Taking the high road to innovation

Source from (Business Times): http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/AFSA2/Article/

Published: July 30, 2012

I STUMBLED upon a TV commercial on BlackBerry last weekend, while waiting for Iftar. A commercial worth mentioning because it reminds us that today, everything we do in life is very much integrated in a pocket - whether it is play, work or even courting. Yes, courting.

Everything is literally at your fingertips and just a click away. Anyway, if you are not aware of the commercial, it was about a girl wearing a bracelet with a QR (quick response) code attached. Along came a young chap trying his luck to get to know this girl and once he saw the bracelet, he scans the code through his BlackBerry device and instantly, the girl gets added on his contact list. And the rest is history...


I am awed and amazed at how life has been simplified over the years and the trend continues, thanks to two simple words "technology" and "innovation". I guess the Gen Y would not understand the hardship my generation had to go through when fixed telephone lines back then were scarce and more often than not were not in working order.

We might not realise it, but over the years, we have actually been innovating - be it ideas or concepts that actually get transformed into goods or services, driven by consumer demand.

Remember that business has only two functions: marketing and innovation (Milan Kundera). Innovation is the secret ingredient that enables us to set our foot on the global market place and remains competitive.

Harvey Firestone in fact said that "Capital isn't so important in business. Experience isn't so important. You can get both these things. What's important is the ideas. If you have ideas, you have the main asset you need and there isn't any limit to what you can do with your business and your life."

Some say, coming up with cutting-edge ideas is the hardest part in the entire innovation process. I think there are many other challenges that come in your way when turning your innovative idea into a market-ready product.

The challenges include, getting the right early stage funding, not knowing where to acquire the appropriate advisory services, market information as well as difficulty in gaining access to markets. This is what I call "innovation road blocks".

The creativity throughout the business will stagnate when companies bump into the "innovation road blocks". If happen to be a "road block victim" , fret not because, we do have a solution for you.

From the time when the government started to promote innovation to drive our nation's economy, many initiatives were already outlined to enhance innovation. The initiatives that were put in place were not interlinked and very much fragmented.

At the 2009 National SME Development Council Meeting, while discussing the issue on innovation, many gaps that exist between the phases of innovation were identified. SMEs, in particular face difficulty in assessing the national innovation system.

The prime minister who is so passionate on the subject on innovation then decided that the government shall reward RM1 million every year to the most innovative SME, so as to create an unusual business ecosystem for businesses to thrive. InnoCERT was then created to measure levels of innovativeness at firm level.

Moving forward, and recognising that innovative SMEs contribute significantly to the leap growth in the country's economy, a second high impact programme (HIP 2) which is the "Technology Commercialisation Platform (TCP)" is introduced in the recently launched SME Masterplan.

TCP is intended to address the gaps and will ensure that SMEs move along the entire innovation process seamlessly, without being trapped in the "innovation road block".

Once the TCP is up and running, necessary support services such as financial and technical assistance, market information, incubation and testing facilities as well as all other relevant services required, from proof of concept (POC) to commercialisation will be provided under a single platform.

What to expect if you are accepted into this programme? Essentially, once you are on board, access to funding will be provided for you to develop the POC or prototypes. At this current stage, existing technology facilities made available through private companies or the public infrastructure will be utilised.

If you are unsure of what to do next, worry not because as we handhold you, we will ensure that you get the best support through the provision of advice from a network of experts. Once the POC is completed, TCP will then facilitate the matchmaking between entrepreneurs and venture capital firms and alternatively link to the next high impact programme - SME Investment Programme.

As this programme promotes business-to-business linkages, enhance knowledge sharing as well as trade facilitation and export opportunities will be provided to participating companies. This approach is expected to create increased number of high growth and innovative firms, while higher survival rate of these firms are expected to be recorded.

Having said all this, we hope to have removed the road blocks from the innovation highway and certainly look forward to seeing more SMEs tapping into the RM500 million Syariah Compliant Commercialisation Innovation Fund.

Datuk Hafsah Hashim is the chief executive officer of Small and Medium Enterprises Corporation Malaysia (SME Corp Malaysia)