When you take a township entrepreneur from nothing to something, that’s impact. When you help a business scale from three employees to 10, that’s impact. When you enable a company to successfully navigate the red tape around procurement, that’s impact. When your interventions result in notable pro-small business mindset shift within a large corporate, that’s impact. When you invest for impact, then change is assured; and Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) is no different.
This results-driven perspective underpins the work of the Entrepreneurship Development Academy (EDA) at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS). It’s an approach which is in line with GIBS’s philosophy of being close to business and relevant within the broader business environment; although in the ESD context this includes multinational firms, big corporates as well as start-ups and small-, micro- and medium-sized enterprises (SMMEs).
This view hinges on the assertion that it makes good business sense to invest in suppliers, young business owners and emerging industries, both from a national growth and employment perspective and as a way of building effective supply chains.
Approached in this manner, ESD has the potential to be a win-win situation, rather than a compliance necessity.
Getting this right comes down to building solid foundations, addressing the pressures on business and entrepreneurs, and reinforcing customised interventions through the use of meaningful analysis and interpretation. Anything less is missing the impact opportunity and risks falling into the ‘tick box’ trap.
A business-like approach
GIBS’s EDA has been intentionally positioned with the business school as the focal point of entrepreneurship education, incorporating the GIBS Social Entrepreneurship Programme as well as customised interventions. This enables the EDA team to play on GIBS’s strengths as the business school for business and the institution’s canny ability to interpret corporate needs and translate these into meaningful solutions.
“The EDA tailor-makes ESD programmes that focus on entrepreneurship development,” explains Miranda Simrie, EDA Director. “Our clients could be corporates or institutional funders like international foundations, or public sector organisations such as government departments and SOEs. All clients are bound by one shared goal, to build and capacitate entrepreneurs in a way that impacts economic development and job creation.”
The EDA positions itself as a partner in the process, and not simply a service provider. This is a unique approach which enables the team to challenge attitudes on the part of its clients who lean towards a tickbox approach. This involves working closely with clients to create programmes that talk to their industry and area of interest, such as social entrepreneurship, working with start-ups, helping entrepreneurs scale their businesses, or addressing ways in which to access supply chains.
This is not always easy, with many clients still preferring to take an arms-length approach, but Simrie believes this is changing. “For some clients ESD is still a grudge purchase, but some are realising that good corporate citizenship is not just about ticking the box, it’s about taking an interest in the economy and playing an active role in the development of smaller enterprises.”
Supporting entrepreneurs
A GIBS EDA intervention recognises the importance of guiding entrepreneurs through the basics of business, from mentoring to coaching, personal development, marketing, sales insights and business training. Without embedding confidence in their abilities to drive a business forward, entrepreneurs cannot progress, so self-belief is as important as imparting core business skills.
The EDA also recognises that a mindset shift is required by the likes of government and big business around critical issues such as payment processes and access to funding. To address such sticking points, the EDA undertakes an engagement and advocacy role on behalf of the entrepreneur to highlight challenges and, where possible, to stimulate a change management process within the very organisations funding ESD programmes.
This advocacy and thought-leadership role is supported by the business school’s academic strengths in the form of research, holding relevant conversations with stakeholders and promoting active engagement. Papers such as SMMEs and the Green Economy: Muddy Waters and Murky Futures (February 2017) and Social Enterprises in South Africa: Discovering a Vibrant Sector (May 2018) have been produced on the back of the EDA’s data-gathering efforts. This research is valuable for the sector, for the design of programmes and also for ensuring the relevance of the GIBS EDA approach.
“At no point does the EDA want to be accused of simply fulfilling its own tickbox exercise,” explains Simrie. “So the team works hard to engage with stakeholders and adapts its approach to the needs, intent, context and requirements of its partners.”
Monitoring and evaluation also extends to tracking each entrepreneur’s development throughout a programme and thereafter. “At all times we are looking to quantify the impact of a programme in terms of the bottom line, innovation, the growth of the organisation and its ability to become competitive,” says Simrie. Such insights allow the EDA to draw conclusions about the state of the space and also to direct programmes towards solving notable challenges, such as accessing funding. Having identified these hurdles, the EDA then reinforces its entrepreneurship interactions by offering, for instance, popular masterclasses in securing funding and by offering practical insights which help nascent business owners to find investors. The EDA also creates opportunities to bring the various strands of business together by facilitating engagement with senior decision-makers, investors and thought leaders.
By plugging into all stakeholders, the EDA is able to maintain an innovative approach which thrives on rethinking existing methods, getting the basics right and asking hard questions of corporate South Africa. “Ours is an investment approach to ESD,” says Simrie. “ESD is a business decision, so it requires a business approach to ensure a meaningful impact.”
