Rise of the Namibian Entrepreneur
In the midst of the economic gloom facing Namibia there is a silver lining beginning to appear. Namibians are finally getting the message, that government does not have all the answers. In response to this awareness there is an exciting emergence of entrepreneurial activity among the Namibian population. In the last few weeks alone there have been several events around the entrepreneurship theme: from the Crayfish conference with its strong women in business section; the Entrepreneurs Round Table and SME Compete reaching out to a new generation of entrepreneurs and the Tourism Expo this week showcasing many new entrepreneurial ventures. All of the three main universities UNAM, NUST and IUM have all partnered international foundations to begin offering practical entrepreneurship programmes. If necessity is truly the mother invention – then Namibia is at an exciting moment in time.
Startup festival and symposium
Yet despite all this activity the view from the side of the average entrepreneur is one of a confusing disconnected array of services which may or may not be applicable to him or her.
Over the past two months the Namibia Business School (NBS) has been sensitising the Namibian public to the fact that when dealing with entrepreneurs, it is not one size fits all! Entrepreneurs go through a lifecycle of five stages: Idea development, venture startup, growth, maturity and harvest. The entrepreneur at each of these different stages is unique and their needs are very different. The diagram below illustrates the point.
This analysis has alerted us to one of the big problems facing entrepreneurs, this is the Fragmentation of services available to them, where most of these services are unknown to the average entrepreneur. To deal with this fragmentation we need to create Connections and this is one of the aims of the Entrepreneurship Symposium to be held on the 28th June and is part of the Startup Festival which continues on the 29 & 30th June at the Windhoek City Centre.
NamibiaEntrepreneurs.com
The Entrepreneurship Symposium will have two main aims:
(i) Creating Connections - through the commission of an online match-making platform called www.NamibiaEntrepreneurs.com This site will match entrepreneurs with service suppliers (and vice versa) and each month send a list of suppliers to the entrepreneur who are operating within his/her lifecycle sector – similarly the service supplier will receive a list of entrepreneurs who are in their target sectors and may want to use their services. Through this free monthly matchmaking, we hope to facilitate more opportunities for entrepreneurs and service suppliers to engage with each other and stimulate business and growth. This initiative on its own could transform the Namibian entrepreneurial landscape.
(ii) Setting an Agenda for Action – through presentations and discussion workshops at the symposium we expect to generate agenda points for action, that we will take away and report back on progress through the www.NamibiaEntrepreneurs.com website.
The history of Namibia marked by struggle and unequal development has left us with one particular anomaly, the Afrikaans and German speaking communities are masters in entrepreneurship and SME development. This point should be widely acknowledged and embraced as a fact of our historical circumstance. The rest of the Namibian house now needs to learn from these communities how to be successful entrepreneurs. We need to learn how to spot opportunities and apply innovative solutions that will spawn entrepreneurial businesses that will create wealth and jobs and benefit for the whole nation. We are inviting members of the Afrikaans and German speaking community to join hands with us to defeat the scourge of unemployment and poverty by participating with us at the symposium and festival. Our destiny’s are inextricably bound together – we are one Namibian house. I am proud to note as an educator that all the main universities are creating innovative opportunities to encourage national entrepreneurism. The UNAM contribution is the matchmaking website, www.NamibiaEntrepreneurs.com we are asking all entrepreneurs and suppliers of services to entrepreneurs to register on the website and help create a powerful tool that will encourage the growth of entrepreneurial business and help Namibia do business better.
Prof. Grafton Whyte is Director of the Namibia Business School.
Startup festival and symposium
Yet despite all this activity the view from the side of the average entrepreneur is one of a confusing disconnected array of services which may or may not be applicable to him or her.
Over the past two months the Namibia Business School (NBS) has been sensitising the Namibian public to the fact that when dealing with entrepreneurs, it is not one size fits all! Entrepreneurs go through a lifecycle of five stages: Idea development, venture startup, growth, maturity and harvest. The entrepreneur at each of these different stages is unique and their needs are very different. The diagram below illustrates the point.
This analysis has alerted us to one of the big problems facing entrepreneurs, this is the Fragmentation of services available to them, where most of these services are unknown to the average entrepreneur. To deal with this fragmentation we need to create Connections and this is one of the aims of the Entrepreneurship Symposium to be held on the 28th June and is part of the Startup Festival which continues on the 29 & 30th June at the Windhoek City Centre.
NamibiaEntrepreneurs.com
The Entrepreneurship Symposium will have two main aims:
(i) Creating Connections - through the commission of an online match-making platform called www.NamibiaEntrepreneurs.com This site will match entrepreneurs with service suppliers (and vice versa) and each month send a list of suppliers to the entrepreneur who are operating within his/her lifecycle sector – similarly the service supplier will receive a list of entrepreneurs who are in their target sectors and may want to use their services. Through this free monthly matchmaking, we hope to facilitate more opportunities for entrepreneurs and service suppliers to engage with each other and stimulate business and growth. This initiative on its own could transform the Namibian entrepreneurial landscape.
(ii) Setting an Agenda for Action – through presentations and discussion workshops at the symposium we expect to generate agenda points for action, that we will take away and report back on progress through the www.NamibiaEntrepreneurs.com website.
The history of Namibia marked by struggle and unequal development has left us with one particular anomaly, the Afrikaans and German speaking communities are masters in entrepreneurship and SME development. This point should be widely acknowledged and embraced as a fact of our historical circumstance. The rest of the Namibian house now needs to learn from these communities how to be successful entrepreneurs. We need to learn how to spot opportunities and apply innovative solutions that will spawn entrepreneurial businesses that will create wealth and jobs and benefit for the whole nation. We are inviting members of the Afrikaans and German speaking community to join hands with us to defeat the scourge of unemployment and poverty by participating with us at the symposium and festival. Our destiny’s are inextricably bound together – we are one Namibian house. I am proud to note as an educator that all the main universities are creating innovative opportunities to encourage national entrepreneurism. The UNAM contribution is the matchmaking website, www.NamibiaEntrepreneurs.com we are asking all entrepreneurs and suppliers of services to entrepreneurs to register on the website and help create a powerful tool that will encourage the growth of entrepreneurial business and help Namibia do business better.
Prof. Grafton Whyte is Director of the Namibia Business School.
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