Marnie Baker is Managing Director of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank.
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Tall poppy syndrome: antithesis of innovation
By Marnie Baker
Australia has a proud history of innovation - from ancient Indigenous land management practices to the invention of Wi-Fi and the Cochlear Implant. This history also, perhaps unsurprisingly, extends to Australia’s finance and banking industry. In our lifetime, we have seen the dramatic digitalisation of our industry from paper to polymer to (digital) payments.
‘Innovation’ is often mistakenly confused with ‘technology’. At its core, innovation is about new ideas and their application, not the technological tool that facilitates it. Scholar William Pollard once said that learning and innovation go hand-in-hand. In this sense, it is critical businesses learn from their customers, are nimble, challenge accepted practices and effect mutually beneficial change for both their business and the community.
Before 2020, it was true to say customers’ needs and expectations were evolving at pace. However, this year we’ve seen this pace of change magnify as our collective worlds were flipped upside-down by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Exponential advances in technology - underpinned by Moore's Law – and increasing pressure to do things smarter, better, differently, are helping drive that innovation. Necessity is after all the mother of invention.
In the lead up to and further catalysed by the year 2020, we’ve rapidly digitised our way of living. Everything from our work and personal lives, through to how we get our food, how we deliver education and how we entertain or are entertained has changed.
Agility is the order of the day and it’s clear the organisations that adapt and transition best to meet these new demands will be the ones to succeed and ultimately feed into a stronger and more robust Australia.
The relatively recent emergence of fintechs are part of this exponential (r)evolution, shaking the system by working to solve previously unsolved or unthought of customer challenges in the value chain, while delivering more choice, competition and convenience.
A trend of fintech collaboration in the banking and finance industry is growing. Established players and new entrants are finding innovative ways to enhance the customer experience - from introducing new payment solutions and increasing the speed of fulfilment, to providing consumers with new ways to access financial markets. Fintech partnership presents an opportunity for banks to plug in specialised capability in more efficient and customer-centric ways than the traditional merger and acquisition activity or duplication strategies we have seen in the past.
Innovative partnerships are not without its hurdles though. Forty-two percent of fintechs say building relationships with banks is a challenge. However, with access to talent, demand and capital also noted as key challenges for fintechs, the opportunities presented by collaboration become clear. Delivered in the right way and with the right attitude, this collaborative approach could propel Australia’s finance innovation into a new dawn.
Innovation can also sometimes come face to face with a unique Australian accent. Traditionally, whilst we’ve been global leaders on so many occasions, we’ve not always been very good at celebrating our successes. We sometimes lack comfort with the ‘fast-fail’ culture other countries seem to embrace, and our self-deprecating nature can at times lead to tall poppy syndrome. Indeed, you could argue tall poppy syndrome is the antithesis of innovation.
We must find a way to liberate this cultural trait and find a happy medium - true to who we are as a nation – celebrating and encouraging success and fearlessly reaching for new heights in the quest for unveiling new exciting ways to solve tomorrow’s problems.
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The Small Business Association of Australia is dedicated to supporting SMEs, acting as their voice to government and helping them connect, grow, and prosper well into the future.
Sensibles may sound like science fiction, but this revolutionary technology is making waves in aged-care facilities, and has the potential to transform health monitoring at scale.
Alice Springs and the deserts of Central Australia don’t sound like a food basket, but they are for businesswoman and bush foods innovator Rayleen Brown.
A new report aims to lay the foundations for a deeper and more meaningful and equitable relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in the mining transition sector.
If the health and medical research sector in Australia is to move forward, it must address gender equity, diversity, and inclusion- which means making the sector a safe and inclusive workspace for all.
A ground-breaking sheep technology system is bettering the businesses and lives of Australian sheep breeders thanks to a revolutionary combination of software, hardware, and support never before combined into one cohesive unit.
ANCA took an early view to look beyond Australia’s shores whilst developing advanced manufacturing technologies now viewed as ‘business as usual’
As Australia grapples with a critical skills shortage, many are now encouraging young people to embrace a career in the trades, where a wealth of opportunities awaits.
In 2016 I published a blog article titled Moonshots for Australia: 7 For Now. It’s one of many I have posted on business and innovation in Australia. In that book, I highlighted a number of Industries of the Future among a number of proposed Moonshots. I self-published a book, Innovation in Australia – Creating prosperity for future generations, in 2019, with a follow-up COVID edition in 2020. There is no doubt COVID is causing massive disruption. Prior to COVID, there was little conversation about National Sovereignty or supply chains. Even now, these topics are fading, and we remain preoccupied with productivity and jobs! My motivation for this writing has been the absence of a coherent narrative for Australia’s business future. Over the past six years, little has changed. The Australian ‘psyche’ regarding our political and business systems is programmed to avoid taking a long-term perspective. The short-term nature of Government (3 to 4-year terms), the short-term horizon of the business system (driven by shareholder value), the media culture (infotainment and ‘gotcha’ games), the general Australian population’s cynical perspective and a preoccupation with a lifestyle all create a malaise of strategic thinking and conversation. Ultimately, it leads to a leadership vacuum at all levels. In recent years we have seen the leadership of some of our significant institutions failing to live up to the most basic standards, with Royal Commissions, Inquiries and investigations consuming excessive time and resources. · Catholic Church and other religious bodies · Trade Unions · Banks (and businesses generally, take casinos, for example) · the Australian Defence Force · the Australian cricket teams · our elected representatives and the staff of Parliament House As they say, “A fish rots from the head!” At best, the leadership behaviour in those institutions could be described as unethical and, at worst….just bankrupt! In the last decade, politicians have led us through a game of “leadership by musical chairs” – although, for now, it has stabilised. However, there is still an absence of a coherent narrative about business and wealth creation. It is a challenge. One attempt to provide such a narrative has been the Intergenerational Reports produced by our federal Government every few years since 2002. The shortcomings of the latest Intergenerational Report Each Intergenerational Report examines the long-term sustainability of current government policies and how demographic, technological, and other structural trends may affect the economy and the budget over the next 40 years. The fifth and most recent Intergenerational Report released in 2021 (preceded by Reports in 2002, 2007, 2010 and 2015) provides a narrative about Australia’s future – in essence, it is an extension of the status quo. The Report also highlights three key insights: 1. First, our population is growing slower and ageing faster than expected. 2. The Australian economy will continue to grow, but slower than previously thought. 3. While Australia’s debt is sustainable and low by international standards, the ageing of our population will pressure revenue and expenditure. However, its release came and went with a whimper. The recent Summit on (what was it, Jobs and Skills and productivity?) also seems to have made the difference of a ‘snowflake’ in hell in terms of identifying our long-term challenges and growth industries. Let’s look back to see how we got here and what we can learn. Australia over the last 40 years During Australia’s last period of significant economic reform (the late 1980s and early 1990s), there was a positive attempt at building an inclusive national narrative between Government and business. Multiple documents were published, including: · Australia Reconstructed (1987) – ACTU · Enterprise Bargaining a Better Way of Working (1989) – Business Council of Australia · Innovation in Australia (1991) – Boston Consulting Group · Australia 2010: Creating the Future Australia (1993) – Business Council of Australia · and others. There were workshops, consultations with industry leaders, and conferences across industries to pursue a national microeconomic reform agenda. Remember these concepts? · global competitiveness · benchmarking · best practice · award restructuring and enterprising bargaining · training, management education and multiskilling. This agenda was at the heart of the business conversation. During that time, the Government encouraged high levels of engagement with stakeholders. As a result, I worked with a small group of training professionals to contribute to the debate. Our contribution included events and publications over several years, including What Dawkins, Kelty and Howard All Agree On – Human Resources Strategies for Our Nation (published by the Australian Institute of Training and Development). Unfortunately, these long-term strategic discussions are nowhere near as prevalent among Government and industry today. The 1980s and 1990s were a time of radical change in Australia. It included: · floating the $A · deregulation · award restructuring · lowering/abolishing tariffs · Corporatisation and Commercialisation Ross Garnaut posits that the reforms enabled Australia to lead the developed world in productivity growth – given that it had spent most of the 20th century at the bottom of the developed country league table. However, in his work, The Great Reset, Garnaut says that over the next 20 years, our growth was attributable to the China mining boom, and from there, we settled into “The DOG days” – Australia moved to the back of a slow-moving pack! One unintended consequence of opening our economy to the world is the emasculation of the Australian manufacturing base. The manic pursuit of increased efficiency, lower costs, and shareholder value meant much of the labour-intensive work was outsourced. Manufacturing is now less than 6% of our GDP , less than half of what it was 30 years ago!
