OVER the next four weeks, readers of all ages will be encouraged to use the Cape Times to come up with innovative solutions to everyday issues.
Your unique idea could win you one of four weekly prizes of R1 000 and put you in line to win the award for Cape Times Innovator of the Year and a prize valued at over R85 000.
The award is presented in partnership with Grant Thornton, Standard Bank’s Incubator programme and Charles Maisel from Be!Bold.
Maisel, an established entrepreneur known for his Shanduka Black Umbrellas, Lavender in Lavender Hill and Men on the Side of the Road initiatives, among others, has been teaching idea generation through his “Seeing the Leaves” technique for the past five years. He founded the Be!Bold Trust, the largest national university based entrepreneurship programme, on all 40 campuses at 26 universities around the country in 2014.
“If an idea is great we build it, develop it, fund it and grow it,” explains Maisel. “Over 1 600 ideas go through the university system every year on a national scale, of which about 160 become a reality.”
Maisel not only believes there are huge opportunities for people to become entrepreneurs in South Africa and the world today, but that there is huge support for entrepreneurs globally.
“There are many social problems that need to be solved and these can be turned into entrepreneurial opportunities.
“People need to become more innovative and creative in a changing world, where technology is changing the way jobs are being created, whether they currently have a job or are young and starting out.”
The technique, which he has taught to over 53 000 people, enables anyone with access to a newspaper to generate innovative new ideas on a daily basis, any one of which, when fostered correctly, could lead to a successful career.
Maisel came up with the technique several years ago after being approached by a local wine farmer who was concerned about how to employ his labourers once the harvest was over.
“I drove to the farm and I saw the green leaves of the vines everywhere.”
After just 15 minutes of surveying the vines Maisel pointed to the vineyards and said to the farmer: “There’s your solution.
“The farmer had no clue what I was talking about.
“He was a fourth-generation wine farmer who had been staring at the same vines his whole life.”
After a few guesses, Maisel told him the answer lay in the leaves.
“He had no idea that you could take the vine leaf and brine them, making them edible, and when filled with a rice mixture, turn them into dolmades, a Greek and Mediterranean delicacy.”
That was the farmer’s eureka moment. He flew to Greece, learnt how to make dolmades and returned and set up a factory so his workers could work throughout the year.
So what had Maisel done?
“I realised that in my opinion the true definition of innovation is that you have to be able to see it.”
Hence “Seeing the Leaves”, his mantra for innovation.
“I realised then that by reading newspapers in a particular way, I had been training my eye for 15 years without even realising what I was doing.
“I then started taking the newspaper technique to universities, training them and that generated thousands and thousands of ideas.
“But as an entrepreneur and innovator I look for stories that have problems, so I can then seek innovative solutions.
“When I’m looking for an idea I look at all the detail and all the background because somewhere within the pictures will be a new and innovative idea.
“The ideas from the newspapers are based and grounded in reality rather than brainstormed. This reality-based approach means that there is often a real need for a solution and innovation is often guaranteed.”
Maisel says this is a skill anyone can learn and start putting into practice.
“It’s the difference between looking and seeing,” he says. “Once people get it, and they get it in literally 20 minutes, it takes them to the next level in terms of idea generation.
“Journalists write about what is and entrepreneurs need to find solutions. So it’s a discipline that you should do every day.” – Staff Writer
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