I come from a country where GDP, interest rates and currency value are always putting our country as one of the least competitive countries in the world. However, the economic landscape still is operational. People find ways to survive and manage to look after their families. So, there must be something fundamental at work here. Therefore, from a theoretical perspective stumbling across the competitive strategy theory of Michael Porter became the cornerstone of my research. It occurred to me that perhaps countries like South Africa are competitive through other measurements of which classical economics ignores.
From an empirical perspective, consistently watching emerging markets never really emerging into emerged or developed countries in spite of endless infrastructure development since they gained independence from their colonial predecessors continued to boggle the mind. What is it about African governments in general that inherit governance structures that cripple them into continuing to conduct business as usual? They fight for only the political change forgetting that is just a quarter of their battle. They need to understand not only the system they inherit but how to use it for the betterment of the country. Or alternatively, how to change the system to encourage the development of the less privileged or previously excluded individuals. So, therefore, looking at the Energy industry made sense, particularly the fact that they are considered to be the greatest employer compared to other sectors in Sub-Sahara. How do they maintain their longevity to continue to be the provider of jobs? How do they continue to supply that resource to people who did not originally have access to it as a result of the De Klerk and Botha Regime?
Now I have presented the theoretical perspective and the empirical perspective. So, in identifying the gap between them, how does one link these two perspectives? I have some suggestion(s) to share. The answer lies in the ability to be innovative. However, to put this in context, innovation from advanced economies perspective means being a market leader. Whereas, innovation from a developing, or emerging markets perspective is about remaining relevant in the global community. So the next investigative question is what is the relevant-indicator of the Energy Sector in South Africa and how will I be able to measure that? More specifically how competitive are we from an innovation perspective in the Renewable Energy (RE) sector? What are the implications of an un-innovative RE sector? To answer this question, I had to look current RE business model to understand whether it is sustainable or not. Why sustainable? Being part of the global community that consistently strives to meet the demands of a growing population requires South Africa to be participants in managing their own socio-economic developments.
Copyright @ Monday August 15, 2011 on BlogSpot by Tambudzai Ndoro, Non-Executive Director of Global Business Assignments Inc,
Copyright @ Monday August 15, 2011 on BlogSpot by Tambudzai Ndoro, Non-Executive Director of Global Business Assignments Inc,
