Patrick Durrant | Sydney
Last week a workshop was held at UTS in Sydney to help industry and research professionals, practitioners, and leaders understand just what innovation as it pertains to the defence market looks like.
Innovation 3 4 5 (named for the 12 major points which are grouped into sub-sets of three, four and five) was conducted by Sydney defence industry and innovation analyst Dr Gregor Ferguson (also former editor of ADM) and Peter Milic of AusIndustry's Entrepreneurs program. The CDIC also participated with Defence Business Improvement Adviser Trent Goldsack giving a presentation.
Innovation is not a black art – there’s practical steps to becoming an innovative organisation
Most of the attendees represented SMEs with also a few flying the academia flag.
There was a lot to pack into the two hour session, according to Ferguson; he'd prefer more time to cover such a broad topic but is also very cognisant that SMEs tend to be particularly time poor and sending people away on courses can place a strain on the business.
Understanding that innovation begins with the customer is an important starting point, he explained.
“You're either solving a problem or giving the customer an opportunity to do something they weren't capable of doing before.”
Self-awareness is also critical – understanding what you're doing (as the subject matter expert ideally), why you are doing it, how well you are doing it, and what you need to change is a also key pillar in the establishment of an innovative culture.
This is also determined by situational awareness – you need an external reference which might include anything that affects your customer's or your own position.
“For example in Defence this could be in the form of a new technology, or a new threat, or things such as exchange rate fluctuations or the changing oil price.”
Organisational leadership that was committed to innovation is critical, according to Ferguson, with true business mastery occurring when the leadership exercised the right balance of self-awareness, situational awareness and professional mastery appropriate to the particular cycles the business was working in at that time.
He stressed that defence industry isn't as different as it thinks it is.
“It's a bit like the machine tools, or medical instruments industry – it's a high technology industrial market. If you want to be successful in one, you can learn and apply lessons from those other sectors.”
He added, however, that the defence market itself is the point of difference as it is quite like no other.
For this reason, Ferguson said that Defence, as a monopoly customer, needs to be as open and accessible as possible, especially with SMEs that will struggle to get the same level of access available to the primes.
“Defence needs a bit of innovation training as well. It has such a significant shaping effect on the defence economy and on innovation itself, but it doesn't really understand how it makes this impact – it needs to understand its own role and responsibility, and how it can be a better customer,” Ferguson said to ADM.
The classic model cited by Ferguson was so: A person in uniform says I've got a problem, a suit in Canberra says I'll find a solution and then someone on the factory floor says OK I can do this for you. “It's all very transactional – the person with the problem doesn't necessarily meet with the one who builds the solution.”
He's confident Defence is trying to close that gap so that the ADF can better engage with suppliers and vice versa.
“If we're talking about small things with niche capability that could have a disproportionate effect, it's really important to have that connection between the end user and the innovator.”
Ferguson said that innovation is not a black art – there’s practical steps to becoming an innovative organisation. Collaboration is another word tossed about but really it’s all about communicating and being situationally aware, also understanding what organisations like universities, research organisations and other companies can do for you.
“SMEs are really crying out for practical tools to help with being more innovative, particularly around R&D, so they found the Entrepreneurs program and CDIC presentation quite useful.”
Ferguson is seeking to add further dates both in Sydney and elsewhere in NSW as well as interstate – check our events listings for an update.