One of the countless reasons to visit foreign countries is to observe each nation’s entrepreneurial customs and practices. My trip last fall to South Africa was an exceptional example of a truly unique ecosystem.
One caveat: I only went to the Western Cape province, one of nine provinces in the country, so I cannot claim that my observations apply to all of South Africa.
That said, it’s a beautiful area, full of friendly — and entrepreneurial — people. Cape Town is probably the most cosmopolitan city on the continent and like New Orleans in many ways, including having been governed at different times by two European nations.
The centerpiece of my trip was a wine tour. There are many hundreds of vineyards in South Africa, and while I didn’t get to quite all of them, there were some very impressive common threads among the ones I did visit. Most notably, every single winemaker emphasized that they did not view themselves as competing with the other wineries. Instead, they spoke of the industry-wide collaboration focused on advancing South African wines on the world stage.
This “grow the pie” mentality is such a healthy approach to business — and so often lacking in our South Louisiana region. From manufacturing to water management, energy to tech, we have so many economic opportunities; yet repeatedly, our parochial, scarcity-based mindset holds us back. Entrepreneurism can absolutely be a shared activity, and everyone benefits when it is.
Another mantra I repeatedly heard was a commitment to bring more women and people of color into South African winemaking, which remains largely dominated by white men. There was a shared realization that the larger the talent pool, and the more diversified the talent, the stronger their industry would be. This is another example of their collaborative spirit, and again, is something that many local industries would do well to emulate.
The success of this collaborative approach is evidenced by South Africa’s growing share of the world wine market. While wine drinking globally is decreasing, consumption of South African wines has reached record high levels, and the country now ranks eighth among the world’s wine-producing nations.
I experienced a very different type of entrepreneurship in the Khayelitsha township, home to over 1million Capetonians. Townships are, bluntly, the slums of South Africa, and from the outside, they appear to be imposing, impenetrable tangles of impoverished chaos.
Inside, however, you find another story. Yes, most of the structures are huts of corrugated tin and cardboard, but there are real houses as well. Yes, there are mazes of trails among these structures, but there are real roads too – most of them in better shape than New Orleans roads.
Most striking of all was the powerful sense of community in Khayelitsha, which definitely included an entrepreneurial component. The streets are lined with the same types of businesses you would see anywhere else – grocers, auto repairs, shoe stores, bakeries – all owned by local individuals. The storefronts too were mostly shacks, the signs were handmade, and I doubt there was a business license among them, but these were clearly viable operations and points of pride for their owners and customers alike.
City services in the township range from minimal to nonexistent, but the residents have taken things into their own hands. For example, all of Khayelitsha has electricity — wired throughout by the people, drawing from the power lines on the perimeter of the settlement. Is this theft or entrepreneurship? Given the local utility company’s complete disinterest in providing service within these communities, I would vote for the latter.
One commonality between the vineyards of Stellenbosch and the streets of Khayelitsha was that everyone I met was warm and welcoming. Another was that, in a country that has had a difficult past and many challenges in the present, optimism, community and entrepreneurial spirit were everywhere.
Keith Twitchell spent 16 years running his own business before becoming president of the Committee for a Better New Orleans. He has observed, supported and participated in entrepreneurial ventures at the street, neighborhood, nonprofit, micro- and macro-business levels.
