HE AUTONOMOUS F U T UR E

JENNIFER LEWIS

Maarten Sierhuis DIRECTOR, NISSAN RESEARCH CENTER SILICON VALLEY Former NASA scientist Maarten Sierhuis believes the key to getting people comfortable with autonomous driving is to make people feel at one with their cars. “You’re building this intelligent entity that has to co-operate, co-ordinate and collaborate with humans,” Sierhuis says. That’s why he won’t get rid of the steering wheel the way Google has, and why he’s adding new features bit by bit—the Q50 (by Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury division), for example, automatically keeps the car centred within street lanes. In January, he helped forge a partnership with NASA to help Nissan perfect its autonomous navigation capabilities in urban areas. A fully autonomous driving option is already being tested in Nissan’s best-selling electric car, the Leaf—and by 2020, the company hopes to introduce the technology to its Infiniti and Renault brands.

FOR GIVING TWITTER NEW WINGS Kevin Weil SVP OF PRODUCT, TWITTER

Within the last several months, Kevin Weil has re-energised Twitter by helping to create features that offer users new and old “an amazing experience every time they pull their phones out of their pockets”, he says. Here’s some of what’s been added: While You Were Away: Floats important tweets you might have missed to the top of your timeline.

Instant Timeline: Offers rookie users people to follow based on topics in which their contacts are interested.

Quality Filter: Automatically omits tweets that include abusive or spammy content (in tests with select “verified” users).

Curator: Lets media publishers create a stream of live tweets they can display on the web, mobile or TV. Periscope: The buzzedabout acquisition lets users stream video to followers from wherever they are.

Illustration by Mother Volcano

At January’s Consumer Electronics Show, Jennifer Lewis, a biological engineering professor at Harvard with 10 patents to her name, unveiled a potentially revolutionary new technology: the world’s first 3D printer able to spit out fully functional electronics.

While most current 3D models print plastic-based ­f ilament—which is fitting for trinkets and p ­ rototypes— Voxel8’s machine uses a conductive silver ink that can be printed right into a USB drive, for example, and filled in around microchips. The first generation of Voxel8 printers will arrive at US universities and industrial labs by the end of the year, and Lewis envisions a much larger future for the product.

“We ultimately want to mass-customise electronics.”

F OR G I V ING 3D P RINTING A JOLT Jennifer Lewis CO-FOUNDER, CEO, MATERIALS LEAD, VOXEL8

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Eun focuses on attracting new non-traditional thinkers to join Samsung.

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Gutter Credit Tk

Bring the outside in

MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

THOMAS HEATHERWICK DAVID EUN

Two years ago, you were a passenger on a plane that crashed. You said the accident taught you how to differentiate between what’s important and what’s merely urgent . . . Oh, man, I’ve only ever spoken on it one time, and it was totally unplanned.

FOR SEEDING SA MSUNG’S F UTURE David Eun EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL INNOVATION CENTER, SAMSUNG

David Eun works as a connector, bridging the gap between Silicon Valley startups and Samsung, one of the largest multinational corporations on the planet.

A veteran media exec of both AOL and Google, Eun is responsible for everything from running an incubator to facilitating partnerships to spearheading acquisitions, giving entrepreneurs access to Samsung’s vast resources.

In return, Samsung gets something equally valuable: a finger on the pulse of innovation.

Photograph by Ryan Pfluger

I thought what you said was kind of profound! Dude, I wish I were that profound.

I think it really comes down to having an honest discussion with yourself. If you know what’s important, you have a real understanding of what true north is for you.

So what’s true north for you now? I want to have an impact from a business perspective, and I want to have a positive impact on people while I do it. While our devices and the displays and the electronics are fantastic, at the heart of what makes Samsung successful are people.

You started the Global Innovation Center to nurture people. You have to give the right kind of people the right environment. For example, [non-entrepreneurs] are shocked to find out that founding CEOs at startups spend so much time on things that aren’t related to product development. The thing they’re passionate about! We always say, “Instead of focusing on building a company, build the product. We’ll help you build the company.”

You’ve also tried to bring in more established companies, though. We’ve done two historic acquisitions: one of a company called SmartThings, in the connected-home space, and more recently, we announced an acquisition of a company called LoopPay [now Samsung Pay], which is in the mobile commerce space. We thought: We can certainly build those things in-house, but there are also really smart people outside the company doing interesting things. [We] surround them with the right kinds of tools, resources and other people who can help them realise the goals that they have.

—Chris Gayomali

FOR COLLAPSING THE WALLS WITHIN DESIGN Thomas Heatherwick DESIGNER, FOUNDER, HEATHERWICK STUDIO

Thomas Heatherwick’s design portfolio includes the London Olympic cauldron, a doubledecker bus, handbags and a revamped factory that is now the offices of gin brand, Bombay Sapphire. Among his current projects are a R1.6-billion floating park that’s being built on New York’s West Side, which will feature landscaped ‘hills’ and a 700-seat amphitheatre, and (in partnership with Bjarke Ingels­) the interior and exterior of Google’s massive new California campus (which is set for completion in phases from 2020 to 2025). Some people call this work “multidisciplinary”, but Heatherwick disputes that characterisation. “It’s one discipline: solving functional problems and trying to make a difference,” he says.

“Inspiration” doesn’t figure much into his methods, he adds. Rather, his designs result from a process of analysis and deduction that is rooted in a childhood hobby: programming in the computer language BASIC. “It’s just lines of logic: If this, then this,” he says. “That’s how we work.”

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Power of speech

Gutter Credit Tk

Dakhil persuaded global leaders to help her people, the ­Yazidis, who were being massacred

by ISIS.

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Art credit teekay

MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

FOR A NSW ERING THE CA LL Vian Dakhil MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, IRAQ ­

About an hour before sunrise on August 3, 2014, Vian Dakhil was ­awoken by her ringing cellphone.

As one of two parliament members representing Iraq’s Yazidi minority, she was used to fielding calls from constituents. They complained about electricity shortages, joblessness and a lack of social services. But they usually called during normal hours.

This felt different.

Gutter Credit Tk

The man on the line was frantic. Militants with the Islamic State (known variously as IS, ISIS and ISIL) had overrun his town near Sinjar, and everyone was fleeing. Yazidis, who practise a pre-Islamic ­religion, are considered nonbelievers by ISIS and therefore worthy of kidnapping, enslavement and execution. They had lived in fear for months, but the sudden and vicious invasion had surprised even them. “It was unbelievable,” Dakhil told me through a translator when we met at her home more than six months after the attacks began. “I asked them for details. ‘How are you fleeing? Where are you going?’ Every minute I was hearing

Photograph by Ali Arkady

about another tragic story.”

Two days later, Dakhil addressed the Iraqi parliament, pleading for help. The speech was unrehearsed and visceral. “An entire religion is being wiped off the face of the earth!” Dakhil screamed before collapsing in tears, limp with exhaustion.

The speech was viewed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube and transformed Dakhil from a parliamentarian into a crusader, informing Iraqis of the massacre and, as word spread across borders and oceans, alerting many more to the very existence of Yazidis. Her words eventually reached President Barack Obama, who referred to them in his decision to authorise US military air strikes. Dakhil began travelling the world, appealing for support. A helicopter in which she was riding crashed on August 12, on its way to deliver aid to Sinjar, and she still walks with a limp. This has become her life, one she could never have envisioned and certainly didn’t plan.

Dakhil had set out to be a doctor, like her father (and six of her eight siblings). Her family was affluent, but as Yazidis in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, they stood out. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslim, and although Kurdish society is relatively secular, Islam still dominates the religious conversation. Dakhil was the only Yazidi student in school, and one of a few at the University of Mosul, where she studied microbiology. Her career in politics, she says, began as an accident.

In 2007, extremists attacked Christian and Yazidi students at the University of Mosul, and the speaker of the Kurdish parliament asked Dakhil, who was already a prominent Yazidi and a graduate of the university, for help. She became an adviser on minority issues and realised just how much work needed to be done within her community.

Three years later, she was appointed to the Iraqi parliament.

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There, she stood out again. “To be a woman, Yazidi, and unveiled is hard,” she says. “But believing in democracy in Iraq is a big challenge by itself.” Yazidis have always suffered greatly in the country, and ISIS is seen as only the most recent threat. Most Yazidis, including Dakhil, will cite 72 past attempts at their annihilation. The most reliable estimates put the number of Yazidis in Iraq between 500 000 and 700 000, but the community remains insular and they still have limited access to jobs and education.

They have few advocates at all, let alone ones with Dakhil’s reach and influence.

When I met Dakhil, she had just returned from the United Kingdom, where she had received the Anna Politkovskaya Award, given out by the human rights group Reach All Women in War to “a woman human rights defender from a conflict zone”. (The 2013 recipient was Malala Yousafzai.) Dakhil was meticulously put together in pressed jeans and a green sweater, but she had the drawn, distracted appearance of someone charged with constantly monitoring a tragedy.

“They tell me lots of stories,” she says of the constituents who still call her at all hours.

“Sometimes I can’t bear them.” Women abducted by ISIS are raped, sold as slaves, or forced to marry their captors, a reality that many in the conservative Yazidi community are reluctant to acknowledge.

“One [abducted] girl called me and said, ‘I am dying 1 000 times a day. I want to flee.’ ” She asked Dakhil, should she? “I told her that, yes, it’s better to flee than to stay in this life,” Dakhil says. “I was on the phone with her when she broke the lock on the door and ran away. I spoke with the taxi driver and told him I will give him money to take her wherever she wants.”

Victories like this are hard won. Of the few hundred Yazidi girls and women who have managed to escape ISIS, there are an unknown number who have tried and failed.

Dakhil knows that if ­the Yazidis have a future in Iraq, it will require a co-ordinated effort at the highest levels of Iraqi government, along with international assistance. But, so far, her job is a lonely one.

Dakhil divides her time between Baghdad, Erbil, and the towns and camps where Yazidis

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“Mr Speaker, we call upon the Iraqi parliament to intervene immediately to stop this massacre,” Dakhil exhorted. “We are being slaughtered, annihilated.

An entire religion is being wiped off the face of the earth!”

wait, desperate for the war to end. Keeping the displaced and kidnapped on the radar of politicians and journalists is a challenge. ISIS has left Iraq fractured along many lines, and the Yazidis are not the primary concern of most Iraqi parliamentarians. One colleague, Dakhil remembers, criticised her during her August speech. “He was shouting, ‘Why are you only talking about the Yazidis?’ ” she told me. “ ‘Why are you not talking about Sunnis?

The same thing happened to us.’ ” One of Dakhil’s goals is to get the massacre formally recognised as genocide by governments around the world. Earlier this year, she met with scholars at the University of Leicester in the UK. “We discussed the legal aspects of genocide and minority rights in Iraq,” she says. In the end, they agreed that, yes, ISIS’s attack of the Yazidis in Iraq did in fact qualify as genocide.

If she can broaden that recognition, it could

bring more attention to the ongoing struggle.

One Friday afternoon in March, I accompanied Dakhil on a visit to the Shariya refugee camp, about 150 kilometres northwest of Erbil. She was greeted by a dazzling burst of adoration. When she left, refugees chanted her name and followed her car out of the gate, walking faster and then running as her SUV picked up speed, some sprinting for as long as they could.

Halfway down the main road, away from the crowd, Dakhil asked her driver to stop.

A grey-haired man in a workman’s jacket had been standing on the grassy shoulder. He approached the car slowly, his cellphone displaying a series of texts in Arabic. They were sent from his daughter’s captor, who was offering to return her for what the man considered an inconceivable sum of money.

“It’s daesh,” he said softly—the Arabic word for ISIS. From the back seat, Dakhil’s eyes softened with tears. She advised the man to press the militant for details like landmarks, which might help a government official pinpoint the girl’s location. For a long time, he stood outside the open door, explaining his situation and growing noticeably less distraught. Before leaving, Dakhil typed her contact information into his cellphone. She made him promise to call her with news.

After the man left, the driver started the car again, and Dakhil sat quietly as it started to roll away. A weariness seemed to take over her, the way a runner’s laboured breathing sets in only after the race ends, and I remembered something I’d asked her back at her home.

Since her speech in parliament, ISIS has issued death threats against Dakhil. She travels with an armed Peshmerga escort, and her house is outfitted with security cameras. But when I wondered whether she worried for her own safety, she gave a tight-lipped smile and a shrug. She said only, “It’s not my priority to be afraid of ISIS.” —Jenna Krajeski

BRETT AND DAVID KOPF

TESSA LAU

MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE JASON JONES

FOR KEEPING PARENTS IN THE KNOW FOR GIVING ROBOTS THAT HUMAN TOUCH Tessa Lau CHIEF ROBOT WHISPERER, SAVIOKE

It may look like a dirt bin and be somewhat error-prone, but SaviOne, a wheeled robot that delivers towels and toothbrushes to guests in their hotel rooms, was never supposed to be perfect. “We want people to feel protective toward it,” says Tessa Lau, a computer scientist at Savioke whose job it was to make the robot (currently employed at two Aloft hotels in California) cute—even vulnerable. Here’s how she did it: I N E L E VAT O R S . . . When SaviOne rides a lift with guests, it will get on and turn to face the doors, staring awkwardly like everyone else.

I N H A L LWAY S . . . If SaviOne gets confused while it navigates the halls, it won’t simply hit the brakes, which people find disconcerting. Instead, it will slowly decelerate.

I N R O O M S . . . Guests can rate the SaviOne’s performance on its iPadlike screen. If it gets a full five stars, the robot chirps and does what Lau calls a “happy dance”.

Illustration by Bratislav Milenkovic

Brett and David Kopf CO-FOUNDERS, REMIND

When Brett Kopf, who had been diagnosed with dyslexia, was in high school, it was crucial for his teachers to keep his mom updated on his assignments and progress.

In 2011, he and his brother David, a former IBM engineer, channelled that experience into an app that enables teachers to text and email students and their parents easily about anything, including homework reminders and feedback on a project.

Only teachers can initiate communication, and for safety, no phone numbers are displayed.

The company, which has raised more than R730 million and counts 25 million users, is now expanding into countries such as Spain and Brazil, where regular communication between parents and teachers is even less common.

“We live in an age where you can have an Uber cab show up in two minutes,” says Brett. “But if your kid is failing in school, you probably don’t know for three months.”

F OR SHOW ING G A M ER S TH EIR DE STIN Y Jason Jones CO-FOUNDER, CREATIVE DIRECTOR, BUNGIE

“Everything I’ve done that I feel good about, I traded for something better,” says video-game developer Jason Jones who, in 2010, turned the focus of his 500-person company away from ­i ts multibillion-dollar creation Halo—severing ties with Microsoft in the process. Instead he embraced Destiny, a first-person shooter game featuring role-playing elements that let gamers band together as hunters, warlocks or soldiers to battle Earth-destroying aliens.

Last September, Destiny made more than R4 billion in its first five days—becoming the most successful new video-game launch of all time.

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MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

FOR SPEEDING UP INSTAGRAM

ALEX KARPENKO GREG HOFFMAN MATT MASON

Thomas Dimson and Alex Karpenko

THOMAS DIMSON

SOFTWARE ENGINEERS, INSTAGRAM; CO-CREATORS, HYPERLAPSE

In 2011, Alex Karpenko figured out a way to use a smartphone’s gyroscope to stabilise video recordings and started a company that would become Luma, later acquired by Instagram.

Thomas Dimson, who’d worked at Luma, suggested applying the technique to time-lapse video. From their collaboration, alongside designer Chris Connolly, came Hyperlapse, the hit app that empowers iPhone and Android users to create formerly laborious time-lapse videos with just a few swipes. “Encouraging that experimentation is probably the reason we ended up having massmarket success,” says Dimson.

FOR PLAYING NICE

FOR K EEPING NIK E IN THE SP OTLIGHT

Matt Mason CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER, BITTORRENT

Open-source advocate Matt Mason is finally convincing the entertainment industry that BitTorrent’s file-sharing technology is “a legit channel for a lot of people to make a lot of money”, as he puts it. This year, BitTorrent distributed two original feature films, including a David Cross comedy called HITS, resulting in 1.5 million downloads. Music and film companies are also enthusiastic about its Bundle technology, which lets creators control the price, formatting and marketing of their work.

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Greg Hoffman VICE PRESIDENT OF GLOBAL BRAND CREATIVE AND EXPERIENCE, NIKE

Greg Hoffman leads a global team that’s responsible for how consumers experience the Nike brand in ads, store designs and promotions. Over the past year, he oversaw two of the company’s most ambitious marketing projects to date: a hugely popular series of videos about the 2014 FIFA World Cup and interactive displays related to the 2015 NBA All-Star game in New York.

Nike wasn’t an official sponsor at the World Cup, but you released a five-anda-half-­m inute animated video, “The Last Game”, which got more than 50 million views during the tournament’s first week.

What was your strategy for stealing the spotlight?

We spent a year creating “The Last Game”.

We wanted one big moment where Nike takes the stage, but then we wanted to sustain that heat throughout the month. We set up a command centre in Portland, Oregon, with more than 120 people producing videos in real time every day. We made over 100 short films [which generated more than 400 million views]. We had a team writing a storyline [based on that day’s] action, we had an athlete in a motion-capture suit, we mapped the animation out, and the piece would drop on ESPN that night.

What’s the key to co-ordinating a project that complex? I talk about creativity as a team sport. This is a perfect example. We had media, digital and brand communication teams—Wieden+Kennedy, Passion Pictures, Google, Facebook, Instagram. It was the largest creative network we’ve ever used.

How do you ensure the experience has a lasting impact? We said this wasn’t a one-off—we were revolutionising the way we do marketing. With [the NBA] All-Star weekend, we wanted to use digital to bring the athletes as close as possible [to consumers]. To understand Michael Jordan’s greatness, you have to go through it yourself.

So we built an immersive LED basketball court, and we had screens of screaming fans, but with real defenders. You walk onto the court and attempt some of the biggest shots of Jordan’s career. In my 22 years at Nike, as a physical experience we’ve created, this was right at the top. —Chuck Salter

Just for kicks

Gutter Credit Tk

Hoffman is taking Nike’s digital storytelling to new heights.

Photograph by Amy Harrity

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A panel of one “As I’m unboxing, I’m crafting the videos in my head,” says YouTube tech reviewer, Marques Brownlee.

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BARBARA BUSH

MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

MARQUES BROWNLEE CAITLIN OSWALD

You’ve been known to get a few exclusives. How do those come about?

Networks and companies now are looking at the viewer numbers, and are trying to get their products more eyes from a wider audience.

Before, YouTube didn’t get taken that seriously, but you can’t really ignore it anymore. So in the past couple of years, a lot of YouTubers have been getting products beforehand to share with their audiences.

FOR BEING A G A DGE T GOD Marques Brownlee

Projection graphic: Witchoria

TECH REVIEWER, YOUTUBE STAR

Hailed as “the best technology reviewer on the planet” by former Google SVP Vic Gundotra, 21-yearold Marques Brownlee (aka MKBHD) is a YouTube phenom who has amassed 2.3 million followers and whose channel has become one of the fastest growing tech feeds on the platform. The New Jersey–based web personality began uploading reviews six years ago, while still in high school, and as his audience grew, so did his credibility. On his recent birthday, he test-drove the BMW i8 hybrid car at the company’s HQ, and he got his hands on the never-released iPhone 6 sapphire glass for a stress test—long before the public discovered that it was too expensive for Apple to manufacture.

The college student won’t accept money from companies whose products he reviews, but the statistics website Social Blade estimates he makes at least R44 000 per month through ads.

Photograph by Jeff Brown

What made you decide to start reviewing tech products? When I was in high school, I was re­­s earching what type of laptop I should buy and watched all of these YouTube reviews.

When I finally bought mine, I wanted to go back and add to that so when other people find themselves in that situation, they have more to choose from to help them make a better decision.

How do you choose what you’re going to review next? It’s usually what’s hot. There are tonnes of new phones that come out which I’m dying to take a look at, or new speakers or new headphones that are a sequel to something that I’ve already reviewed. People are curious about how my opinions might have changed.

Walk us through your process. As I’m unboxing, I’m crafting the videos in my head.

I’ll start a Google Keep document. I may notice, “This really squeaks when I twist it this way,” so I’ll write it down really quickly. When I’ve decided that I’ve used it long enough, I’ll put all the notes together into bullet points and just talk through it and get all of the shots—all the B-roll, the classic angles. Then it’s the editing work, the colouring, and it all comes together in the video.

How long do you typically spend with a device before reviewing it? With the iPhone 6 Plus, it was about a week. Some are longer because they have more features or a new operating system. Other things are less about the experience than the function, like a camera. I may need only two or three days of shooting to decide whether I like it. My latest video was on a new pair of headphones. I edited a video with them. I listened to some high-quality stuff. I’m putting them through the paces so that five or six days later, I know what they’re good for.

Have you been approached about a TV gig? Yeah, especially in the past year. TV is obviously a really different medium. It’s easier for me right now to just keep doing what I’m doing.

—Lynne D. Johnson

FOR GIVING H E A LT H C A R E FRESH EYES Barbara Bush CO-FOUNDER, CEO, GLOBAL HEALTH CORPS

Inspired by an Aidsrelief mission Barbara Bush took with her parents, Global Health Corps connects talented young leaders from a variety of fields with yearlong stints at HIV and wo­­m en’s health organisations desperate for creative thinkers. Today, 50% of the organisation’s 322 fellows have been offered leadership positions where they did their fellowships, Bush says, “and 10% of our alums are working for ministers of health in their home countries, which is where policy is made.”

FOR PROPELLING JET INNOVATION Caitlin Oswald DESIGN AND APPLIED TECHNOLOGY MANAGER, PRATT & WHITNEY

When a new fleet of Airbus jets take off this year, they will feature possibly the most sustainable jet engine ever assembled—a breakthrough that was made possible using 3D-printing technology.

Caitlin Oswald led the team that incorporated 3D printing into the development process for engineers, helping them approach challenges in a new way. “They’re able to print a part to scale,” she says. “They can understand the capabilities and limitations.”

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MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE MARIA CLAUDIA LACOUTURE DAO NGUYEN RAJAN ANANDAN

FOR GETTING EVERYONE ONLINE

FOR TURNING LOLS INTO A MEDIA EMPIRE Dao Nguyen

Rajan Anandan VICE PRESIDENT, MANAGING DIRECTOR (INDIA AND SOUTHEAST ASIA), GOOGLE

“By getting onto the Internet, people’s lives change,” says Rajan Anandan, who is finding new ways to channel affordable web access to India and Southeast Asia’s 500 million (and counting) Internet users. He has motivated India’s biggest smartphone makers to launch low-cost devices by touting hardware specifications of the Android One operating standards that reduce manufacturing costs of phones. He has also got Indian carriers like Tata DoCoMo to drop data-plan costs by 20%; pushed for the translation of Google’s products and services into numerous local languages; and persuaded Google to let users download YouTube videos when they have Wi-Fi or network access and watch them on their phones later—as many times as they want in the next 48 hours— without paying further charges. Meanwhile, Anandan is collaborating on the country’s Digital India programme, dedicated to bridging the government-citizen divide.

He even got 100 Indian heritage sites, including the Taj Mahal, on Google Street View.

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PUBLISHER, BUZZFEED

After more than quintupling BuzzFeed’s traffic to 200 million unique visitors in less than two years, data czar Dao Nguyen got a promotion last October.

She’s now the company’s first publisher, in charge of ­s pearheading growth.

Nguyen helped make BuzzFeed a dominant media player by listening to the data— which, for example, revealed that email was the second-most-popular referral source after Facebook, despite a clunky sharing process.

That prompted Nguyen to make sharing via email easier, and within a week, email shares rose by 100%. She is also a force behind the new BuzzFeed Distributed, which will produce content that lives on Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat and Vine. Today, BuzzFeed has around R1.2 billion in funding, a R10.35-billion valuation and a rumoured upcoming IPO. “Data provides us clues,” she says. “You have to [look at it] over and over again to be able to say, Okay, I think this is generally what’s happening.

FOR REBR A NDING A COUNTRY Maria Claudia Lacouture PRESIDENT, PROCOLOMBIA

“One of the challenges we have, and one of our great­ est accomplishments, is to put Colombia in the eyes of everyone,” says Maria Claudia Lacouture, president of government agency, ProColombia. Under her watch, the country is shedding its reputation for drug-fuelled violence and becoming a safe and popular travel destination; international tourism has increased by 56%. Her next goal: Make Colombia a world player in technology. In 2014, she launched the “Bring IT On” campaign to nurture homegrown techies. “It’s very interesting to see all the apps and things they can develop,” she says. IBM has opened a data centre in Bogotá; HP has a global services centre in Medellín.

The country’s information technology sector is now the third largest in Latin America and is expected to double in the next three years.

Map by Carla Eráusquin Bayona

Destination: Colombia Lacouture has helped turn the country into a vibrant hub of technology and tourism.

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JOCELYN LEAVITT

MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE EMILY LEPROUST AYSE ILDENIZ

FOR MAKING SMART JEWELLERY FASHIONABLE

F OR TU RNING K ID S INTO G A ME DE SIGNER S Jocelyn Leavitt

Ayse Ildeniz

CO-FOUNDER, HOPSCOTCH

VICE PRESIDENT, NEW DEVICES GROUP, INTEL

Tired of watching children “mindlessly consuming” games, former teacher Jocelyn Leavitt teamed up in 2011 with software engineer Samantha John to create Hopscotch, a build-yourown-games app featuring a first-of-its-kind mobile programming language that empowers anyone—kid or adult—to produce and share an original game.

The key is its drag-and-drop interface, which allows users to grab blocks of code from presorted categories (movement, appearance etc.) and assemble them to determine how gameplay should go (e.g. “When robot is tapped, rotate 180 degrees”). In its first year, users have published more than 1 million of their selfcreated games, and more than 50 000 new games are published each week.

“There’s a strong desire on kids’—and adults’—part to create,” Leavitt says.

“People have ideas all the time.”

Wearable tech is useless if nobody wants to wear it. That’s why Ayse Ildeniz tapped fashion label Opening Ceremony to help Intel develop the stylish MICA (My Intelligent Communication Accessory). The MICA cuff—which went on sale in December at Opening Ceremony and Barneys— can display text messages, Gmail alerts and Facebook events, among other things. “Our vision is to make technology subtle,” says Ildeniz. “[The MICA is a way] to tell people it doesn’t have to look geeky.”

FOR SY N T H E S I S IN G D N A FA S T E R THAN EVER

Emily Leproust CO-FOUNDER, CEO, TWIST BIOSCIENCE Researchers are hungry for synthetic DNA, which is used to engineer new kinds of materials, crops and medicines. But due to current tech limitations, there isn’t enough to go around. Emily Leproust, a biochemist who co-founded Twist Bioscience in 2013 with Bill Peck and Bill Banyai, is developing a new technology that works 100 times more efficiently. In 2014, Twist pulled in more than R545 million from investors, and it plans to launch its commercial service later this year. “I am not interested in how everybody else is doing a particular thing,” Leproust says. “I am interested in improving the process and the outcome.”

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Illustration by Toshihiro Mori

AMY GU JEREMY JOHNSON

SOPHIE LEBRECHT

FOR HELPING STUDENTS GET PAID TO LEARN Jeremy Johnson CEO, ANDELA

T H E P R O B L E M : Few students in sub-Saharan Africa are able to afford higher education. While giving a talk there last year, Jeremy Johnson, co-founder of the online education platform, 2U, was asked a seemingly unanswerable question: How can you scale highquality education if people can’t pay for it?

T H E E P I P H A N Y: Johnson returned to the US still grappling with the issue.

Finally, a solution struck him: What if instead of being charged tuition, people actually got paid to learn?

THE EXECUTION: Andela’s fouryear programme begins with six months of basic software coding. After that, students divide their time between academic work and real-world projects. Tech companies pay Andela, and Andela pays the students a middle-class wage.

T H E R E S U LT: Andela held its first classes in Nigeria last September, and each of the 28 students is now working with a tech firm like Segovia or Microsoft.

By the end of 2016, there will be a second Nigeria location, as well as two in other African countries.

Illustration by Evan Bech

FOR GETTING CHINA TO TAKE NOTE Amy Gu GENERAL MANAGER, EVERNOTE CHINA

Amy Gu knows that many US tech companies have stumbled in China. So the China-born, America-­ educated exec vowed not to merely translate Evernote’s service into Chinese, but to become “a close-to-the-ground, practical company”, she says. In three years, Evernote China has won more than 12 million customers. Some of the features developed in China (such as the ability to man­i pulate multiple photos at once) have proven so p ­ opular, they’re being adapted for Evernote users around the globe.

F OR P REDICTING W HICH IM AGE S W ILL GO V IR A L Sophie Lebrecht CEO, NEON LABS

More than 1.8 billion pictures are uploaded to the Internet every day—and Sophie Lebrecht knows exactly which ones you’ll choose to look at. Her company, Neon Labs, uses an algorithm to help a brand (or blog or game) select the single image from a video campaign that’s likeliest to be shared. Each of Neon’s customers has seen a 10% to 30% increase in engagement, she reports, and in three years, Lebrecht has served up more than a billion images. “Between Instagram, Snapchat and TV, content creation grows and grows,” she says.

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Valley cat Judge’s portrayal of startups is both exaggerated and eerily accurate.

MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

MIKE JUDGE

FOR HOLDING A FUNHOUSE MIRROR UP TO THE TECH SCENE Mike Judge CREATOR, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, SILICON VALLEY

The first season of your HBO show, which satirises the tech world, was well received. Did you feel pressure going into season 2? It’s definitely there. The first season, if nobody liked it, for the most part it would quietly disappear.

And that brought you comfort? [Laughs] Not exactly comfort, but a slight ease of the pressure, whereas if nobody likes it this time, it’s a very public, loud failure.

When you started doing research for the show, what surprised you about the tech industry? I was surprised at how much [a certain demographic ratio] shows up. The very first incubator we visited with all the writers, they bring out the first company, and it’s three white guys, an Asian and an East Indian—which we talk about in the pilot. All living in a two-bedroom apartment.

They had three months to burn through $100 000 [R1.2 million] for their startup. And the presentation ended with [the guys in the company] saying,“You know, we’re making the world a better place.”

Nothing had aired yet. We had just shot the pilot.

All the writers were like, “How did you know?”

Because that’s pretty much what happens on the show. How did you know? There’s a Yahoo campus right around [the HBO office]. I was taking pictures from my car, because I’d drive right past and go, “Wow, there’s another group.”

There are no women in positions of power in the first season of Silicon Valley, which in many ways reflects real life. This is satire, so

Photograph by Dan Monick

CRAIG STRONBERG

FOR HACKING THE SECURITY GAME Craig Stronberg if you’re going to take shots at that industry for not having women in it, then you tend to exaggerate things. It’s kind of the same thing that happened on Beavis and Butt-Head [which Judge created]—you’re making fun of something and people think you’re endorsing it, and that isn’t the case. My ex-wife worked in tech. I used to work in tech. I always wanted there to be more women in it.

Is it hard to dramatise things like term sheets and algorithms? It’s not an easy show to write. I mean, there’s a reason there are all these medical and police dramas. Every week you can bring a new story in the door. This is guys sitting in front of computers. What does make it easier is that we are living in this time when guys and girls are doing things that could potentially really change the world. That drama playing out among people who just learnt to program computers is all interesting stuff. That’s what we try to keep in mind. It’s not about the algorithm.

You worked as an engineer in Silicon Valley in the ’80s, and you said on Marc Maron’s podcast that when you first arrived, it felt cultish.

Maybe I’m too sensitive to it. In another life, if I started my own company, I’m sure I would be a cult leader and be fine with it. Being an engineer, it just rubbed me the wrong way. On one job, when I finally quit, they had the VP ask me why. I said, “Well, if you want me to be honest, I come in here on Monday and I’m completely miserable. I have no rapport with anybody. By the end of the day I want to shoot myself.” He looked at me and he said, “What if we offered you stock options?”

At the Silicon Valley premiere, Elon Musk said, “I really feel like Mike Judge has never been to Burning Man, which is Silicon Valley.

If you haven’t been, you just don’t get it.”

He’s a very smart man. I actually talked to [Musk] after that, and he said I hadn’t worked in Silicon Valley for a long time and should do some more research. I said, “Yeah, you’re probably right.” This isn’t, like, a propaganda film; it’s just a comedy. It’s about these characters, not every character. I mean, I’d rather go to parties with [Valley] people than Hollywood people.

They’re much smarter and more interesting to watch.

—Maccabee Montandon

DIRECTOR, PWC

As a result of hacker breaches at companies such as JPMorgan Chase and Slack, business has become a battlefield.

PwC’s Craig Stronberg— who spent 20 years working in the US intelligence community— is helping corporations prepare for cyberattacks.

Game of Threats is an iPad-based simulation of a real-time attack, during which executives must play out strategies against each other. To heighten the realism, players have 90 seconds to react to each move and must manage their resources (IT hires, funds for antivirus software) to protect their valuables (client data, intellectual property).

There’s even a “social feed” that shows how news of the hack would leak, in real time. “There is tremendous pressure that companies are going to feel in the midst of a breach,” says Stronberg.

“They have to feel that pressure when they play the game, too.” Available since last year, the game has been played by about 100 companies globally so far.

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FOR KNOW ING W HEN THE COWS COME HOME— A ND W H AT THE Y ’ V E BEEN DOING A LL DAY Danilo Leao CO-FOUNDER, CEO, BOVCONTROL

Danilo Leao, who worked on his family’s cattle ranch as a teen and knows firsthand how tedious it is to track cattle using pen and paper, created an app in 2012 which, for the first time, brings digital analytics to ranchers’ fingertips.

BovControl works with whatever type of cattle ID farmers are already using (ear tags, tattoos, implanted chips etc.) and mines the gathered data to do such things as track the milk production of individual cows, keep vaccination records, and even send a push notification when a pregnant cow is ready to deliver. The app has been downloaded by thousands of farmers all over the world, and in Leao’s native Brazil, its location-tracking functions are being used to prove that herds aren’t encroaching on protected forest.

A potential deal with Walmart would have BovControl assisting the megachain in its pledge not to sell beef that contributes to deforestation in the Amazon. “As soon as we have the data, we can make the value chain more efficient,” Leao says.

Leao’s BovControl really looks after the herd.

Gutter Credit Tk

Their every moo-ve

MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

KIM GEHRIG

NADINE HARIK

TRACY CHOU JENNIFER TSAI DANILO LEAO

FOR CAPTURING REAL BODIES IN MOTION Kim Gehrig DIRECTOR, SPORT ENGLAND’S “THIS GIRL CAN”

Gutter Credit Tk

When Kim Gehrig was recruited last year to shoot an ad spot for British organisation, Sport England, encouraging women to overcome their fear of being judged while exercising (the top reason women are less active than men in the UK), she knew she wanted to cast real women, not models.

An ad-industry vet who directs music videos and commercials for brands like Coca-Cola and Ikea, Gehrig visited sports clubs, football fields and even Zumba classes to capture the unairbrushed women who’d eventually star in her inspiring 90-second “This Girl Can” video, which honours the many ways women sweat— set to the beat of Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On”. The campaign, which included 15 minifilms, was not only nominated for more than a dozen awards, but it also represents Gehrig’s ideal of what advertising can do: “Find a truth and bring a gentle wit to it,” she says.

Illustration by Alexis Facca

FOR PINNING DOWN GLOBAL MOBILE DESIGN Tracy Chou, Nadine Harik, and Jennifer Tsai SOFTWARE ENGINEERS, PINTEREST

As Pinterest becomes increasingly international, more people arrive through links on low-end phones. Tracy Chou, Nadine Harik and Jennifer Tsai are ensuring Pinterest works well for these users, too. “The point is to make it easier to evolve quicker—to write features and have feature parity,” says Harik. Since a redesign was implemented last year, monthly active users outside the US have grown 150%.

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MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

AVA DUVERNAY

AZZEDINE DOWNES CATHERINE HAVASI

FOR MAKING COMPUTERS BETTER LISTENERS

FOR SAV ING THE A NIM A L S

Catherine Havasi FOUNDER, LUMINOSO

Azzedine Downes As sophisticated as arti­ ficial intelligence has become, computers still struggle to grasp the nuances of human language. Earlier this year, Catherine Havasi’s software company, Luminoso, introduced Compass, a platform that helps ma­­c hines better interpret written human communication.

The technology is already being used by companies such as Sony and Intel to automatically analyse enormous volumes of customer feedback from tweets, survey forms and other digital media. “When people communicate, they rely on this huge body of unspoken assumptions about the world— things I know, things I assume you know,” says Havasi. “I’ve always been interested in helping computers understand people the way people understand people.” The more Luminoso’s algorithms listen and learn, the smarter the machines will get—along with Havasi’s clients.

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FOR SHOWING AN ICON FROM ALL ANGLES Ava DuVernay WRITER, DIRECTOR, SELMA

Selma, the acclaimed biopic of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, made Ava DuVernay the first female AfricanAmerican director to have a film nominated for a best picture Oscar. The movie, which depicts King both waging his ­historic votingrights campaign and taking out the kitchen trash, was also a win for AFFRM, the organisation DuVernay founded in 2010 to help promote and distribute black independent films. Next, DuVernay will direct a love story/murder mystery set during Hurricane Katrina which stars Selma lead David Oyelowo, and she’s developing a pilot for CBS and a series for Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network.

On television, she says, “I don’t have to relegate my stories to 90 minutes. I can actually have 13 hours.”

PRESIDENT, CEO, INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR ANIMAL WELFARE (IFAW)

“So much of what wildlife faces is not a wildlife management problem, it’s a human behavioural problem,” says Azzedine Downes. Through his leadership, IFAW is finding creative ways to prevent wildlife-related crime.

Here are a few: 1. Downes is collaborating with government agencies and military personnel to use drones, satellites and analytical modelling to spot poachers before they strike, and IFAW recently announced a pilot in Kenya to map the area’s poaching ecosystem.

2. A 2014 IFAW investigation uncovered 33 006 endangered-animal products being sold across 280 websites in just a six-week time period. Such reports have influenced heavy-hitting e-commerce sites like Alibaba to es­­t ablish zero-­tolerance policies. Now Downes is focusing on trading via mobile messaging platforms such as Tencent’s WeChat.

He says the awareness campaign is paying off. “Younger people in China are saying, ‘Now I know, and I’m much more likely not to buy ivory.’ ” 3. To protect roaming elephants outside Kenya’s Amboseli National Park, Downes led a partnership with the locals to let IFAW lease 16 000 acres of land to create an animal conservancy, which will in turn give back to the community by attracting eco-friendly tourism.

Illustration by Andrea Minini

Fair game Downes is enlisting drones and other technology to help make poachers an endangered species.

The world smiles with you Jarre’s natural magnetism has made him a superstar on Vine and Snapchat.

MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE MUKESH JHA JEROME JARRE JANARDAN PRASAD SCOTT DUNGATE

F O R S T E E R IN G A D V E R T I S IN G IN A N E W IN T E R A C T I V E D IR E C T IO N

Scott Dungate CREATIVE DIRECTOR, WIEDEN+KENNEDY LONDON Scott Dungate—with fellow creatives Graeme Douglas, Paul Knott, Tim Vance and director Daniel Wolfe—oversaw a 2014 digital ad for the Honda Civic Type R that ranks as one of the most innovative car commercials ever. “The Other Side” tells the parallel stories of a suburban dad and an undercover cop, allowing viewers to switch between the synced tales with just a push of their keyboard’s—you guessed it— R button. It isn’t just good advertising; it’s truly immersive viewing. “It was sold to the client through a crude prototype we put together,” says Dungate, but “we knew we had the foundation of something good.”

FOR CH A RMING THE WORLD A FE W SECONDS AT A TIME Jerome Jarre VINE AND SNAPCHAT STAR

More than 8 million people follow Jerome Jarre’s exhibitionist antics on Vine (where he occasionally hangs out with the likes of Ben Stiller, Beyoncé and Anna Wintour), and hundreds of thousands respond to his Snapchat posts. This has made him a desirable partner for brands like MTV and Major League Soccer— although lately he’s been travelling the world on behalf of Liters of Light, which creates solar-powered light fixtures for developing countries out of recycled cooldrink bottles. What makes people love Jarre, though, is the silliness and optimism he brings to his work.

(Also, his adorable French accent.)

Photograph by Emiliano Granado

What about social media is inspiring for you? From idea to execution, there is, like, one week. It’s beautiful. People who make movies, it takes years. I was brainstorming with Ben Stiller about what to do for [a Zoo­l ander 2 promo], and two weeks later we were [at Fashion Week] in Paris.

Is it hard to get big companies to act quickly? Two weeks is the time they need to ready a contract. But they have to learn.

I think people finally realise that the mobile revolution is kicking up for video, and if they don’t jump on it, they’re going to be left behind.

It seems like half your work with brands involves developing and shooting campaigns, and half is just teaching them how to advertise on mobile. I definitely like to advise. If I’m not able to explain what I do and then teach it, it’s not fulfilling for me.

What do you try to teach them? It’s mostly about being real. Big companies are not used to being real. They usually spend a lot of money in marketing to sell an illusion.

A big part of your brand is positivity. Why is that important to you? It’s almost like I’m trying to undo what you see when you tune into CNN. It creates fear in people’s brain. I’m trying to spread the opposite, which is love.

Even if my content is naive and childish, it connects to people. The question I always ask myself is, What if all my biggest idols—like Bob Marley and Nelson Mandela—had social media? What would they have done with it?

And I don’t want to do any less than what they would have done.

Do you consider that a kind of mission?

My mission now is to help people create their own purpose. Because your dream, you’ll never find it. You need to create it.

—Jillian Goodman

FOR GIVING INDIA A LIFT Mukesh Jha (CEO) and Janardan Prasad (COO) CO-FOUNDERS, AUTOWALE

Mukesh Jha and Janardan Prasad have built the world’s first three-wheelride aggregator in India, helping more than 1 000 auto-rickshaw drivers give lifts to middle-class commuters including working women and the disabled. Currently oper­ating in the city of Pune, Autowale—which uses basic tech that can run on cheap phones—is set to scale to 20 cities by the end of 2015.

Meanwhile, data from the app has helped lowincome drivers double their earnings. “Because of Autowale, they have bank accounts, better access to finance, and are able to send their kids to school,” says Prasad.

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ERTHARIN COUSIN

MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE MARTHA MURRAY EMILY WEISS

FOR LETTING CUSTOMERS DECIDE WHAT’S BEAUTIFUL Emily Weiss FOUNDER, GLOSSIER

When Emily Weiss was preparing to launch her beauty line, Glossier, last year, she didn’t spend her startup funds on market research or focus groups.

Instead, the founder of the hottest beauty blog in the world, Into the Gloss, drew wisdom from the comments her nearly 1 million readers had left on her site. By the time the core collection hit the Internet marketplace in October, the virtual lines were out the door. “We trust each other’s recommendations more than we trust brands,” Weiss says. Her makeup line started with four basics—moisturiser, balm, face mist and skin tint— but Weiss soon added more novel offerings including face masks and a limited-edition metallic eyeliner, with more due later this year.

Each product has minimal fragrance and a straightforward application, and the prices are on par with those of brands sold at drugstores (large pharmacies such as Dis-Chem). The early attention helped Weiss close a more than R100million Series A funding round last November, with which the entrepreneur promises to do no less than “democratise beauty”.

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FOR BUILDING TECH-FORWARD TOOLS TO TACKLE WORLD HUNGER Ertharin Cousin EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME (WFP)

Historically, food aid has involved sending volunteers into war-torn countries to throw bags of rice off the back of a truck. But under Ertharin Cousin, the United Nations’ World Food Programme— which fed 80 million people in 2014—is modernising its approach, introducing an SMS and voice-call system that lets the WFP assess immediate needs in distressed locations such as Ebolaimpacted areas in Africa, without having to send anyone there.

Another initiative provides people with electronic vouchers that can be used to purchase goods from area vendors, thus stimulating local economies. WFP’s stated goal of “zero hunger” is audacious, but as Cousin says, “you should not do this work if you’re not audacious.”

FOR FIN A LLY FIGURING OUT HOW TO FI X A TORN ACL Martha Murray ORTHOPAEDIC SURGEON, BOSTON CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

THE PROBLEM: Martha Murray was at a party in grad school when she first learnt about the horrors of ACL reconstruction.

“A guy came in on crutches and said he tore his ACL,” she says. “I said, ‘Are you going to fix it?’ He said, ‘You can’t fix it.

You have to take it out and replace it with a tendon graft.’ I thought, Well, that seems kind of ridiculous.” At the time, Murray was an engineering student, but she soon shifted into medicine, unable to get ACL reconstruction out of her mind.

THE EPIPHANY: The ACL, unlike other parts of the body, can’t heal itself. After 10 years of research, Murray discovered why: The same fluid that keeps the knee lubricated also prevents it from forming blood clots, which unite bits of torn tissue.

If she could create a different kind of bridge for the knee, she realised, she could make a torn ACL fixable after all.

THE EXECUTION: Murray and her team used the same proteins found in the ACL to manufacture a sponge-like scaffold that would give a clot something to cling to.

Because the new method wouldn’t require a graft, the surgery would be less invasive and the recovery time considerably shorter.

THE RESULT: Early experiments with the scaffold have been encouraging, and Murray and her team recently received approval from the FDA to begin their first human trial. Hundreds of thousands of athletes suffer torn ACLs every year, and Murray’s scaffold could save them untold hours in physical therapy and, collectively, hundreds of millions on medical bills.

Illustration by Gianpaolo Tucci

Fig. 1 Knee frontal view

Fig. 4

Fig. 2

ACL heals successfully

ACL is torn

A stitch in time

Gutter Credit Tk

Surgeons sew Murray’s scaffold onto the two ends of torn ligament, holding them together long enough for tissue to grow.

Art credit teekay

Fig. 3 After the scaffold is placed, blood is injected into the scaffold

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MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

KELLY SUE DECONNICK

LISA SEACAT DELUCA SIBYL GOLDMAN

F O R H OO K ING FA CE B O O K IN T O H O L LY W OO D

Sibyl Goldman HEAD OF ENTERTAINMENT PARTNERSHIPS, FACEBOOK Thanks to Sibyl Goldman, Twitter is no longer the only social medium with star power. Goldman has changed celebrities’ perception of Facebook from a promotion-unfriendly platform to a place where they can interact with their most hardcore fans. Her message: that Facebook, with its enormous global reach and image-oriented environment, is perfect for the trailers and behind-the-scenes shots that will build hype for a project. Goldman is also part of the team behind the Mentions app, which lets verified celebs start live Q&As from their phones; and at this year’s Golden Globes, the company set up a red-carpet lounge where stars including Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Kevin Hart recorded videos of themselves answering fan questions. “These folks who reach millions of people through what they do are engaging directly with their fans,” Goldman says. “It’s happening.”

FOR BEING THE MOTHER OF INVENTION Lisa Seacat DeLuca MOBILE SOFTWARE ENGINEER AND INVENTOR, IBM

F OR RE A N IM ATING A S U P ERHERO Kelly Sue DeConnick COMIC-BOOK WRITER

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Kelly Sue DeConnick’s three-year-old comicbook series, Captain Marvel—featuring a rebranded, less-scantily clad version of Carol Danvers, a female Marvel Comics superhero and former aviator originally introduced in the late 1960s—has grown so popular that there’s now a huge #CarolCorps Twitter community and a Captain Marvel film in development. The boundary-pushing DeConnick also created such provocative comics as Pretty Deadly and Bitch Planet, and she and husband Matt Fraction recently signed a deal to develop TV shows.

“I need to go where I’m not comfortable,” she says. “I think that’s the artist’s job.”

While Apple and Samsung have been embroiled in an epic patent war, 104-year-old tech giant IBM has quietly set the curve in patent innovation, amassing a whopping 7 534 patents in 2014 alone. That track record made an impression on engineer Lisa Seacat DeLuca when she arrived at the company 10 years ago.

She filed her first patent in 2006, and now has more than 150— including ideas such as a beacon that can pick up location data from things like your hotelroom key card and an alert that notifies you when a topic of interest comes up during a lengthy conference call.

“I noticed that there were these patent awards in people’s offices,” says DeLuca, who self-published a book last year titled A Robot Story, which teaches kids to count to 10 in binary. “I was like, I could do that!”

LESLIE DEWAN JENS BERGENSTEN

F OR THROW ING SA LT ON TR A DITION A L N UCLE A R TECHNOLOGY Leslie Dewan CEO, TRANSATOMIC POWER

About 19% of the electricity in the US today is nucleargenerated; uranium rods heat water to create steam and drive turbines. The downside: a potential melt down or radioactive leak, plus toxic waste. With Leslie Dewan and colleague Mark Massie’s “molten salt” technology, the uranium is dissolved in a hot salt mixture, eliminating waste (the plant could ideally run on spent nuclear fuel) and cutting risk.

Dewan has raised more than R70 million from investors, including Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.

“They were one of the early investors in SpaceX,” she says, “so when we talked about our timeline, they said, ‘Oh, that’s in line with how much time it took to get the ­Falcon 9 off the ground.’­ ” Dewan is blueprinting a test plant and hopes to break ground on a prototype facility at a national lab by 2020.

F O R H O L D IN G T HE K E Y S T O T HE 10 0 M IL L I O N – P L AY E R K IN GD O M

Jens Bergensten LEAD CREATIVE DESIGNER, MINECRAFT Last November, when Microsoft shelled out more than R30 billion to acquire gaming studio Mojang—maker of Minecraft—many were stunned to learn that Mojang’s founders, including billionaire Markus “Notch” Persson, were leaving as part of the deal. But Persson had already handed off creative control in 2011 to developer Jens “Jeb” Bergensten, who’s helped keep 100 million players coming back for more Minecraft by enabling them to build increasingly elaborate, Lego-like worlds, explore freely downloadable new areas, and invite others to interact. (Ocean Monument, last year’s biggest addition, featured underwater temples manned

by Cyclopean fish guardians.) Now Bergensten is finding himself having to balance Minecraft’s boundless customisation with complex business decisions. “We want people to have more things to do,” Bergensten says, “but it’s about the creative variation.”

Illustration by Alvaro Dominguez

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Next

LEADING EDGE

Everyone is listening THE L ATE ST PRI VAC Y S C A R E TA RGE TS HELLO B A R BIE A ND OTHER INTER NE T- CO NNEC TED TOYS . S O WH Y I SN ’ T M AT TEL WO R RIED?

By Evie Nagy Photograph by Mauricio Alejo

At New York’s Toy Fair, the toy industry’s big February trade show, visitors to Mattel’s booth were greeted, literally, by Hello Barbie: a Wi-Fi–connected doll that uses speech-recognition technology to have real conversations with kids. The prototype was programmed with a few lines of dialogue specific to visiting New York and the Toy Fair, well short of the hours of conversation she’ll be prepared to engage in when she’s released officially later this year. Still, she performed so well that some visitors asked if there

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was a woman with a microphone hiding behind a curtain, and an unplanned ‘interview’ with CNBC’s Morgan Brennan went off without a hitch. “She went six or seven questions deep,” says former Pixar CTO Oren Jacob, now co-founder and CEO of ToyTalk, the company behind the doll’s conversation technology.

“And she crushed it.”

But less than a month later, the advocacy group Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), led by director Susan Linn, launched a nationwide

What Barbie knows If a toy uploads your child’s voice data to the cloud, is that “seriously creepy”?

crusade urging Mattel to cancel production of the doll. Their concern: ToyTalk’s technology—which records kids’ speech and sends it to a cloud server for analysis—is “seriously creepy” and would allow Barbie (and therefore Mattel) to eavesdrop on children. Media reports popped up suggesting that the doll would always be on, always listening. By April 1, CCFC’s online petition had received 25 000 signatures.

The controversy underscores how rampantly privacy concerns can spread in today’s hypervigilant environment. ToyTalk’s Jacob was flabbergasted by “inaccuracies that were reported and re-reported,” he says. Hello Barbie is not always recording, he stresses, but rather works like a walkie-talkie, requiring a child to hold down a button (actually, Barbie’s belt buckle) to activate recording. ToyTalk’s technology has already been embraced by more than half a million users of interactive iPad apps such as The Winston Show and SpeakaZoo, and privacy concerns had been few and mild. So what made this use different?

All Internet-connected toys and services, including ToyTalk’s, are governed by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires parental consent before any kind of data—including voice data—is collected from products created for or used regularly by children under 13. To function fully, Hello Barbie must be synced with an iOS or Android app, at which point parents are required to read and e-sign a three-paragraph consent form detailing what data will be collected and how it will be used.

In exchange for that consent—and, arguably, to entice it—Hello Barbie offers parents a weekly email with links to their child’s audio sessions, which they can listen to and delete from the company’s servers at any time. What happens to the saved recordings is what sparks privacy concerns. Under Hello Barbie’s terms of service, recordings “may be used for research and development purposes”, things such as improving its technology and refining its algorithms. The data

PLAY ING IT SAFE A guide to what riles people up about interactive toys

“THE INTERNET CONNECTIVITY THING IS JUST NOT GOING AWAY,” SAYS TOY INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION EXEC, KEN SEITER.

is “absolutely not allowed to be used for advertising, publicity or marketing purposes,” says Jacob.

“What does that mean?” counters CCFC’s Linn, who is concerned about the outgoing messages from Mattel as well as the saved recordings. “Does that mean the doll will never mention Barbie or any of Barbie’s friends? If a child is talking about Barbie and the doll is responding by continuing a conversation about Barbie, that’s advertising.” Joni Lupovitz, vice president of policy at Common Sense Media, another advocacy group, takes the argument a step further. Hello Barbie is “essentially enabling an ongoing conversation with a stranger, so who knows what your child might say or what the computer might reply?” she says. It’s “stranger danger” for the digital age.

Mattel’s response to this kerfuffle has been, essentially, nothing. “Our plans are unchanged,” says Michelle Chidoni, Mattel’s director of communications. Why? Because, Chidoni says, kids’ number-one request for decades has been to be able to talk to Barbie. Customer demand is the trump card, in toys as it has been in nearly every other area of technology development. (Search “child plays with Siri” on YouTube to see how much parents love that programme as a children’s toy.)

“The Internet connectivity thing is just not going away,” says Ken Seiter, VP of communications for the Toy Industry Association, who cites the growing swarm of smartphone-controlled robotic toys. ToyTalk and Mattel are not the only ones in the field using speech recognition. Elemental Path, for instance, recently raised around R3.4 million on Kickstarter in just four weeks to fund Cognitoys Dino which, according to its project page, will “get to know the child and grow with him/her, interacting directly with them to create an experience around each child’s personal interests”.

“We’re going to do our best to be appealing and engaging, and to celebrate the aspirations that kids have,” says ToyTalk’s Jacob. “That’s a gift to bring that to market.”

01

02

03

04

PA R E N TA L D ATA C O N T R O L

CLOUD PROCESSING

INTERACTIVITY

K I D S - O N LY R E S T R I C T I O N S

The good

The good

The good

The good

Due to the sensitive nature of data collected from children, parents often get more access to their kids’ online paper trail than they do to their own.

As with Siri, innovations in conversation-based products require that speech is sent to a secure cloud, where a computer analyses it and returns an appropriate response.

Toymakers in this space are motivated by the idea that entertainment should be active; instead of being passive listeners, kids tell half the story.

Targeted products like the new YouTube Kids app include only kid-friendly content and eliminate any registration requirement that collects data.

The tricky

The tricky

The tricky

Privacy researchers say that nothing is fully hackproof.

Some detractors assert that a toy that provides half the dialogue actually stifles creativity.

YouTube Kids contains contextual advertising, which watchdog groups argue exploits kids and violates US Federal Trade Commission rules specific to children.

The tricky

If that data includes play of a violent or sexual nature, warn some family advocates, it could cause significant stress.

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FAST COMPANY PROMOTION

A MUST-ATTEND INNOVATION E VENT The SA Innovation Summit connects inventors with funders, marketers, markets, distribution channels and more

Audrey Verhaeghe, CEO of the SA Innovation Summit, has been one of the flag bearers in innovation, business and technology in South Africa. She is the founding member of three organisations that are actively influencing the innovation debate: the Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability, SA Innovation Network, and the SA Innovation Summit and its foundation.

The 2007 review by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, of the National System of South African Innovation, inspired Verhaeghe to conceptualise the summit. “The review noted that as a country we have great universities that create stunning concepts and research papers, but very few of these are absorbed into society where they can be used and truly make a difference. There is a disconnect between the different players in the system, namely government (enabling innovation policies), the private sector (implementers of innovation) and the creators of the ideas, products and services (e.g. universities and researchers),” she explains.

According to Verhaeghe, thinking out of the box and taking new concepts to the world market is essential for job creation and an improved quality of life for all. “We created the summit to bring the actors in the system together. And we are all actors in this system. We invent, we enable and we take our ideas to market. It’s almost a description of any life.”

The SA Innovation Summit has connected many inventors with funders, marketers, markets, distribution channels and more. Apart from the deal-making,

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THINKING OUT OF THE BOX AND TAKING NEW CONCEPTS TO THE WORLD MARKET IS ESSENTIAL FOR

JOB CREATION AND AN IMPROVED QUALITY OF LIFE FOR ALL. Verhaeghe explains that through the summit they have shown it is possible to bring together the private and academic sectors with the government.

“We have tackled tough debates in the innovation space and contributed more than R26 million in positive stories about innovation to the South African media. We have trained thousands of people in terms of the idea-tomarket cycle and helped them make connections on a neutral platform to progress their journey,” she notes.

Through the summit, approximately 750 school children have been taught about innovation, and Verhaeghe hopes to attract more than 1 000 younger people to the summit. “We are starting to target the youth, as we believe it’s all about a culture and a mindset.

Innovation and the human gumption to make a difference is our untapped resource in South Africa.”

She notes that putting together the summit is a hugely collaborative process. “As soon as many people

Everyone’s invited CEO Verhaeghe hopes the summit can become an event that’s “true to Africa but open to the world”.

get involved, we must balance mandates while staying true about the message. This balance will always remain a challenge. Luckily, we have many creative people in South Africa, so we can often just follow where they take us.”

Some of the core partners for this year’s summit include the City of Cape Town, the City of Tshwane, PwC, SABS, Technology Innovation Agency, Industrial Development Corporation and First National Bank—all pioneers of innovation. “We have quite a few partners that made the summit a step in their process, such as GCIP, SAB Foundation, SACIC and many others. The support of every single collaborator, even just in the form of a prize for a competition, is precious to us and makes this process possible,” she explains.

Verhaeghe hopes to make the SA Innovation Summit one of the top five global innovation events in the world, born in Africa—true to Africa but open to the world. It has already been listed as one of the 46 global innovation events to attend in 2015.

The summit is held in Cape Town, which is fast emerging as a centre of innovation and technology. “We came to Cape Town as part of the World Design Capital year [2014], and felt that to truly mobilise the regional innovation system, we needed to stay longer. We are far more entrenched with Cape Town this year than last year.”

On 26 and 27 August, delegates will attend the thought leader conference where pathways from idea to market will be explored and best practices discussed by a great line-up of international and local innovation heroes.

The Market on the Edge event on the 28th and 29th at Cape Town Stadium will provide food, drink, music, fashion, furniture, gadgets and great South African stories of inspiration, bravery and a large number of new startups willing to showcase their innovations. Says Verhaeghe, “You and your great ideas about making South Africa and the world a better place are needed and welcomed!”

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A beautiful mind “I knew, even as a girl, that I’d be an interior architect. When my friends made doll’s clothes, I made houses,” says Koutsoudakis.

MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

FOR M A K ING DE SIGN HER LIFE’S WORK Maira Koutsoudakis FOUNDER, CEO, LIFE GROUP ­

Just as South Africa itself is a blend of many cultures, Maira Koutsoudakis’s design is a hybrid between the North and South. She describes her iconic style as “organic aesthetic”, and it’s inarguably stunning, even to the untrained eye. As a function of her personal design technique, her brand LIFE blends the sophisticated and the raw; the refined and the pioneering.

The brand has grown to encompass architecture, interiors and creative direction, and its multi-award winning projects range from luxury resorts to exclusive residential to product design, and everything in between.

LIFE’s North Island property in the Seychelles is perhaps the pinnacle of the company’s achievements and Koutsoudakis’s design. Having won both the Condé Nast Traveller UK Best of the Best in the World and Africa awards, and the BBC Best Eco-Resort in the World, North Island stands as a testament to flawless resort concept and design— frequented by celebrities including George Clooney and wife, Amal, who honeymooned there.

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MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

AVI LASAROW

FOR MAKING WEIGHT LOSS A PERFECT FIT Avi Lasarow FOUNDER, CEO, DNAFIT

How much more weight could someone lose by following a custom diet and exercise plan based on their individual genetics? Some studies say up to 33%. After commercialising the world’s first hair alcohol test and first roadside drug-testing project in South Africa, Avi Lasarow had already become a young scientist and entrepreneur to keep on the radar. But with the development of DNAfit, he has brightened the future of personal health. With the purchase of a DNAfit mail-order testing kit (and a simple cheek swab), customers can discover how to achieve peak physical fitness and health for their own body. DNAfit analyses the genetic makeup of the sample and sends back a report with detailed information including the subject’s sensitivity to carbohydrates and saturated fats, predisposition to lactose intolerance or coeliac disease, ideal duration and intensity for exercise, personal risk of injury, recovery time needed after exercise, and more.

Through this information, a plan for diet and exercise is tailored to each customer, whether it be for weight loss or athletic training. Personalisation is a powerful tool when it comes to health and motivation, and nothing is more personal than genes.

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GREG TINKLER

F OR A IMING DIRECTLY AT TH E TA RGE T M A RK E T

Greg Tinkler SPORTS AGENT; MD, THE CRE8TIVE GROUP

Greg Tinkler is the youngest ever registered rugby agent in South Africa who has represented a large number of athletes and entertainers. While managing these high-profile sportspersons through the years, he dealt with many companies and brands that wanted to endorse them. He realised every brand was basically marketing their goods in the same fashion—through expensive print media and TV campaigns, which often resulted in the brand with the most budget coming out on top.

MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

GARETH CLIFF

FOR RETUNING RADIO Gareth Cliff FOUNDER, CLIFFCENTRAL

So he studied the marketing methods used

by Monster Energy which, at that stage, had taken over from Red Bull as the biggest energy-drink brand in the world. “Monster Energy’s marketing belief is all about ‘cans in hands’, taking the brand directly to the target market through activation, promotion, sponsorship and ambassadors. So I brought the idea back home and got to work opening The Cre8tive Group in 2009,” he explains.

From then on Tinkler worked on building relationships and key contacts within the sports and lifestyle sector—from the top race organisers and events, to mountain-biking and trail-running parks; every CrossFit and private gym in the country. Today, The Cre8tive Group is the premier marketing agency in South Africa for the sports supplement, pharmaceutical and health and wellness market. It boasts powerhouse clients such as Aspen Pharma, Cipla Medpro, Activo Health, Chrome Supplements & Accessories and NutriTech.

The agency now also has a fully fledged digital marketing and design division that handles everything from various mobile marketing initiatives, SEO, social-media marketing campaigns as well as product and packaging design.

“My next focus is on the online fan base growth of South African athletes. If you look at the US National Football League, for instance, every athlete has his personal website and thousands of followers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. South Africa is light years behind in this regard, and the only way we are going to maximise earnings for athletes in this country is to show the brands and companies that these individuals are viable and valuable brand messengers,” Tinkler says.

When Gareth Cliff left his position as an established morning radio talk show host on 5FM, more than his usual detractors were sceptical. Cliff, however, felt that the many positives of making the switch to his own Internet radio channel far outweighed the potential pitfalls.

Without the massive and costly red tape or conservative interference from the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa or the SABC in traditional broadcast radio, he could delve into his concept of “uncensored, unhinged, unradio”.

Thus, CliffCentral was born: an edgy listening experience with a healthy dose of intelligence and humour. Although streaming radio may seem currently less accessible than broadcast radio, Cliff says his show has been doing well, with more than 47 000 unique listeners in the first month alone. The influx of listeners is ascribed,

in part, to Cliff’s clever partnership with MTN and WeChat, making streaming CliffCentral free for MTN subscribers.

He hopes to provide up-and-coming South African radio personalities with a platform for success, and last year held open auditions to find contributors for the new station. A far cry from the prattle of traditional broadcast radio, CliffCentral aims to push the envelope as a provider of valueadding entertainment to listeners’ lives.

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Swapping his lab coat for a business suit

Gutter Credit Tk

Ashley Uys found a way to combine science and entrepreneurship with his affordable medical testing kits.

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MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

ASHLEY UYS

FRED ROED

FOR SERVING THE DIGITAL-MARKETING COMMUNITY

FOR M A KING SCIENCE HIS BUSINE S S Ashley Uys FOUNDER, CEO, MEDICAL DIAGNOSTECH

The first step in treating any disease is an accurate diagnosis.

And the best way to obtain an accurate diagnosis is through a diagnostic testing kit.

Certain diseases can manifest in multiple ways, so having access to reliable testing kits could allow treatment, for HIV for example, to begin sooner and therefore be more successful. Scientist-turnedentrepreneur Ashley Uys developed the diagnostic testing kits that are the basis of medical startup, Medical Diagnostech.

At around R4 per kit, he has found a cost-effective solution for diagnoses. With Uys’s advancement of medical technology, the rapid testing kits have the ability to give

Fred Roed CEO, WORLD WIDE CREATIVE

results within 30 minutes.

Over the past five years, the company has since developed kits for pregnancy, malaria, and drug and alcohol abuse in addition to the original one for HIV. All Medical Diagnostech testing kits are developed and manufactured in their own facility in Cape Town.

Having proven his aptitude for medical innovation and disease prevention, Uys’s company now serves as a consultant for the South African Department of Health.

Fred Roed’s training initiative was born when a client asked the team at World Wide Creative how much of their strategy they use in their own business, because the client “never trusts a skinny chef”.

Since that time, Roed has worked to bring monthly seminars to the digitalmarketing community of South Africa. The Heavy Chef events centre on collaboration and learning from leaders in the industry. But Roed’s contributions to the digital community apart from Heavy Chef do not fall short. With his digital marketing agency, World Wide Creative, he has produced innovative campaigns for clients including Hyundai, Virgin Mobile and MyCiTi Cape Town. One such campaign encouraged the public to create over 13 000 original billboard entries for American Swiss to stand a chance of winning a R1 000 voucher and seeing their slogan in lights.

Another campaign increased the awareness and ease-of-use during the introduction of MyCiTi buses by creating an online navigation system.

For these accomplishments, Roed won the award for Best Individual Contribution to the South African Digital Industry at the 2015 Bookmark Awards.

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MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE VAHID MONADJEM

FOR BRINGING PREPAID SERVICES TO ANYONE, ANYWHERE Vahid Monadjem FOUNDER, CEO, NOMANINI

Nomanini is a South Africanbased mobile point-of-sale service for facilitating cash transactions in emerging markets. One of the flaws in the prepaid services system under which the country operates is the decreased access and higher cost of services far from the city. Where R1 of airtime will cost R1 in the city centre, it may cost R1.10 in a township—and the price continues to skyrocket as distance from the city increases. And as the price rises, availability of purchase decreases.

Electricity vendors in rural areas can be few and far between; some locations have only one 24-hour vendor within driving distance. The brainchild of engineer and product designer Vahid Monadjem, the Nomanini terminal bridges the gap. Business owners can purchase a terminal and vend electricity, airtime or insurance, and pay out micro-loans. The sleek and simple interface is highly customisable and designed to work in remote areas with limited access to electricity and the Internet. These informal vendors can now meet the demands of a massive market for prepaid services while cultivating a business for themselves.

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EZLYN BARENDS

F OR K EEP ING THE YOU NG AT H E A R T Ezlyn Barends MD, DAD FUND

Widely recognised in South Africa for innovative thinking and breaking new ground, Ezlyn Barends has an exceptional track record of building business capabilities and leveraging her vast professional network to deliver social development programmes.

A self-starter by nature, her passion and drive for youth development has led to the establishment of several such initiatives. Among these are the DAD Fund, a youth empowerment non-profit organisation; the DreamGirls International Outreach and Mentoring Programme, which promotes the enrolment and success of marginalised teen girls and young women at institutions of higher learning; as well as Mathemaniacs—a private education company that aims to bring the fun back into maths and science. Her latest project involves working with Innovation Edge, a social collaborative fund that invests in gamechanging ideas that have the potential to make a positive impact on South Africa’s most vulnerable children. Barends believes education can break the cycle of poverty and transform communities, by helping underprivileged youth to find careers or start their own business. She is constantly exploring creative ways for her organisations to progress and expand. “I love learning and exposing myself to different worlds and experiences. This sparks a steady flow of inspiration, creativity and innovative thinking that’s needed to tackle major societal challenges,” she says. Her efforts have been acknowledged with numerous awards and accolades including the SAB Social Innovation Award, Media24 Innovation Award and the Mail & Guardian Top 200 Young South Africans.

SHARON KEITH DR MARCO LOTZ

F OR U N DER S CORING THE TRIP LE BOT TOM LIN E Dr Marco Lotz SUSTAINABILITY CARBON SPECIALIST, NEDBANK CARBON DISCLOSURE PROJECT

The clash of the constantly rising demand for energy with the dwindling supply of fossil fuels brings the importance of energy security and clean-energy alternatives to a head.

To begin taking steps toward sustainability, Nedbank created a corporate Carbon Disclosure Project, or CDP. Headed by Dr Marco Lotz, the CDP encourages large businesses to bring energy usage and carbon emissions to the forefront of discussions and business decisions.

The CDP also helps companies understand how better to protect themselves from this global energy crisis. While energy management and decreased carbon emissions are socially responsible steps for businesses to take, they are also fiscally responsible steps. Dr Lotz’s own company, Carbon Disclosure South Africa, was one of the five finalists in the inaugural Chivas Regal Win The Right Way competition for its micro-combustion engine driven by existing fuels used by low-income groups—such as candles—to provide very small-scale electricity supply for a cellphone charger and lighting. The equipment can be modularly expanded to generate and provide more electricity to a larger number of household appliances.

F O R R E F R E S H IN G T HE C O C A-C O L A BRAND

Sharon Keith MARKETING DIRECTOR, COCA-COLA SOUTHERN AFRICA BUSINESS UNIT Sharon Keith’s job is to trim down the massive global brand of Coca-Cola into a familiar label tailored to the needs of the South African consumer. As the woman who brought the Share a Coke campaign to the country, she worked in close collaboration with the Department of Home Affairs to create a fair representation of the 600 most popular names in the Rainbow Nation and print these on Coke labels. Keith’s work continued to embrace the diversity of the South African people as the nation celebrated Freedom Month in 2014 and Coca-Cola launched the #rainbownation campaign. Through a process of ingenious engineering, man-made rainbows appeared throughout the city of Johannesburg, each framing a Coca-Cola billboard. Beyond reminding South Africans of their heritage, this celebration of Freedom Month served as a symbol of diversity and growth. The campaign secured a Gold Loerie advertising award for outdoor media, and was a great success for Keith’s division.

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Hang in there!

After 10 failed attempts at starting a business, Nicholas Haralambous finally found success in NicSocks.

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ANDREW GILLETT

JUSTIN COETZEE

MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

NICHOLAS HARALAMBOUS

LARA ROSMARIN

FOR IN V E STING IN THE SOCK M A RKE T

FOR ENABLING COMMUTERS TO TRACK THEIR TRAINS Justin Coetzee & Andrew Gillett

Nicholas Haralambous FOUNDER, NICSOCKS

All good entrepreneurial endeavours begin with the exploitation of a gap in the market. For Nicholas Haralambous, this was the niche market of men’s socks. After 10 failed attempts at starting other businesses, he was determined to see NicSocks through. The sock market, however, is not sustainable in South Africa alone, so the company ships to over 20 countries worldwide. Haralambous audaciously challenged himself to develop the business from the ground up and to begin production and sales within six weeks. He was able to generate revenue within 30 days—all within the budget of R5 000. He also wanted to prove he could develop an e-commerce business using a combination of free technology platforms. NicSocks saw a tenfold growth in a single year of business.

The original line of fun and functional bamboo-fibre socks has now expanded into the new brand, Nic Harry, which includes a full range of men’s accessories; and a monthly sock-box subscription service that has products delivered to customers’ homes.

FOUNDER AND PARTNER, GOMETRO

Justin Coetzee co-founded Metrorail because of his own bad experiences with public transport. It’s common knowledge that commuters on Metrorail South Africa experience high levels of frustration because of unexpected train delays. Andrew Gillett is the former group publisher of one-third of the entire Touchline Media (division of Media24) business.

His passion for technology and advertising aided him in co-founding GoMetro.

With the app, the stress of commuting is alleviated by providing train users with vital access to real-time timetables, updates and line information.

By registering on their mobile device, commuters are able to know when to expect the next train (GoMetro projects the next six train times, including departure and estimated arrival); can make alternative arrangements, and even send an email to their boss to say they’ll be late.

FOR HELPING ENTREPRENEURS TO GROW THEIR BUSINESS Lara Rosmarin CEO, SEED ACADEMY

Seed Academy gives hopefuls a fighting chance in an inherently risky undertaking. It provides potential entrepreneurs with practical, executionstyle training and mentorship with goals of launching or dramatically improving their business.

All courses are taught by successful entrepreneurs and are focused on each student’s specific business idea. This personalised approach provides maximum value while giving the venture its best odds for success.

As CEO, Rosmarin strives to empower all entrepreneurs, but with a particular focus on women in business. She recognises that women’s economic empowerment is crucial to the development of the South African economy as a whole, and she brings this belief into the corporate environment of Seed Academy by employing a significant portion of females. The nurturing of the skill sets and behaviours of successful entrepreneurs allows all Seed Academy students to be engineers of change.

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MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE SCOTT CUNDILL JONATHAN LIEBMANN

FOR SHINING A NEW LIGHT ON THE CITY OF GOLD Jonathan Liebmann CEO, PROPERTUITY, MABONENG PROJECT

If you haven’t taken a stroll through the CBD of Johannesburg in some time, you’d be hard-pressed to recognise what is now the Maboneng District.

What was once just another chunk of the inner city has blossomed into an oasis of trendy bars, cafés, offices, apartments and galleries.

Under the directorial hands of Jonathan Liebmann, creative and inspired urban planning and real-estate development have slowly been changing perceptions of a previously dangerous area. The Maboneng Project would be an ambitious undertaking for a team of planners and developers, which makes it even more impressive that Liebmann has upcycled the district nearly single-handedly.

The goal is to create a complete and sustainable community with property comprised of 60% residential, 20% industrial, 10% commercial and 10% retail.

Throughout, Propertuity has sought to develop iconic properties with integrity in concept, engineering and execution.

And even after the district has become a thriving wellspring of activity, the development continues.

Maboneng has truly grown to embody its Sotho meaning of “place of light”.

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F OR DRI V ING TH E CU STOMER COM M U NICATION JOU RN E Y Scott Cundill CEO, MAJESTIC INTERACTIVE

Dissatisfied with the statistic that 80% of all small business ventures fail, Scott Cundill set out to develop a tool to facilitate valuable and salesdriving customer relationships. Since its inception, clients using Majestic3 have seen an increase in sales anywhere from 10% to 60%. By finessing a careful combination of technology and technique, it provides vital communication software for users. Rather than forcing hard sales tactics, the customer relationship management (CRM) software tool creates campaigns based on valuable information. With the push of one button, a sales representative is able to initiate what Cundill calls a “communication journey” specific to that customer interaction.

This frees the sales rep to concentrate on other tasks while the software facilitates a meaningful follow-up relationship with the customer. “The biggest problem with traditional CRM tools is that they rely on salespeople to upload data. Majestic keeps data updated automatically by e-mail communication with people,” Cundill explains. When putting authentic relationships before sales, response rates have been seen to increase by 1 200%, he adds. So by helping small businesses become teachers to their customers, Cundill enables them for success.

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Head in the cloud Khuzwayo says his exposure to international startups enabled him to establish a series of businesses in cloud computing here in South Africa.

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MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE ADII PIENAAR LUVUYO RANI MADODA KHUZWAYO

FOR CH A NGING THE STATUS OF SM A LL BUSINE S SE S Madoda Khuzwayo FOUNDER, CHAIRPERSON, HEAD OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT, OPENTENDERS

Madoda Khuzwayo is a sub-40 serial tech entrepreneur with one of the biggest, most genuine and engaging smiles in town. And he has reason to smile. From humble beginnings in a rural village in KwaZulu-Natal, he has overcome personal and social adversity to establish a number of successful businesses (from site building and web hosting to providing on-site and cloud asset management software) as well as publish an e-book, Cloud Computing for Africa.

Khuzwayo is leading the charge of a whole new breed of entrepreneurs to come out of Africa—determined, hardworking, clearly ambitious, open and transparent.

FOR EMPOWERING THE UNDERPRIVILEGED Luvuyo Rani His passion for online and mobile technologies was sparked when he saw television for the first time—at 13 years old. He pursued his IT qualifications in the United Kingdom and India, and is an electrical engineering graduate from the Vaal University of Technology here in South Africa. Khuzwayo went on to establish HostRiver—a company that provides domain names, web hosting and cloud-based hosting solutions to organisations throughout Africa, and which came out tops in the youth entrepreneurship programme, SAB KickStart, in 2006; and BrandPark, which offers cloud and on-site brand asset management software to organisations in South Africa.

His latest venture with partners Mnive Nhlabathi and Sivu Maqonga, called OpenTenders, is helping to champion economic growth in the country. Aimed at entrepreneurs and SMMEs, it’s a social network that encourages members/ subscribers to interact with one another and collaborate on business ventures or opportunities—which are either independent projects between the members themselves, or drawn from the daily tenders and projects from the government and private sector. OpenTenders also provides project funding and skills development to winning tender or contract bearers who need a helping hand.

“We asked ourselves how we could create a system that would simplify the process of finding business opportunities for entrepreneurs. It’s a question that arose from our own pain and struggles as entrepreneurs,” explains Khuzwayo. “I thought … I can build a platform to connect entrepreneurs with the public, private [sector] and themselves— something like LinkedIn, but specifically for entrepreneurs.”

CO-FOUNDER, DIRECTOR, SILULO ULUTHO TECHNOLOGIES

Silulo Ulutho Technologies didn’t begin out of an office, or even a home—but out of the boot of a vehicle. When Luvuyo Rani was a teacher, the government began requiring all high schools to teach basic computer skills.

With this new requirement, the demand for teachers to have access to computers would suddenly rise, and he saw the opportunity for him and his brother Lonwabo to sell refurbished machines.

After realising the need for technology in underprivileged communities, Rani founded Silulo to provide for that void. Silulo Ulutho—which means “we bring value (through technology)”— now operates computer centres dedicated to providing affordable office services and computer classes. More than 60% of students enrolling in Silulo classes are unemployed.

When they graduate from a computer skills course, they leave prepared for jobs as call centre operators, IT representatives, or even Silulo instructors.

Adii Pienaar F O R S E T T IN G H I S S I T E S O N W O R D P R E S S CO-FOUNDER, WOOTHEMES; FOUNDER, RECEIPTFUL When WordPress first launched, themes from which users could choose were extremely limited, so young Cape Town entrepreneur Adii Pienaar developed an attractive alternative and sold it at $99 (around R1 200) per site. After making about R10 000 in the first week of sales, it was clear he was on the cusp of a lucrative venture. That first theme gave rise to WooThemes, which provides WordPress users with more attractive, aesthetically pleasing designs for their websites. WooThemes turned more than R24 million in the first year. After seeing the massive success of his brainchild, Pienaar left WooThemes to found Receiptful, a company that provides e-commerce sellers with attractive integrated receipts.

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MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE BARBARA MALLINSON RAPELANG RABANA

F OR T E A CHING PEOPLE HOW TO LEARN

Rapelang Rabana FOUNDER, CEO, REKINDLE LEARNING, YEIGO COMMUNICATIONS Featured in various publications and renowned for her business acumen and creativity, Rapelang Rabana founded Yeigo Communications which eventually partnered with Telfree in 2008 to provide a full range of telecommunication services. In addition to pioneering the field of mobile VoIP, Rabana has shared a passion for learning in her latest project, Rekindle Learning. The education technology company focuses on how people learn best for maximum retention, and can be implemented in a range of settings from corporate training to school classrooms. Rabana believes mobile and Internet technology will be instrumental in solving a number of socio-economic challenges at scale.

FOR TURNING VIRTUAL LEARNING INTO REALITY Barbara Mallinson FOUNDER, CEO, OBAMI

Although still largely maledominated, the African tech scene is slowly being opened up to innovative women such as Barbara Mallinson. The founder and chief executive of Obami, she has developed a social learning platform that combines the best of digital networking and educational tools.

“Technology is a great enabler, and it won’t be long before we start to see how the power of tech can transform lives, communities and our economy. But given our infrastructure limitations and the ridiculous cost of data, we aren’t really reaching the full potential of what technology can do for us as a nation,” she says.

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create or join learning communities—like an e-learning social network, explains Mallinson. Teachers and students can connect digitally to share educational resources, use communication and collaboration tools, and do assignments; parents can also join in the education space.

Obami supports 21st century skills development and provides multiple two-way communication channels among the entire school community.

And the platform isn’t limited to a desktop PC or a tablet: A lite version is available for mobile phones, which is the more popular method of accessing the Internet in the African market. “A huge percentage of Africa’s population has been severely limited in terms of access to resources and a network of quality teachers,” says Mallinson.

“Mobile changes everything—we can deliver these services at really affordable rates ... It’s a win-win for everyone, and we’re certainly going to see major growth in the sector”.

AMIT RAMDATH MARTIN RAS

RIAAN NOLAN

PAUL BROWN

ELMIEN SMIT

FOR MAKING ONLINE BOOKINGS JUST THE TICKET Riaan Nolan

FOR HELPING SMALL BUSINESSES GET THEIR MONEY’S WORTH Paul Brown FOUNDER, CEO, DIGICASH

Paul Brown has a passion for startups and technology. Having identified the imminent fundamental shift in payments technology, he founded DigiCash in 2011, a business that already is facilitating transfers of R1 billion per month. Born out of the need to reliably transfer money from suppliers and debtors, DigiCash has developed key services to drastically optimise financial operations for small businesses. Brown attributes DigiCash’s success to his incredible team. He believes that in order to get the most creativity, every member should be able to trust in the ability of everyone else at the company.

This creativity and passion will be needed because, according to Brown, payments as we understand them today will be very different in the next five years.

CO-FOUNDER, MICKET

Amit Ramdath & Martin Ras PARTNERS, MICKET

Micket is a mobile ticketing solution that allows users to purchase tickets and gain access to events using their mobile phones. Micket.me can be accessed from a PC or mobile device, with payment made via credit card or EFT, after which the mobile ticket—or “micket”— is delivered via e-mail or SMS. Users can’t lose their mickets, since these are always available with the touch of a button on a mobile device.

Co-founder Riaan Nolan is an open-source and Linux enthusiast, with a keen interest in e-commerce, cloud scaling and new technologies. He and his twin brother, Winston, founded Micket in 2010, but the latter is no longer involved. Riaan is now partnered by tech entrepreneurs Amit Ramdath and Martin Ras (see his own profile on page 91), the founding CEO and COO of Byte Orbit, respectively.

It was actually by winning Byte Orbit’s Startup Knight competition in 2013 that Micket was able to grow into the successful business it is today. Byte Orbit provided a R200 000 investment prize and now assists with product development and marketing costs. Riaan says the big Computicket and other ticket vendors are not competition for Micket, as his company is “fast, mobile, green; we dislike queues [and] we do ticketing in a new way—a smarter way”.

F OR CUT TING TH E CO S T OF DE SIGN ER CLOTHE S Elmien Smit FOUNDER, RUNWAY SALE

Elmien Smit has struck a harmonious balance between luxury and bargain through the founding of her website, Runway Sale, which functions as a members-only flash-sale site of designer clothes. When she began approaching brands to partner with Runway Sale, she knew she wanted only the best of the best. But in order to maintain brand equity for her top-notch designer labels, she needed to offer strictly limitedtime-only sales with an exclusive air. Some sales last no more than a few hours, and the designer deals go to the lucky few who hear first. Thus, membership to Runway Sale is mutually beneficial. When members join, they receive exclusive instant notification of and access to the flash sales. And as the member base grows, Smit’s pull on designers to partner with her grows exponentially larger. Carducci was the inaugural designer for Runway Sale, and the site has taken off since.

The first lingerie sale completely sold out in less than 24 hours, no doubt thanks to Smit’s clever approach. The exclusive feel creates lasting relationships between her, her customers and her designers. So while Runway Sale takes off, Smit and fashionistas alike rejoice.

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LUDWICK MARISHANE

FOR TELLING A BUSINESS’S STORY

ELODIE BURLS

JAMES FISHER

Elodie Burls FOUNDER, BLINK TOWER

With a background in education and business, the transition to founder of Blink Tower was seamless for Elodie Burls.

With her enthusiasm for the simple, human side of corporations, her company helps businesses market themselves by creating custom explainer videos that cut through the corporate jargon and tell a character-driven story about the business.

It succeeds on the assumption that customers will only buy into what they understand, and uses the power of storytelling to facilitate that learning.

One well-executed explainer video can serve the function of a massive team of salespeople who always get it right. The videos use fun animation, well-written scripts and talented voiceover actors to make a client’s services attractive and easy to understand for consumers.

By investing 90 seconds of their lives, customers instantly understand the company in a warm and human way that no other marketing tool could accomplish. Blink Tower has produced corporate explainer videos for the likes of Vodacom, Mozilla and the Shuttleworth Foundation.

F O R TA P P IN G IN T O WAT E R L E S S B AT H IN G

FOR GE T TING HIS SE A LEGS A F TER FA ILING James Fisher FOUNDER, CEO, NAUTIC AFRICA

Widely described as a serial entrepreneur and innovator, James Fisher is the mastermind behind the Snakeboard, as well as the GT40 and Shelby Cobra race cars. He’s also the man responsible for the first ships in their class being designed and built in South Africa.

But like other businesspeople, he has many failures under his belt. “Failure,” he says, “is— fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your take—a vital part of the learning curve.”

He has heard, seen and experienced it all in the business world—from South Africa to London to the US. Fisher put all his life lessons to good use in building Nautic Africa, a marine company that started out without a single cent, but now has zero debt and an order book of over R600 million. He solved the funding problem by getting his first customer to do a prepayment and then using the money for subsequent orders.

Eventually he decided he could build more customised products for maritime customers. After getting some big orders, he was able to set up his own facility.

Nautic Africa focuses on the manufacture of high-quality aluminium vessels as well as other specialty custom commercial and naval vessels.

Production began from facilities in the Simon’s Town Naval Dockyard and has now shifted to a main production facility in Cape Town Harbour where the company produces for clients worldwide. Nautic uses its relationships, technology and expert skills to put its vessels at the forefront of modern shipbuilding. Although Fisher has diversified interests, he maintains the position of founding CEO of Nautic Africa and is entirely devoted to global growth. “South Africa has tremendous technical competence, and is a leading beacon for the development of the marine industry in Africa.”

Ludwick Marishane FOUNDER, CEO, HEADBOY INDUSTRIES The lack of clean water causes a host of problems, but DryBath seeks to combat one of these. Ludwick Marishane is the young pioneer behind the sanitising gel that can effectively replace bathing for billions of people without access to clean water. The gel solution kills germs while moisturising the skin and leaves a refreshing scent. DryBath is on the path to helping people in communities where deaths from bacterial diseases in stagnant water are all too common. To be most financially accessible, DryBath will continue to be sold in individual packets (one packet being the equivalent of one bath) at fifty cents each in developing countries.

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MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

JONATHAN SMIT

ANNETTE MULLER

FOR PUTTING PAID TO UNSECURE ONLINE TRANSACTIONS Jonathan Smit CO-FOUNDER, MD, PAYFAST

When Jonathan Smit, “a techie from birth”, started PayFast back in 2007, online payments were a mere pipe dream.

His belief that such payments had the potential to be safer than offline ones took some time to be realised.

Through sheer willpower, stubbornness and insight, his dream was realised after the founding of PayFast. In his own words, “Payfast takes the hassle out of performing online financial transactions.”

PayFast accounts are free for e-commerce sellers, enabling all supported payment methods on their websites—making custom integration a simple task. When a buyer selects a payment method, the transaction is executed on PayFast’s secure servers and reflected instantly on the seller’s PayFast account, taking only a modest fee for the service. The online payments processing service is now used by thousands of businesses, individuals and charities.

FOR NOT BEING THE SM A RTE ST P ERSON IN THE ROOM Annette Muller FOUNDER, CEO, DOTNXT

Annette Muller wanted to create a company based on innovation. “I’ve always wanted to work ... on exciting projects that will make the world a better place, but I couldn’t find that anywhere. Consulting was too, well, theoretical; agencies too marketing-orientated; startups too oneproduct-focused; corporates too slow. And then I stopped searching and decided to create.” She also sought a good working environment “that was flexible, entrepreneurial and exciting, enabling more people like myself to be a part of something great, something big, something that can make money—and working alongside the greatest minds, inventors, innovators and technology experts on the African continent.” It’s no wonder that in 2014 she was named one of the 10 female tech founders to watch in Africa. DotNxt serves South African companies looking for more innovative and customer-centric ways to engage with their clientele. It creates, develops and delivers software, mobile, social and other digital development projects—from idea to execution. “Online business models, markets, web and mobile technologies, and digital user experiences fascinate me more than the human brain,” says Muller. Her mantra? “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room!”

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MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

NEFTALY MALATJIE

NEIL DU PREEZ

F OR HE L P ING YO U T H T O HE L P T H E M S E LV E S

FOR USING A CAB AS A VEHICLE FOR ADVERTISING Neil du Preez FOUNDER, MELLOWCABS

After working in the corporate environment for almost 10 years, Neil du Preez decided to venture out on his own.

He started with Riksha, which opened the world of urban transport to him. As a result, he formed a microtransportation and advertising company that focuses on the implementation of electric and humanpowered vehicles in urban settings. The Mellowcab is more than just a whimsical yellow pod on wheels; it’s comprised of completely recycled materials and produces zero carbon emissions. Beyond having pleasing aesthetics for its passengers, the flashy exterior lends itself to Mellowcabs’s main source of revenue—not the transport fee but the sale of advertising space on the vehicles themselves. Drivers can lease a Mellowcab for a reasonable daily fee of R150, and keep all the fares and tips. And no matter how rapidly the company expands, Du Preez is committed to keeping production on South African soil.

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KIRSTEN GOSS

Neftaly Malatjie FOUNDER, CEO, SOUTHERN AFRICA YOUTH PROJECT In 2005, at age 14, Neftaly Malatjie decided he wanted to give back to his poverty-stricken community in Diepsloot. Trapped in the cycle of poverty, he saw his neighbours turn to lives of crime and substance abuse. Realising that providing opportunity for young people to engage in positive and rewarding activities could make a serious positive impact on his community, the teenaged Neftaly formed a small initiative that developed into Diepsloot Youth Project (now a branch of the wider Southern Africa Youth Project). Each branch of SAYP consists of a non-profit community training centre that provides those in low-income areas with opportunities to gain marketable skills. Training includes workshops on lifeskills, professional skills, trades, career counselling and job recruitment.

F OR P OLISHING U P HER BU SIN E S S Kirsten Goss FOUNDER, KIRSTEN GOSS JEWELLERY

From the creative crucible of Stellenbosch University to the glamorous world of international fashion, Kirsten Goss has enjoyed an unparalleled journey as one of South Africa’s most adored jewellery designers and businesswomen. She opened her first store in London in 2002, and then a few years later brought the brand home to South Africa, where she set up shop with a team of professionally trained goldsmiths to service the demands of her global business and stores based in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg. It has been the talent of keeping her brand firmly rooted in South Africa yet with a global sensibility that has guaranteed enduring success. The designer herself is an integral part of the brand and it’s her personal allure and style that has added greatly to the Kirsten Goss appeal. While the brand first made its mark as the home of contemporary classics such as chandelier earrings and woven gem hoops, it’s the once-off design masterpieces as well as Goss’s seasonal collections that continue to grab the fashion headlines. Few will forget the dramatic lily-pad ring that secured Goss the Most Beautiful Object in South Africa award at the 2012 Design Indaba, as well as the champagne and black-diamond rhino ring that raised more than R190 000 for rhino conservation at a Christie’s auction in London in the same year. In September 2013, the UK’s Professional Jeweller magazine not only featured Goss as one of the Hot 100 Jewellers for the year, but also listed her as one of the top 16 jewellery trendsetters in the UK. Digital media has been the single biggest revelation for niche brands like Kirsten Goss Jewellery. As a result, being relevant and current has never been easier. Goss makes no bones about the fact that she’s in a relationship with fashion and style. She has a global company that’s continually trend-spotting and plotting for the brand. She uses this both as a yardstick and a barometer. She’s inspired by the process of “convincing” the metals and stones to take the form and shapes of her designs. Any business and brand building is a tough gig, but Goss admits she’s been very fortunate with her journey to date. Regular trunk shows from New York to Hong Kong mean the global appetite for a piece of the Kirsten Goss brand is unstoppable. It’s her unique style of contemporary yet timeless design, created in South Africa and sold all over the world, that means Kirsten Goss Jewellery is fast becoming coveted by design-savvy women in the style capitals of the world.

TEBOGO DITSHEGO

MIKE ABEL

RAVI NAIDOO

FOR STRIKING UP THE BRAND IN AFRICA

FOR SHOWCASING SA TO THE WORLD

Mike Abel FOUNDER, M&C SAATCHI ABEL

Starting out by setting up his own small agency specialising in advertising on the backs of taxi cabs, Mike Abel quickly worked his way up to be recruited by Ogilvy for work on the Volkswagen brand, and later became the COO of Ogilvy South Africa. During a stint as CEO of M&C Saatchi Australia, one of the most recognised agencies in the Asia-Pacific region, Abel proved he could successfully manoeuvre a large corporation through anything (particularly the global financial crisis). Armed with the wits and experience from his CEO training, he set out to build M&C Saatchi Abel on the African continent. Today, M&C Saatchi Abel is within the top 10 ad agencies in South Africa, and employs 185 people. Its philosophy of “Brutal Simplicity of Thought” runs through everything it does: from strategic thinking to creative work. For Heineken, it developed an app called Open Your City which—as part of a competition in 2014—led users to discover underground clubs, secret vintage markets, unknown restaurants and pop-up galleries while integrating the Heineken brand.

F O R G A IN IN G A F O L L O W IN G T HR O UGH S O CI A L M E D I A

Ravi Naidoo FOUNDER, DESIGN INDABA

When Ravi Naidoo founded the Design Indaba conference in 1995, it attracted a mere 200 visitors. But in the 20 years since its launch, and thanks to his creative vision, the event has pumped an estimated R1.7 billion into the South African economy (the 2012 edition alone boasted a whopping 486 exhibitors). Now the largest design platform in the southern hemisphere, Design Indaba allows local creatives to showcase entirely South African–made products and create “a better world through creativity”.

And for those who haven’t heard of Design Indaba, Naidoo is also the man responsible for bringing the 2010 FIFA World Cup to Cape Town by managing the marketing bid and pitch to host through his project management company, Interactive Africa. Having secured the slot for South Africa to host this global phenomenon, he effectively helped boost the economy through a persuasive ploy of marketing. As well as impacting the South African economy, Naidoo has helped shape South African history by managing the First African in Space project, which sent the first citizen of an independent African country to the international space station in 2002. Equipped with project management prowess and a creative vision, Naidoo has helped make a name for South Africa on a global stage of design, sport, innovation and culture.

Tebogo Ditshego FOUNDER, DITSHEGO MEDIA; CHAIRPERSON, SA READING FOUNDATION The first time Tebogo Ditshego tried to establish a PR agency, it crashed and burned, and he was forced to return to his previous job. But after three years of careful reconsideration and planning, Ditshego Media relaunched with a new focus. As a small PR firm floundering next to established agencies, it was lucky to secure a deal with Shanduka for a website redesign. Tebogo realised he needed a niche offering, so he focused on packaging services based on elements that were lacking in the South African PR environment at the time: social media and corporate social investment. The turnaround led to him being named one of the top 30 African entrepreneurs under 30 for 2014. Tebogo is also the chairperson of the South African Reading Foundation and its online division, ReadaBookSA. The latter has grown into the biggest book club in South Africa thanks to a large following on Twitter. Young South Africans are encouraged to read a book per month and post a ‘twitpic’ mini review. Tebogo then shares these reviews with ReadaBookSA’s followers, who engage in discussions.

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ROB PADDOCK MATTHEW BUCKLAND SAM PADDOCK ADAM FINE

F O R T RY IN G T O LEVEL THE P L AY IN G F IE L D

Adam Fine FOUNDER, CEO, FIVES FUTBOL By merging business and philanthropy, Adam Fine has created a sporting and social revolution. At age 17, he constructed the business plan for Fives Futbol, and today it has rapidly expanded to seven facilities throughout the greater Cape Town area. The concept is simple: the commercialisation of five-a-side football. The Fives brand maintains state-of-the-art, specially constructed five-a-side football pitches, with immaculate surrounding facilities that operate day and night, rain or shine, in any season. But Fine believes that for a business to be truly complete and successful, it must harness the power to make a positive community impact. With this mission, Fives has partnered with Rabie Property Group to donate 33% of the Century City facility profits to its beneficiary, Sinenjongo High School in Milnerton. More generally, each Fives facility seeks to combat community unemployment and drug abuse.

FOR SETTING THE COURSE FOR ONLINE EDUCATION Sam and Rob Paddock MD AND OPERATIONS DIRECTOR, GETSMARTER

F OR NOT GE T TING BLOGGED DOW N Matthew Buckland FOUNDER, CEO, CREATIVE SPARK, MEMEBURN.COM

86 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY 2015

Matthew Buckland describes himself as a “web guy” who has worked on the web “literally from its inception”. Having started as GM of publishing at 24.com and heading its innovation division, 20FourLabs, he went on to become GM at Mail & Guardian Online as well as co-founder of blog aggregator amatomu.com and group blog, Thought Leader. Then Buckland became his own boss: as CEO of Creative Spark, an agency that provides web, mobile and app solutions; and the emerging-technology analysis site, Memeburn. He says one of his proudest moments was when TechCrunch, Mashable, Wired.com and Techmeme almost broke his servers when trying to link to his blog post on Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales revealing the first screenshots of his search/social networking hybrid that could rival both Google and Facebook. This secured him an SA Blog Award for best business blog.

A few years ago, Sam Paddock’s father Graham asked if he could help him set up an online platform for a new teaching course. Sam installed the right programme—and with his expertise and his father’s reputation, they brought in 180 students for the very first Paddocks course. Now in partnership with one of South Africa’s most prestigious accredited institutions, GetSmarter has become a leader in online education—with Sam as MD and brother Rob as operations director. Students have the option of taking a 10-week online class culminating in a certificate from either the University of Cape Town or another reputable partner organisation. Courses are offered in a wide range of topics designed to achieve career results.

GetSmarter uses a personalised approach, where students have academic course coaches and constant contact with instructors.

SHAUN DUVET

RICHARD CHEARY SIYABULELA XUZA

FOR ROCKETING TO SUCCESS IN ENERGY ENGINEERING Siyabulela Xuza HARVARD GRADUATE; MEMBER, AFRICA 2.0 ENERGY ADVISORY COUNCIL

F OR HELP ING P U BLISHER S T U RN TH E PAGE TO THE DIG ITA L ER A Richard Cheary FOUNDER, AFROZAAR

F O R E X P L O R IN G T HE E L E C T R I C AV E N U E IN T H E S A M U S I C S CE N E

Richard Cheary is an entrepreneur who loves to engage with people and business. Famed for seeing opportunities everywhere, he believes in creating innovative synergies and collaboration. As the printto-digital era took hold, Cheary developed Baobab Suite, which allows content publishers to source, package and manage user access to their publication through a wide array of media platforms. As such, content publishers no longer have to sacrifice quality, consumer experience or aesthetics while keeping up with the digital tidal wave.

The digital revolution only poses a threat to archaic methods of presentation, says Cheary.

At the tender age of 25, Siyabulela Xuza had already developed a cheaper and safer rocket fuel; presented his findings to Steve Wozniak, Michelle Obama and the King of Sweden; and had the MIT Lincoln Laboratory name a planet after him. And although 23182 Siyaxuza may be a minor planet, its namesake’s accomplishments are anything but small. Xuza’s story starts with him as a small child, chasing after a Cessna plane dropping election pamphlets over his rural township in 1994. His excitement for flight and aviation technology turned into a technical enthusiasm for rocketry. After attending Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, he became the youngest person to serve on the African Union’s Africa 2.0 Energy Advisory Council. Xuza now has shifted his focus to solar energy solutions. His thesis at Harvard and his current work focus on the storage of energy in micro fuel cells.

Shaun Duvet MD, ULTRA MUSIC FESTIVAL, ELECTRIC MUSIC

Although his real name is Shaun Duwe, most people know him as Shaun Duvet, a popular Cape Town deejay and the man who brought the international Ultra Music Festival to South Africa in 2014 and again in 2015 (with next year on the cards, too). Ultra, managed by Duwe’s company Electric Music, has become the largest electronic music festival in Africa. With more than 15 years in the industry, his wealth of knowledge and experience behind the decks, in studio, promoting artists, owning nightclubs and producing massive international shows stands him in good stead to elevate South Africa as a top entertainment destination. Each country’s Ultra festival is different, but they all share best practice across the world, says Duwe. “We share marketing strategies with Ultra Europe, ticketing ideas from Miami, production concepts from Japan. It’s one big, exciting family.” This year’s festival in February was attended by around 50 000 fans. With such a big following and the global attention of the Ultra brand, the South African festival promises great opportunities for emerging local artists. “It gives us the ability to get our acts to perform in other markets,” Duwe adds.

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FOR BRE A KING W ITH TR A DITION

By Rene Frank

88 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY 2015

Christelle Fourie

Chwayita Nqiwa

Janet Pillai

MD, MUA INSURANCE ACCEPTANCES

FOUNDER, DIRECTOR, IGNITPR

FOUNDER, CEO, MULTILAYER TRADE CORPORATION

MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE CHWAYITA NQIWA

CHRISTELLE FOURIE

Innovation may be among the most desired but least understood corporate and entrepreneurial goals—which is often the case no matter the size of the company, whether three, five or 500 employees. Three power women have used innovation and creativity as a competitive advantage in Africa.

They are leading and inspiring others in their three very different business areas.

“The insurance industry is not generally recognised for being innovative,” says Christelle Fourie who heads up MUA Insurance Acceptances, South Africa’s leader in tailoring insurance solutions for high-net worth clients.

“It’s a conservative industry and slow to change—and rightly so. Insurance was created to help individuals protect their financial future against a big loss.

However, clients’ wants, desires and expectations are changing faster today than ever before. The industry must take faster action and examine the changes that are happening in consumers’ lives, so innovative products and services can be created to help protect their financial future,” she says.

Insurance for life, home, accidents, health—and now everything from business interruption to cybercrime—reflects innovations developed by insurers to allow individuals and businesses to take risks for growth in the face of unexpected hardship.

“The demand for new products and adaptations is there,” states Fourie. “But insurance is, in many ways, a prisoner of the past. The industry relies on data to assess and manage risks and to create new products, and this fact alone sets some limits on creativity and innovation.

At MUA, we deal with this through continuous investment in our IT assets and development of our bespoke IT systems—a rare thing for this business.

We struggled to find the right ‘off-the-

JANET PILLAI

shelf’ fit for our niche service offering. The decision was right, but it has been a very expensive exercise; this is where we have to be very innovative compared to our competitors.

The future of insurance is tech and data: If you don’t own your assets and resources, you will fall behind in years to come.”

For instance, MUA embarked on an extensive media consumer-education campaign around the increased risks of loadshedding to assist clients in reducing their risk exposures, “again a situation where MUA has shown creativity and innovation in utilising the new world of social media”, Fourie says. “These initiatives are implemented to meet the needs of our consumers, or else we’d be out of business very quickly. There’s a reason innovation is often preceded by ‘disruption’, and disruption is not always welcome in a regulated industry—but we do try every day to push that line.”

There’s one thing for which the public relations industry hasn’t been particular well known: creativity. At best, PR agencies have had the role of amplifying creative ideas developed by others—at worst, accused of spinning stories to make a splash.

Over the past two years, ignitPR has challenged the former role of advertising and digital agencies by becoming a strong lead on storytelling. Companies are turning to ignitPR to come up with the ‘big idea’. Owner Chwayita Nqiwa explains: “PR has always been about finding the real stories; we are just getting better at telling them. In the old days, PR agencies found testimonials, quotes and survey data to demonstrate the need for products and services. That’s not enough today. The stories have to come from the heart and need to be real, with emotions, tension points and genuine characters.” ignitPR’s services include a comprehensive PR service that not only manages brand loyalty but also steers and directs the image

of the business in order to create the best possible relationship between company and consumer. The main focus is trying to earn people’s trust, interest and love rather than buying it. “Getting millions of eyeballs is actually completely useless if you don’t get millions of hearts as well,” says Nqiwa.

“We believe that in today’s social media landscape, we have to ensure the brands make friends with people. It stands to reason they would do more for you. When we like something, we want to share it, and today we can share as never before. In fact, people are the most powerful media channel on Earth.”

Often, building a microsite or shooting a 30-second spot isn’t the answer for a client’s challenge. It’s about getting the client’s message out there. Everything needs to be covered, no matter the format or platform.

“Other PR firms are starting to make these types of investments, too, but luckily we were one of the first to take this approach” says Nqiwa. “We know our clients believe we give them immense value and that they trust us with their brands, and their return on investment has increased with the connections we have made them.”

Multilayer Trade Corporation offers a seamless vehicle hire, shuttle and accommodation solution in the public, private, corporate, tourist and maritime sectors. Beginning in 2002 with just two cars, and a family to support, Janet Pillai has had to overcome numerous challenges in a very male-dominated business.

“Doing your own research as an entrepreneur and businesswoman is crucial.

You have to know your industry and your market, but not be blind to see business areas that can benefit from your capabilities, to seek out areas in which to expand,” she says.

“To do that, you need to carefully study it.

It’s also important to recognise what you don’t know and be willing to learn and grow in any area necessary to succeed. It’s not about staying with a traditional setup.”

Her advice: “As a business owner and CEO, you have to step out of your comfort zone and talk to people everywhere you go or to where are invited. Carry your business material and cards.

You just never know what connection could lead to a major breakthrough for you personally as well as your business.”

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MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE ALEXANDRA FRASER

FOR BUILDING THIS CITY ON TECH Alexandra Fraser VICE CHAIR, SILICON CAPE; PARTNER, BATSTONE

The Silicon Cape Initiative was established by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs—the brainchild of two South African-born high-tech entrepreneurs, Vinny Lingham and Justin Stanford. “We are a community-run organisation that aims to drive collaboration, speak as one voice and build an inclusive, vibrant startup and tech sector in the Cape,” says Alexandra Fraser. Through engagement with funders and customers, both locally and internationally, Silicon Cape aims to grow the number of tech businesses and ensure their sustainability—bringing the Western Cape up to par with Silicon Valley in California, USA. Fraser describes herself as a creator and builder of communities. Over more than 10 years, she’s evaluated in excess of 4 000 businesses in her job at venture capital firm, Invenfin, at 90 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY 2015

Silicon Cape, as well as through her own consultancy, Stone Tree, which has merged with Batstone. As a partner at Batstone, she works with a team of strategists who help tech startups, funders and emerging companies to position and take their products to market, to access funding and to build strategic partnerships.

According to Fraser, companies that revolutionise industries and sectors don’t do it with just a well-designed product but also as a result of a disruptive approach to the problem—in some cases, the absolute lack of a problem. “Creative thinking sits at the heart of innovation, making it possible for everyone. I like that everyone can be part of a creative-thinking project if they chose to be,” she says. “I believe that most people are inherently creative.”

TEBOGO MOGALE MARTIN RAS

SAMMY RABOLELE

FOR SHOWING THE WORLD THAT A F R I C A’ S G OT TALENT Sammy Rabolele & Tebogo Mogale CO-FOUNDERS, BTE NETWORK

Rabolele and Mogale were dissatisfied with the television content South Africa was exporting around the world. That’s to say, South African content— or even African content—was scarce in the global media environment. To combat this issue, they teamed up to create a completely independent online TV network featuring entirely African content.

With this mission in mind, BTE (Beyond the Eyes) Network was born.

It now features five shows ranging in topic from fashion, business, cooking, to religion and women’s issues.

But the pair wanted to create more than a production company and more than a simple TV network. They wanted to create a “platform where African artists can come and collaborate to produce really compelling content for the world”, Rabolele says.

And the team knew that the future of television lies in on-demand content. Consumers increasingly tend to prefer viewing content when most convenient for them, and BTE Network gives them that ability. All of the network’s shows live on

F OR BEING A STA R TU P ’S K NIGHT IN SHINING A RMOU R the website, available to stream at any time from personal computer or mobile device—free of charge.

“The network has a specified agenda, in that we’re trying to push out more inspirational content,” Mogale explains. So far, all of the shows have been produced in-house by Rabolele and Mogale.

To boot, they have been completely self-funded.

But with over 300 000 hits online, the duo can see a bright future for BTE Network. Once they begin receiving revenue, they hope to work with smaller independent producers to commission shows and bring in outside content.

For now, Rabolele and Mogale are satisfied with the network’s ability to inspire Africans and to export engaging and valuable content. With this in mind, Mogale reminds us that all successful ventures need to have some form of product. “We need to invest a lot of time in getting the product ready. If you can get the product ready, selling it afterward is another thing on its own, but the big thing is to focus on the product—because if you can get the product right, the rest will follow.”

Martin Ras DIRECTOR, TIGER BYTES; COO, BYTE ORBIT

Martin Ras has crafted his niche in the tech world from creative beginnings.

Coming from a background as head of marketing for one of the leading fashion houses in South Africa, he unleashed his entrepreneurial calling by first involving himself in the establishment of five Vuka Scuta outlets. He then proceeded to co-found his first tech startup, Ching Payments, a third-party payment facilitator that enables merchants to accept PIN-based creditand debit card payments via a web or mobi site.

While at Ching Payments, he crossed paths with Byte Orbit—a company that provides the full Python software-development life cycle to small, medium and large businesses.

The synergies meant Ras would take on the COO role at Byte Orbit and co-found Startup Knight, where his relentless energy and passion has seen the accelerator grow year-onyear. Through the Startup Knight competition, Byte Orbit creates partnerships to build and commercialise the winning innovations, as “it takes more than money to turn an idea or innovation into a viable growing business”.

Last year, Byte Orbit launched the Impress Me video-based app, which the company says is changing the traditional methods of recruitment.

The app gives a job seeker an opportunity to visually impress a prospective employer by submitting a unique 60-second video selfie.

“If the employer can have a glimpse of the prospective job seeker and their personality before inviting them for an interview, it will streamline the process of recruitment,” says Ras.

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THE GRE AT INNOVATION FRONTIER

Next

SO MUCH WORK — BUT NO JOBS A F R I C A’ S I M M E N S E D E V E LO P M E N T C H A L L E N G E S C O M B I N E D W I T H I TS YO U T H B U LG E C O U L D B E T H E F U E L N E E D E D TO I G N I T E I N N OVAT I O N O N THE CONTINENT

A

T THE WORLD Economic Forum (WEF) on

Africa held in Cape Town in June, global leaders agreed that youth hold the key to the future of the continent. Statistically, this makes sense: Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest youth population in the world, according to the Population Reference Bureau— with 43% of its population under 15.

Unfortunately, it also has one of the highest rates of youth unemployment. Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (first quarter 2015) estimates that close to 60% of young people are unemployed in South Africa and that 40% have been jobless for longer than three years—with 60% of these having never had a job!

All this against a backdrop of massive social and environmental need.

More than 50% of the population still lives below the poverty line. In Africa, there is a tremendous amount of work to be done, but no jobs available.

It’s the perfect paradox.

Here’s another: We don’t need more employed people on the continent—we need more self-employed people.

The youth bulge, combined with Africa’s challenges, may just be the fuel needed for innovation to catch fire.

Pessimists will tell you that the youth lack the skills and attitude to be innovators. And while the evidence is clear that there is a correlation between level of education and access to knowledge and resources, and the tendency to start a successful business, innovation does not necessarily respect these boundaries.

Innovators carve their own path; they know one does not solve challenges by following the rules.

Ashish Thakkar, founder of the Mara Group—a pan-African company that includes financial services, infrastructure, technology and real estate, active in 24 countries across three continents—was a refugee who had to flee Rwanda in 1994 without education or

92 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A JULY 2015

ANYONE, ANYWHERE, WHO IS NOT ENTIRELY SATISFIED WITH HOW THINGS ARE DONE, HAS AN OPPORTUNITY TO CHANGE IT; TO TRY SOMETHING NEW.

Walter Baets

prospects, but that did not stop him. He told a gathering of more than 400 Cape Town youth at a WEF event co-hosted by the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business (UCT GSB): “I am the most uneducated person in this room. I left school at the age of 15 and got a small loan of $5 000.” His advice: “The time is now and the answer is you. It is our time... Africa is shining.”

Clearly, he is an exceptional human being, but anyone, anywhere, who is not entirely satisfied with how things are done, has an opportunity to change it; to try something new. At the heart of the innovation process is not the imperative to invent bold new technology or start a multinational, but a determination to do something differently—to do it better.

Take Sizwe Nzima, for example. This Cape Town schoolboy, dissatisfied that his grandmother was sometimes too sick to go and collect her medicine from the local clinic, innovated a bicycle-powered medicine delivery service for elderly and chronically ill people in low-income communities; it is quietly changing things.

The business has grown in a few short years and now has more than 930 clients and a staff of six riders.

Solutions come from bottom up and top down; they will sometimes meet in the middle. Nzima was recently approached by a shipping company abroad that wanted to use his innovative delivery network to expedite international deliveries of its packages.

So what can we, the academe and the established business world, do to support this process? While we cannot necessarily fix broken systems overnight, we can find ways to support and encourage young people to be hungry to find the things that need to be done differently in their communities, countries, continents.

Some recent initiatives that stand out for me include R-Labs and the Western Cape Department of Social Development’s youth cafés, which allow young people to purchase goods and services using a virtual currency that is earned by doing good in the community and attending personal development workshops; as well as the WEF/UCT GSB Community Conversations, which connected young people to those who have walked the path before them and gave them access to one of the most powerful economic bodies on the planet.

Youth hold the key to the future of Africa—for good or for bad. Left unchecked, youth unemployment poses an immense risk to social stability, but with the right support, we could mobilise an army of young people in the service of innovation and sustainable development.

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’.

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FAST EVENTS Upcoming events Fast Company will be attending

M E D I AT E C H A F R I C A 2 0 1 5 Date: 15 to 17 July Time: 10h00–18h00 Location: ticketpro Dome, North Riding, Johannesburg www.mediatech.co.za The largest media and entertainment technology trade show in southern Africa, the event presents the newest cutting-edge technologies and trends in the continent’s broadcast and film sector, as well as the ever expanding live-event and AV systems industries. Attendees in these industries will discover new trends, innovative solutions and service providers. The trade show’s unique environment allows for hands-on testing, live demonstrations and product comparisons, as well as expansive networking opportunities.

MASTER CLASS: STRATEGIC INNOVATION IN MARKETING (UCT UNILE VER INSTITUTE) Date: 21 July Time: 08h00–17h00 Location: The Wanderers Club, Illovo, Johannesburg www.uctunileverinstitute.co.za Hosted by Unilever Institute director, Professor John Simpson, this master class is a one-time opportunity to engage with worldwide experts in strategic innovation. Focusing on the importance for innovation in growing your business in the short- and long term, the class features speakers who have the practical knowledge to help your organisation achieve real-world results. Speakers include Gavin Fraser, Blue Ocean Strategy Network expert; and Professor Dr Martin Högl of the Institute for Leadership and Organization at the Munich School of Management.

G I B S R A I S E T H E B A R : C O N S U LT I N G B E YO N D T O M O R R O W Date: 23 July Time: 08h25–16h05 Location: Gordon Institute of Business Science, Illovo, Johannesburg www.gibs.co.za While focusing on helping others, the consulting industry itself is at risk of falling behind in response to disruptive innovation. Sessions of discussion at the conference will include innovation, ethics and standards, revolutionary strategies for the consulting industry, and marketing and branding of your consulting services. Help effectively grow and adapt your organisation in today’s digital world, and see the way forward in consulting.

IABC AFRICA 22ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE Date: 29 to 31 July Time: 08h00–17h00 Location: The Fairway Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort, Randburg, Johannesburg www.iabc.co.za Covering topics such as harnessing collaboration for engagement, making the shift from message creation to strategic advising, and helping leadership adjust to omni-channel communication, the IABC Africa conference gives communication professionals information that is immediately applicable to the workplace. It features several expert panels and opportunities for professional networking in the communications industry.

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R I S I N G S TA R S C A R E E R E X P O 2 0 1 5 Date: 31 July Time: 09h00–17h00 Location: Protea Hotel Edward, Durban info@fezekisacom.co.za Coming back for another year, attendees can expect the Rising Stars Career Expo to be even more vibrant and engaging. For employers, the expo provides a platform to position themselves as top recruiters and compete for the top available human resources. Prospective employees have the opportunity to connect directly with employers and gain career information from represented organisations.

TRADING ACROSS BORDERS SOUTH AFRICA 2015 Date: 31 July Time: 07h30–14h00 Location: Gallagher Convention Centre, Midrand, Johannesburg www.tradingacrossborders.com International trade is a driving force of growth and competition for small and medium enterprises, but many do not know how to expand into the global trade sector. Opportunities for global trade are numerous, and good international business development practices can help SMEs compete worldwide—but where do they start? To mitigate a lack of information on foreign markets, high customs duties, and the challenges of creating contacts overseas, Trading Across Borders provides a practical ‘how-to’ format, helping SMEs compete in a worldwide marketplace.

I N T E G R AT E D M A R K E T I N G C O M M U N I C AT I O N C O N F E R E N C E Date: 3 & 4 August Time: 08h00–17h00 Location: Cape Town International Convention Centre imcconference.com/conference/capetown In its fifth year, the conference will focus on applying numerous aspects of communications disciplines. Delegates at the IMC conference will be exposed to the latest industry trends through educational and engaging panels from industry leaders. This year also features a unique event format, with the conference divided into categories of keynote presentations and workshops.

S A I N N O VAT I O N S U M M I T Date: 26 to 29 August Location: Cape Town Stadium Innovationsummit.co.za Featuring a two-day thought forum exclusive to delegates and a three-day ‘Market on the Edge’ open to the public as well, the SA Innovation Summit will provide all attendees with tools for innovation.

The theme for the 2015 summit is “innovation intelligence”, and will seek to overcome the challenges faced by entrepreneurs, developers, inventors and investors in creating a competitive edge through forward thinking. Delegates will engage with a myriad of learning platforms, from panel debates to interactive workshops and everything in between.

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A PLACE FOR MY STUFF A R A D I CA L P R O P O S A L FOR UPENDING HOW WE HANDLE C O N S U M E R DATA

I JUST SPOKE WITH Yves-Alexandre de ­Montjoye, a senior PhD student in computational privacy at the MIT Media Lab, and I’ve some bad news about data and privacy. Then I’ve worse news. But fear not, because after that I’ve some good news!

De Montjoye has been part of a team exposing the presumption of ‘anonymised’ data. We know there are hella terabytes of metadata about us floating in our mobile, credit card and browser histories, and we’ve been okay with that in part because we’ve been told there’s no personally identifiable information in the records. But De Montjoye’s research has shown that 95% of individuals can be reliably identified with as few as four data points.

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WITH OPEN PERSONAL DATA STORE, CONSUMERS WOULD CONTROL THEIR OWN DATA IN A SECURE CLOUD ACCOUNT OR ON A DISK HIDDEN UNDER THEIR MATTRESSES

Baratunde Thurston

While any single record itself may be anonymous, we leave unique pathways through all this data. On April 6, only one person bought a subway card, then got some dried bison at the farmers’ market, then picked up some dark chocolate. That person was me, and it was a good day.

De Montjoye and his Media Lab colleagues have pushed their investigation further. In a limited experiment based only on mobile-phone metadata, the researchers were able to predict personality types, such as neuroticism and extroversion, with more than 60% accuracy. Maybe you weren’t playing hard to get when you waited to text him back; maybe you were revealing your anxiety. If a small team at an academic institution can match personality to identity, imagine what multinational organisations with billions in resources, motivated by profit and competition—and with little to no oversight—can do. (That’s the very bad news.)

Thankfully, De Montjoye and his peers have a solution: Let’s shift the balance of power and risk in how user data is handled. “Right now, companies are collecting data because they can,” he says. Instead, he believes, they should “code for what they want to know about a user” and request that alone, then discard it. One part of De Montjoye’s proposed system, SafeAnswers, is spiritually akin to a music-recommendation engine like Pandora. It doesn’t actually need to know every song you’ve ever listened to. It merely needs the DNA of what you like in order to give it enough information to select the next song. His other idea is a notion called Open Personal Data Store (­OpenPDS). Consumers would control their own data in a secure cloud account or on a disk hidden under their mattresses, and be able to decide to whom they grant access. (I would keep mine in a tooth. Hackers better have pliers!)

As much as De Montjoye’s ideas would benefit individuals, their genius is that they’d help companies, too. Do you think Target, Home Depot and eBay want to be hacker bait because they have all our credit-card info on file? Does Apple need to hold on to the exact time, location and quantity of push-ups I’ve done? (It’s a lot.

I’m in a constant state of push-ups.) Centralised servers holding intermingled user metadata are all too tempting for would-be cybercriminals. Distributed personal data stores would be a more expensive and difficult target, a creative solution to the current cybersecurity threat.

If we embrace these ideas, hoarding customer data would become a liability rather than an asset. And I look forward to a world where I define which insights to share. I’ll tell you for free that bison and chocolate make me less neurotic.

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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