Wanted: Climate-wise entrepreneurs for TEDx bootcamp

TEDxJohannesburg has announced a rigorous, innovation-focused, three-day bootcamp that will help South African entrepreneurs become market-creating innovators.

The Market-Creating Innovation (MCI) bootcamp will be hosted from Tuesday, 12 to Thursday, 14 July by TEDxJohannesburg, presented by the Christensen Institute with the support of Skoll Foundation and in partnership with Workshop 17.

Anchored in the principles and theories in Clayton M. Christensen, Efosa Ojomo, and Karen Dillon’s book, The prosperity paradox: How innovation can lift nations out of poverty, the MCI Bootcamp is designed especially for emerging market leaders working in the area of climate crisis solutions.

The three, half-day bootcamp will be facilitated by Ojomo, the co-author of The prosperity paradox and a senior research fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation. This is a United States-based organisation founded on the work of the late Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen.

“Market-creating innovations transform complicated and expensive products into simple and affordable ones so many more people have access to them,” says Ojomo.

“These types of innovations create jobs, generate tax revenues, and lead to an entrepreneurial cultural revolution in countries. By investing in market-creating innovations stakeholders create prosperity. The Market-Creating Innovation bootcamp is designed to empower entrepreneurs in South Africa with the requisite skills to build these types of innovations.”

Climate-focused solutions

Hailed as “a better way to fight poverty” by the Wall Street Journal, market-creating innovations are unique in generating new growth engines that lead to jobs, increased taxes, and the emergence of an entrepreneurial culture.

The South African bootcamp will focus on social impact entrepreneurs, both for-profits and non-profits, whose enterprises champion or accelerate solutions to the climate crisis.

Kelo Kubu, TEDxJohannesburg licensee and organiser of the bootcamp, says: “We are excited at the possibility of helping South African entrepreneurs to see the climate crisis as an opportunity. It makes sense to us that the transition to a green economy should unlock new value and create room for players, products and services that were previously unaccommodated.”

For more information or to apply visit the TEDxJohannesburg website. Applications close on Wednesday, 6 July. Places are limited, and a panel of experts will consider only the most eligible ventures for selection.

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