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Actual for You - The Vulnerable Research and Innovation Base of South Africa
There are few businesses that are as cash flow intensive as a trucking company. The list of ongoing expenses can be endless and can easily overwhelm small and medium size trucking companies. There are fuel expenses, truck repairs, rentals and salaries. Although most trucking companies are very profitable, few can afford to wait the usual 30 to 60 days it takes to get paid for their freight bills.Unless the trucking company has a significant cash cushion in the bank, waiting 30 to 60 days to get paid can cause serious problems. It can jeopardize existing operations and furthermore, it can prevent you from growing your business. The only way to get out of the cash flow rut is to find a way to capitalize on your slow paying invoices. The best tool to do this for a trucking company is called freight bill factoring.Freight bill factoring enables the trucking company to get paid for their freight bills within a day of invoicing, eliminating the usual 30 to 60 day wait.. With a factoring agreement in place, you can stabilize your company’s cash flow and eliminate the stress of not knowing when you’ll be paid. Since freight bill factoring eliminates the worries of waiting for your payment, you will be free to focus on what you do best: running your business.Who qualifies for freight bill factoring?Most small and mid size trucking and transportation companies should qualify for factoring. There are two main requirements to qualify. First, your company must do business with reputable clients or freight brokers. Second, your company must be free of tax problems. If you meet these two criteria, more often than not you will qualify. Most factoring companies are comfortable working with new businesses, so you should be able to qualify even if your company is a start up. Best of all, you can ge
In order to strengthen the research and SET capacity in South Africa, the throughput at university level should at least be doubled to come in line with developed and developing countries in the European union and to contribute significantly to the formation of SET human capital and technological innovations. South Africa has also embarked on a process of embarking on an incentive approach that provides funding sources to different stages for commercialisation of research innovations.
Due to the fact that South Africa is not performing well in the area of patenting, a better approach could be to focus on trademarks, rather than patents based on the argument that final consumers are less concerned on whether a product has been manufactured solely on the basis of imported or self-develop technology that buying the right product that would satisfy their needs. Trademarks better address the latter component and are focussing more on the licensing of technology as opposed to protecting industrially applicable inventions as in the case of patenting. Whilst patenting is focussing on the supply side of the market to prevent competitors from copying
Some people have the nose for sticking into other people’s business. Though some may find this annoying, it is one of the things that go with the job if the individual decides to become a private investigator.The private investigator is called on different jobs. If someone suspects the other spouse of infidelity, the services are required. The same thing can be used when preparing for a case in court or before a new employee is hired for a job.So the question becomes how does an individual get this job? There are two ways for this to happen. The first is a newsier applies to work in a reputable firm and after some time, can leave and start up an agency. The second is by opening one hoping to get clients.People who have been doing this for a long time advise new people to first learn the ropes in a known agency. This is because there is more to just tracking down someone that will be taught in this line of work.Most states will require the individual to get a license. The person will first have to take an exam, which is another reason why it’s best to work for someone else before starting one.One of these is being able to write a report well so that this can be used as evidence if this is needed in court. The spelling must be correct and the document should be detailed and well written.The individual can practice this by writing about any topic and having it reviewed by a friend or relative. The insights given will really help especially if the individual is not an English major or writes often.The private investigator should also know how to use various software programs to make credit checks and other things via the web. This just shows professionals in this line of work don’t just drive around searching for clues or evidence in trying to crack a case.A lot of professionals who d
South Africa is facing structural problems in strengthening its research and innovation capacity in order to become and remain competitive in the global business environment. Although greater emphasis is given to strengthen Research and Development efforts in the country and to translate it into commercialization of products, South Africa are lagging behind its competitors on four critical domains of:
· The level of technological exports;
· Funds invested in Research and Innovation activities;
· Capability to transform relevant scientific knowledge and technological inventions into commercial applications; and
· Sourcing for competitive technologies.
Although it is realised that South Africa as a developing country cannot match the R&D spending of developed countries, the assumption is made that if South Africa can carry out R&I activity levels comparable to that of principle trading partners and competitors, it will be able to sustain its relative competitiveness in the world.
Complicating the situation further is the fact that South Africa is considered an innovation environment in which medium to low technology innovations dominate. Therefore, it is not a strong competitor for attracting research exports from foreign companies. This is due to the fact that this priviledge belongs to environments classified as at the forefront of research efforts, high technology oriented, huge market opportunities and dynamic in nature. Typical countries adhering to these requirements include amongst others China, India, the United States of America, Hungary and Romania (RTDinfo, 2006).
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to describe the vulnerable research and innovation base of South Africa in terms of the three domains mentioned in the introduction.
Technology exports of South Africa as percentage of world exports
According to statistics provided by Kaplan (2005) high technology export of South Africa, 0.3% in 2002, as a percentage of global exports represents indeed a very small proportion of world exports in technology. How poor is only conceived when compared to 2002 figures of other European countries such as Turkey (1.6%), United Kingdom (1.25%), Sweden (13.7%), Switzerland (21.6%), Spain (5.7%), Slovenia (4.9%), Portugal (6.8%), Norway (4.6%) and the Netherlands (18.7%).
Sufficiency of funding for R&I in South Africa
Whilst the aim of the South African Government is to spend at least 1% of its GDP on R&D this objective has never been reaches since 1983 (No survey was done in 1995 and 1999). With a median of 0.76 and currently at 0.806 GERD:GDP too little emphasis is given to R&D activities. Currently only R10.1 billion (+/- US$1.6 billion) is spend on R&D in comparison to a 2005 GDP of R1 250 billion (+/- US$208.33) comparing favourably with levels experienced in a country lie Portugal. However in comparison with other countries in Europe like Switzerland, Sweden, United Kingdom and the Netherlands which spend two percent and more of their GDP on R&D, South Africa are lagging far behind. Further, of the R10.1 billion available for R&D, only 13% is spend on the advancement of knowledge, whilst the most (60%) is spend on economic development. This indicates that too little is invested on human factors, which is considered a critical element for a successful knowledge based economy. The conclusion is thus that not sufficient funds are allotted for R&I activities in South Africa.
Capability of South Africa to transform scientific and technological inventions into commercial application
The first consideration in determining the capability of South Africa to transform R&D activities into commercial application demands an analysis of human resources availability in the scientific community. The Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (2002) has made a comparison between four countries, South Korea, Malaysia, South Africa and Australia regarding the development of human capital as expressed by number of researchers per 1000 of the population as indicated by Table 1. Although performing better than Malaysia on this component, South Africa are performing weak on the broadening of research literacy in the general population. It is a further disturbing fact that South Africa has an aging research workforce. The Department also indicated that the number of science, engineering and technology (SET) practitioners, will vary between 7 and 11 per 1000 of the population in the years 2002 to 2012 and a university throughput in SET of only 2.7% to 3% during the same time frame. The latter figures compare extremely unfavourable with SET graduate throughput in some of the European countries like the United Kingdom (19.5% - 21.0%), Turkey (5.2%), Switzerland (7.0% - 7.7%), Sweden (13.3% - 13.9%), Spain (12% - 12.6%), Slovenia (8.7% - 9.0%), Portugal (7.4% - 8.2%), Poland (8.3% - 9.0%), Norway (7.7% - 9.3%) and the Netherlands (6.6% - 7.3%) for the same period.
Table 1: Researchers per 1000 of population
Researchers per 1000 of Population
Australia 4.843
South Africa 0.71
Malaysia 0.3
South Korea 2.771
Secondly, of the top 700 firms, by R&D expenditure in the world, only one namely Sasol is located in South Africa with a US$91 million spending during 2003, whilst more than 80% of these firms come from only five countries, spending more than 82.5% of R&D: the United States (42.3%), Japan (22.0%), Germany (7.6%), the United Kingdom (5.6%) and France (5.0%). The remaining 20% comes from Finland (0.9%), Sweden (2.1%), Switzerland (2.9%), Republic of Korea (1.4%), Taiwan (1.1%), China (0.1%), Bermuda (0.4%), Brazil (0.3%), Croatia (0.1%) and South Africa (0.1%). Of these firms more than 50% operates in the high and medium technology environments of information technology, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and automotive. In essence Transnational Corporations dominate the global business R&D and in all of this South Africa plays a relative insignificant role in participation. However, as internationalisation of R&D by Transnational Corporations increased, South Africa benefited from this approach and the amount of US$67 billion spent in 2002 of which US$24 million was allotted to South Africa. This benefit however, does not reveal the fact that other developing countries like China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Republic of Korea are the main gainers in the internationalisation of R&D worldwide (World Investment Report, 2005).
Sourcing of competitive technologies in South Africa
The history of South Africa and its political dispensation of Apartheid till 1994 led to international isolation causing the country to adopt an internal innovation approach. Since 1994 however, the country began to participate actively in the global economy and a need exist to source new technologies locally as well as from elsewhere (NSTF, 2001). Lorentzen (2004) provided the following statistics regarding to the sourcing of competitive technologies in South Africa over the period 1999-2001 as indicated by Table 2. According to Lorentzen, the 22% foreign sourcing is primarily for radical innovations, whilst local technological sourcing happens within the domain of incremental innovations. It can therefore be concluded that knowledge resources do not meet the competitive needs of South Africa especially in high technology innovations.
Table 2: Sources of Competitive Technologies
Source Percentage
In-house 57
Local 24
Foreign 22
Further, whilst South African inventors secure around 100 United States patents per year, this represents only 2.5 patents per million of the population per annum. In comparison Japan secured 776 patents per million of the population per annum (Department of Arts, culture, Science and Technology, 2002).
Conclusion and Recommendations
The results reveal that South Africa performed poorly and insignificantly low in the export of high, medium and low levels technologies. The country is therefore poorly positioned globally to compete successfully due to a lack in ability to commercialise the results of R&I in the international markets. This can be partially be attributed to the fact that not sufficient funds are allocated for R&D as indicated by the gross expenditure on R&D. In order to sustain its competitive position South Africa needs to follow a three-tier approach. Import the technology it requires to fulfil in its trading needs by securing access to external sources of technology, establish strong links with the global production system and seek co-operation agreements with international expertise to ensure technology transfer to South Africa.
In order to strengthen the research and SET capacity in South Africa, the throughput at university level should at least be doubled to come in line with developed and developing countries in the European union and to contribute significantly to the formation of SET human capital and technological innovations. South Africa has also embarked on a process of embarking on an incentive approach that provides funding sources to different stages for commercialisation of research innovations.
Due to the fact that South Africa is not performing well in the area of patenting, a better approach could be to focus on trademarks, rather than patents based on the argument that final consumers are less concerned on whether a product has been manufactured solely on the basis of imported or self-develop technology that buying the right product that would satisfy their needs. Trademarks better address the latter component and are focussing more on the licensing of technology as opposed to protecting industrially applicable inventions as in the case of patenting. Whilst patenting is focussing on the supply side of the market to prevent competitors from copying
"I think Ed has a point."We were in the Boardroom of a $1.5 billion consumer goods manufacturer when the CEO made that statement. Of course he was responding to what I had just said."If you gentlemen don't know why you’re doing this project, how on earth do you expect the rest of the company to get behind it?"You see this outfit was way behind on their promises. The same Executive Team that sat before me that day had two years previously made the decision to implement a new ERP system. You remember, ERP, enterprise resource planning system. They were all the rage in the nineties. That meant a lot of money for the vendor selling and a lot of headaches for the people in the company on the receiving end.Well this same group of wannabe golf pro’s, they were wanting to move the meeting along for their 1 o’clock T time, had sat in this same impressive, mahogany clad Boardroom and somehow chosen PeopleSoft as the system of choice. It was a solid Human Resource system but no one was choosing it for a system wide implementation. Now, two years and $30 million later, they had nothing but a budget on steroids and were again asking themselves - why did we do this?We see so many projects fail because of a lack of leadership. In this case, a new manufacturing plant in their business would have cost $35 million to build, and they would be getting a report on its progress every week. This crack crew hadn’t asked for or received a progress report on this project for over six months. As the outside guy brought in to 'fix' this money gobbling beast, I had to force the meeting we were now sitting in. It’s pathetic to see actions like this mistaken for leadership. But in many large companies today their brands are strong enough it takes several years of this BS to kill it.When you're a change leader - lead! In the
Sufficiency of funding for R&I in South Africa
Whilst the aim of the South African Government is to spend at least 1% of its GDP on R&D this objective has never been reaches since 1983 (No survey was done in 1995 and 1999). With a median of 0.76 and currently at 0.806 GERD:GDP too little emphasis is given to R&D activities. Currently only R10.1 billion (+/- US$1.6 billion) is spend on R&D in comparison to a 2005 GDP of R1 250 billion (+/- US$208.33) comparing favourably with levels experienced in a country lie Portugal. However in comparison with other countries in Europe like Switzerland, Sweden, United Kingdom and the Netherlands which spend two percent and more of their GDP on R&D, South Africa are lagging far behind. Further, of the R10.1 billion available for R&D, only 13% is spend on the advancement of knowledge, whilst the most (60%) is spend on economic development. This indicates that too little is invested on human factors, which is considered a critical element for a successful knowledge based economy. The conclusion is thus that not sufficient funds are allotted for R&I activities in South Africa.
Capability of South Africa to transform scientific and technological inventions into commercial application
The first consideration in determining the capability of South Africa to transform R&D activities into commercial application demands an analysis of human resources availability in the scientific community. The Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (2002) has made a comparison between four countries, South Korea, Malaysia, South Africa and Australia regarding the development of human capital as expressed by number of researchers per 1000 of the population as indicated by Table 1. Although performing better than Malaysia on this component, South Africa are performing weak on the broadening of research literacy in the general population. It is a further disturbing fact that South Africa has an aging research workforce. The Department also indicated that the number of science, engineering and technology (SET) practitioners, will vary between 7 and 11 per 1000 of the population in the years 2002 to 2012 and a university throughput in SET of only 2.7% to 3% during the same time frame. The latter figures compare extremely unfavourable with SET graduate throughput in some of the European countries like the United Kingdom (19.5% - 21.0%), Turkey (5.2%), Switzerland (7.0% - 7.7%), Sweden (13.3% - 13.9%), Spain (12% - 12.6%), Slovenia (8.7% - 9.0%), Portugal (7.4% - 8.2%), Poland (8.3% - 9.0%), Norway (7.7% - 9.3%) and the Netherlands (6.6% - 7.3%) for the same period.
Table 1: Researchers per 1000 of population
Researchers per 1000 of Population
Australia 4.843
South Africa 0.71
Malaysia 0.3
South Korea 2.771
Secondly, of the top 700 firms, by R&D expenditure in the world, only one namely Sasol is located in South Africa with a US$91 million spending during 2003, whilst more than 80% of these firms come from only five countries, spending more than 82.5% of R&D: the United States (42.3%), Japan (22.0%), Germany (7.6%), the United Kingdom (5.6%) and France (5.0%). The remaining 20% comes from Finland (0.9%), Sweden (2.1%), Switzerland (2.9%), Republic of Korea (1.4%), Taiwan (1.1%), China (0.1%), Bermuda (0.4%), Brazil (0.3%), Croatia (0.1%) and South Africa (0.1%). Of these firms more than 50% operates in the high and medium technology environments of information technology, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and automotive. In essence Transnational Corporations dominate the global business R&D and in all of this South Africa plays a relative insignificant role in participation. However, as internationalisation of R&D by Transnational Corporations increased, South Africa benefited from this approach and the amount of US$67 billion spent in 2002 of which US$24 million was allotted to South Africa. This benefit however, does not reveal the fact that other developing countries like China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Republic of Korea are the main gainers in the internationalisation of R&D worldwide (World Investment Report, 2005).
Sourcing of competitive technologies in South Africa
The history of South Africa and its political dispensation of Apartheid till 1994 led to international isolation causing the country to adopt an internal innovation approach. Since 1994 however, the country began to participate actively in the global economy and a need exist to source new technologies locally as well as from elsewhere (NSTF, 2001). Lorentzen (2004) provided the following statistics regarding to the sourcing of competitive technologies in South Africa over the period 1999-2001 as indicated by Table 2. According to Lorentzen, the 22% foreign sourcing is primarily for radical innovations, whilst local technological sourcing happens within the domain of incremental innovations. It can therefore be concluded that knowledge resources do not meet the competitive needs of South Africa especially in high technology innovations.
Table 2: Sources of Competitive Technologies
Source Percentage
In-house 57
Local 24
Foreign 22
Further, whilst South African inventors secure around 100 United States patents per year, this represents only 2.5 patents per million of the population per annum. In comparison Japan secured 776 patents per million of the population per annum (Department of Arts, culture, Science and Technology, 2002).
Conclusion and Recommendations
The results reveal that South Africa performed poorly and insignificantly low in the export of high, medium and low levels technologies. The country is therefore poorly positioned globally to compete successfully due to a lack in ability to commercialise the results of R&I in the international markets. This can be partially be attributed to the fact that not sufficient funds are allocated for R&D as indicated by the gross expenditure on R&D. In order to sustain its competitive position South Africa needs to follow a three-tier approach. Import the technology it requires to fulfil in its trading needs by securing access to external sources of technology, establish strong links with the global production system and seek co-operation agreements with international expertise to ensure technology transfer to South Africa.
In order to strengthen the research and SET capacity in South Africa, the throughput at university level should at least be doubled to come in line with developed and developing countries in the European union and to contribute significantly to the formation of SET human capital and technological innovations. South Africa has also embarked on a process of embarking on an incentive approach that provides funding sources to different stages for commercialisation of research innovations.
Due to the fact that South Africa is not performing well in the area of patenting, a better approach could be to focus on trademarks, rather than patents based on the argument that final consumers are less concerned on whether a product has been manufactured solely on the basis of imported or self-develop technology that buying the right product that would satisfy their needs. Trademarks better address the latter component and are focussing more on the licensing of technology as opposed to protecting industrially applicable inventions as in the case of patenting. Whilst patenting is focussing on the supply side of the market to prevent competitors from copying
There is still time for those who will graduate this spring to prepare themselves to find and get a good job.New College graduates face unique challenges and opportunities when it comes to getting that first job. Many employers, however, want fresh new ideas and employees with lots of future potential. With 20% of all workers with college degrees either unemployed or employed in jobs requiring only high school skills, there is help for the college grad who doesn't want to settle for a job in which they are undervalued and under-challenged.Our experience in working with new graduates has consistently reinforced our belief that the most important skills needed are in interviewing. Knowing how to approach an interview, how to anticipate and respond to difficult questions, and knowing how to project confidence in the interview are the skills most often lacking in new grads.In the last 10 years we have worked with thousands of job seekers who face various challenges. Our philosophy is that life is too short to be stuck in a boring, unfulfilling, dead-end job. One of the major challenges for new graduates is to believe it is possible to get an exciting, fulfilling job that offers opportunity for growth and advancement. We work with far too many people who are depressed, bored, and entirely too focused on their jobs. When we love what we do, work becomes energizing. Just as boredom and depression on the job will spill over into one's personal life, so do happiness, energy, and fulfillment.People who feel stuck in inappropriate jobs tend to spend more hours working than people who are happy in their jobs. One reason for this increase in work hours is low productivity. A vicious circle results from job misery. Unhappiness makes us less productive; lower productivity requires us to work more; working more in
Table 1: Researchers per 1000 of population
Researchers per 1000 of Population
Australia 4.843
South Africa 0.71
Malaysia 0.3
South Korea 2.771
Secondly, of the top 700 firms, by R&D expenditure in the world, only one namely Sasol is located in South Africa with a US$91 million spending during 2003, whilst more than 80% of these firms come from only five countries, spending more than 82.5% of R&D: the United States (42.3%), Japan (22.0%), Germany (7.6%), the United Kingdom (5.6%) and France (5.0%). The remaining 20% comes from Finland (0.9%), Sweden (2.1%), Switzerland (2.9%), Republic of Korea (1.4%), Taiwan (1.1%), China (0.1%), Bermuda (0.4%), Brazil (0.3%), Croatia (0.1%) and South Africa (0.1%). Of these firms more than 50% operates in the high and medium technology environments of information technology, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and automotive. In essence Transnational Corporations dominate the global business R&D and in all of this South Africa plays a relative insignificant role in participation. However, as internationalisation of R&D by Transnational Corporations increased, South Africa benefited from this approach and the amount of US$67 billion spent in 2002 of which US$24 million was allotted to South Africa. This benefit however, does not reveal the fact that other developing countries like China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Republic of Korea are the main gainers in the internationalisation of R&D worldwide (World Investment Report, 2005).
Sourcing of competitive technologies in South Africa
The history of South Africa and its political dispensation of Apartheid till 1994 led to international isolation causing the country to adopt an internal innovation approach. Since 1994 however, the country began to participate actively in the global economy and a need exist to source new technologies locally as well as from elsewhere (NSTF, 2001). Lorentzen (2004) provided the following statistics regarding to the sourcing of competitive technologies in South Africa over the period 1999-2001 as indicated by Table 2. According to Lorentzen, the 22% foreign sourcing is primarily for radical innovations, whilst local technological sourcing happens within the domain of incremental innovations. It can therefore be concluded that knowledge resources do not meet the competitive needs of South Africa especially in high technology innovations.
Table 2: Sources of Competitive Technologies
Source Percentage
In-house 57
Local 24
Foreign 22
Further, whilst South African inventors secure around 100 United States patents per year, this represents only 2.5 patents per million of the population per annum. In comparison Japan secured 776 patents per million of the population per annum (Department of Arts, culture, Science and Technology, 2002).
Conclusion and Recommendations
The results reveal that South Africa performed poorly and insignificantly low in the export of high, medium and low levels technologies. The country is therefore poorly positioned globally to compete successfully due to a lack in ability to commercialise the results of R&I in the international markets. This can be partially be attributed to the fact that not sufficient funds are allocated for R&D as indicated by the gross expenditure on R&D. In order to sustain its competitive position South Africa needs to follow a three-tier approach. Import the technology it requires to fulfil in its trading needs by securing access to external sources of technology, establish strong links with the global production system and seek co-operation agreements with international expertise to ensure technology transfer to South Africa.
In order to strengthen the research and SET capacity in South Africa, the throughput at university level should at least be doubled to come in line with developed and developing countries in the European union and to contribute significantly to the formation of SET human capital and technological innovations. South Africa has also embarked on a process of embarking on an incentive approach that provides funding sources to different stages for commercialisation of research innovations.
Due to the fact that South Africa is not performing well in the area of patenting, a better approach could be to focus on trademarks, rather than patents based on the argument that final consumers are less concerned on whether a product has been manufactured solely on the basis of imported or self-develop technology that buying the right product that would satisfy their needs. Trademarks better address the latter component and are focussing more on the licensing of technology as opposed to protecting industrially applicable inventions as in the case of patenting. Whilst patenting is focussing on the supply side of the market to prevent competitors from copying
Are wholesale buyers and retail customers really different? Frankly, there are two answers to this question: yes and no. Yes, because they are different from the buyers and those selling to buyers' point of view and no, because the principles that apply are the same for both types of buying.There is only one real difference, aside that one buys at wholesale prices and the other at retail prices, and that is that wholesale buyers are looking for a selection of items to fill a space or their customers' needs, while retail buyers are looking for one item to fill a space or need. When there isn't any space that needs filling either now or in the future, the customer won't be interested in what you have for sale, which means zero sales.Both wholesale and retail buyers are looking for things that can be either complementary or in contrast to what the are doing or they already have. It is rather a combination of the two (contrast/complementary or complementary/contrast) than a case of complementary or contrast.Contrast/complementary means it's different to what they are doing or they have, but will fit in with other things, while complementary/contrast means it's like what they are doing or already have and yet it's different. If there is a high contrast and it doesn't fit in or if it's exactly what they have, they most likely won't buy.There are two things you will have to do to determine if buyers are in a contrast/complementary or complementary/contrast buying situations. First of all, listen to what customers say and think about these two things: why they are asking the question that way and where they got the idea that generated the question. This is called "listening between the lines". Often, through their questions, customers will tell you what they are looking for. In case they don't, ask them yourself. It
Sourcing of competitive technologies in South Africa
The history of South Africa and its political dispensation of Apartheid till 1994 led to international isolation causing the country to adopt an internal innovation approach. Since 1994 however, the country began to participate actively in the global economy and a need exist to source new technologies locally as well as from elsewhere (NSTF, 2001). Lorentzen (2004) provided the following statistics regarding to the sourcing of competitive technologies in South Africa over the period 1999-2001 as indicated by Table 2. According to Lorentzen, the 22% foreign sourcing is primarily for radical innovations, whilst local technological sourcing happens within the domain of incremental innovations. It can therefore be concluded that knowledge resources do not meet the competitive needs of South Africa especially in high technology innovations.
Table 2: Sources of Competitive Technologies
Source Percentage
In-house 57
Local 24
Foreign 22
Further, whilst South African inventors secure around 100 United States patents per year, this represents only 2.5 patents per million of the population per annum. In comparison Japan secured 776 patents per million of the population per annum (Department of Arts, culture, Science and Technology, 2002).
Conclusion and Recommendations
The results reveal that South Africa performed poorly and insignificantly low in the export of high, medium and low levels technologies. The country is therefore poorly positioned globally to compete successfully due to a lack in ability to commercialise the results of R&I in the international markets. This can be partially be attributed to the fact that not sufficient funds are allocated for R&D as indicated by the gross expenditure on R&D. In order to sustain its competitive position South Africa needs to follow a three-tier approach. Import the technology it requires to fulfil in its trading needs by securing access to external sources of technology, establish strong links with the global production system and seek co-operation agreements with international expertise to ensure technology transfer to South Africa.
In order to strengthen the research and SET capacity in South Africa, the throughput at university level should at least be doubled to come in line with developed and developing countries in the European union and to contribute significantly to the formation of SET human capital and technological innovations. South Africa has also embarked on a process of embarking on an incentive approach that provides funding sources to different stages for commercialisation of research innovations.
Due to the fact that South Africa is not performing well in the area of patenting, a better approach could be to focus on trademarks, rather than patents based on the argument that final consumers are less concerned on whether a product has been manufactured solely on the basis of imported or self-develop technology that buying the right product that would satisfy their needs. Trademarks better address the latter component and are focussing more on the licensing of technology as opposed to protecting industrially applicable inventions as in the case of patenting. Whilst patenting is focussing on the supply side of the market to prevent competitors from copying
Did you know that 80% of all sales are made after the 5th contact? The biggest mistake we make is not following up with our clients regularly. We not only lose the chance to offer other services and products, we lose the chance for satisfied clients' referrals. Building your practice needs consistent bi-monthly follow-ups. If you think this takes too much time, follow my lead and delegate some of it where you will spend only 6-8 hours a week. Remember, only marketing and promotion builds income and business, the rest are expenses. Part one of this article is available at www.bookcoaching.com/freearticles/article-138.shtml. Here's the ten ways to follow-up with coaching clients: 6. Follow-up in two steps. In the first follow-up, give a free report using your sparkling signature file as a soft sales piece. In a week, follow this up with your offer. Refer to the report, and then make your one irresistible offer. If I sent a report on what web sites need before contacting a web master, I follow it up with the three-session "telecoaching" program on writing a web site with marketing pizzazz. One personal coach offered an excerpt from her new book the first time, and followed up with a discount offer for the book. 7. Motivate yourself and your staff with a poster of each month's follow-up promotions. It's great to see your progress in writing. Your promotions can be small or large. You know you're going to attract new clients because you put out messages that keep you in your audience's minds. With the help of your assistant, in just one day, you can send out PR to local papers on a seminar, update email addresses, send an article to the top ten, finish an interview
In order to strengthen the research and SET capacity in South Africa, the throughput at university level should at least be doubled to come in line with developed and developing countries in the European union and to contribute significantly to the formation of SET human capital and technological innovations. South Africa has also embarked on a process of embarking on an incentive approach that provides funding sources to different stages for commercialisation of research innovations.
Due to the fact that South Africa is not performing well in the area of patenting, a better approach could be to focus on trademarks, rather than patents based on the argument that final consumers are less concerned on whether a product has been manufactured solely on the basis of imported or self-develop technology that buying the right product that would satisfy their needs. Trademarks better address the latter component and are focussing more on the licensing of technology as opposed to protecting industrially applicable inventions as in the case of patenting. Whilst patenting is focussing on the supply side of the market to prevent competitors from copying the innovation, trademarks is focussing on the demand side of the market by influencing consumers, which trademark to buy. South Africa therefore could benefit to focus on establishing preferred trademarks in the marketplace in order to grow its competitive base in the global world especially in the field of indigenous technology applications.
From a global perspective South Africa is also performing poorly to attract R&D funds from Transnational Corporations. Funding obtained is primarily intended for the auto industry. The funds invested, represents a very narrow base on which to build the competitive edge through R&I.
It can therefore be concluded that South Africa founds itself on the periphery of global knowledge creation and innovation as well as in sourcing for technological innovations. If South Africa intends to maintain and grow its global competitiveness greater emphasis should be given to:
· Increase the budget for Research and innovation dramatically;
· Provide stronger support to universities to engage in knowledge transfer and commercialisation of inventions;
· Direct the preferred choice of students in the direction of science, engineering and technology education; and
· Form strong partnerships with international organisations known for R&I and with reputable scientists in R&I.
All this should be done in the realisation that that the precise returns in R&I investments cannot be determined and that the real benefits may only be reaped years later.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ADAIR, J. 1990. The challenge of innovation. Great Britain: Biddles Ltd, Guilford and King’s Lynn.
Baumol, W.J. 2002. The Free-Market Innovation Machine. Princeton University Press: Princeton.
Bessant, J., Lamming,R., Noke, H. & Philips, W. 2005. Managing innovation beyond the steady state. Technovation. 25: 1366-1376.
CALOGHIROU,Y., Kastelli, I. & Tsakanikas, A. 2004. Internal capabilities and external knowledge sources: complements or substitutes for innovative performance?, Technovation, 24:29-39.
Chesbrough H. 2003. Open innovation – The new imperative for creating and profiting from technology. Boston, Massachusets: Harvard business school press. (pg110;pg157;read chapter 8)
Cooke, P. 2005. Regionally asymmetric knowledge capabilities and open innovation: Exploring “Globalisation 2” – A new model of industry organisation. Research Policy. 34: 1128-1149.
Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. 2002. South Africas National R&D Strategy: The changing face of R&D within South African public sector research. June. Government Printers: Pretoria.
DTI. 2004. Science &Innovation investment framework 2004-2014. HM Treasury: Norwich.
Kahn, M. & Blankley, W. 2005. The state of research and experimental development: www.hsrcpress.ac.za Accessed: 24/02/2006.
Kaplan, D. 2005. Technology and the growth of manufactured exports: Assessing South Africa’s performance and policy. Paper presented at DRUID Summer Conference on Industrial Dynamics, Innovation and Development, Elsinore, Denmark, 14-16.06.04
Kar. 2004. Constructing a logical framework. 7 July. http://www.kar-dht.org/logframe.html Accessed: 25/02/06
Lechter, M.A. 2001. Protecting your #1 Asset: Creating fortunes from your ideas. New York: Warner Books.
Lorentzen, J. 2004. The noledge of numbers: S&T, R&D, and Innovation indicators in South Africa. School of Development Studies: University of Kwazulu-Natal.
McCalman, P. 2005. International diffusion and intellectual property rights: An empirical analysis. Journal of International Economics. 67:353-372.
MRC Innovation Centre. 2006. Section H: Funding for commercialisation of research. http://innovation.mrc.ac.za/section.htm Accessed: 24/02/06
NSTF. 2001. SET Awareness – Growth and Innovation Study. http://www.nstf.org.za/activities/projects/set_study/set_awareness_study.asp Accessed: 25/02/06
RTDinfo. 2006. When R&D relocates. RTDinfo. January. 47:29.
Sajeva, M., Gatelli, D., Tarantola, S. and Hollanders, H. 2005. Methodology report on European Innovation Scoreboard 2005. European Trend Chart on Innovation. 1-146.
Schneider, P.H. 2005. International trade, economic growth and intellectual property rights: A panel data study of developed and developing countries. Journal of Development Economics. 78:529-547.
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). 2000. Types of Patents. Technology Assessment and Forecast data base. 1 June. http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/patdesc.htm Accessed: 21/02/06
UTTERBACK J.M. 1996. Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard business school press.
World Investment Report. 2005. Transnational Corporations and the Internationalization of R&D. United Nations: New York.
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