Posted on October 28, 2011
If you Googled ‘the definition of innovation’ back in 2008 you’d have 2.5 million results; two years later, 26.4 million; in early 2011, 66 million hits; and on 26 October 2011, 125 million. This, Innocentrix CEO Henra Mayer told a GIBS Forum, shows that – globally – people are interested in the notion of innovation. “It’s clear we’re talking about it,” said Mayer, “but do we really understand innovation? And what are we doing about it?”
To answer these questions Mayer and Kate Elphick, director of Digital Bridges, joined forces to pull off an insightful opinion poll looking at innovation in South Africa. The results – which the researchers admitted included a bias towards innovation-focused organisations and individuals – provide current insights which beef up the recently released 2008 South African Innovation Survey and puts a national spin on the findings of the 2011 Global Innovation Index, in which South Africa ranks an unimpressive 59th out of 125 countries.
Lively debate raged around the following topics: the need to overhaul the education system; copying as a form of innovation; harnessing the power of technology; access to funding; the need for a strategic approach to innovation; and the need to turn lip-service into action.
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