“Innovation is not a fad.”
So were some of the opening words to the Melbourne leg of the 2016 Salesforce World Tour, spoken by Dr. Pradeep Philip, CEO of LaunchVic.
As Dr. Philip went on to explain how, as head of the independent agency, he was suddenly perceived as a threat by his former colleagues in the public sector, it suddenly became clear how those sceptic of innovation were threatening to impede the dire new mindset that would be crucial to the stability of Australia over the next 3-5 years. The extractive industries that continue to fuel our economy will not be enough to support the nation for much longer, but just how ready are we for the change?
Peter Coffee, the VP for Strategic Research who heads up the panels on innovation for the day, starts by remarking that the last time he was in Australia – two or three years ago – innovation wasn’t a topic anyone was discussing. Now, it’s a primary concern for any business that wants to stay relevant during a period of wild reform that will upend every industry before too long.
It’s fitting then that the first guest to the stage is Tien-Ti Mak, Chief Technology Officer for Australia Post. Mak explains how the company is advancing old process – such as with the automated sorting machines unveiled just over 18 months ago – through what he refers to as “sustaining innovation”, but admits that more must be done to save an industry that has had little concern for innovation over the last two centuries. The first step has been the development of an intrepreneurship program – fostering an entrepreneurial mindset in an internal environment – and a call from Mak for Australia Post staff to “experience the customer’s story”. He ends with a story of how one employee walked around the block twice before summoning the courage to enter a local business to run a satisfaction survey.
The sentiment is echoed by Jonathan Davey, Executive General Manager for NAB Labs. Davey says the company is looking at customer demands not just in the industry, but across their entire lives. So while companies are always willing to exclaim that they are putting the customer first, it’s only now, through the NAB Labs initiative, that the banking sector finally has the tools to do so.
For all their insight, it is Shelley Laslett, the General Manager of Innovation at Melbourne’s York Butter Factory, who delivers the most topical revelation. She explains that innovative fitness doesn’t come down to the idea, but to the business model. For all the creativity that inspires it, the process for innovating is what makes it possible.
The process is what has brought Salesforce to such prominence in the cloud computing field over its 17-year history, and has attracted the likes of Peter Schwartz, one of America’s most revered futurists.
“Artificial intelligence is the way Salesforce is headed,” he exclaims as he takes the stage.
If anyone in the audience was having visions of the Terminator, Schwartz quickly dispels them by explaining that the focus is on ‘Little AI’, systems designed to “reduce friction” during interactions between man and machine.
His speech sounds like a pitch for a science-fiction movie, but that’s due to how much influence Schwartz has had on defining the future. When he proposes what’s to come over the next decade and beyond, it’s best to listen.
But one thing bothers me. Schwartz ends on the notion of the ‘augmented human’. He sees a future where technology supports, not replaces a human in the workforce.
It brings to mind a statistic that Dr. Philip mentioned during the keynote earlier that morning. According to the Committee of Economic Development in Australia (CEDA), 40% of jobs in the Australian workforce will disappear by 2025. Not change. Disappear.
So what does the future workforce look like, and what does the new era hold for those whose services will be replaced by those of a machine?
The question remained on my mind as I entered the final session on innovation of the day: Building the Knowledge Economy.
Panellists predictions were even more grim than the study. Dr. Philip, Data61 CEO Adrian Turner, Knowledge Society CEO & Founder Elena Douglas, and Martin Hoffman, Secretary for the NSW Department of Finance, Services, and Innovation all nod in agreement: the country doesn’t have long to create a future; an Australian future, not one determined by what’s happening in Silicon Valley and other hotbeds of creativity across the world.
The tone doesn’t get any more optimistic when a member of the audience asks how the most vulnerable members of society will cope in the new environment.
Douglas states that there is insufficient data available to allow an understanding of how these citizens will be affected. When asked if this is true from a government perspective, Hoffman says “it’s never as bad as people say; never as good as it could be”.
As he expands, Douglas highlights the important of a business model in government that sees active innovators receive funding and support, rather than those publishing ‘in nature’ with little or no practice in the field, as is predominantly the case. For it to change, motivation must come from the innovators themselves. “I fear we won’t be disrupted enough,” he says, addressing the monopoly by-default that is the public sector. “Keep the pressure up.”
The session comes to its conclusion with an interesting figure. According to Coffee, 20% of venture capital in the US over the last quarter originated from corporate investors. The most notable of these, perhaps, was GM’s $500 million investment into Lyft, a startup designing self-driven cars.
On the surface it seems a case of a company investing in their competition, but the funding allows GM insight into the future that threatens to see their industry ‘UBERed’.
The event provided fantastic insight into how major companies are experimenting with new ways of doing old things in a bid to survive the big change that is upon us. What it will mean for the modern workforce remains a mystery for now, but Salesforce World Tour has made one thing perfectly clear: the future looks a whole lot different, and we better be ready for it if we hope to make the transition unscathed.