Accenture South Africa CE William Mzimba. Picture: JEREMY GLYNN
Accenture South Africa CE William Mzimba. Picture: JEREMY GLYNN

THAT a Turkish immigrant to the US, who started a Greek yogurt business, won the mantle of world’s best entrepreneur, should not be as surprising as it sounds. This and similar rags to riches stories have common threads connecting them that other firms, especially those in South Africa, should study more closely.

When brought into touch with a rapacious consumer market, Chobani Greek Yogurt’s success story shows that a billion dollar business can be built in as little as six years — the challenge is for South Africa to produce a couple of million similar success stories in the next six years to dent unemployment, which runs at 48% among the youth.

However, for South Africa to produce similar feel-good stories, a leap beyond entitlement and a quick-fix solution of importing — rather than thinking of producing locally and adding more value locally — will be needed. In a nutshell, more innovation.

William Mzimba of the consultants Accenture, who is leading the launch of a high-profile innovation index for South Africa in September, in partnership with Business Day, says South Africa suffers from an "innovation death spiral". Unfortunately, innovation is the way out of the mire, and this needs to happen across all sectors, including government.

"Investment, innovation and institutional capacity are the key requirements for growth. But we single out innovation, as if you are seen to be an innovative country you will attract investment. And you will solve institutional capacity and poverty issues because you think about things differently. And you will see growth," says Mr Mzimba.

"Let’s study those companies that have done it and showcase case studies. Then the issue of innovation is demystified and becomes a part of the DNA of society, government and corporate South Africa — and we will then be on a winning streak."

Mr Mzimba says South Africa has innovated before. "But we innovated out of necessity. It needs to be a proactive and default position. You can’t think you can just import rather than solve the problem yourself," he said.

World-renowned management consultant Fons Trompenaars — who spoke at a Brightest Young Minds initiative for the youth in South Africa recently — says one of the greatest difficulties right now is integrating younger generations with more experienced ones. But his concern is that solutions are sought in extremes, and that "management theories go from exaggeration to exaggeration".

He says unlocking shareholder value was one such extreme, while the latest exaggeration is contributions to society.

"We need to reconcile dilemmas to have a sustainable organisation. Most dilemmas are between stakeholders … the real crisis is a cultural crisis," he says. He says innovation leads to sustainability and that is the essence of good leadership, while dilemma reconciliation is about dialogue. "We don’t have a clue what value is anymore."

What was Hamdi Ulukaya’s magic recipe to make it big with his Chobani Greek Yogurt?

For a start, he bought a closed-down yogurt factory despite being advised against, it and then he stuck with product development for a year and a half after starting out making feta cheese. But as an immigrant he believes in embracing change and improving communities, and donates 10% of profits to the firm’s charitable foundation.