Feedback to ECA Workshop - infoDev presentation on AIN, Leon...Feedback to ECA Workshop September 2007. An initiative of Co-sponsored by Presented by: Leon Lourens •History, structure

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


• 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.


• 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



• 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