Q. What surprises you most about how innovation has evolved in Telstra over the last 110 years?

Over the past 110 years several fundamental changes have taken place – many of these shifts have been caused by innovative and disruptive new services. What is perhaps most surprising is the ability of the organisation to at times drive such changes, and at other times to adapt to the changes; the resilience of innovation and the relentless drive for improvement, and the capacity to change every aspect of how we operate and how services are delivered. It has by no means always been easy, but innovation never is.

Q. What do you consider has been the most innovative change in the business?

Over the past couple decades, the emergence of mobile devices and networks has probably been the most fundamentally disruptive innovative change – merely 20 years ago few people had mobile devices; now more than half of the population keep their mobile devices within arm’s reach even when they sleep. No other piece of technology has so quickly become so crucially embedded into how people live and work.

Q. All organisations must innovate or die. True or false in relation to Telstra?

True, but it must be kept in mind that innovation takes many forms. Innovation is not just about developing never-before-seen services or products; it encompasses the entire business and how we operate, from seemingly small improvements and fine-tunings to more radical changes. Innovation often also means the death of an old product or service; this creative destruction means the phrase becomes more like “innovate and die in order to live and improve”.

Q. Telstra is based on science, engineering and technology. Does this make innovation an imperative, or something embedded in the organisation’s DNA?

Technology-based innovation is deeply engrained into the organisation’s DNA, but innovation in not just about technology. Everything that we do needs to start from our customers’ needs, wants and desires – not merely from the technological background. Combining the customer-focused and sometimes fast-paced innovation that may take place outside the technological scope may sometimes cause innovation to feel like an imperative to some of the most deeply technically-inclined parts of the organisation, but it is really combining the great technical knowledge with other insight into customer needs and behaviours that drive winning solutions.

Q. Does Telstra have a business model that embraces innovation? If so what does it look like?

As I said earlier, it’s part of our overall DNA.  That being said, there is no one business model that “embraces innovation”, particularly when innovation can include entirely new business models. The key to innovation is knowing what the organisation’s strengths (and weaknesses) are, and keeping a very open mind, whether or not something initially fits perfectly into existing business models. Even business models can, must and do change, and sometimes the biggest innovations lie in these changes.

Q. Which is more important to Telstra: the culture or the processes? Why?

While both are important, I would have to say culture. Having proper processes in place is of no help if the culture of the organisation is rigid and does not embrace innovation; however, with a proper culture and a “can-do” attitude, suboptimal processes can be circumvented and then redesigned to achieve something new and meaningful.
A positive culture is a necessary prerequisite for innovation to take place. Carefully selected processes (and, sometimes, lack of processes) can be used to further foster and enhance an innovative culture and environment, but not create one in the first place.

Q. What is the biggest innovation challenge that faces Telstra today?

The telecommunications industry, itself a great disruptor, is facing several fundamental shifts that will – again – change how we live our lives and do business. One of the key challenges is to ensure the crucial underlying networks (core networks, wireless and wired networks) will be able to handle the exponentially growing traffic in a reliable and secure manner.
This will be crucial to the society as a whole as increasing societal functions, services and companies rely on fast data communication links for critical services. Moreover, services are moving to what is generally called ‘the cloud’, which is another ongoing massive shift in the way services are delivered. How to manage this transition in a reliable, resilient and secure way is one of the key challenges Telstra is facing – and investing heavily to deliver.