Suncorp’s CEO, Customer, Pip Marlow, says Australian boards, senior executives and the investment community have a near obsessive fear and avoidance of innovation failure that is baked through organisational culture and needs urgent attention.

After leading 35 executives from corporates including ANZ, Qantas, Telstra, AGL, WPP, IBM and Capgemini in a women-only Silicon Valley study tour, Ms Marlow – along with her vocal peers – says it could likely be women, empowered by a common cause for diversity, ethics, constant innovation, customer transformation and a preparedness to fail, that will change thinking and practice in corporate Australia.