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Creative Country Live: Discussing a culture of innovation

ANU Vice-Chancellor Brian Schmidt tells Creative Country Australia he is no champion of the status quo.

Rick Morton
Global thinkers and entrepreneurial Australian leaders as they discuss the greatest opportunity for any modern business or culture today: untapping people’s potential and ingenuity.
Global thinkers and entrepreneurial Australian leaders as they discuss the greatest opportunity for any modern business or culture today: untapping people’s potential and ingenuity.
16 min read
9:31AMJuly 28, 2016.
Updated 5:01PMJuly 28, 2016

Good afternoon all and welcome to the Creative Country live coverage, presented by The Australian and NAB.

We’re here, we’re nimble, we’re agile. The speakers include Guy Kawasaki, the ABC’s Michelle Guthrie, Professor Brian Schmidt and the NAB’s Andrew Thorburn.

Well may Malcolm Turnbull say we live in the most exciting of times but how do businesses and companies find their muse in shapeshifting economic times? There are rewards to be had, if innovation becomes a reality.

4.35pm: Breaking through barriers

The last panel of the day might best be described as “how to win friends and influence people and not run out of money being innovative”.

Brian Schmidt joins The Australian Futures Project founder Ralph Ashton, Knowledge Society Founder Elena Douglas and CSIRO astrophysicist Lisa Harvey-Smith talking about how to play nicely with other sectors, like business and civil society.

“I think it is really important to understand how we can collaborate but we also have to understand that universities do things differently and we have a different role in the ecosystem,” Schmidt says.

“In this country we tend to want universities to behave like businesses. I don’t think anyone is arguing businesses should be more like universities.”

Elena Douglas implores us all to be a bit more like scientists.

“There is no reason why we aren’t all operating like scientists,” she says of the way they manage to work across state, national and continental barriers.

Lisa Harvey-Smith takes us to Germany where the Max Planck Society and the Fraunhofer Institutes are deeply sewn into the fabric of society.

“They are very connected to universities and to industry. That sort of setup is very much embedded into the national psyche and the system of industry and research at universities has been very successful for Germany,” she says.

Ashton introduces your blogger to the most fun fact of the day: Finland has a national failure day. They celebrate failure. But just once a year. Probably best they don’t make a thing of it. Once a year is enough.

And this brings us to the end of the day.

It’s been an emotional trip. The ABC’s Michelle Guthrie said she’d like to sidle up to the SBS - don’t say the naughty merger word - and Ford’s Graeme Whickman told us about how the company was an anti-competitive basket case before it was rebuilt to be more nimble. We’ll miss you, the Falcon.

Brian Schmidt, a wine enthusiast and producer, left us with the juicy morsel: it’s much easier to sell your wine if you’re a Nobel laureate.

Physics is beautiful, isn’t it?

4.05pm:No champion of status quo

ANU Vice-Chancellor Brian Schmidt has just take us on the most glorious trip through wine, running a university, keeping talent onshore and the time his wife, who taught aerobics with Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, had to throw a Harvard student called Barack Obama out of the gym because he was hogging it.

Agile.

Schmidt, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics, is no champion of the status quo.

“You have got to take some risks in life. I’ve got a billion dollar organisation to run. I haven’t really drunk the Kool-Aid in the normal structures of Australian universities,” he says.

“I want to make sure ANU is truly one of the great universities in the world. I want to make sure we provide an education which is as good as Stanford, Harvard and Cambridge.

“Making sure the things that happen in university don’t just stay in university and that means getting out and sitting next to business and civil society so we can learn how we really help each other.”

And on the sensitive subject of the cost of degrees, he says they should be affordable. But they must not be cheap.

“It is certainly important that it is affordable, you want equity. We really do believe in equity,”he says.

“But people must get good value for the money they spend. You can make education cheap but if it is crappy it is not good value.”

2.55pm: Chinese whispers

We must talk about this next segment in hushed whispers.

The Creative Country panel dares to ask: what about public funding of the arts? That’s a bit like asking about the welfare of a frog at the Tugun Bypass planning meeting.

“Collaboration is key, as government support becomes more restricted you will see cultural institutions doing that a lot more,” Carriageworks director Lisa Havilah says.

Australian Centre for the Moving Image boss Katrina Sedgwick has a suggestion that almost certainly won’t tickle the Foreign Investment Review Board.

“We’d like to take some Chinese investment,” she says.

Someone get Barnaby Joyce.

2.40pm: Broadband is ‘without peer’

NBN Co chair Ziggy Switkowski says we are way beyond the point of “arguing about the wisdom of the NBN”.

“Our wireless broadband is fantastic, it is almost without peer around the world,” he tells the panel.

“The NBN itself, our goal is to get the rollout completed in 2020. It is the biggest national rollout of all time, we are beyond the point of arguing about the wisdom of it all. We’re trying to get it done.

“It will be done, it will be done, no matter what you might read and the political divide, the machine is underway.”

Too long, didn’t read: it’s too late to turn back.

2.30pm: Back from the dead

The managing director of London’s Tobacco Dock, a 200-year-old and previously neglected warehouse, is walking us through how he turned the space into a premier events space that can hold 10,000 people standing.

It might be London, but there are not that many places like that in town and, to be frank, we’re all a bit bored with the aircraft hangars.

Patrick Donovan says property developers had long realised that if they offered startup companies free fair trade coffee - and in one case, free beer - they could increase their rents by a factor of five.

“In the UK more than 1000 startup companies get going every single day. Half of them won’t last out their second year but those who succeed will, however, account for two-thirds of all new jobs created in the UK,” he said.

But Tobacco Dock is not a property company. Tobacco Dock is all about marketing and brands. Never mind, they entered a revenue sharing deal with the landlord and Bob’s your stunning events space that can even hold a rave.

“We rescued a dead space and brought it back to life but we are still a way away from our central vision for the dock,” Donovan says.

“It needs to be a place where creativity can find an outlet, too.”

2.10pm: A Sydney miracle

Sydney Opera House chief Louise Herron is speaking about the “miracle” of the performance centre. That its vision was ever as bold, that it ever got completed. But innovation is written into the enabling legislation, she says.

“It is our legacy,” she says.

The Opera House is currently the subject of the largest capital works program since it was built. $250 million worth. Whistles.

12.48pm: Google plays party pooper

I don’t want to alarm anyone but we’ve kicked off the second panel of the day talking about ethics and business. Business Council of Australia president Catherine Livingstone would like to remind us all that the failings of a few are not the failing of many.

“To attribute to all of business those failings is actually to undermine the role of business in the economy,” she says.

“That’s not to say we should not acknowledge the failings, to reassert the importance of ethics.”

Livingstone is a big believer in the fact that big business can innovate, and is. They’re already doing it she says.

Google Australia and New Zealand engineering director and incumbent BCA party pooper Alan Noble is here to disagree, however.

“I am not sure I agree with ‘we are all doing it’,” he says.

“There are countless examples of businesses that are perhaps not embracing the disrupting challenges and threats as fully as they could. Google has barely graduated from being a start-up. A lot of it does come down to getting the culture right.”

Be wacky, he says. Do a moonshot.

Google’s Alan Noble, Catherine Livingstone and Graeme Whickman. Pic: Aaron Francis
Google’s Alan Noble, Catherine Livingstone and Graeme Whickman. Pic: Aaron Francis

Julianne Schultz, chair of the Australian, Film, Television and Radio School says what some in the room have been thinking: hang on a second, what about the arts?

“There are particular areas of expertise that we need to be nurturing as we do the sciences,” she says.

“It really should be a part of the national conversation in an active way.”

Whickman ponders: “Perhaps innovation in the way it has been presented so far is sterile?”

“Perhaps there has been too much emphasis on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). We should not lose sight of the balance,” he says.

12.20pm: An admission of fault

Ford Australia and New Zealand CEO Graeme Whickman has given us quite a dramatic insight into the crisis of survival that hit Ford in Australia after the global financial crisis.

It reads as a frank and stark admission of fault. The company was uncompetitive, it made big hulking cars and trucks that were no longer what customers needed and they ruined their relationship with dealers, he said.

“In Australia we were seen frankly as the Falcon motor company. It was a negative spiral over many decades. We burned bridges with our dealers, these are the faces of our brand in communities,” he says.

So they dug in and pulled the company apart only to put it back together again. It’s really the ultimate Meccano set. They announced 20 new models by 2020, sunk billions of dollars into the local business, even though Whickman acknowledges the announcement they were ending local manufacturing hurt their brand.

They partnered with tech companies to get a new mobile phone connection interface going for their models. Hooray!

Graeme Wickman addresses the conference. Pic: Aaron Francis
Graeme Wickman addresses the conference. Pic: Aaron Francis

Whickman gives us a great tour of the company’s digital sketchbook, so to speak, which allows the design teams to test the living hell out of concepts and even check them out using VR. Sign us up.

Data told Whickman that Australians over the age of 35 were frustrated by the retirement of Ford’s Falcon (which is incidentally the start of the most recent Star Wars movie).

But, crucially, younger Australians are more open to Ford’s new products.

11.55am:Innovation down to business

National Australia Bank group chief executive Andrew Thorburn is here and he has no time for the idea that government owns the innovation space. It doesn’t, it can’t.

“Business, us, we, must be the key driver of innovation,” he says.

“While the government is necessary to explain why innovation is important, things like infrastructure and education, they are all important but the defining difference is that in business we need to get on with it and we need to say bring it on.”

NAB’s Andrew Thornburn gives his keynote speech. Pic: Aaron Francis
NAB’s Andrew Thornburn gives his keynote speech. Pic: Aaron Francis

Thorburn, who incidentally describes Despicable Me as his favourite film, says the term innovation is “often overused” and “over-simplified”. Well you might say that Andrew but we couldn’t possibly comment.

“Inside the NAB we often say our busiest branch is now mobile. It’s a bus, it’s a tram, it’s a train,” he says.

“We are on the cusp of the most exciting era in banking, certainly in my lifetime. Big data, the cloud, artificial intelligence, all of these things will make sure we must lift not only to survive but to thrive.

“But it is hard, because you have regulation, status quo, short termism.”

He implores us to become Singapore, to become Israel in terms of our embrace of doing things better. And not insignificantly he says we need to build our own Silicon Valley. We hope it has a train stop.

11.25am:Rise of the robots

Good news everyone, our first panel of Daniel Petre, Pip Marlow and Sarah Pearson have almost unanimously warned us that we approaching impending doom at the hands of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Now might be the time to welcome our machine overlords.

To be fair, Sarah Pearson takes an optimistic view of the future and predicts the biggest disrupter to come is going to be augmented intelligence. I know some people who could really do with this, by the way.

“Augmented intelligence. Just imagine if we are all mega intelligent,” she says.

But Petre sounds a warning and asks us if we all want to be shit scared, read Rise of the Robots.

“The most powerful change will be machine learning, I think nobody is prepared, the cat is out of the bag,” he says.

“If you want to be shit scared read Rise of the Robots, it’s about the adoption rate of technology and machine learning algorithms and how that will completely wipe out sections of the workforce.”

Rightio then. Enjoy morning tea.

ABC chief Michelle Guthrie addresses The Australian's Creative Country conference in Melbourne today. Picture: Aaron Francis
ABC chief Michelle Guthrie addresses The Australian's Creative Country conference in Melbourne today. Picture: Aaron Francis

11.10am:Panel disruption

We’re into the panel session now. Everyone loves a panel, especially when you sit the bloke who doesn’t believe big corporations can ever be disrupters — the Petre Foundation’s titular Daniel Petre — next to Microsoft Australia managing director Pip Marlow who absolutely believes they can. They’re joined by Dr Sarah Pearson, the CBR Innovation Network boss, who uses Proctor & Gamble as an example of a giant company which manages to disrupt by using other smaller outfits to do that naturally. Too big to scale? Not quite.

Petre says you cannot find an example of a big corporation that has managed to change its core functions so much it became the disrupter. “The closest you come is probably Netflix,” he says.

Microsoft’s Marlow — spoiler alert — disagrees.

“In the world we live in you can be a large company, you don’t have to act like a disrupter, you can act like yourself and still disrupt,” she says.

A short meditation on disruption is called for. Disruption. Rupture. Someone is bound to get hurt. The point is, our panel agree, it is not meant to be bloody easy.

And Marlow says you have to be allowed to fail.

“If you a heart surgeon and you’re doing heart surgery is not the time to fail,” she says. “But know when you are in the learning phase and when you are in the performance phase.”

10.50am:The ABC buddy system

Michelle Guthrie wants the ABC to adopt something of a buddy system, but for content

“As the media universe atomises, the ABC needs to acquire more information about how its content is being used. Partnering also offers potential new revenue streams to fund new content investment — welcome after recent years of declining retail returns and government funding,” Guthrie says.

“I am aware that speeches from new ABC managing directors can be dissected with the same fervour that religious scholars apply to biblical texts. Let me be clear — the ABC’s strategies in relation to revenue and partnering will be done fully in accordance with the ABC’s legislative obligations and in line with community expectations.

“Our policy in relation to third-party platforms ensures that our content will always be available on traditional ABC platforms free of charge.”

10.35am: ABC and the digital era

Michelle Guthrie tells us it too early for her ABC blueprint. We can wait, but please send word of Peppa Pig’s wellbeing. Guthrie is self-deprecating and goes off script a little, joking she may never have had a great idea. But pay attention here, she might be signalling the future.

“I am not and will never claim to be the repository of all great ideas. My job is to unleash and channel our creativity, ensuring that it delivers the distinctive conversations and stories necessary for the ABC to not just survive and but to flourish in a crowded, fragmented landscape,” she says.

“Google, my former workplace, is famous for its use of data to drive decision making. The digital era means better data on audience metrics although, I hasten to add, there are still many gaps we need to fill.

“Data is also important in helping to shape internal culture. One of my first priorities at the ABC has been to undertake deep data dives into the organisation, to develop a better understanding of what we currently do and what drives our decisions.

“Do we have the workforce equipped for the task ahead? Are we making the right recruitment decisions and doing our best to keep young, talented staff? Do unconscious biases lurk in our corridors?”

10.25am:Disputing the notion ABC is ‘safe’

Sound the ABC klaxon, we have Aunty’s new managing director Michelle Guthrie up on stage. She’s resisting the temptation to outline her plans for change at the broadcaster but if you are well practised in semiotics you might pick up a few clues.

The Australian’s Chris Kenny, no shy critic of the ABC, introduces Guthrie and puts his hand up as one of those who have often poked the bear. But only because it is important, he adds.

But to Guthrie.

“In my three months at the helm, I have received a lot of advice, both internally and externally, about what can and should be done,” she says.

Yeah alright, fair point.

“One of the first things I learnt in this job is that most people have a very strong opinion on the ABC and that they are invariably very passionate in expressing it,” she goes on.

“Indeed, some of the people in this room are renowned for opining at great length on the national broadcaster. This is great. Mostly.”

You ever get those moments where you can almost reach out and grasp the love in the room?

OK, OK, we’re here to talk about Aunty.

“The ABC Board, the ABC Executive and staff are fully aware of the challenges that confront the organisation and of the need to adapt and to focus firmly on our audience-facing activities and charter roles. This is not new,” she says.

“There is a perception in some circles that the ABC is lucky, that its funding model, built on public funds, provides it with a safe haven within a very disruptive media landscape.

“I acknowledge that the ABC has not suffered the savage downsizing of some media companies, although that is no consolation to the staff who have been

forced to leave the Corporation over the past few years — almost 10% overall.

“I also dispute the notion that the ABC is in any way ‘safe’.”

10.10am:How to pitch: don’t listen to bozos

Tech evangelist Guy Kawasaki asks the crowd: “Who uses Kodak film anymore, who uses a Remington typewriter, polaroids?”

Bit of a tragic misreading of the room however because this conference is held in Melbourne so the chances are reasonable that some of us do. Moving on.

Kawasaki wants you to know how to pitch. He wants you to customise your introductions, to use nothing smaller than 30 point font in power point slides and to use no more than 10. Kawasaki has, at this point, used about four times as many in his own presentation but he has an excuse.

“Why should you use 10 slides and I can use 40? Let me explain. You are not me,” he says.

Existential crises ensue.

He saves the best for last, however. Don’t, for the love of all that is good, listen to bozos.

“Don’t let the bozos grind you down, the bozos, the idiots, the naysayers. The dangerous bozo is the successful bozo,” he says.

Amen.

9.50am:First Mac? A piece of crap

Kawasaki starts things off with what might the grandest observation of tech speakers ever delivered.

“The two salient features I have noticed about tech speakers is that they almost all suck and they all go too long and that is a deadly combination. If you suck and go long, it is like being stupid and arrogant.”

You heard it here first. Brevity is the sharpest form of wit.

Kawasaki comes with a message, however.

“Creation is motivated not by a desire to simply make money. The great tech brands of Silicon Valley were motivated by a desire to make meaning, they set out to change the world.”

And if you want to succeed, Kawasaki says your product, service or company needs to have key features. It needs depth, it must be intelligent, it must be complete. It must be elegant.

He shows us a sandal with depth. In the sole is a metal clip.

“Its purpose is to open beer bottles. This sandal is deep,” Kawasaki says.

All hail the beer sandal.

And in news that will be glorious to all of us who have ever failed, give yourself permission to be crappy. As long as you have jumped the curve. The point is, if you’ve evolved something, it is allowed to have flaws. Like an echidna?

“My recommendation is don’t worry, be crappy. It is OK to ship crappy stuff when you have jumped the curve,” Kawasaki says.

“The first Macintosh was a piece of crap, it was a revolutionary piece of crap, but it was a piece of crap nonetheless.”

9.25am:Guy Kawasaki

The Australian’s editor in chief Paul Whittaker introduces Canva chief evangelist Guy Kawasaki who may yet “save us all from death”.

“The rapid pace at which the world is changing demonstrates that you need the speed, agility and fearlessness of a motorbike racer. It is no coincidence that the leading figures all have racing brand names. Suzuki, Kawasaki. I am presuming this means ultimately to triumph.”

9.15am: And we are under way

Sitting on a bean bag does not make you creative. Behold, the provocative introduction from News Corp Australasia Executive Chairman Michael Miller who welcomes some of the speakers, including the ABC’s new managing director Michelle Guthrie who is about to make her first public address in the role.

“The national broadcaster and the national paper enjoy a robust relationship, as is proper,” he said. Quite robust.

Miller shoots straight on the topic of the day and says the word “innovation” has been hijacked by our politicians.

“There is a simple truth, for too long creativity has been in the hands of a few, the cool and unconventional, on trend and wearing trainers and a beard,” he said.

“Creativity is too often confined to the warehouse, offices in the inner city with exposed pipes and polished floor. No one is driving through the CBD and pointing at office buildings as hotbeds for creativity.”

And no, beans bags and “activity-based working” does not an agile corporation make.

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