TOP 3 // Product Innovation
The best cases on product innovators in Africa from the Case Writing Centre
In the digital era, it often feels that we are in a post-product economy. How does one top the iphone – the device that put the world in the palm of our hands? What could they possibly come up with next? After all, the startups winning VC dollars are not building actual things to sell to consumers; they are, more often than not, designing solutions to streamline and enhance the companies already selling products to consumers. And for most everyone else, it’s about repackaging old things, selling services, and marketing.
Which is why it is so exciting when we do come across companies who are making new things – using their R&D budgets to use new technologies, design new systems, and build new products that can actually move the needle. These companies don’t trade in algorithms and software, but in innovative materials, novel designs, and new manufacturing methods. Our latest collection with Harvard Business Impact features multiple examples of this kind of product innovation – here are the top three.
1. Ciovita apparel: Cycling towards strategic growth for a South African startup
By Professor Geoff Bick, Associate Professor Mark Graham, Ryno van Wyk
The case follows the South African cycling apparel company Ciovita as they face growth opportunities post-pandemic in 2021. The company is fresh off a turnaround in financial performance, with a nearly 50% growth in revenues over the previous year. The company has focussed on premium cycling gear, targeting the upper segment of the cycling market with innovative technical features, locally manufactured from high quality imported fabric. Ciovita products are locally distributed through three primary channels: online through their website, a physical store in Cape Town, and a network of registered dealers and cycling retailers. Given their focus on the premium segment, Ciovita perceives their main competitors to be international brands, rather than the local competitor brands, which focus on price rather than premium quality. The case places the reader in the position of the management team led by CEO Andrew Gold, who is charged with growing the business profitably in the future. Should they pursue local expansion by opening more Ciovita retail outlets or additional distribution channels? Should they grow Ciovita’s presence internationally? Or should they diversify into other products or industries?
2. Citra Construction: Rolling out affordable eHomes in South Africa and beyond
By Professor Geoff Bick, Joel Baur, Associate Professor Johannes Schuler
The Citra case describes the real challenges that innovative startups face with a strong social and environmental sustainability mission in an emerging market like South Africa. Joel Baur, the MD of Citra Construction, is driving an affordable housing model in 2021 in Cape Town. With the aim of disrupting the affordable housing industry through an alternative building technology (ABT) concept he hopes to build eco-friendly eHomes. However the road to achieving this is proving more complex than imagined as they battle long lead times of housing projects against capital constraints and barriers with the local market. Challenges include impatient investors, working within the financial institutional frameworks of the country, finding property to develop, refining and scaling their technology, and building market acceptance for ABT. The case looks at affordable housing in South Africa, construction project management and property development, and housing finance. As Citra starts to roll out the first eHomes in 2021, it is over budget and battling to scale. The pressure is on Joel to make the decisions that will take the company forward.
3. Mpact packaging and recycling: Consumer pressure, sustainability, and the threat of plastic legislation in South Africa
By Professor Geoff Bick, Rosalind Dos Santos
This case deals with the two-pronged dilemma faced by Bruce Strong, CEO of publicly traded Mpact Limited - the leading and largest paper and plastics packaging and recycling business in Southern Africa. On a macro level, as plastics contribute substantially to Mpact's business, there is concern about the pressure on single-use plastic (SUP) with the potential for government legislation as well as consumer pressure to find alternate solutions. On an internal company level, if brand owners, retailers, and other Mpact customers commit to alternative packaging materials, the business will be financially affected, given that the company does not have a market-ready solution that meets their requirements. This rise in consumer pressure and negative sentiment against plastics comes at a time when Mpact has been forced to close one of its plastic recycling plants, as well as terminate kerbside collection of recyclable materials from households, due to economic reasons and a lack of adoption of recycling in South Africa. The South African government has also been promulgating increasing levels of environmental legislation against plastics. How can Strong balance societal demands for environmental sustainability with profitability?
Read the cases
You can find these and more cases on product innovation from the GSB Case Writing Centre at Harvard Business Impact.
