BOTSWANA’S MANUFACTURING SMEs INNOVATION & BUSINESS ACUMEN

Abstract

Worldwide firms are engaged in a fierce battle for the hearts of the masses by trying to produce products which can appeal to them. This is because a nations’ quality of life is linked to the quantity and quality of products and services that can be generated by their entities for domestic and export markets. Exporting products and services enables firms to earn foreign exchange, continue to operate and contribute to the government coffers through taxes. The business environment is faced with tough competition from businesses targeting the same market with similar or upgraded offerings. The ability to hold the fort is dependent on innovative offerings that give customers more value than competitors. Botswana’s manufacturing Small Micro Enterprises face fierce competition from the Global North manufacturers targeting the local and regional markets. Survival of local businesses is not guaranteed, and this paper seeks to investigate Botswana's manufacturing Small Micro Enterprises' business acumen as can be witnessed from their application of product innovation best practices. This will be compared with international manufacturing firm’s product innovation best practices performance. The study adopted a qualitative approach by using a case study approach. The data collection was done through document analysis and semi-structured interviews of three local Small Micro Enterprises. The findings indicate that the business acumen of local manufacturing enterprises is very low due to their failure to observe product innovation business best practices and use of business forecast tools. The findings helped in drawing up the firms’ collective Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis which painted a clearer picture of the businesses position. This calls for stakeholders to introduce proactive business intervention measures especially in product innovation and its best practices as well as in the business side of things.