feedback to eca workshop - infodev · governments, stakeholders, education institutions and the...
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An initiative of Co-sponsored byPresented by:Leon Lourens
Feedback to ECA WorkshopSeptember 2007
An initiative of Co-sponsored byPresented by:Leon Lourens
•History, structure & objectives•Components
•Sub-regional networks•Tools & resources
•Satellite Incubation
The African Incubator Network
Initiative of Co-sponsored by
Softstart Business & Technology Incubator (SBTI)– Designated contracting party, grantee and governance
responsibility.
BusyInternet (West Africa)
Uganda Industrial Research Institute (East and Central Africa)
SA Business & Technology Incubator Association
and SEDA Technology Programme (SA)
Solvebrand Ltd – Provider of portal platform technology and virtual incubation development company. Currently
working with Commission for Africa and iPrism Global Inc
Support from other resources
Regional representatives
The Africa sub-regions
West AfricaEast / Central
Africa
Southern Africa
focused lobbying within government, academic and business communities
The road…
Late 2005:Late 2005: infoDevinfoDev call for proposals. Called on 3 subcall for proposals. Called on 3 sub--regional representativesregional representatives……proposal accepted.proposal accepted.
2005:2005: Communication between delegates; 100 members; Communication between delegates; 100 members; survey of needs; attempt to get funding for web site to survey of needs; attempt to get funding for web site to facilitate linkages and sharingfacilitate linkages and sharing……
2005:2005: Kenya/Uganda/Senegal/South Africa meeting in South AfricaKenya/Uganda/Senegal/South Africa meeting in South Africa
Oct 2004:Oct 2004: African delegates meet for a regional breakout at the African delegates meet for a regional breakout at the Global Forum for Incubation in New DelhiGlobal Forum for Incubation in New Delhi……..WOW Experience!!..WOW Experience!!
May 2006:May 2006: First Africa Incubator and Innovation Network First Africa Incubator and Innovation Network meeting!!!meeting!!!
Nov 2006:Nov 2006: FormaliseFormalise strategy and action plan to develop strategy and action plan to develop Africa Incubator NetworkAfrica Incubator Network
Sep 2006:Sep 2006: Contract awarded and signed Contract awarded and signed
The road…March 2007:March 2007: Launch of AIN website and communication Launch of AIN website and communication portal in the UKportal in the UK
July 2007:July 2007: Regional workshops in Maputo, Kampala and Regional workshops in Maputo, Kampala and Accra.Accra.
June 2007:June 2007: Partners strategy meeting is South AfricaPartners strategy meeting is South Africa
June 2007:June 2007: Overcome problems with banks and receive first paymentOvercome problems with banks and receive first payment
Oct 2007Oct 2007*Incubator manager training*Incubator manager training
Key objectives
1. Utilize a web site with a knowledge repository of shared tools and practices.
2. Create awareness of incubation and the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship activity with Governments, stakeholders, education institutions and the finance and private sectors. Advocacy of the network
3. Develop and disseminate promotional material, the activities of network members and country stories (recognize success).
Key objectives
4. Build network to ensure sustainability, possibly developing its own funds.
5. Build capacity for incubator practitioners.
6. Support regional workshops.
Each objective has key activities with milestones, target dates, budget and responsibilities
1. Web site & knowledge repository
1.1 Publish web site1.2 Email to advise all network of website1.3 Complete registration data sheets online1.4 Identify other partners in countries 1.5 Share incubator management tools1.6 Share communication tools1.7 Provide content1.8 Sub regional advisory team for website
management 1.9 Workshop platform, functional specifications and
KMS format with other regions and infoDev
2. Create awareness2.1 Understand country stakeholders, policy and
regulatory environments
2.2 Africa Incubator Day (AID) – identify date + poster + logo + launch etc
2.3 Engage donor community via infoDev for advocacy + funding in each country (donor working group)
2.4 Sub region/regional proposal approaches
2.5 Engage regional economic stakeholder groups (gvt e.g. Comesa; pvt sector (biz councils)
3. Develop & disseminate promotional material
3.1 Source website inputs on activities 3.2 Newsletter – articles + upcoming activities +
events from incubators and incubatees3.3 Encourage use of media to promote our
activities
3.4 Six month review of network activities3.5 Video case studies to show impact3.6 Develop brochure that sets out what Africa
Network is doing
4. Build network
4.1 Develop draft Memorandum of Understanding
4.2 Pay first year “membership fee”
4.3 Network proposal to donors to ensure sustainability
5. Build capacity5.1 Source training for incubator professionals.5.2 Attach training to existing training under grants5.3 Share on-line training resources (iDISC)5.4 Internships – arranged individually 5.5 Encourage sub-regional study visits (co-fund)
*incubator to incubator*biz school to incubator
5.6 Proposals to donors5.7 Handbook on good practice
5.8 Buddies listed on portal
6. Support sub regional workshops
6.1 Hold sub-regional workshopsid of key people
6.2 Prepare agenda which includes training
6.3 Leverage infoDev support to attract donor/gvtsupport
6.4 Pan-African Conference & Training
• AIN Incubation tools– WWW– Portal– Alice Street Online Conferencing Centre– Incubator Manager software
• Management tool• Incubation tool BBM
• Resources– 3 sub-regional facilitators– Project Manager & Co-ordinator– Southern Sub-regional Association with structures– Skype and MS Virtual Earth mapping
African Incubation Network
Communication
Alice
Street
Suite
Networking
AIN web portal
Virtual Meeting Room
Sharing global best practice
Collaboration around tailored indigenous tools
Leon @ SBTI
Estelle @Busy Internet
Charles @ UIRI
Tools
Incubator Management system
Ellen & Steve @
Daniel @ Avnon
David & Sheila @ Solvebrand
African Incubation NetworkCreating viral membership growth
Grow Network
Dissemination& Feedback
Agree actions&
ActivitiesForm groups
Alignment
Engagement
Registration
AIN Extranet
Contact dbase
Discussion Forums
Documents
Resource
Libraries
Project Teams
AnytimeAnywhere
Reporting
e-newsletters
Search tools
Multi-lingual
Polls, benchmarking
• Links to other regional networks
• Other Regional Networks
LAC
AfricaMENA
ECAASIA
InfoDEV
AINSub Sahara
Africa
Network reports & news
MENAMiddle East
& North Africa
Network reports & News
ECAEastern
Europe and Central Asia
Network reports & News
LACLatin
America & Caribbean
Network reports and News
infoDEV
Sub Regional Activities
iDisc access by:
WWW browserRegional FacilitatorEmailForum
AIN registrationwww.africanincubation.net
www.idisc.net
Incubation resources and shared content
Our Secure IntranetPublic
Global Incubation networking
AsiaAsia
Network reports and News
African Incubation NetworkModular portal tools and community support
African Incubation NetworkModular portal tools and community support
• The AIN portal provided by Solvebrand is a world-class secure place to communicate with incubatees, incubation managers, supporters, funders, mentors, government and collaborators.
• Access to the AIN extranet www.ainportal.org and content is managed through permissioning.
• Subsites target the needs of different audiences and geographically dispersed groups and project teams.
• Members can visit the Help and Support website and access online user friendly tutorials.
• The AIN Portal integrates and runs alongside existing websites and we migrate to agreed best practice toolkits
e.g. iDisc, IFC WB SME Toolkit, qlbs.com, Incubation Manager. We add value and do not compete with these – we share best practice and support each other on your behalf.
African Incubation NetworkModular portal tools and community support
• AIN Members can submit content on portal tools such as News, Acronym Manager, Image Library, Digital media Library, Event Calendar, Project Space, FAQ’s and discussion Forums.
• Documents and templates are available via a flexible, easy to use library system. Upload once – download & share many times
• AIN members can self-create Project Spaces for unique teams to collaborate on reports, documents, agree objectives and solve issues.
• Role-based user groups use hierarchical structures that reflect either incubator business objectives, processes or both.– Multilingual support for sub regional websites.
• PC & MAC compatible – IE & Firefox browser friendly
African Incubation NetworkModular portal tools and community support
African Incubation NetworkModular portal tools and community support
• The AIN Portal platform includes a tailored choice of applications to meet the needs of the AIN community.
• Share information, grow networks and work alongside existing applications and user data.
• User friendly tools make communicating easier and accessible from your desktop.
• Designed and facilitated to: – require no technical knowledge. [MS Word]– encourage usage and return visits. – reduce training costs. – Minimise email except when requested. (tick box)
AIN Incubatee Support Strategy
• Pre-incubation assessment ~ formal or informal ~ entrepreneur or lifestyle?• Incubation Support as a resident incubatee or via virtual support, facilitation & mentoring?• Idea to opportunity ~ Finance, IP & technology assessment?• Single entrepreneur to business team ~ people assessment ~ team skills balance?• Concept to market ~ market assessment and time to market?• Business Planning ~ commercial viability, profitability and growth?• Investor Ready ~ capital investment requirement?• Domestic market v International market ~global readiness and vision?• Survival ~ growth ~ export ~ acquisition ~ sale?• Exit Strategy ~ graduation from incubator & acquisition or sale of the company?
AIN roadmap &
Incubator Manager s/w
Business Building Model
ManagementSystems
Business Maturity
MarketDiversification
Production Support
Stages 6:Maturity
Management Systems
Business Growth
Strategies
Sales &Distribution
ProductionStage 5: Growth
Commercial Phase
CommercialCapacity
Funding & Business Leverage
Market ValidationPre-productionPrototype
Stage 4: Go–to–market
HR capacitybuilding
Strategic Business Plan
Strategic Market Plan
Engineering Prototype
Stage 3:Development
Systems & policies
Economic Feasibility
Market StudyTechnical Feasibility
Stage 2:Feasibility
Development Phase
BusinessStructuring
Venture Assessment
Market Needs Assessment
Technical Analysis
Stage 1: Investigation
Concept Phase
OperationalBusinessMarketTechnicalStages
African Incubation NetworkFuture Integration targets
With QLBS.com on-line ~
Your incubator management can discretely and securely:
• Measure current position
• Help specific incubator’s identify organisational strengths and areas for improvement and growth
• Compare with other incubators ~ locally and globally
• Benchmark AIN incubators’ performance ~ every 6 ~12 months ie show progress to your board and attract sponsors
• Identify Role Model incubators and map them against a criterion for AIN performance excellence within Africa.
Developed vs Developing
Clients are to a large extent still pre-incubation.
Incabatees are generally mature companies with professional management and funding.
Technology incubation means focusing on Business development within a technology sector.
Technology incubation is just that –development of technology with the resources and infrastructure.
What is in it for me? Our philanthropic culture is poorly developed.
The culture of plowing back into the community without expecting a monetary return is common place.
Incubators are few and far between and try to service a very large geographical area.
Incubators are very community focusedand have a strong sense of “belonging”
Very few resources exist for entrepreneurial funding – especially early stage or seed funding.
Funding for business development is generally available and abundant.
Associations with Universities exist but the link is very weak.
Most incubators are closely associated with and supported by universities.
Africa Incubation / South AfricaDeveloped Countries
Table of ContentStakeholders & role players
EquityInfra-structure
University- Market links
Credit
Facility Graduates
ChangeEmployment Replication
Support Income
Mentoring
CommunityPrivate sector
GovernmentNational / Provincial & Local
Finance, Government, Banks / Venture capital
Sponsors/managerIncubator
Enterprises
National/export marketWork force
Culture, Skills Entrepreneurship
UniversityResearch Institute
Entrepreneur
Taxes
Seed Capital
Innovations
Policy
Goods Services
Satellite Incubation ModelVirtual link up to 16 people at once
SBTI
MENTOR Network
Satellite Incubators
Technology input
Business building and incubation
model
Shareholders and
Stakeholders
Other Incubators
Clients and broader public
Other Incubators
Other Incubators
Africa Network
TERTIARY INSTITUTES
Thank you…Looking forward to making Africa proud.Looking forward to making Africa proud.
Leon LourensLeon LourensSoftstart Business & Technology IncubatorSoftstart Business & Technology [email protected]@sbti.co.za