Konrad Von Leipzig

A strategic framework to utilise venture capital funding to develop manufacturing SMEs in South Africa

SMEs contribute considerably to the national GDP and to private sector employment, but they struggle to gain access to the funding needed to support business sustainability and growth. Venture capital provides the necessary funding, but SMEs lack understanding of the business value curve utilised by financiers to gauge the risk-reward characteristics of an investment. Strategies need to convey how the business model will evolve in order to deliver on the strategic intent. A framework is proposed through which SMEs can develop a strategy aligned with investor requirements. As a case study, the framework is applied to the local tooling sector.

Cluster development in the SA tooling industry

This paper explores the concept of clustering in general, analysing research and experiences in different countries and regions, and summarising factors leading to success or contributing to failure of specific cluster initiatives. Based on this, requirements for the establishment of clusters are summarised. Next, initiatives especially in the South African tool and die making (TDM) industry are considered. Through a benchmarking approach, the strengths and weaknesses of individual local tool rooms are analysed, and conclusions are drawn particularly about South African characteristics of the industry. From these results, and from structured interviews with individual tool room owners, difficulties in the establishment of a South African tooling cluster are explored, and specific areas of concern are pointed out.

Metacognitive learning : skills development through gamification at the Stellenbosch Learning Factory as a case study

South Africa has a high-cost, low-performance education system, which ultimately leads to unemployment and a skill shortage in the country. In order to bridge the skill shortage gap at a tertiary level, the Stellenbosch Learning Factory (SLF) was established. Learning factories involve experiential learning in a production environment through ‘learning by doing’. Gamification, one of the teaching methods used in the SLF, is investigated as a possible answer to South Africa’s educational problems. Learning factories can be used to train employees: the knowledge transfer resulting from real production conditions is favoured because process improvements can be implemented or practised without any real production downtime. The aim of this study was to determine the learning contribution of the games implemented at the SLF. This was accomplished by developing a three-dimensional matrix that employs a revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy to measure the learning success of the educational games at the SLF.