INNOVATION VITAL FOR SERIOUS ENTREPRENEURS

Thomas Muserepwa

I guess almost everyone given a chance wants to be wealthy and prosperous, everyone wants to have a lot of money and more so have better control of his/her finances. One thing for certain is that jobs keep you ‘Just Over broke,’ because you cannot be classified as poor when you have some kind of job, but you can never have enough to cater for your basic needs.

The simple thing to come to the mind of a typical Zimbabwean is to start a form of business to supplement the meagre salary perks. Entrepreneurship is now one of the commonest words in Zimbabwe since the past decade or so.Some may want to equate its popularity to that of Sadza, our staple food. However we haven’t seen much success on the entrepreneurial platform to justify this popularity. We only have a handful of successful entrepreneurs while the huge chunk could not stand the test of time at one point or the other.

Starting a business is easy to think about but very difficult to implement. Besides so many behavioural traits that are needed to become a successful entrepreneur the biggest challenge we have is that of innovation. Successful entrepreneurs and innovation are really inseparable in today’s fast changing technology based economies. To become a successful entrepreneur in any field today one has to be as innovative as possible, even behind imagination in order to drive away competition and emerge the winner. Innovation is simply the creation of better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies or ideas that fill an existing gap in the markets and society. For example if one has to open an imitation of Delta Beverages today, it will not help him in any way if he/she produce the same Coke/Beer with almost same taste, same production costs and more so same consumers. This is because in order to compete with an established company in any field one needs to come up with some new novel concept and engage technology which reduce production costs in the process otherwise the new company will be forced out of business within its first months.

For serious entrepreneurs of today it is therefore highly imperative that technological advancements in the global economy be highly noted and innovations introduced continuously in the process. This can help create big enterprises for a better tomorrow. The problem with many Zimbabweans is that they are in the tendency of stealing each other’s ideas so that they sleep while others innovate. The few innovations & inventions are easily sold out to foreign companies and foreign countries such that our own industry keeps lagging behind. This comes to the most important issue for entrepreneurs- Intellectual property. We expect a breed of entrepreneurs who file for several patents due to their innovativeness. We need to lure Capital by Innovation for creation of the large –medium enterprises we desperately need for job creation.

As much as entrepreneurship has been encouraged the other compliment to a good entrepreneur is Financial Education-how to manage your money, what to prioritise and help distinguish between assets and liabilities. This is probably the reason why some end up losing it all when they over rely on borrowing and recklessly use the money while the credit book overloads. Financial Education generally instils some discipline in entrepreneurs and help in their decision making.

There is a saying that goes by “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” this is also a case with some of our entrepreneurs as they tend to be highly resistant to change. Some resist much innovation and helpful advice that they desperately need in different circumstances. This makes it imperative to have entrepreneurial coaching classes from primary school and try to expose these kids to the bigger picture of what it takes to become an entrepreneur from an early age. There is high need to create the imagination from a very early age the same way kids wants to be Doctors  and Teachers when they grow up. There is high need for enterprises that are able to stand the test of time; being passed from father to son and the son to son, etc. For example the Sawiris of Egypt, Mittal of India and the Rockefeller family of the United States.

The Rockefeller family business was pioneered by John D. Rockefeller (1839-1922)  in the 19^th century and  is still going strongup tonow. The family has interest in industrial and banking sectors of the economy with their biggest interest being in JP Morgan & Chase Bank. We expect businesses to span this much here in Zimbabwe as full government support is pronounced. Most businesses that have survived for a longer period so far are foreign owned which present a large gap and challenge for existing and would-be indigenous entrepreneurs to start building strong brands that stand the test of time.

The writer is the Public Relations Executive at YESZIM