Sustained innovation remains central to national efforts to grow the economy and maintain a country’s competitive position and should not be considered a “nice-to-have” but rather a strategic imperative, visiting US-based global innovation policy specialist Professor Charles Wessner told manufacturers on Tuesday.

Addressing delegates at the second yearly Manufacturing Indaba, in Johannesburg, the Georgetown University academic said intense collaboration between small and large businesses, as well as universities, was required to prompt innovation and should be supported by the appropriate incentives, legislation and institutions.

Government and industry should further invest in and train a skilled workforce, as well as expand university connections to the regional and national economy, while leveraging complementary national and regional programmes.

Countries that lead in the field of global innovation, such as China, had been successful at providing a high-level focus, sustained support for universities and “rapidly” growing funding for research and development.

“[Solid] government and industry partnerships [are also required] to bring new products and services to market and require the investment of substantial [State] resources to create, attract and retain the industries of today and tomorrow.

“Industry leadership is also essential…and the funding mechanisms [that support innovation] need to be competitive, transparent and adapted to the task,” he commented.

Innovation could be further catalysed through the introduction of a national innovation system network involving institutions in the public and private sectors whose activities and interactions initiated, developed, modified and commercialised new technologies.

Wessner further argued that innovation was not a linear process that led to commercialisation, but was rather a complex process that could see technological “breakthroughs” preceding basic research.

“Many discoveries have a serendipitous element. Much learning occurs by trial and error and many good ideas simply do not make it to the marketplace. The process from discovery to innovation to commercialisation involves consecutive challenges and market signals that can often be indistinct or even absent,” he averred.

Wessner added that national innovation thrived in a supportive “ecosystem” that was characterised by interdependence among actors and which drew attention to the need for successful coordination and cooperation across the private and public sector – a role he believed was occupied in South Africa by industry body, the Manufacturing Circle.

Moreover, high-technology innovation was largely driven by smaller players in the market, despite their lack of capital to transform ideas into innovation.

They did, however, require an “industrial commons” to provide help in
financing growth, demonstrating prototypes and attracting investors, as well as
public–private partnerships to accelerate the development of new technologies from inception as an idea to a final product that was ready for the market.

“Large returns to national economic and strategic capabilities can result from relatively small national investments and innovations – with the right policy support – and can become new products and services for the market.

“In addition, industry research consortia accelerate the development of technologies by coordinating precompetitive work among firms,” he noted.