Published on the 02/06/2016 | Written by Beverley Head
Australia’s lead science and technology research group CSIRO has launched a business advisory service to tell organisations where to best spend their R&D dough for the best return in the future…
It’s also working on specific innovation roadmaps for key industry sectors including mining equipment, technology and services; advanced manufacturing; medical technologies and pharmaceuticals; oil, gas and energy resources; and food and agribusiness.
The CSIRO team has already worked with Woodside Petroleum, the Plastics and Chemicals Industries Association, and the South Australian Government to help shape their investment strategies – and is now taking that and turning it into a generally available service as it attempts to become an “innovation catalyst”.
And an innovation catalyst is required – especially among Australia’s medium sized businesses. A newly released Commonwealth Bank survey found that half of Australian businesses with revenues between $6 million and $25 million spent three days or less each year thinking about innovation.
It wasn’t that they weren’t convinced of the need for innovation – 88 per cent of survey respondents said it was essential for their business – they just couldn’t find the time.
The good news for CSIRO and its new initiative is that according to CBA; “Businesses are realising the advantages of looking externally for support in innovation. Close to half (45 per cent) of decision makers reported learning about innovation from experts. Nearly nine in ten (89 per cent) mid-size business said they see benefit in collaborating with others on innovation.”
Leading the CSIRO unit is James Deverell, director of CSIRO Futures, who has been with the organisation for the last three years, though he worked in private sector consulting roles since 1998. CSIRO has characterised the new advisory service as a key example of its attempt to transition to “a more market aware organisation.”
In tandem with the advisory service CSIRO has launched a paper looking out to 2030 that provides industries across multiple sectors food for thought about their future.
While the start of the report is basically a rehash of well telegraphed issues such as Australia’s track record on innovation, its STEM capabilities, productivity outlook and the like, where it gets interesting is in the scenario forecasts and industry specific analysis.
The report offers four scenarios that might face Australia by 2030. Probably the rosiest is that the nation becomes imbued with digital DNA, effectively turning us into the much vaunted innovation nation. The second scenario is that there’s a fresh wave of demand for mining and agricultural outputs – keeping the status quo afloat for a while longer. Third Australia becomes a key player in the green and renewables economy.
Fourth, and most dismal, is the prospect of geopolitical unrest and climate change leaving today’s companies fighting for survival.
The paper then explores the impacts of these four scenarios on different sectors by 2030, and explores the sorts of technologies that different industry sectors could embrace to meet shifting market demand. It looks for example at how robotics could be deployed in healthcare; the Internet of Things in agriculture and food production; and big data in mining.
It also outlines a four step framework to help business decide how to best prepare for the future. Business presumably has to work out which of the four scenarios it will be living with in just 14 years’ time.
