Mike Steyn is director at Aspire Solutions.

South Africans should be more confident about their ability to innovate in the ICT space. When one goes to the international conferences, you realise that in some areas we are quite a bit ahead of the rest of the world.

Everywhere we have been to benchmark ourselves, people have been blown away by what we have been able to achieve compared to overseas counterparts, in less time and for less money. In the domains where we are good, we are very, very good.

Our willingness to take ownership of a problem seems to be almost unusual; we are less bound by formal roles and structure than colleagues in the EU in particular. South Africans tend to be willing to take a project and do whatever it takes to solve a problem. Our “fix it” attitude is one that we should not take for granted, for in the global markets it stands out.

Stereotyped perceptions of South Africa continue to work against us. Even when people see what we can do, there is still a reluctance to hire South Africans because they believe we can’t do the job. Combined with our geographical distance from key markets, it is a real challenge to overcome.

Going into projects with overseas partners is a useful entry point, but be cautious that South African companies should not be content with staying at the bottom of the food chain. You have to fight to get close to the end client. You need to be there to ask the right questions, and propose the best solutions. That’s crucial to the success of a project, of course; but it’s also a way to overcome negative perceptions.

A project we did earlier this year was a real eye opener for me. They were very wary of us at first, but once we convinced them we knew what we were talking about and could do the job, we ended up driving the project. Our willingness to talk back and take the lead is a huge asset.

The areas where South Africans do best is not always the sexiest or the most media-friendly, but when it comes to designing and implementing workable, cost effective solutions to real business problems, we still have an edge.