Innovation Nation – Where Are We Now?

The CEO Innovation Day

On Saturday the 13th of May, 2017 Iain McDonald and I co-organised the CEO Innovation Day, a unique event in Sydney where 50 top ASX brand CEOs, innovation company CEOs and influential VIPs discussed the state of innovation in Australia.

Why this event?

The purpose of the event was to pinpoint the burning issues we face together (innovation/future) as individuals, brands and as a nation. Attendees discussed why Australia ranked last for innovation collaboration*, 81st* for innovation efficiency, and the 47%** of jobs that are at risk from technologies like automation and AI.  During this structured event with facilitated workshops, the attendees aimed at generating an agreed outcome and look for ways, as a group, to effect change through collaboration. [Source: *OECD, **Oxford University]

Who attended?

Woolworths, PepsiCo, Intel, Microsoft, Ernst & Young, Tyro, Accenture, Randstad, Publicis, Data61 / CSIRO, Tulla Group, Port Jackson Partners, StartupAus, Fishburners, Beanstalk Factory, Sydney University, Lexer, Myer, YPO, PortalIDEAS, Fleet Space Technology, Barangaroo Delivery Authority, Moscow Conservatory Fellowship, Government Australia, Australian Chamber of Commerce, American Chamber of Commerce, Australian-Dutch Chamber of Commerce, French Chamber of Commerce, Faethm, Adtech, Antimatter, IOTm, Xchange, Artesian, Stanford University AU, Zeetings, Dept Science and Innovation, Huddle, Innovation Clearinghouse.

Why did we have this conversation?

This cross industry group has one common goal; to ensure that Australia can successfully transform its major employers and invest in the development of new business to compete in a 21st century global marketplace. We gathered leaders to identify the critical issues they face and what steps, if any, we could take collectively and/or individually to make progress against the common goal.

What problem are we solving?

Australia is not sufficiently alive to the opportunities and threats posed by the fourth industrial revolution and we are best described as laggards in embracing the digital economy. This is a problem because we won’t be able to live well in retirement and our children will not have the opportunities we had. 

How innovative is Australia today?

Throughout the ages we have always been a nation of inventors and entrepreneurs with a track-record that includes: the electronic pacemaker (1926), the ‘black box’ flight recorder (1958), ultrasound (1961), multi-channel cochlear implants (1970s), the polymer banknote (1988), Wi-Fi (1990s), Google Maps (2003) and a cervical cancer vaccine (2006). [Source: https://www.austrade.gov.au/benchmark-report/innovation-skills]

But if the last BIG innovation from Australia that changed the world was developed well over a decade ago, one starts to wonder if we’re actually going in the right direction.

Where do we want to be?

As a general consensus, I’m fairly positive we all want an Australia where:

• Our established organisations transform themselves to extend their life and keep people employed.
• Our high growth companies become global leaders.
• We are making investments in startups that will become tomorrow’s unicorns.
• We educate for a digital future.

How do we get there?

The outcome of the CEO Innovation Day and unanimous decision by everyone in the room was that we need a movement / organization that has the potential to become the voice of business and the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem to the wider community and government. While open to anyone, the movement’s membership can be drawn from communities represented by participants of the CEO Innovation Day and including:

This movement / organization will curate all the ideas, processes and collaborators of the new industrial revolution and channel their voices into one clear coherent voice that will help focus the government and innovative ecosystem into action. The outcome will be world leading societal and community-based initiatives in how to maximize the benefit to society of the rapid changes facing it.

This movement / organization will serve the Australian, corporate, academic and government communities and bring about mutual collaboration and economic benefit to all involved.

Members will belong to a diverse range of communities which cover the makeup of the Australian society. (All Ages, Abilities, Genders, Professions, etc.)

2022 – Where are we now?

Fast forward 5 years into the future and I’m wondering now what the people in that room took to heart and how they have paved the way forward in their organisation, or otherwise. I’m also interested to see what new barriers have come up, especially due to the recent pandemic.

Over the coming months we’ll be conducting interviews and writing articles to see how we can kickstart the movement further. Because I truly believe that in today’s business environment it’s no longer the case of trying to appeal to the masses. What really works best is to start a smaller, niche movement with the right people who can start a fire and make it go viral… something that people can embrace and truly connect with instead of “kind of like”.

Those who commit with laser focus are the ones that create world changing innovations… the unicorns of the world.

To be continued…