Innovationmauritius.com conference : Leadership in the field of Innovation a must for Mauritius

An annual event managed by DoraCrea Training, the INNOVATIONMAURITIUS.COM conference took place at Le Meridien on 20th July.

This second edition was organised in collaboration with the Défi Media Group under the theme ‘Business Transformation in the Age of Innovation Breakthroughs and Agile Technology’. The discussions led by a large panel comprising of international and local professionals focused on Mauritius’ current place in the field of innovation and most importantly, on ways to move forward and build a successful innovation ecosystem.

The innovationmauritius.com conference organised by DoraCrea Training in collaboration with the Défi Media Group brought together World Innovators, Industry Practitioners, Business Leaders, Policy Makers, Engaged Citizens and Academics in one single platform to discuss and share knowledge on the opportunities and challenges associated with the new global marketplace in this Digital Age. The main themes presented by the international speakers, namely Soumitra Dutta, Joni Peddie, Raymond De Villiers, Norman Moyo and Craig Wing, were about the Global Trends and Challenges in creating innovation breakthroughs, preparing the workforce to acquire Future-Proof skills-sets, business transformation prerequisites and becoming agile, Innovation Leadership Challenges in Africa, nurturing an entrepreneurial spirit within the workplace.

The highlight this year was the release of the Global Innovation Index 2018 for Sub Saharan Africa. The conference also revolved around the challenges and actions that Mauritius is facing and need to embrace so as to aim at a top 50 spot in the next GII 2019 report. In fact during the conference, delegates had the opportunity to interact with Soumitra Dutta from INSEAD and Cornell University, author of the world-known report Global Innovation Index [GII] to understand the key dimensions and criteria required for building a successful innovation ecosystem for an industry and a country.

Mauritius’s steady decline in the world ranking of innovation, dropping from the 49th place in 2015 to 75th this year, has been at the centre of the discussions. Soumitra Dutta, author of the report, stated that Mauritius’s current rank does not mean that the country has not improved in this area.

He trusts that it did not improve relatively quickly enough while other countries have evolved much faster. “This should be interpreted as a warning for Mauritius, especially for local decision-makers, whether they are from the government or the private sector. Mauritius must once again show leadership in the field of innovation,” he said during the conference. He highlighted that “if this downward trend continues, it will be bad for the country looking to improve its competitiveness and its attractions to encourage investment.”

Nevertheless Soumitra Dutta trusts that this is the opportune time, in the Industry 4.0 era, to have shared leadership among leaders in order to bring innovation across the economy. He advocates strong leadership at the highest level of the state, together with the private sector, to give new impetus to innovation. He recommends the development of a national strategy with actions coordinated by the Government. “Mauritius has a solid foundation, with an open economy and a peaceful environment. You have the chance to position yourself as a leader in this field in Africa. Just like Singapore, which was a third-world country 50 years ago and which today has become the leader in innovation in this Asian region, Mauritius can also become an innovation hub for the continent. This requires a change of culture and commitment at the highest level,” he said.

According to him, it is necessary to develop a national vision and strategy in relation to the importance of innovation. “You can take inspiration from the global innovation model and adapt it to the local context to bring about changes, through joint efforts,” he said. Soumitra Dutta cited how some countries are devoting their attention to innovation, like the United Arab Emirates, which has appointed a minister responsible for the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

On the other hand, local representatives from the public sector trusts that the ranking does not take into account certain parameters that exists in the country while representatives from the private sector highlighted that there are inherent flaws. Vidia Mooneegan, Senior Vice President of Ceridian, believes that all stakeholders would be satisfied if Mauritius had been in 30th place. “But we will have to take the current ranking as a warning, let’s be realistic,” he uttered. He also trusts that Mauritius has missed an opportunity regarding the creation of smart cities.

“It was announced that the citizen would be at the centre of this development, but in the end, we see that these are only projects that use technologies. Every citizen should have had the opportunity to bring innovative changes to cities and their villages, which would have given them access to technologies in order to flourish. Unfortunately, not many people will benefit from these projects. If we had successfully completed the concept of smart cities, it would have improved our ranking,” he stated.

According to Dev Hurkoo, general manager of Rogers Capital Technology, Mauritius tends to adopt technologies late. He mentioned the lack of human resources and a mismatch between what the industries is looking for and what is available in the labour market. Raymond De Villiers, Futurist from Tomorrow Today of South Africa, believes that Mauritians are culturally conservative with an aversion to risk. “If Mauritius persists with such a culture, it risks of falling behind. We must not be afraid of failures, on the contrary, we must learn from his setbacks,” he underlined.

Vasenden Dorasami, Managing Director of Doracrea stated that Innovation today is not only about Idea generation, it’s much more about a Discipline such as Engineering, Accountancy, Medicine etc. “It is therefore something that should be learnt in a structured and systematic way and subsequently is now a profession like becoming an Innovation Director.”

He explained that Doracrea Training has five years of experience and positioned itself as a major player in the field of Future-Proof Skill training delivery with a host of innovative programmes in collaboration with our International Flagship Training Partners.