Western Cape Business 2019 edition

INTERVIEW Advancing

INTERVIEW Advancing sustainable growth through collaboration Ryan Ravens, the CEO of Accelerate Cape Town, outlines the ways in which business, academia and government can work together to make an impact on socio-economic growth. Ryan Ravens BIOGRAPHY Ryan Ravens currently holds three degrees including an MBA from the University of Cape Town. He has extensive experience in leadership positions in the public and private sectors. Ryan owned and managed a successful management consultancy before delivering the first draft of the masterplan for the 2010 World Cup. This led to him being asked to join FIFA, after which he was Group Executive (Enterprise Programme Management Office) for the Gauteng Growth and Development Agency. What is Accelerate Cape Town doing to attract and retain black talent to the region? Cape Town is one of South Africa’s key business hubs; however, young black professionals have not always found the city an easy place to network and meet mentors in their careers. To support our members’ talent programmes, Accelerate Cape Town hosts a number of initiatives such as our Inspiration Sessions and Thought Leaders engagements, which provide a large vibrant forum for young professionals in Cape Town to network, as well as debate critical issues such as transformation and career progression. Accelerate Cape Town’s Human Capital programme aims to • Address issues of transformation in the city • Provide a dialogue between business and academia and address issues impacting on graduate placement and work readiness • Provide a cross-sector engagement for HR professionals in Cape Town through workshops • Provide a networking platform for newly relocated staff of our member companies through our networking engagements. How can business, government and academia work together? We are extremely fortunate in the Western Cape to have no less than four world-class tertiary institutions and two internationally accredited business schools. At Accelerate Cape Town, we believe that business, government and academia should collaborate to positively contribute to the socio-economic transformation South Africa so desperately needs. We work to create an ecosystem in which engagement between business, government and the Western Cape’s four universities is synergetic and highly impactful. What is the aim of Accelerate Cape Town’s Business Leadership programme? The aim of the programme is to • Stimulate robust discussion on issues such as governance and ethics WESTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2019 34

INTERVIEW and also drive higher accountability on these critical issues • Connect business, government and higher education to find opportunities to collaborate and co-create, generating greater economies of scale • Tap into the depth of expertise found in universities, ensuring we remain innovative and relevant as a city. How can Accelerate Cape Town’s Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) programme benefit corporates as well as the local economy? South Africa greatly needs jobs and economic development, but with government coming under increasing pressure to reduce its wage bill, and the corporate sector similarly pushing for greater efficiencies in a recessionary economy, the only remaining hope for job growth is the SME sector. In order to significantly grow SMEs, we need to provide them with access to market opportunities, finance, technical support and mentorship. Identified as a key economic driver globally, the development of SMEs is probably the most meaningful way to grow a more diverse and sustainable economic landscape for South Africa. Accelerate Cape Town’s Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) Programme aims to encourage greater socioeconomic transformation. How can SMEs be supported? SMEs require support and resources that include access to suitable market opportunities, access to finance for upscaling, access to technical support required for upscaling and, most importantly, access to best-of-breed mentors. Is something being done to tackle Cape Town’s traffic problem ​holistically? There have been numerous collaborative attempts to improve Cape Town’s transport crisis in the short term, including everything from carpooling and corporate shuttles, to non-motorised transport solutions such as bicycle lanes. These solutions have started chipping away at the problem; however, they remain short-term interventions and will not shift the needle over the long term as they remain largely inaccessible or impractical for the majority of commuters. Cape Town will always be constrained geographically when it comes to building new road infrastructure as our city centre is wedged between the mountain and ocean, and most of our major highways converge on the Foreshore, resulting in significant daily bottlenecks. Improvements to our roadways in other parts of the city simply result in motorists getting to the bottleneck sooner, thereby extending the daily congestion further and further down the road. Interestingly, recent research has shown that nearly 80% of motorists arrive at the CBD in single-occupancy vehicles. Increasing levels of vehicle occupancy, through initiatives like carpooling and shuttle services, will have a significant downward impact on the number of vehicles clogging up our roads, but with Cape Town being the fastest-growing city in South Africa, this will provide a temporary reprieve at best. The solution is a clean, safe and efficient commuter rail system. This will only be possible through unprecedented collaboration between the public and private sectors. We need innovative thinking, new models of public infrastructure development, and unwavering political will to see this done. 35 WESTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2019