Recently, I was watching a late night reality TV show that showcases tattoo artists and their creativity around a theme. The theme on this night was Star Wars, and I immediately thought of its creator George Lucas. My mind went to how he embraced digital innovation and new technology.
Thus, my theme for this article, inspired by a reality TV show, is digital innovation. It is critical that local government embraces digital innovation and new technology.
We have the opportunity to become leaders in this space, and many Victorian councils have already started down the path of digital transformation.
In fact we are not unlike George Lucas, in that he took a tremendous leap of faith – and now we must do the same.
Star Wars was an extremely innovative film at the time – 1977 to be precise. It used animation, special effects and editing techniques that had never been seen before – and which cost a significant amount of money.
I believe local government is facing a similar scenario. We’re in a time of change, where it is becoming increasingly difficult to meet the needs of our communities with limited budgets and resources.
And, communities are expecting faster and easier services. To keep up we need to find new ways of doing things.
We need to challenge the conventional way of thinking; especially around customer engagement, organisational structure, strategy and business models.
That’s why innovation and digital transformation are such a strong focus of the MAV.
High on the MAV’s priority list is to develop and support collaborative technical solutions for customer-facing service delivery, which includes developing a whole-of-sector roadmap for digital transformation.
Twelve months ago we formed a Local Government Digital Transformation Task Force to provide the sector with a strategic direction for bringing a range of services online, such as animal registration or disabled parking permit applications.
Digital transformation is a big task, but working as a sector means we can reduce fixed costs for councils and share specialist skills.
Together new-age thinking and innovative business models can be explored, for the betterment of our sector.
In conclusion, as the theme of this column has been Star Wars – I contend that the lessons of digital transformation were seeded 40 years ago with the creation of Star Wars. Moral of the story: start thinking like George Lucas.
May the Force be with you.
