Thabiso Titus Paul
Botswana’s creative economy is growing, but it is also entering a sensitive stage. Across the country, young entrepreneurs, artists, start-ups and SMEs are building new markets from scratch. They are creating products, events, cultural experiences, educational tools and entertainment platforms that did not previously have obvious commercial value. In many cases, they are not merely entering markets; they are creating them.
This is why Corporate Botswana must begin to reflect on how it enters spaces that have been built over time by smaller players. When Corporate Botswana enters spaces that young entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs have spent years building, the question should not be how to ride the wave after the proof of concept has been established. The question should be how to strengthen the pioneers who carried the early risk and made the opportunity visible.
This is not an argument against competition. Competition is necessary in any growing economy. It improves standards, widens consumer choice and encourages innovation. The concern is different. It is about what happens when well-resourced players enter emerging creative spaces only after smaller innovators have absorbed the early costs of market education, public acceptance and proof of concept.
In the creative industries, those costs are not always visible. They do not always appear neatly on a balance sheet. But they are real. A comedian who performs for years in small venues is not only telling jokes; they are teaching audiences to value local comedy. An artist who creates intimate wine-and-art experiences in community parks is not only hosting an event; they are cultivating a lifestyle culture. A musician, designer, filmmaker, content creator or cultural entrepreneur often spends years convincing the public that their work is worth paying for before the market becomes attractive to sponsors and larger brands.
The same applies to knowledge-based creative products. From my own entrepreneurial journey in the board game space, one of the biggest costs has not only been production. It has been belief. Before a locally developed board game can be accepted by schools, families, corporates and public institutions, someone must first teach the market what it can do. Someone must explain that a board game can be more than entertainment. It can support learning, team-building, public education, branding, cultural storytelling and corporate engagement.
That process takes time, money, patience and repeated rejection. It involves prototypes, demonstrations, pilot sessions, conversations, failed pitches and constant refinement. In economic terms, this is market creation. The entrepreneur is not only selling a product; they are building demand where demand did not previously exist.
The challenge comes when that demand finally becomes visible. At that point, an established corporate player can enter with a larger budget, stronger media access, celebrity influence, marketing power and corporate networks. Suddenly, the pioneer who spent years preparing the ground can appear small in a space they helped to create. The public sees the large launch, but not the years of quiet groundwork that made the launch possible.
This is where Botswana must move from an extraction mindset to an ecosystem mindset.
An extraction mindset looks at what SMEs have proven and asks how it can be scaled quickly, owned and branded by those with greater resources. An ecosystem mindset asks who created the value, who carried the early risk, and how the opportunity can be expanded in a way that includes and strengthens the pioneers.
This distinction is important for national development. Botswana cannot speak seriously about entrepreneurship, youth empowerment, citizen economic inclusion and innovation while allowing young innovators to function as unpaid research and development departments for stronger market players. If the reward for proving a concept is exclusion from the value chain once the concept becomes attractive, then we discourage the very innovation we claim to support.
Corporate Botswana has the power to change this. It can choose partnership over replication. It can license local ideas, sponsor existing platforms, procure from creative SMEs, co-create products, invest in local intellectual property and bring pioneers into the value chain. It can use its influence not to overshadow emerging players, but to help them scale.
This requires a shift from corporate social responsibility to corporate ecosystem responsibility. CSR often asks what a company can give back. Ecosystem responsibility asks who helped create the value the company now wants to participate in, and how they can be fairly included.
The creative economy will not grow through applause alone. It needs a business culture that recognizes the cost of being first. It needs policy makers, corporates and citizens to understand that proof of concept is not free. Someone paid for it through risk, sacrifice and persistence.
Botswana does not need to keep Corporate Botswana out of emerging creative industries. We need Corporate Botswana to enter differently: with memory, humility, partnership and a commitment to build rather than extract. If we are serious about citizen economic inclusion, youth enterprise and a knowledge-based economy, then we must protect the people who create value before that value becomes fashionable. The creative economy cannot grow where pioneers are used as proof of concept and excluded from the reward.
Corporate Botswana must not only enter the garden when it is ready for harvest. It must help water it, widen it, and ensure that those who planted it are not pushed outside the fence.
Thabiso Titus Paul is a Youth Sector Chairperson at Business Botswana and creative entrepreneur. He is the founder of Motswedi Game and passionate about youth empowerment, cultural innovation, enterprise development, and inclusive economic policy in Botswana.
