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Endeavor White Paper 2013: The State of Entrepreneurship in South Africa

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Debates were robust and frequently went beyond the question of how to create an ecosystem that would nurture and develop high-impact entrepreneurs. There were different views on what an entrepreneur and what a high-growth business is. Most agreed however that the Summit played an important role in the search for an- swers. Two themes ran through the entire debate. The first was that the picture is not en- tirely bleak. We heard that accessing smart capital is less difficult than many people would have it. The biggest problem is a lack of knowledge about where and how to access funding, not the funding itself. While agreeing that there were a number of challenges in certain sectors, most del- egates felt that South Africa's infrastruc- ture was not entirely unacceptable. The problem of corruption, however, remains a factor that bedevils the efficiency and cost effectiveness of many infrastructural programmes. Procurement remains a sore point, with most entrepreneurs insisting that corpo- rations can do much more to give them access to procurement opportunities. Many large businesses, they felt, have great enterprise development strategies, but have failed to integrate them with their procurement policies. Mentoring and networking is still in its infancy in South Africa and much work needs to be done to change attitudes in this regard. The work that Endeavor does was cited as an example of best practice in the field. The second theme is that of self-reliance and a sense that entrepreneurs cannot wait for things to be fixed by big business, government, NGOs or society at large. Real high-growth entrepreneurs, the ones who succeed, are those who get up and fix things themselves. c CONCLUSION 18 PANELLISTS WELCOME Catherine Townshend, MD, Endeavor South Africa SAP PRESENTATION Desmond Nair, Director: Ecosystem and Channels at SAP Africa HEADLINE PANEL Facilitator: Kelly Ritchie, Co-owner and Operations Director of SalesPartners Worldwide Sol Bezuidenhout, an Associate at Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa Wamuyu Mahinda, Founder and CEO: The Youth Banner and Ashoka Fellow Hepsy Mkhungo, Head: Enterprise Development & Community Partnership at the South African Breweries (SAB). Sisa Ntshona, Head: Enterprise Development at Absa Bank Malcolm Segal, currently sits on the boards of vari- ous companies in which he holds a private equity investment and among others is also an Executive Consultant to the Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. ACCESS TO SMART CAPITAL Facilitator: Kumaran Padayachee, CEO: Spartan Technology Rentals Sol Bezuidenhout, (see above) Heather Lowe, Head: of Enterprise Development at FNB Commercial Stuart Townshend, Head: ED Action Fund at Edge Growth PROCUREMENT PAYMENT PRACTICES Facilitator: Lusapo Njenge, Chief Strategy and Information Officer: Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) Ralph Makola, Procure Hub SA Natalie Killassy, CEO: Stitch Wise and Endeavor Entrepreneur ACCESS TO THE RIGHT INFRASTRUCTURE Facilitator: Sunil Geness, Director: Government Relations & Corporate Social Responsibility, SAP Africa Richard Dewing, Founder: Cibecs and Endeavor Entrepreneur Pieter Rebeus, Independent Telecommunications Professional Josh Adler, Director: Centre for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Africa Leadership THE POWER OF NETWORKS AND MENTORING Facilitator: Catherine Townshend, MD: Endeavor South Africa Tafadzwa Samushonga, Senior Consultant: Monitor Group South Africa Wamuyu Mahinda, Founder and CEO: The Youth Banner and Ashoka Fellow Ilze Dewing, Endeavor Entrepreneur and Director: Cibecs

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