WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO GROWTH VENTURES

WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO GROWTH VENTURES 

 

The primary goal of our electricity distribution business is the delivery of reliable power supplies.

To those on the outside, it may not seem obvious why a culture of innovation is needed to deliver that - but we have found that innovation is integral to helping our CitiPower and Powercor businesses to advance to being the most reliable urban and rural electricity distributors respectively in Australia.

With five years of our "eighthgate" innovation program now under our belts, we are seeing real benefits - the pleasant part is that they are sometimes more pervasive than expected.

The initial focus of innovation was to improve customer service standards and the efficiency of our product delivery - that has happened.

But there are also gains to be had by people inside our business. Along with introducing new and better ways of doing things, innovation also requires that employees be empowered to lead, not just to operate. We are seeing real links between a culture of innovation and employee morale and productivity.

Our people still talk about the company innovation expo we held inside Old Geelong Gaol, under the theme of "Breaking out of our everyday boxes" - and not just because they saw the CEO modeling prison garb!

Embedding cultural change is a long term process. On our journey we've learnt about the need for investment in innovation skills. We've recognised that trying and failing isn't really failing if it fosters more creativity. And we understood that our innovation program needs to include a broad portfolio of ideas that vary in size and approach.

Our program has created real returns for our business over the five years, with many more substantial projects in development.

Along the way, the innovation program has grown to involve a third of our organisation and has brought people together. Why should our customers be the only ones to benefit?

Shane Breheny, Chief Executive Officer,
Powercor Australia

Source

WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO IT SECURITY

WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO IT SECURITY 

 

Innovation is integral to the future of all Australian Industries. In particular, Innovations in Technology are key for the development of Australian businesses and economy.

Over the last five years we have built up Australia's largest business technology event. CeBIT Australia, a subsidiary of long time global success CeBIT Hannover, provides a platform for Australian innovators and entrepreneurs to showcase products and solutions. Especially in technology, Australia's geographical position is no longer a limitation in today's flat world economy. In fact, Australia's proximity to Asia's booming market is an advantage. Innovations born here are often transported to global markets via the opportunities created both at our local and international events. For instance, over the last 7 years we have assisted over 350 Australian ICT companies take their products to a global marketplace in America, Asia, Europe and Turkey.

With broadband revolution and under the current global economic conditions, it is important to create the atmosphere to enable Australia to participate and benefit from the current technology boom by being involved in and contributing our talents and knowledge to the world.

One of CeBIT Australia's highly featured areas is Future Parc, an area in the event dedicated to Australian R&D. In collaboration with major research bodies, CSIRO and NICTA, we promote innovation across industries, in particular in IT, giving local R&D an international edge and a platform to both local and international exposure as well as access to venture capital.

CeBIT Australia continues to support and enable growth to the Australian ICT industry, as business and economy increasingly demand better and more efficient solutions.

Jackie Taranto, Managing Director, Hannover Fairs Australia

Source

WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO OPTOMETRY

WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO OPTOMETRY 

 

As the largest eyewear retailer in Australia, we've seen a myriad of innovations in prescription glass and frames over many years. Looking ahead, some of the innovations optical developers predict include technology enabling people to read emails from inside the lenses in their glasses, progressive lenses that are incorporated within the eye as people grow older, recyclable lenses and, on the customer relationship front, courier delivery of digitally customised premium lenses.

With this future in mind, Luxottica's own goal is to provide a retail experience that will cater for our customers' needs 10 to 20 years in the future. To ensure all employees share this goal, we are implementing, over a five-year period, a business alignment program devised with management and change specialists The Meikle Files. Twelve months into this program, we not only understand our business better but can recognise there is still much more to learn.

While it is possible to focus on a multitude of areas within the business, our approach to deploying innovation is to concentrate on no more than two or three processes at any one time. Employees are encouraged to think strategically in identifying these two or three areas for priority, and avoid trying to do too many things.

Decision-making related to this program is decentralised, and the corporate vision carried by the senior team throughout the enterprise. All information and ideas are reported on spreadsheets via our intranet, ensuring they receive full exposure. Successful innovation/improvement initiatives are also reviewed in a monthly staff newsletter, complemented by regular meetings.

Employees also have direct access to me through monthly phone conferences, which are often the most valuable source of new ideas and creative thinking.

Chris Beer, chief operating officer,
Luxottica Asia Pacific Group

Source

WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO AIRPORT FINANCING

WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO AIRPORT FINANCING 

 

Looking at innovative ways of investing in and financing airports is critically important to us. At an airport, as with most infrastructure, cost of capital is the single largest cost.

As such, management of that cost is essential if we are to maximise returns to our investors. So we review the capital arrangements at our airports on a continuing basis, and this goes hand in hand with reviewing airport capacity and capex programs to ensure these are managed efficiently.

By applying our own investment model, we are able to provide a more competitive capital structure for airports than governments, the traditional owners of airports in Australia. The privatisation of Sydney Airport, for example, which represented the world's largest-ever airport trade sale, was a watershed in innovative bank debt and hybrid capital, allowing the airport to continue to improve and develop. This has flowed through to benefit customers, retailers and the wider community.

We establish capital expenditure facilitiesacross our portfolio, enabling our airport businesses to use funding from banks and capital markets to finance future growth, thereby lowering the overall cost of capital.

We also use innovative funding arrangements for non-aeronautical businesses like property, lowering the overall cost of capital for these projects as well.

Optimal capital arrangements are also used to ensure that airport management have external benchmarks and disciplines set by financiers and investors, ensuring they are focused on measuring the generation of free cashflow.

Macquarie Airports couldn't achieve these innovative arrangements without having the best airports team, in finance, operations and structuring, focused on our investments.

Ultimately we work towards optimising returns to our shareholders, through this ongoing realignment of our investments' capital arrangements to make them more efficient.

Kerrie Mather, chief executive officer,
Macquarie Airports

Source

WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO BUSINESS

WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO BUSINESS 

 

Recently the Australian Business Foundation commissioned Professor Keith Smith to undertake some research into innovation in Australia. The research found that in the heartland of Australian industry - in the traditional low-to-medium tech industries - we are knowledge intensive and growing steadily.

It also highlighted that, while government innovation policy has focused on high tech industries and R&D, most industries were undertaking a path of continual, practical innovation.

The key findings of the paper are: innovation in low-to-medium tech industries is significant and pervasive; learning by doing is more important to knowledge creation than research; and business transformation is the key to successful innovation.

In other words, Australian businesses are particularly good at finding better ways of solving problems for customers and meeting market needs more imaginatively. The small to medium size businesses, especially, are at the forefront of this "practical innovation".

These businesses achieve this through a strong ethical framework, a long term investment in business intangibles: strategy, people, networks, know-how and established partnerships for business growth as well as innovation and improvement.

I believe it is these three principles that will set apart Australian business from some of its low cost competitors: indeed, it sets the Australian economy apart from some of its competitors.

Kevin MacDonald, CEO,
Australian Business Limited, State Chamber

Source