Women leaders take stock of Israeli technology innovation

Cutting edge innovation will be studied as part of a business delegation of senior women heading to Israel this week.

Helen Coonan, left, with Rachel Bondi, Diane Smith-Gander, and Jillian Segal. Picture: Britta Campion

Cyber security, the internet of things and Israel’s cutting edge innovation will be major issues to be studied as part of a business delegation of senior women business leaders heading to Israel this week.

“Israel’s ability to innovate from a population base only a third of Australia’s should have all Australian business people intrigued,” delegation leader and company director Diane Smith-Gander told The Australian.

She said the delegation would focus on Israel’s innovation ecosystem, cyber security and retail tech offerings. “I am particularly interested in how the cyber security offerings might help Australian companies look around the corner,” she said.

Ms Smith-Gander said she was also keen to see if there were any ideas she could bring back in her role as a director of Wesfarmers, which owns Coles, Bunnings, Officeworks, Target and Kmart.

Ms Smith-Gander is returning for her second visit to Israel after a trip last year.

“I know I will unlock more lessons on this trip to make me a more informed non-executive director,” she said.

“Collaborations between government, business and academia in Israel are many and successful. I want to dig into how we could copy this in Australia.”

Ms Smith-Gander said she was also interested in studying the impact of Israel’s move to cut its corporate tax rate in January last year from 26.5 per cent to 25 per cent.

“The corporate tax rate cut was designed to encourage growth and competitiveness,” she said. “I’ll be looking for evidence to see if that’s worked.”

Former federal communications minister Helen Coonan, who is a director of the Crown casino group, said she was interested in studying Israel’s success in the commercialisation of ideas.

“We need to keep asking ourselves what is it that enables a country like Israel to be a start-up nation,” she said.

“In Australian we seem to get stuck in a couple of spots.”

Ms Coonan said she was also interested in studying issues of cyber security, data analytics and the internet of things during her visit to Israel.

Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce NSW chair Jillian Segal, who will also be on the trip with about 40 women, said there was an “ecosystem of innovation in Israel” where academia business and government “are intimately connected with the national interest in mind”.

“Given the successful joint venture between the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney and the Weizmann Institute in Israel, I am also interested in other collaborations that we can possibly seed.”

This week’s delegation is the second in the past few months of senior Australian business women visiting Israel.

Reserve Bank board member Carol Schwartz has just returned from leading an Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce business delegation to Israel with Australian Institute of Company Directors chairman Elizabeth Proust.

Ms Schwartz told The Australian that there was now more collaboration between Australia and Israel across a number of sectors, especially in the educational space through institutions like Swinburne University.

“There is definitely the desire for more collaboration to happen,’’ she said.

“Australia is never going to be able to replicate the Israeli culture, which draws from their place in the world. But Australians are very creative, we now need to get more organised.’’