People are innovation’s active ingredient, the catalyst that turns novelty into real benefits for economies and communities. Benefits like jobs, wealth, productivity and life-changing progress – not just better ways of earning a living, but better ways of having a life.The role of people in innovation is a fact that remains hidden in plain sight. It is axiomatic – everyone says it and believes it, but few understand anything at all about the human factors in innovation.For starters, most equate innovation with science and research and advanced technologies. Or else the world of innovation for many is populated only by the lone inventor, the gifted nerd or the creative genius entrepreneur.But in its tradition of probing beyond the obvious, the Australian Business Foundation questioned these conventional views of innovation, and sought to understand the real dynamics and the hidden human dimensions of innovation.Hence, we brought together and published this book, Inside the Innovation Matrix: Finding the Hidden Human Dimensions. A collection of 14 expert papers by 26 authors, it is a collaborative effort offering a kaleidoscope of insights from eminent business people, international scholars and leading researchers that take us inside the often invisible matrix of human interactions that are vital to successful innovation in both enterprises and nations.The focus of the book is the pivotal role of people as innovation carriers – their networks, collaborations, knowledge flows, interactions and tacit knowledge – and how innovation itself is a potent competitive force that drives productivity.The Inside the Innovation Matrix book is different because instead of reporting on just a single line of research, it takes soundings of a variety of thinkers in business and in the academic community to illuminate the workings of innovation as a social process and not a technical process.This more nuanced view of innovation is key to understanding how the human factors activate the social and economic benefits we seek from being innovative – more about problem-solving and learning than scientific discovery, more about the customer than the producer, and more about transformation than technology.AVOID THE SEDUCTION OF THE EASY ANSWERIt is obvious that successful innovation depends on people, but the easy answers of how this chemistry works and the ‘ten steps to innovation’ primer for managers are invariably wrong. People factors in innovation don’t refer just to the creativity of individuals, to the need for more scientists and engineers, to building an innovation culture, or even to the interaction between technology and human beings. The fresh insights from the Australian Business Foundation’s soundings from expert contributors are found in the book’s title Inside the Innovation Matrix. This matrix is the sticky spider web of human interactions from which innovation springs, that give it origin and form, says our book’s editor. While this matrix is often hidden or underestimated, its key elements are knowledge-sharing, networks and collaboration.Let me illuminate three of the more potent pieces of intelligence from the rich human eco-system of innovation unveiled by our authors.INNOVATION CAPABILITIES OWE MORE TO THE FLOWS OF KNOWLEDGE, THAN TO THE STOCKS OF KNOWLEDGEOur starting point is of course a broad definition of innovation. Graham Hubbard quotes Roy Green’s 2007 paper for CEDA where he defines innovation as: doing new things or doing things in a new way: drawing on knowledge and creativity to add value in  products and processes.Not only is this an expansive view of innovation – new things or ways of working; knowledge and creativity; add value; products and processes – it is a dynamic view.Even so, more often than not, we fixate on the creation of knowledge, not on its transfer, sharing, expansion and use; that is, we often focus on stocks not flows of knowledge.The prehistory of Radiata (the Australian integrated chip start-up) and Cisco by Mark Matthews and Bob Frater illustrates that tacit knowledge, accumulated experience and learning by doing result in a highly valuable intangible asset that boosts the innovation odds. They stress that people who innovate together capitalise on their tacit knowledge and informal know-how and on past strategic investments to “navigate the white-water risks” of innovation more successfully than their competitors.In Radiata’s case, Matthews and Frater chart the technical challenge of designing the integrated chip where the design team benefited from capabilities higher than the industry norm because of their connections to collective past learning. It was the key to their design of error-free chips with a minimum of re-working loops, which in turn gave them time to market and cost advantages. Radiata exploited the intangible assets already developed in Australia’s scientific and research community in radio-astronomy and in electronics companies, together with CSIRO and the close linkages to companies developing critical instrumentation technologies, to R&D and to research training including personnel in the USA. Theirs is a story of the co-evolution linking radio astronomy, telecommunications and microchip design, and a symbiotic relationship between researchers and industry, not a linear commercialisation path. To quote Matthew and Frater:This complex chain of precursor activities was focused on the dual objectives of improving radio-telescope performance and developing the industrial capacity to provide the technologies necessary to do this. The strategy was long term and was not explicitly aimed at achieving specific commercial outcomes so much as pursuing a process of learning-by-doing in chip design that would generate a wide range of options for future exploitation.In colloquial terms, Radiata’s innovation succeeded by standing on the shoulders of giants.They formed a community of practice with a clear intangible asset value in the form of intellectual capital and human capital, but one that relied on long term and sustained investments in strategic capacity-building and continuity of interpersonal innovation networks. Deloitte in one of its two papers, by Gerhard Vorster and Jenny Wilson, called these communities of practice “tribes” that cut across service lines and hierarchies.Communities of diverse and passionate individuals whose cumulative capabilities sustain innovations that are truly breakthrough in thinking and application…… The Innovation Acceleration Team is a good example.Deloitte in its second contribution by Mehrdad Baghai, Giam Swiegers and Rebecca Watson describe another example. These are Intensive Learning Campaigns, which are successive short-lived small teams that cross specialisations for action learning from prospective clients and swift sales as a result.Marceau, Turpin and Woolley in their advocacy of better career paths for scientists, engineers and technologists also make the point of the value of tacit knowledge as an intangible asset for organisations. In an environment of distributed global value chains characterised by increased outsourcing, they argue for a minimum level of localised and in-house science and technology expertise and capacity so that enterprises can be discerning and literate business customers and suppliers.In short, the first piece of intelligence about the human dimensions of innovation is that knowledge is cumulative and gains in value by sharing and useage.NETWORKS ARE THE OXYGEN OF INNOVATIONAlistair Nolan of the OECD made this comment to an Australian Business Foundation audience several years ago, and Inside the Innovation Matrix proves it is still true in a number of intriguing ways. Let me share these highlights with you.Mapping innovation networksJohn Steen, Sam Macaulay and Tim Kastelle of UQ Business School share their scholarship on social network analysis as a powerful tool to understand, measure and manage innovation networks. They make the case that there has been a shift from the old-fashioned concept of ‘innovation as discovery’ to innovation as ‘connecting for value’, ie. not individual discovery or invention in the R&D lab or the garage, but the innovation that comes from new connections throughout the value chain. This shifts our focus from individuals to networks.Newer models of the innovation process make no assumptions about value being inherent in any particular process, idea or technology. Value is created through rearranging and recombining knowledge, people, processes and technologies. This problem-solving and improvisational activity is most clearly seen in project businesses and complex product systems such as wind turbines (e.g. Vestas Wind Systems), construction (e.g. Laing O’Rourke) and management consulting (e.g. Deloitte). It can also be seen in new Australian ventures such as Beeline. While tractors and global-positioning systems are established technologies, combining these to create planting and harvesting efficiencies in large-scale agribusiness is yet another example of innovation by recombination and connection.Steen et al paint the picture of innovation emerging from recombinations of previously disconnected ideas, with fluid interactions and knowledge transfers. Traditional supply side measures of innovation, like R&D expenditure, numbers of research staff and patents don’t capture this innovation.  Steen et al offer social network analysis as a way of visualising, understanding and measuring network dynamics – all based on “six degrees of separation”. Their evidence-based intelligence suggests some networks support innovation better than others, and it revolves around analysing the number, depth, distance and flow of connections. It turns out that “friends of friends” matter – the more friends you have and the more diverse sets of friends they have, the greater the innovative performance and competitive advantage. (Forgive the paraphrasing).CULTIVATING GLOBAL PEOPLE POWERAnother facet of the innovative power of networking is Australia’s Diaspora, the overseas innovation class, explored by Anand Kulkarni and George Bougias. Global people power is the next wave of growth, where human capital is today’s most sought-after production factor and where production is increasingly a global, not national, endeavour.There are two key factors at play – the movement of highly educated and skilled people globally and the movement of productive activities in close proximity to suitable skilled people.Kulkarni and Bougias argue that Australia is well-placed to capitalise on this phenomenon of global knowledge flows, both as a largely migrant country and with a sizeable diaspora of its own citizens around the world.Capitalising on Australia’s diaspora means cultivating people networks that are also potentially global innovation networks. The task is to draw explicitly on the connections and networks of Australians abroad to forge long-term trade, investment and innovation linkages. Illustrations are provided from the different approaches of India, China and Scotland.THE GEOGRAPHY OF INNOVATIONMarcus Spiller’s enticingly titled paper, “Innovation: Your Place or Mine”, adds a further dimension to innovation networking – geography. And in yet another twist, Spiller details the role of advanced business services or knowledge-intensive service activities as agents of innovation. Advanced business services are those enterprises providing a largely customised problem solving service to other businesses, where the solutions in question require application of significant intellectual effort or capital. Examples include management consultants, specialised legal services, financial brokers and venture capital services, marketing, advertising and PR consultants, engineering, IT and technical advisors, design services and human resource advisory services. They are critical agents in the creation and diffusion of ideas and problem-solving in modern economies.To achieve their potential as innovation agents with other businesses, these advanced business services are dependent on trust-based relationships, which in turn, rely on face to face contact, personal referrals and recommendations and mastery of local business cultures and mores. So, being physically close to your business customer is key. Spiller points to the strong spatial concentration of advanced business services in Sydney and Melbourne and as the innovation catalyst effect of these “thinking services” erodes with distance, he suggests this geographic imbalance poses a danger to the innovative capabilities of the rest of the country.LEARNING NETWORKSDon’t want to be just a one hit wonder with a lucky break? Want to be the type of enterprise that can systematically exploit and create innovation opportunities? Then Professor John Bessant, Professor and Chair of Innovation Management at Imperial College London, introduces us to another form of network designed to build the dynamic capabilities needed to turn knowledge into innovation for the long haul.John Bessant’s paper summarises a wealth of international academic scholarship about the concept of ‘learning networks’.John Bessant cites research on learning networks that shared and cooperative inter-firm learning greatly assists enterprises to organise and manage the acquisition and absorption of new knowledge and to transform it into competitive capabilities. The value of action or experimental learning comes from the participation of others in the process of challenge and support. It also marshals the benefits of ‘comrades in adversity’, of working together to tackle complex and open-ended problems.Bessant cites various examples of effective learning networks, such as Toyota’s active supplier association, Marsh & Shaw’s study for the Australian Business Foundation on collaborative learning experiences in the Australian wine industry, and supply chain learning networks in the Dutch and UK food industries, the construction sector and in the aerospace industry.COLLABORATION AND ADAPTABILITY DRIVE THE INNOVATION PLAY-OFFBut, innovation is not just about the intrinsic value of learning, or comparing the size of your innovation networks. All innovation needs a pay-off.Graham Hubbard’s paper reveals the innovation lessons of a 25 year study of 11 top-performing Australian enterprises. Their story is low on breakthrough innovations (like the blockbuster drug or new frontier high tech gadget), but high on incremental product and service innovation, on transforming processes and on borrowing great ideas from overseas. Witness Brambles’ development of its Cleanaway rubbish wheelie bins and the CHEP pallet system – both ideas borrowed from overseas. Or the process improvement in Westfield’s redevelopment of shopping centres, as opposed to building new centres, where they involve all building specialists upfront in the planning phase for cross-fertilisation of ideas and to anticipate and solve problems early before actual work begins.Woolworths demonstrates incremental product and service innovation by adding products and services that exist elsewhere to their business offerings – petrol retailing, banking services, liquor chains. Another example is the expansion of Dick Smith Electronics into superstore format. And the evolution of Macquarie Bank’s infrastructure investment trusts into a wide range of infrastructure products such as airports, toll roads, tunnels, ferries and utilities.A wide range of value-adding innovation is occurring in Australian high-performing companies, but because it is not necessarily disruptive, high technology innovation, it is underestimated. Graham Hubbard’s study points to two values and behaviours that are key to innovation processes in these high achiever companies. Both are human dimensions. They are collaboration and adaptability. This is the third key piece of intelligence to highlight from the Australian Business Foundation’s book.Hubbard’s study found that embracing both change and speed, and focusing outwards on customers and other stakeholders, with an international focus and with antennae out for ideas and information are critical to securing an innovation pay-off.Similarly, while Deloitte willingly embraced the ambiguity and uncertainty of giving its people the permission and the tools to innovate, it also imposes the discipline of managing their innovations to be a primary value driver in the business. Deloitte aims to be a market maker, not a market follower, through practical business model innovation. They cite as examples of success a new anti-money laundering compliance tool, an online financial reporting system that pre-empts a new international financial reporting standard, and a collaboration engineered between Qantas and Harvard University for an in-flight training system.Finally, the innovation matrix also throws up a wealth of advice and evidence on managing innovation for practical bottom line outcomes – secrets of project management and innovation portfolio management from both experienced practitioners and eminent researchers; hints from Becker and Hyland for ”unlearning” so that innovation can flourish freed from the emotional impact that causes change to be resisted; and last but not least, Verity Byth and Ross Honeywill’s insights about recognising and managing both the people who are natural change agents and those who are natural stabilisers in sustaining innovation and its outcomes.Oliver Freeman gets the last word and reminds us of the importance of the wildcards, the unpredictable but foreseeable scenarios and the radical thinking that must be embraced if we are to pursue innovation as transformative change.STARTING A CONVERSATIONWell, that concludes the Australian Business Foundation’s guided tour inside the innovation matrix, seeking evidence of human habitation. By commissioning this suite of expert papers, the Australian Business Foundation has started a conversation about the complex and sometimes chaotic role that human interaction plays in generating new economic value from innovation.We hope we have provided fresh angles and new understandings to the debate. Now more than ever, faced by a global economic crisis, innovation is the means of attacking the recession before it attacks us.Australia needs to invest in the kind of innovation that transforms the capabilities of businesses and boosts the enduring productivity performance of the nation. The hallmark of such innovation-led prosperity resides in people and organisations that are dynamic, knowledgeable, outward-looking and connected.That is the key message not only of the Inside the Innovation Matrix book, but of the vibrant community of interest that exists in the Australian Business Foundation itself. We invite you to keep this conversation going with us.

2009-03-11T09:28:34+09:00

243

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The Hidden Human Dimensions of Innovation - Hargraves Institute Presentation

2009-03-11T00:00:00+09:00

Speech by Australian Business Foundation Chief Executive, Narelle Kennedy to Innovation 2009 Conference, Sydney 10 March 2009.

2009-03-11T09:49:10+09:00

From the Introduction:Innovation does not spring from nowhere. It is a process embedded in a creative matrix of human interactions which give it origin and form. This book explores those hidden human dimensions.The word innovation is ubiquitous in modern business and political life. Every organisation projects itself as innovative; every country strives to be innovative to compete in a world changing at a dizzying pace.While there are many definitions of the word, few would disagree with the working one that it represents the bringing into being of something new and valuable. In fact the concept of the new, the novel, is at the heart of the origin of the term. Because producing something new is a creative act, the emphasis in the past has been on creative individuals and the discoveries of science and technology. In a relatively linear model, a white-coated researcher comes up with a powerful fact or idea, and this is eventually turned into new products for the market.As this book will show, innovation is far broader and deeper than that. The actual products of innovation are merely visible signs of the usually invisible innovation matrix. This book is a tool to help Australian business and the country as a whole to mine the secret riches of that matrix.

1965-10-11T13:09:02+08:00

196

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Inside the Innovation Matrix - Finding the hidden human dimensions

2008-10-16T11:30:00+08:00

The latest research project from the Australian Business Foundation delves into the human kaleidoscope of innovation. Going well beyond old-school, linear stories about a brilliant inventor or creative entrepreneur, this project seeks to understand the transformative power of innovation by exposing the hidden intricacies of individuals, their networks and their interactions – the human dimensions of innovation.This book is not about innovation for its own sake. It is about how to drive innovation-led prosperity, to enable Australia to continue to be a great place to live, work and play.

Foreword   Stephen Mills and Narelle KennedyIntroduction   Tony Spencer-Smith<a href="/publication_files/61/ITIM_01_Hubbard.pdf">Innovation in Winning Organisations in Australia: Myths and Realities</a>   Graham HubbardUsing Learning Networks as an Aid to Innovation   John Bessant Australia’s Diaspora Networks in the 21st Century: Winning the Hearts and Minds of the Overseas Innovation Class   Anand Kulkarni and George BougiasHow Intangible Networks Can Boost the Innovation Odds   Mark Matthews and Bob FraterInnovation: Your Place or Mine?   Marcus Spiller New Tools to Map and Manage Innovation Networks  John Steen, Sam Macaulay and Tim Kastelle The Heroes of Innovation? Scientists and Technologists in Australian Business   Jane Marceau, Tim Turpin and Richard WoolleyHow Deloitte Embedded Innovation in its DNA   Gerhard Vorster and Jenny WilsonLearning from the Market in Triple Time   Mehrdad Baghai, Giam Swiegers and Rebecca WatsonManaging the Innovation Faultline   Verity Byth and Ross HoneywillFactors Behind Successful Creative Project-Based Teams   Leslie Butterfield and Dafydd Wyn OwenThe Human Factor in Innovation Project Portfolio Management   Catherine P Killen, Robert A Hunt and Elko J KleinschmidtOvercoming Barriers to Innovation by Facilitating Unlearning   Karen Becker and Paul HylandPeople, Scenarios and Innovation   Oliver Freeman

2009-03-09T14:54:10+09:00

2008-05-27T09:22:10+08:00

210

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Innovation Beyond New Inventions

2008-05-27T00:00:00+08:00

2008-06-12T12:26:43+08:00

2008-03-04T12:25:25+09:00

204

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Innovation in Winning Organisations in Australia: Myths and Realities

2008-03-04T00:00:00+09:00

<div>This paper is part of the forthcoming Australian Business Foundation book addressing the human dimension of innovation. </div>

2008-03-04T12:27:30+09:00

2008-03-03T16:08:08+09:00

202

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New Tools to Map and Manage Innovation Networks

2008-03-03T00:00:00+09:00

This paper is part of the forthcoming Australian Business Foundation book addressing the human dimension of innovation.

2008-03-04T10:57:58+09:00

<ul><li>Despite the diversity of size, experience and industry sector, a common feature of born global enterprises is that the whole world is their potential market from the company's inception, bucking the more traditional approach to growth by pursuing success in domestic markets before entering offshore markets.</li><li>Perhaps the approach of these firms is best encapsulated by the advice given by several interviewees to prospective born global firms: ‘Know your industry; know who your competitors are in the world market; work out where you can add value and carve a niche; and do it!'</li><li>As international competition demands greater collaboration and a more rapid absorption of new knowledge, governments can help resident firms to connect to global webs of enterprise.</li></ul>Case study companies included different sized firms from four different states across a diverse range of industries:<ul><li><div align="left">Aconex Pty Ltd (VIC) – provider of an online document management and web collaboration system for construction, engineering and facilities management;</div></li><li><div align="left">Agenix Ltd (QLD) – a publicly listed company in the market for cardiovascular diagnostic products;</div></li><li><div align="left">BEELINE Technologies Inc (QLD) – pioneer of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) technology for hands-free Steering Assist™ in agricultural vehicles;</div></li><li><div align="left">Biota Holdings Limited (VIC) – a publicly listed company involved in the discovery and development of antiviral drugs;</div></li><li><div align="left">Cochlear Ltd (NSW) – a publicly listed company that designs and markets multi-channel cochlear implants for the hearing impaired;</div></li><li><div align="left">CSL Ltd (VIC) – a publicly listed company that develops, manufactures and markets vaccines and medications of biological origin;</div></li><li><div align="left">DSpace (SA) – pioneer of technology for commercial and defence satellite communications;</div></li><li><div align="left">Ellex Medical Lasers Ltd (SA) – a publicly listed company that designs and manufactures laser systems for ophthalmologists to fight blindness;</div></li><li><div align="left">Global Trust Centre (NSW) – an organisation that identifies needs and solutions to overcome security and trust problems in the digital world;</div></li><li><div align="left">Indigo Technologies Ltd (QLD) – pioneer of technology that reduces potentially toxic, fine particles emitted from coal fired furnaces in power stations;</div></li><li><div align="left">Infomedia Pty Ltd (NSW) – a publicly listed company that supplies electronic parts catalogues, primarily for the automotive industry;</div></li><li><div align="left">Micronix Pty Ltd (SA) – a publicly listed company that commercialises biomedical technology which facilitates accurate, inexpensive and real-time placement of a variety of catheters for a range of clinical applications;</div></li><li><div align="left">MYOB Ltd (VIC) – a publicly listed company that designs and supplies business management software, services and support for businesses and accounting practices;</div></li><li><div align="left">NOJA Power Switchgear Pty Ltd (QLD) – designer and supplier of low and medium voltage switchgear products;</div></li><li><div align="left">Rising Sun Pictures (SA) – provider of visual effects services for filmmakers, chiefly Hollywood studios;</div></li><li><div align="left">Technico Pty Ltd (NSW) – an agri-biotech company that provides supply-chain solutions by using proprietary technology to deliver early generation seed-potato products;</div></li><li><div align="left">tna Australia Pty Ltd (NSW) – provider of integrated turnkey solutions for food packaging and processing products; and</div></li><li><div align="left">The Wiggles (NSW) – provider of children’s entertainment (music, merchandise and theme parks) that encourages the participation of parents and guardians.</div></li></ul>

2007-10-16T12:34:32+08:00

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Born To Be Global: A closer look at the international venturing of Australian born global firms

2007-12-16T12:00:00+09:00

This report focused on charting the experiences of 18 'born global' firms which ventured overseas shortly after their birth.  In examining their successes and setbacks, the researchers were able to identify some key factors relevant to identifying and satisfying new global opportunities more adeptly, including agility, persistency and the ability to manage a range of business functions and risks simultaneously.In analysing the business case studies, certain patterns were discerned about the character and further development of born global firms. While these insights do not constitute a template for business success, they do provide an important set of lessons for enterprises that are export ready or seeking other ways to extend their international reach.

CHAPTER 1: AIM, METHOD AND STRUCTURE            Rationale for the Project       The Contemporary Business Environment            Trends Perpetuating the Born Global Enterprise  Scope and Method   Report Structure         CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND BACKGROUND ISSUES The Born Global Literature   What Do We Know About Born Globals?  The Born Global Firm and Extended International Presence       CHAPTER 3: KEY INSIGHTS INTO DEEPENING AUSTRALIAN BORN GLOBAL FIRM ACTIVITY Introduction    1.  Business Strategies that are not Cavalier but Confident and Cautious        2.  Born Global Firms are Agile Learning Organisations 3.  Collaborating and Connecting to Global Webs of Enterprise            4.  Building New Markets by Serving Unmet Needs or Specialist Niches         5.  Opportunities in Traditional Markets for Untraditional Enterprises    6.  Geographic Distance can be an Advantage    7.  Business Strategies that take Advantage of Globalisation     CHAPTER 4: NATIONAL ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF BORN GLOBAL ACTIVITIES            Introduction    Analysing National Economic Benefits: Some Relevant Theoretical Issues      Contributions to Employment and Public Revenue           Participating in Global Webs and Facilitating Economically Relevant Knowledge       Sustaining Local Clusters of High Value-Adding Activities         Creating New Global Industries Within the Australian Economy Building up the Skills and Knowledge of Australian Residents   Enhancing the Reputation of The Australian Economy and Australian Residents        Policy Implications    Conclusion      CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS       Aconex Pty Ltd          Agenix Ltd      BEELINE       Biota Holdings Limited         Cochlear Ltd  CSL Ltd          DSpace Pty ltd          Ellex Medical Lasers Ltd      Global Trust Centre   Indigo Technologies Ltd       Infomedia Pty LtdMicronix Pty Ltd         MYOB Ltd      NOJA Power Switchgear Pty Ltd    Rising Sun Pictures  Technico Pty Ltd       TNA Pty Ltd   The Wiggles

2010-02-02T06:36:24+08:00

Some key findings from the study show:<ul><li>There was a clear acceleration of growth of labour productivity in Australia in the 1990's and beyond compared to the 1980's.  From 1992-2004 labour productivity grew at an annual rate of 2.32% compared to 1.59% for the earlier period from 1980 to 1992.</li><li>Services sectors have dominated this growth, and the high performers were: <ul><li>financial intermediation (deposit, credit granting, financial leasing, factoring and credit card merchant services);</li><li>wholesale trade; and</li><li>the miscellaneous group encompassing transport, machinery and equipment hire, hotels and catering, R&D, legal, technical and advertising.</li></ul></li><li>Agriculture was a significant contributor to the acceleration between the two periods.</li><li>Mining and quarrying played an important role, but is not a key sector in the productivity surge during the high growth period.</li><li>Communications played a substantial role in between the two growth periods, but its contribution to the overall surge is low because of the decline in influence from 1998 onwards.</li><li>These findings are comparable to an analysis conducted by Professor Solow for the McKinsey Global Institute on aggregate productivity growth for the US</li></ul>The implications for productivity growth can be highlighted as follows:<ul><li>It is the high technology using sectors rather than the high technology producing sectors that are the key component drivers of productivity growth both in Australia and the USA.</li><li>The development and application of information technologies, together with investment in management capabilities and other organisational and often intangible assets are behind the transformations experienced by the sectors contributing most to Australia's recent productivity growth;</li><li>Examples for each of the highest contributing sectors are: <ul><li>financial intermediation/insurance - benefited from major regulatory reforms, but also among largest investors in information and communications technologies;</li><li>wholesale trade - benefited from the introduction of large scale technologies such as bar-coding and scanning, and increased competition and regulatory reform induced rationalisation through a series of mergers and acquisitions;</li><li>communications - benefited from rapid technological advances and increased demand due to falling prices, also a large investor in technology in 1990s.</li><li>agriculture - benefited from new technologies in farm machinery, herbicides/fertilisers and genetic modification.  Regulatory reforms also improved performance in several sectors.</li><li>mining -  benefited from GPS technology to locate richer deposits more efficiently.</li></ul></li><li>These high growth contributing sectors are also the important innovators, necessary for the ongoing competitive performance of firms in Australia.</li><li>The authors identified a number of constraints to continued strong productivity growth including: <ul><li>the need for further investment in IT and broadband infrastructure</li><li>labour force skills</li><li>an increasingly tight labour market</li><li>exhaustion of productivity catch up</li><li>limited export potential of the services sectors.</li></ul></li><li> Understanding and analysing the drivers of productivity growth, and the potential constraints, are essential for both the performance of companies and their contribution to the economy, and the prosperity of the Australian community at large.  These are matters of vital importance to the current Australian government and community.</li></ul>

2007-11-26T13:17:18+09:00

200

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The Contribution of Services and Other Sectors to Australian Productivity Growth 1980-2004

2007-11-16T00:00:00+09:00

This extensive study of 49 sectors in the Australian economy identified two growth periods - a low growth period from 1980 to 1992, then a high growth period from 1992 to 2004.  The acceleration in labour productivity growth in the high growth period can be attributed to the performance of just three service sectors - financial intermediation, wholesale trade and a miscellaneous group encompassing transport, machinery and equipment hire, hotels and catering, R&D, legal, technical and advertising.  The productivity dividends came from business transformation  such as enhancing the use of enabling technologies, building management capabilities and capitalising on regulatory reforms, rather than as a result of greater capital investment replacing labour.  These findings, and the constraints to future growth identified by the authors, open the way for consideration of actions to initiate the next generation of productivity surges from Australia.

2008-05-01T13:10:43+08:00

2007-10-31T14:04:33+09:00

149

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Australian Productivity - policies that work

2007-05-08T00:00:00+08:00

2007-11-09T12:28:29+09:00

2007-11-07T18:21:51+09:00

184

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Comments on the Productivity Commission's Draft Research Report on Public Support for Science and Innovation

2006-12-21T00:00:00+09:00

This is the Australian Business Foundation's response to the draft report of the Productivity Commission's Study into Public Support for Science and Innovation

2007-11-08T10:48:32+09:00

Probing beyond the obvious to discover fresh insights is the Australian Business Foundation’s stock in trade.  When the Foundation teamed up with Deloitte to look at 50 middle market companies and their experiences of innovation, the result was a number of rare insights into the hidden realities of business innovation in this important and often hard to reach section of the business community.The majority of businesses examined reported that they had to innovate to survive.  It was not a choice but rather a business necessity driven by market and/or customer demands.  Competing on knowledge and innovation rather than cost, price and quality has evolved as an alternative competitive strategy which if executed effectively, can create new value for the business either by enabling the company to solve problems better than their competitors or providing some other competitive advantage through greater customer engagement or embedded organisational learning.The study confirmed that innovation is more than radical, technological advances in products or services.  Business leaders acknowledged that it is actually more commonly witnessed in transformed business practices such as changing how business is done in a particular market, reorganising organisational work processes or using alternative channels to reach customers.  These less visible forms of innovation have proven to be as effective as radical breakthroughs at creating new value.  More imaginative business models have emerged through these transformations which focus on building learning cultures – ie, where experimentation, exploration and taking managed risks are valued.  This cultural change process is one of the few times that change motivates and engages employees, and this also creates value for the organisation by retaining and attracting sought after employees.Innovations of the radical breakthrough kind are often achieved only when businesses keep their product development cards close to their chest, but this study confirmed that innovation actually needs partners.  The learnings and insights created from collaboration with customers, suppliers, and even competitors can inform tailored solutions to business problems.  The results of the study demonstrated that collaboration with competitors is possible because innovation is highly context specific and depends on understanding the individual business strategy and capabilities.    Above all, creating value from innovation is all in the execution. Innovation will only create value if it is part of a disciplined, structured organisational process, is focused on outcomes and embedded in the day to day operations of the business.  Creating the processes that foster innovation requires longer term capability building and business leaders need courage to overcome entrenched more traditional approaches to creating value.The businesses studied were well aware that in order to sustain their productivity and profitability in the future, they need to continue to compete on innovation, creating knowledge within the business and building collaborative partnerships.

2007-10-29T16:34:58+09:00

126

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The Reality of Innovation Unzipped

2006-11-16T00:00:00+08:00

This joint venture project between Australian Business Foundation and Deloitte aimed to test the appetite for innovation in middle market firms through a series of focus groups with more than 50 businesses in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.  The key findings of this collaborative project demonstrate that these businesses have a strong appreciation that they need to continually innovate to survive, and to compete on knowledge and innovation through business transformation, rather than on cost.

<h5>1. Introduction - Innovation and Australia’s middle market</h5><h5>2. Key insights</h5><h5>3. Growth: case study - Energising business growth and creating value</h5><h5>4. Business models: case study - Imaginative business models</h5><h5>5. Partnering: case study - Partnering, collaborating and alliances</h5><h5>6. Results-oriented: case study - Doing the hard yards</h5><h5>7. People: case study - Innovation motivates people</h5><h5>8. Market driven: case study - One size does not fit all</h5><h5>9. Performance: case studies - Innovation is multi-faceted and complex needing replicable processes</h5><h5>10. Where to next? - The challenges for the future</h5><h5>11. An executive’s diagnostic</h5><h5>12. Appendix</h5><h5>13. Contacts</h5>

2008-07-11T13:11:07+08:00