Academia, business links can boost exports

16 Feb, 2020 - 00:02 0 Views
Academia, business links can boost exports

The Sunday Mail

Trade Focus
Allan Majuru

An expert at something was once a novice.

This famous statement demonstrates the practical link between learning institutions and successful businesses.

What this means is that today’s captains of industry were once students, and it will be a waste if such success stories are not imparted to young generations.

Through close interactions with academia, most of the successful businesspeople who have made a mark on the export market were able to create strong brands that are locally acclaimed.

Success export stories should therefore be documented and made available to local students so that they can use them as a basis for developing viable business options and strategies to enhance exports.

Local businesses must also leverage on resources and expertise that local learning institutions are endowed with, such as innovative young minds with practical research skills.

As local businesses are looking to grow beyond borders, there is urgent need to create stronger linkages between exporting businesses and learning institutions.

Through acquired knowledge, learning institutions play a crucial role in improving businesses and providing research and innovative ideas that will make local companies competitive on the export market.

This increased interaction between learning institutions and industry will help inculcate an export culture and contribute to the country’s export growth.

A stronger union between learning institutions and the private sector is undoubtedly critical in strengthening local businesses through viable export strategies.

Learning institutions, as pinnacles of knowledge, have potential to assist businesses with research that inspires economic growth and increased exports.

Such research will ensure that local businesses come up with competitive strategies that will make it easy for them to penetrate the global market.

At the same time, businesspeople will have an opportunity to mentor graduates so that when they establish their own businesses, they would be export-oriented.

So, how can learning institutions support local businesses?

Educational institutions are the foundation upon which industry is built and it is here where the fundamentals of industry and commerce are instilled in would-be captains of industry. One of the key and strategic offering of academia is research.

Most companies, especially in Third World countries, do not have dedicated research and development departments that can contribute to the strategic direction of the company.

With ever-competing demands, many small and medium-sized companies have shelved research departments citing budget and time constraints.

However, research remains important in studying markets, understanding their behaviour and exploring ways to counter aggressive competition.

Therefore, there is room for learning institutions to offer support to exporting companies through conducting research on their behalf.

Such research can be incorporated as part of student research projects, and local companies can fund such research, especially covering specific areas.

Some start-up companies and SMEs do not see the benefit of having a research and development department.

However, it can save the company a lot of money through ensuring that products and services are made to specific requirements of the market and can be streamlined with the dynamic tastes of that market.

Companies can also harness various research done by universities at a nominal cost. Most SME’s do not have research departments, resulting in them being unable to develop samples or prototypes for market trials.

It, therefore, makes sense for companies to engage the academia — given their vast expertise in research and development — to test their theories and prototypes prior to launch of their products or services.

For example, a company can organise product trials targeted at youths and can use one of the local universities to measure the success of their products.

At the same time, local companies can also make use of students to conduct the tests as part of their studies.

This symbiotic relationship is a win-win because it enables students to fulfil their research requirements for various programmes, while at the same time supporting the private sector.

In addition, as more learning institutions in Zimbabwe are creating innovation hubs, the creative, limitless and innovative minds of the students in academia present a ripe gold mine for exploration by corporates.

Students often know no boundaries when it comes to crafting fresh ideas and have capacity to influence turnaround strategies of some exporting companies.

For example, the incubation hub at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) developed an irrigation control gadget which can be used by farmers to improve yield and quality.

The irrigation control gadget is a WiFi-based programmable device that takes variables such as humidity, amount of sunlight and pH level from the soil, thus solving the challenge of over- or under-irrigation as it is crop-specific. Such innovation, which can cost less if locally sourced, can be adopted by farmers who are looking at improving their competitiveness on the export market.

This will also provide solutions and remedies to correct the trade imbalances the country is facing.

The advent of the internet has created a global village from which ideas can easily be shared; hence, for example, a company in areas such as Mutare can still benefit from innovative minds at Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT).

To ensure that learning institutions contribute to business, Government has since embarked on a drive to steer innovation at universities. All State universities are expected to have innovation hubs for them to incubate fresh ideas that can feed into industry.

Further to researches, learning institutions can offer training and development to local businesses, particularly emerging businesses.

Arguably one of the challenges affecting small and medium businesses is lack of soft skills, such as human capital management, time management, business etiquette and work ethic.

Thus, learning institutions, as part of their service to the business community, can offer affordable short courses that can benefit small businesses.

Going forward, to easily harness the numerous benefits that academia can provide to industry, ZimTrade — the national trade development and promotion organisation — has since embarked on a drive to partner with institutions of higher learning in all regions across the country. ZimTrade seeks to inculcate a culture of exports at tertiary school level through various training programmes that it offers to universities.

Currently, ZimTrade has developed a Memorundum of Understanding (MoU) with the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), while two other memoranda are at advanced stage of development with University of Zimbabwe and CUT.

These partnerships will see ZimTrade engaging universities to carry out critical research on behalf of industry.

The thrust is that the curriculum at tertiary institutions must include exports as a module so that students are familiar with the global exports’ arena and its requirements.

 

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