The Good Oil* by Rod Brown
Barry Ferguson, a former senior Victorian Government official (and a straight shooter, from memory) wrote an excellent piece in the Melbourne Age recently. His message was that governments must ensure that all markets work freely to embrace global market signals and convert to local action. He points to our weak links between business and the science base, low levels of innovation and private sector R&D, and the lack of sophistication and global perspective of our business base. He also says we are not travelling well on the export front, which is disturbing for a small country, far from world markets, and with exports dominated by resource based products.
What we need to address is the lack of knowledge of business opportunities for our domestic companies – just as Europeans travel easily across national boundaries and North Americans travel within the US and across the Atlantic, so Australians must be encouraged to travel internationally to wherever there is a business advantage to be gained. He argues that this is our highest need in industry policy today.
Barry’s on the money. My only quibble is that the global market signals are pretty indistinct because of the subsidy shenanigans of foreign governments and the powerful networks of the global multinationals.
Lack of policy alignment on innovation, says BCA
The Business Council of Australia (BCA) recently sought the views of organisations with a stake in Australia’s innovation success, to develop a framework for improving Australia’s innovation performance. It has since circulated a report, authored by a group including Professor Roy Green, Dean of Macquarie Graduate School of Management, and previously University of Galway, which argues that innovation has not been treated as a key priority for the nation.
The BCA says a framework is needed to get things organised, where:
- governments have responsibility for establishing, prioritising and leading the development of the framework, and removing bureaucratic barriers to collaboration
- research and education institutions prepare graduates for a labour market that values knowledge and skills, identify research with commercial application, and join innovation partnerships
- business develops innovation capabilities internally and in collaborative networks, so that knowledge may be deployed as a source of competitive advantage
- finance and venture capital is nurtured by government and the private sector.
The report argues that Australia’s national innovation system does have pockets of excellence, but the problem is lack of innovation policy alignment and ‘joined up thinking’ in government agencies, business and universities. What does this mean for Local Government? It means that your innovative ideas in investment attraction, water conservation, road maintenance, environmental management and so forth will go round in circles unless you can connect the dots.
Part of the problem is the reluctance of government – and that includes Local Government – to fund network programs to help break down the silos to which the BCA refers. A very good example is the Innovation Network, led by Priority Engineering, and supported by the City of Playford. The Gold Coast networks are another example.
Bright idea, big brother?
The Federal Government plans to phase out the standard light globe in favour of the new energy efficient, long burning jobs. This has been welcomed by energy experts and environmentalists, who hope it will lead to other energy efficiency programs. What intrigues me is how this will actually happen? How can you stop the use of 40 cent light globes from China? It’s not as if these items are a heath or safety hazard. Are they going to offer subsidies to pensioners to pay for the $5 version? Zealotry methinks.
North Ryde, Norwest Park, Everleigh – cores of the Sydney biotech-telecoms combo
Everyone’s talking about innovation these days, although we’ve been banging on about it for years.
Rohit Shukla of the Larta Institute in the USA says that innovation, by its very nature, is a ‘dynamic and sometimes frustratingly unpredictable set of constructs along a long and winding road’. Shukla argues that Silicon Valley resulted from the accidental rubbing of shoulders of early entrepreneurs.
The San Diego economy, born from the pangs of defense drawdown, was also helped along by an accident of place and time. The implosion of a company called Hybritech begat a stream of suddenly well heeled entrepreneurs, and a biotech identity was born. Another home grown company, Qualcomm, cemented the dual story of telecom and biotech. It has since attracted venture capital and service firms around deal flow. Its flagship network, Connect, is now imitated around the world. The University of California in San Diego has gained from the presence of large biotech companies’ R&D, which has stimulated the development of its faculty and provides a vibrant entrepreneurial culture.
Well, from my recent travels, North Ryde in Sydney, seems to be going gang busters. Professor Green (see above) is enthusiastic about the energy there. I have also met companies who say the quality of the buildings and amenities, and the co location with other blue chip companies is a buzz.
A similar story comes from John Dean at Baulkham Hills Shire Council who highlights the quality companies headquartered at Norwest Park, next to the M2 motorway. And there is the Australian Technology Park, Everleigh, which is ticking along nicely since the marketers scrapped the Redfern moniker.
I will be visiting these high performing nodes in future months, because they are part of Sydney’s new innovation system, which appears to be based on an ICT/biotech combination.
What is the combo for Wollongong, Gosford and Newcastle? And what about our mates west of the divide?
You may not be competitive with the Ivy League locations, but there are combos we must explore. Just think about Uncle Toby’s at Wahgunyah in north east Victoria.
* Articles in the Good Oil column are provided by members of the Cockatoo network – an international group of individuals and organisations that collaborate on industry and regional issues. Contact apd@orac.net.au for membership details.
