MixedTalents – Samsung Newsroom South Africa

SA Entrepreneurs Uberise Education

Wed, 07 Dec 2016 15:07:32 +0000

Cognition. Online, a new mobile app for booking and paying tutors, has gone live in South Africa to connect tutors and pupils quickly and conveniently.

“This innovative app has been announced as a winner in the Samsung Launching People – Mixed Talents competition,” says Michelle Potgieter, Director: Brand and Product Marketing and Communications at Samsung South Africa. “It allows parents and students to find tutors in their area by subject specialisation, book lesson times and pay easily. Tutors can accept bookings via the app and receive their payment from Cognition.Online. Parents and tutors are free to negotiate fees and both tutors and pupils can be rated by the system.”

Co-founder Kyle Dodds says Cognition. Online was born out of his own experience as a tutor while he was studying at the University of Pretoria. “As an engineering student, I tutored Maths and demand grew to a point where I took on other tutors to assist. The pool of tutors grew and administration of the bookings and payments became a challenge.” Dodds began looking into a mobile app that would help him manage bookings, payments and subject pairing more efficiently. Fellow students came on board as split equity shareholders and the development of Cognition. Online got underway in 2015.

The system, initially launched in the Pretoria area, is currently recruiting tutors in the Johannesburg area and will soon expand to other major centres in South Africa.

Dodds explains that the system simplifies bookings and payments for individual tutors and their pupils; but also has the potential to offer bookings and pre-payment services for larger education service providers. “After-school tutoring companies might engage us to offer a pre-payment and booking service for entire classes or courses, for example, avoiding admin and debt collection problems.” In addition, Cognition.Online is in talks to extend the system’s functionality to support subsidised tutoring for disadvantaged pupils, sponsored by businesses as part of their Corporate Social Investment (CSI) programmes.

Dodds says the win in the Samsung Launching People – Mixed Talents challenge, has given Cognition.Online important growth funding, as well as market exposure to raise awareness of the service offering among tutors, pupils and potential business partners.

“The Samsung Launching People – Mixed Talents challenge is now in its second year and is supported by Samsung South Africa in line with our focus on creating continuous innovation as well as supporting new business development in our communities,” Potgieter concludes.

For more information on the campaign, visit: www.launchingpeople.co.za and follow #MixedTalents.

Innovative Child Seat Design Introduced in South Africa

Wed, 30 Nov 2016 17:18:39 +0000

A simple, lightweight safety car seat for children between the ages of two and ten is in the process of patent registration ahead of full prototype development and commercial launch.

“We are proud to announce that ‘The Precious Cargo Child Seat’ has been named a winner in the recent Samsung South Africa Launching People – Mixed Talents competition,” says Michelle Potgieter, Director: Brand and Product Marketing and Communications. This innovative product is designed to make child safety seats safer, more affordable and easily portable.

Product designers, Trenton and Tracy Carr, began development on a new style of safety seat in 2008, when they discovered that existing baby car seats on the market were cumbersome and expensive, as well as difficult to transfer from one car to another. As children grow taller, booster seats and other car safety products available on the market can often leave a lot to be desired.

On the back of extensive research, the Carrs designed a new system based on a washable upper body vest and a lightweight booster seat that doubles as a suitcase for the vest. “The vest is a full upper body restraint that serves as a cocoon for the child’s vital organs in the case of an accident and there is no risk that he or she will ‘submarine’ – slide down under a seatbelt restraint on impact,” says Trenton Carr. In addition to being safer, the product is so portable and lightweight that a child can carry it himself.

Manufacturing will be done in South Africa, with ‘The Precious Cargo Child Seat’ expected to retail for under R2 000, offering vests available in three sizes for children up to the age of ten.

The prototype has been widely welcomed by parents as well as seeing a major baby goods retailer expressing interest in stocking the product. “The win in the Launching People – Mixed Talents challenge will help fund the process of securing intellectual property protection, which is a key step on the road to full production and market launch,” Carr continues. “Another important step will be securing funding, for tooling the moulds for the manufacturing of the seat component.”

“As a winner of Samsung Electronics South Africa’s Launching People – Mixed Talents competition, the that ‘The Precious Cargo Child Seat’ offers a safe and reliable product, which we believe the market will respond positively to due to its high quality design,” adds Potgieter.

“The Launching People – Mixed Talents challenge, now in its second year, is supported by Samsung South Africa in line with its focus on innovation and supporting new business development in South Africa,” Potgieter concludes.

For more information on the campaign, visit: www.launchingpeople.co.za and follow #MixedTalents

Last Chance to Turn your Great Idea into your Future with Samsung Mixed Talents Challenge

Thu, 07 Jul 2016 16:33:07 +0000

Budding entrepreneurs with bright ideas have been granted an extension to enter the Samsung Mixed Talents Ideas Bank challenge due to high levels of interest. Those with meaningful business ideas stand a chance of winning R50,000 in TradeSafe start-up capital, as well as over R 300 000 worth of coaching and office space.

To enter the competition, visit the Ideas Bank web application and submit your entrepreneurial concepts or aspirations. Applications will now close on 17 July, after which a team of business experts will scrutinise them and select ten finalists, who will then be invited to present at a ‘Dragons’ Den’ style grand finale, taking place on 29 July.

Dr Michelle Potgieter, Director of Corporate Marketing and Communications at Samsung South Africa, explains, “Samsung Launching People, in partnership with METIME, runs the Ideas Bank as a way to turn entrepreneurial ideas into a reality and help address the issue of youth unemployment in South Africa.”

The prizes offered for the latest local Mixed Talents competition will include a grant giveaway to three promising young entrepreneurs, who will each receive R 50 000 to help launch their business dream. In addition, winners will be given access to invaluable business support tools, such as serviced office space for each organisation through Work Central and world-class coaching through Winning Edge.

For more information on the campaign visit:www.launchingpeople.co.za and follow #MixedTalents

The Evolving Toolkit of the Entrepreneur

Wed, 15 Jun 2016 17:06:24 +0000

Entrepreneurs can be defined as those who take capital and use it to make more, generally employing others during the process. Currently, entrepreneurialism is one of the key areas of focus in the drive to reduce high levels of unemployment locally. The urgency of this issue has been reiterated following recent reports by Statistics South Africa, which indicates this year’s first quarter unemployment rates in the country to have risen sharply to 26.7% of the work force.

With the introduction of new technologies and initiatives, young business people are now able to access a world of innovative tools that were previously unheard of in order to create much needed opportunities.

Mere decades ago, those with new ideas for business generally started small, with access to limited opportunities for funding. Aside from taking on the challenge of competing with larger, more established organisations, entrepreneurs of the recent past were required to physically engage with potential investors, partners and mentors. This was often carried out by way of knocking on doors, investing countless precious hours in securing and travelling to meetings.

The emergence of the Internet and access to modern technology has led to a plethora of new ventures and entrepreneurs who have found easier ways to do business by making use digital communication. In today’s world, entrepreneurial undertakings and technology tend to be intrinsically connected.

This is according to Michelle Potgieter, Director of Corporate Marketing and Communications at Samsung SA, who says, “Technology today can be used by entrepreneurs both as the focus of their talents and also as a tool that encourages and aids innovation. A creative and key example of a modern tool for South African entrepreneurs is the recently unveiled Samsung Launching People: Mixed Talents solution.”

The Samsung Mixed Talents campaign invites young local entrepreneurs to make use of a technological platform created to offer them a mouthpiece for voicing their ideas and connecting to expert partners for mentorship and guidance. This resource hub is powered by an innovative Ideas Bank, which was created by the Mixed Talents expert team and further developed in partnership with METIME, an online start-up company that facilitates job creation and operates differently to normal employment models.

Ian Wright, co-founder of METIME, says, “Technology and the modern devices we have access to can act as the most amazing tools of progression. However, the true importance lies ultimately in how the entrepreneur uses the tool. For example, today’s technology is a critical tool for entrepreneurs in their endeavours to access funding and information, as well as communicate with potential partners and mentors. This is what the Ideas Bank is all about.”

Wright says the Ideas Bank helps people to promote their business and skills using a social media mindset within a business context. “The site allows users to categorise themselves in one of three different ways – as a sponsor (investor), an employer or a consultant (coach) – and from day to day, users can change their on-site definition of themselves depending on the need at the time.

“A sponsor is somebody who offers themselves as an enabler for another person’s work idea. An employer could be anyone who has a particular need for a particular service, while a consultant offers their time and talents to others. This multi-dimensional characterisation means that users are able to present themselves in different ways at different times and transforms the job-seeking from knocking on doors, both literally and metaphorically, highlighting just one aspect at a time.”

Wright says that the database’s information is not prescriptive. “Those on our system will tell the community what they need. From the customisation of their specific requirements we are seeing and noting new trends to start working with. For example, we have already seen a trend of building up the informal trader and are looking at potential matches in this arena from differing needs across the database.”

“Given enough real help and guidance, successful entrepreneurs can ultimately impact the economy of a country in significant ways,” says Wright. “In today’s tech-driven world, the Samsung Mixed Talents platform is of tremendous help to young South African entrepreneurs. But, in our opinion, this is just the beginning.”

Potgieter concludes by explaining that the true benefit to entrepreneurs does not lie in any one piece of technology that Samsung develops. “Samsung’s greatest value lies in its approach to building a solution that can be used by those who have been looking for it and truly need it. We believe this ideology – of sharing ideas and resources – lies at the heart of how the world will work in the future and how we will combat unemployment going forward, thus ultimately facilitating the growth of our country’s economy as well as its population’s wealth and social security.”

For more information on the campaign or to register, visit: www.launchingpeople.co.za and follow #MixedTalents