Innovation crucial to success
MUNUSAMY: TURNED A SMALL MOONLIGHTING GIG INTO A BIG, SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS
‘These guys are often under looked for their contribution to economy.’
Innovation is crucial to the success of any entrepreneur, and the ability to invent new processes, technology and equipment that fundamentally change the way that clients and competition view one’s business, is how industries are propelled forward.
While high-profile inventors garner widespread attention in their field, there are others who are not as quickly acknowledged, but who make equally impressive impacts in their sphere of business.
This is according to Siphethe Dumeko, chief financial officer of Business Partners Limited, who points to the recently released 2017/2018 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor1 report which reveals that South Africa ranks 13th out of 54 countries in terms of innovation.
“Low-key, incremental innovation that happens every day in thousands of small businesses in the country are often under looked for their contribution to South Africa’s economic development,” he says.
Illustrating how incorporating incremental, local-level innovation, in a business at the right time, can lead to a company’s success, and contribute to the local economy is entrepreneur, Yogan Munusamy, whose business, Formit Palisade Fencing in East London, has become a major player in its local market within 10 short years.
“My family couldn’t send me to university after school, so for three years I worked in a struggling family supermarket in King William’s Town before I enrolled as a trainee toolmaker in the EastLondon car-making industry in the late nineties,” Munusamy says.
The skills he gained during his apprenticeship and later as a quality manager of an automotiveparts factory played a crucial role in his later business success. During his 12 years at the company Munusamy also studied mechanical engineering and production management on a part-time basis.
“I was becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of career development opportunities at the company. That’s when I, together with three of my friends, purchased a machine that a local entrepreneur had built to make metal palisade fencing, but had struggled to integrate into a sustainable business.”
While he knew that there was a need for locally produced quality palisade fencing, and the new machine technology gave him a competitive edge, Munusamy says that it was still incredibly difficult to win the trust of the local steel merchants who supply fencing contractors. “I remember being rejected by quite a few merchants initially.”
When the global recession hit the motor industry in South Africa, Munusamy, who had been operating Formit Palisade Fencing as a moonlighting business up to that point, saw it as an opportunity to take his business to the next level.
“I, and many of my peers in the motor industry, were offered a voluntary retrenchment package. I took it and decided to put everything I had into the company.”
The recession also led to the closure of one of the most prominent local competitors.
“The company had the machinery to produce a different type of metal palisade fencing, so I went to the liquidation auction with a plan to acquire some of the equipment. Not only did I buy two metal presses, but I also discovered that the property was available to rent – which was ideal for us.”
The landlord was Business Partners Limited, the leading risk financier of small and mediumsized enterprises in South Africa, and who also supports many local entrepreneurs in rental units throughout the country.
Munusamy is again working on what he calls “the next thing”. This time, it is a move into mesh fencing, which will, no doubt, lead to more growth. – Citizen reporter