National Pitch & Polish entrepreneurial competition winner is a “greentrepreneur”

Competition participants reflect the growing profile of social entrepreneurs in South Africa

The national Pitch & Polish entrepreneurial competition reached a thrilling climax at a glitzy final event at The Venue in Melrose Arch on 20 September 2012. The 2012 competition clearly reflected the rapid growth in South Africa’s social entrepreneurship sector, and in particular, the abundance of entrepreneurs who spy opportunity in environmentally friendly enterprises. All three of the finalists, Alan Butler, Bhongolwethu Sonti, and Criytone Revanewako, fell into this category of “greentrepreneurs”.

Out of the 174 online entries received for the competition and the venue-based wildcard entries, 25 entrepreneurs were selected to participate in the opening rounds. A further 9 entries battled it out on the airwaves during the wildcard round presented by SAfm, the Pitch & Polish media partner.

The 2012 Pitch & Polish finalists (L-R): Criytone Revanewako,  Bhongolwethu Sonti, and Alan Butler

The winner

Criytone Revanewako was selected by the final panel of experts as the winner for this year. His company approaches environmental issues from a recycling perspective, using slag generated by the ferrochrome smelting industry to produce economically useful products cheaply and sustainably, such as paving and building bricks, road construction material, roofing and flooring tiles, pre-mixed and ready mixed concrete, and numerous others.

Social entrepreneurship

The rise of social entrepreneurs and greentrepreneurs, such as these finalists, represents the growing awareness amongst South Africans of the importance of sustainability in all aspects of life, and therefore a bright spot in the country’s otherwise problematic economic outlook. Social entrepreneurship expert Bill Drayton, quoted in the Social Entrepreneurship Teaching Resources Handbook, characterises a social entrepreneur as, “someone who cannot come to rest, in a very deep sense, until he or she has changed the pattern of social concern across all society... they simply will not stop because they cannot be happy until their vision becomes the new pattern. They will persist for decades.”

Given the high potential for needed positive social and environmental change that these entrepreneurs represent, the Pitch & Polish programme developed and run by South African small business incubator, Raizcorp, is an example of how corporate South Africa can generate education and business development opportunities for smaller businesses, while ensuring that sustainable social development goals are also met.

The Final Panel of judges

Impact of informal business skills training

Bronwyn Echardt, the Pitch & Polish Programme Leader at Raizcorp, the small business incubator that develops and runs the programme around the country, attributes much of its success to its combined education and entertainment format.

Echardt said, “Research by Laurie Scholtz on the impact of social entrepreneurs’ education and business skills training, published in 2011, showed that only three forms of informal business skills training have a significant impact on the success of social entrepreneurship organisations, namely: business experience, networks, and workshops and conferences. Pitch & Polish is currently the only competition and workshop platform nationally that combines all three of these types of training.”

In addition to the intensive training that the competition entrants received at the free workshop events around the country, sponsored by Engen Petroleum (Pty) Ltd, 1 651 combined audience members received a full day’s expert training on the fundamentals of entrepreneurship.