WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO COMPUTING

WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO COMPUTING

 

The IT industry in Australia has changed rapidly in the last years, with the success of search engines like Google, the emergence of wireless broadband, the standardisation of WiMAX, and the continued convergence of electronics and IT technology. In the PC market, the maturity and strength of the local economy has ensured a crowded market which requires focus in order to achieve growth.

To succeed in this market, business partners and PC suppliers like Lenovo must focus on the unique requirements of each segment: from large enterprises down to very small businesses; from those with IT staffs to those where users manage their own PCs. This isn't just a matter of product features and specs, it's about aligning your
entire business model with the unique characteristics of each customer set.

A fundamental change in the 21st century PC market is that a PC or notebook is not merely a business tool anymore. It's an indispensable companion and the centre of our digital, mobile lifestyle.

That's why we recently announced the availability of integrated 3G mobile broadband on selected notebooks, giving customers in 3G coverage areas the ability to enjoy the benefits of high-speed mobile data networking without the need to use external mobile data cards. The idea that people can use a full range of applications that require an easy-to-use, fast and reliable data connection is now real. It is now possible for people to work and play anytime, anywhere. And that is true mobility.

Alan Munro, managing director,
Lenovo, Australia and New Zealand

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WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO ENTERTAINMENT

 WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO ENTERTAINMENT

 

A company must value innovation for innovation to add value. In this sense, innovation is a tool for doing other things - establishing a company, growing a business, beating a competitor. But it is not enough to just have an inventive idea; you need to be able to exploit that invention in some way to actually extract the value.

The best innovative companies in my view are the ones which use each innovative step to grow their business and eventually create a cycle of innovation and value creation.

Companies must therefore match innovation with action. Exploiting innovation can apply to all parts of an organisation as well, so while you can have a big bang approach which is great for patents and new products, you can also pursue a path of gradual improvement to help to keep your company ahead of the pack. Also, exploiting innovation can lead to patents or if it is an internal process or technique for example, may best be kept as a trade secret to ensure longer shelf-life. Either way, history has shown that innovation is not a luxury but a necessity, and those who fail to innovate are history.

Adrian Risch, chief executive officer,
Jumbuck

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WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO INFRASTRUCTURE

WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO INFRASTRUCTURE 

 

Innovation is a requirement in all sectors of activity. Even in what might seem at first glance to be a straightforward area of fixed infrastructure, such as the provision of toll roads, there is a need to offer more than was available even a short time ago.

This goes beyond the road itself, but impinges dramatically on customer management. While toll roads have a long history, stretching back thousands of years in Arabia and India, the process of collecting tolls has really only changed dramatically in the last decade.

At Transurban, we regard innovation as paramount to what we feel is our pioneering spirit; it plays a key role in the success of the company. With this in mind, we introduced Australia's first fully electronic toll road - the Melbourne CityLink - and Australia's first distance based tolling on Sydney's Westlink M7. And we recently conducted the world's first successful trial of integrated tag and GPS tolling systems, in-conjunction with Siemens and Telstra.

Through the application of innovation, we continuously improve in all facets of our business, from giving customers a better experience on and off the road to delivering better solutions for governments.

Lisa Hunt, general manager, Transurban

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WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 

 

There are many steps along many pathways to capitalising on innovation and achieving success in the marketplace. In IP Australia we have a key part to play as one of the steps many innovators will choose to take - the step of formally protecting their intellectual property. But this can also be a dangerous step for some innovators.

Let me illustrate this. Start up innovators commonly include intellectual property protection in their "to do" list to get their idea to market. Frequently, however, we see innovators who just want to tick this item off their list. They lodge their patent, trade mark or design application, but they have not always done their homework. The application is often ill-conceived either from a business point of view or from an IP protection point of view or sometimes both.

The IP system can be unforgiving and recovery from such errors is not always possible. Many innovators, unprepared for the process and not clear about how IP protection works in conjunction with their business strategy, get stopped in their tracks at this point. They become frustrated with the IP system and fixate on securing IP protection with a loss of focus on their business goals - good ideas that could have or should have succeeded never get to the market place. The energy of the innovator is consumed securing the goal of patent protection or trade mark registration. The goal of getting the idea into the marketplace is forgotten or fatally delayed.

When understood and used in a strategic way, IP rights can become valuable business assets. The Australian innovation environment has spawned thousands of businesses which have used the IP system to great effect. The message they received from my office is not "Protect your IP or perish", but rather "Think about whether protecting your IP makes good business sense". We want the right people using the IP system, at the right time, for the right reasons.

Dr Ian Heath, director general,
IP Australia

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WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO IT SERVICES

WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO IT SERVICES 

 

Innovation is hard. Or at least, so it seems. Since innovation became fashionable, we have all been creating innovation strategies, forming innovation centres or teams, and trying to bake innovation into our corporate culture. Depressingly few of my IT/services peers have succeeded in a meaningful way.

There are exceptions. Recently, Google has built a strong reputation for innovation. For the rest of us, innovation is a lot like truffles. It can be extremely valuable, but it's hard to find. Some companies have managed to train their corporate senses. However, the trade off (and Google's differentiator) is an unconventional corporate culture. What we need is innovation for the mainstream. We need a measured approach.

A key lesson is that collaboration is key. Innovation is the chance combination of previously unrelated ideas. The ideas do not need to be new, or even particularly special. They can also come from anywhere.

When challenged, we can bring all stakeholders together (and all means all), creating an environment where innovative solutions float to the top. Often this needs a facilitator to help people overcome the trauma of stepping outside their day-to-day role.

This approach is at Capgemini's heart. Our focus on collaboration has resulted in the creation of an innovation friendly forum, known as the Accelerated Solutions Environment (ASE), that has been used to deliver innovative solutions to previously intractable problems, from boardroom deadlocks through to (recently) designing a new national rugby competition for the
Australian Rugby Union.

We have put collaboration at the centre of what we do. Innovation - for those of us who aren't Google - is not about reinventing the world. Innovation is recognising the truffles buried within the organisation, and then making the most of them.

Paul Thorley, chief executive officer,
Capgemini Australia

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