The Durban Automotive Cluster (DAC) and the Eastern Cape Automotive Industry Forum (ECAIF) hosted the climax of the inaugural Business Accelerator programme in the plush Dragons’ Den at The Pearls in Umhlanga. It was here that the finalists were given the opportunity to pitch their business cases to industry leaders with the hope that they’d secure both the prize money and mentorship support their enterprises need to gear up to the next level.
“What a day!” enthused Sean Ellis, B&M Analysts’ facilitator for this cluster, “the lead up to this event has been so exciting and we are really proud to be able to take so many SMEs from this sector on as members of the DAC & ECAIF where they will receive the mentorship and guidance they need to get to a level where they are actively partnering with the large corporations in this sector.”
Sean explains that B&M Analysts facilitate Business Accelerator programmes in five clusters currently; KZN Clothing and Textiles, Cape Clothing and Textiles, Ethekwini Furniture, Durban Chemicals and Durban Automotive (together with ECAIF). The objective is to drive localisation and enable transformation. This is done by connecting three parties; qualifying small to medium enterprises, large corporates and relevant government stakeholders. The past few years have been setting the foundation and growing the initiative but today, the first Dragons’ Den for the DAC & ECAIF, saw the culmination of all that investment.
In the week leading up to this, 12 black-owned SMEs were coached and trained on how to present their business cases. “I devoured every morsel of information that the Toastmaster and other presenters shared. I used all this to put my pitch together so that the Dragons could appreciate the value and potential I have to offer and guess what – they did! I am so excited to have won the award for the Most Innovative Pitch and will put the R25 000 to good use,” says Zakhele Myeza from Umbondo Trading. He added that he was most looking forward to the mentorship, “I’ve been knocking on closed doors for too long, the partnerships that this programme is building for, and with, me are just what my business needs.”
Paul Vermaak from Hesto Harnesses gives insight from a Dragon’s perspective, “There are so many talented people with businesses out there that could add value to ours. But finding them can be time consuming and tricky so we are very grateful to be a part of this initiative wherein the top SME talent, still fresh enough to be cutting edge and exciting, have been pre-selected and groomed through participation in the programme and brought to us to take further. It’s the best kind of win-win and I can’t wait to engage fully with all the finalists because, even if they didn’t win a cash prize today, they are now part of the cluster and that will see them mature into future options.”
Sean Ellis wrapped up proceedings saying, “It’s been a privilege to bring together current industry leaders, as our Dragons, and future industry leaders, as our participants – seeing the connections start to happen and realising how mutually beneficial these relationships are going to be makes me excited to start planning for 2022. It’s all been made possible by the generous sponsorship of Ethekwini Municipality and the KwaZulu Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA) who I am so happy to see have also been here to monitor and build on the experience.”
If you’d like more information on this initiative, please visit https://dbnautocluster.org.za/ and https://ecaif.co.za/
