00:00 well it’s interesting because at the 00:02 moment they call it non-r d 00:04 innovation so what you and i are helping 00:05 companies with is non-rmd innovation and 00:08 i mean 00:08 i don’t want to talk zoom up because i’m 00:11 kind of sick of it but that is an 00:12 adoption of an existing technology that 00:14 can add value the smallest way as long 00:16 as it’s new to the company 00:17 it still adds value so what companies 00:20 what organizations 00:21 do they they just want the glossy case 00:24 studies of 00:25 we’ve had a big product innovation and 00:28 we’ve helped them innovate 00:30 in the public sector and that’s all they 00:32 care about so by chasing that kpi they 00:35 miss 00:36 all of the designers the marketers the 00:37 engineers the technicians 00:39 everybody i know that your phd research 00:42 is at csiro um about small medium 00:46 enterprises so 00:47 um can you elaborate that area a little 00:50 bit more 00:50 like with your yeah i’m sure that you 00:53 have a lot of interesting findings but 00:55 uh you know 00:56 you can tell me as much as you want i 00:58 can always edit it to multiple videos 01:02 so the the the flagship program around 01:05 australia to support the small and 01:06 medium-sized business it’s called the 01:08 entrepreneurs program 01:10 so there’s different divisions of the 01:11 entrepreneurs program 01:13 there’s commercial what used to be 01:15 called commercialization australia and 01:17 they help to find the startups who 01:19 haven’t yet got a product on the market 01:21 that they think is really really 01:23 attractive and better for australia’s 01:25 competitive 01:26 you know so it has to be aligned with 01:27 one of those sectors in that case 01:29 they’ll match 01:30 up to five hundred thousand dollars 01:32 investment so the startup as long as 01:33 they can contribute a certain amount 01:36 the government or us the taxpayer will 01:38 contribute another half and that will be 01:40 managed in order to get the product onto 01:42 the market 01:43 that’s one but i went into csiro and 01:45 their prerogative is to 01:47 increase industry researcher 01:49 collaboration which means get the small 01:51 businesses to collaborate with the 01:53 universities 01:54 and also the csiro because we don’t want 01:57 to 01:58 you know why because everybody’s chasing 02:00 the blue sky 02:02 innovation that it’s it’s not working 02:05 and it’s 02:05 no matter how many reports they do and 02:07 they’ve had 150 in the last 25 years 02:10 expensive 02:11 extensive reports on how to improve it 02:13 that we pay for 02:15 it’s it’s not working so that’s what i 02:18 found out 02:23 to be honest it’s actually quite 02:25 alarming and 02:26 and very alive it’s it’s um 02:30 i think i i think i always believe that 02:33 there’s 02:33 report they always have a good intention 02:36 but then they are not very future proof 02:38 and in a way the events of 2020 kind of 02:42 proven that to be the case 02:45 and you know it’s it’s like you know i 02:48 mean i ca 02:49 i can imagine that the majority of the 02:51 researchers for those who report 02:52 they they had the best intention of 02:55 course you know but 02:56 everybody does but if the system’s not 02:58 geared towards 03:00 if the system’s not geared correctly 03:01 which it’s not so the facilitators i’ve 03:04 worked with in the entrepreneurs program 03:05 on the ground they’re fantastic 03:07 they go out and find companies they find 03:10 gaps in their knowledge and skill sets 03:12 and then they match them up with public 03:14 sector 03:14 but the thing is they’re not allowed to 03:17 help 03:18 after that r d project and that’s when 03:20 it gets put into this glossy case study 03:22 hello have a look at us 03:23 aren’t we innovative but are we 03:27 we’re not really exploiting that 03:29 innovation we’re just adding more 03:30 product r d 03:32 sometimes unnecessarily it’s 03:35 sometimes i think it’s a very 03:37 interesting thing because from a 03:39 marketing perspective that sometimes 03:41 um many marketers would well for example 03:45 myself that being a content marketer 03:47 uh would work with people in r d 03:50 and that might become the narrative of 03:53 the company’s image 03:55 however is it actually doing that 03:58 because 03:59 you know like you said before between r 04:01 d and the marketing 04:02 there’s a gap there there’s development 04:04 there’s product and 04:06 further research and everything but i 04:08 think 04:09 what what what we found if you may what 04:12 2020 had found is that when 04:16 you don’t follow when you don’t complete 04:19 that journey 04:19 and just jump from r d to image building 04:23 in marketing um yeah it’s look i mean 04:27 yes i’m one of those people guilty 04:30 absolutely i’m not the worst case 04:33 offender like 04:34 i i wasn’t okay but it’s it’s true 04:37 because um but actually speak yeah 04:39 speaking of that so how did the event of 04:41 2020 04:43 affected your area of work in r d 04:46 well one one of the things i realized 04:48 and out of my research that’s one of the 04:50 main things i found was 04:51 the technology function and the 04:53 marketing function need to work together 04:56 the whole time because when as you’re 04:58 designing a product if you’re talking 04:59 about a new 05:00 you know whether it’s going to be 05:01 modular or how it’s going to be pieced 05:03 together you want to be talking to 05:05 the people who are talking to the 05:07 customer needs so all of it 05:09 can’t be disconnected it has to be 05:11 almost one department 05:13 and that’s one of the most important 05:15 things we found that and you need to 05:17 actually 05:18 work on your existing products for your 05:20 existing customers 05:21 at the same time as searching for new 05:23 products for new markets 05:25 and it’s hard to split that role 05:29 but job descriptions at the moment don’t 05:30 reward it because if you’re actually 05:32 looking for a new product in a new 05:34 market you may be cannibalizing sales 05:36 of the existing product and the ability 05:38 to say well we’re going to lose some 05:40 sales of this product but in the long 05:42 term we’ve got another 05:43 venture out there so 05:47 back to the question about covert yeah 05:49 i’ve just put it together in a company 05:52 and that’s what i’ve just accelerated 05:54 ready to help these sms yeah 05:56 some of my friends that work in sales 05:58 had a really stressful year 06:00 because they want to make sure that they 06:02 meet their kpi but like you said yeah 06:04 they are 06:05 um it’s it’s more likely they would 06:08 achieve that kpi 06:10 with an established product but then 06:13 that means a space for innovation to 06:16 give that 06:17 yes a chance for something new becomes 06:19 something 06:20 i i don’t understand entirely how sales 06:22 work i mean it’s too stressful for me 06:25 uh you know i’m just the person who 06:27 taught rubbish on the on the internet to 06:29 promote stuff 06:31 but i i think it’s um it’s a very 06:34 interesting 06:35 gap that there’s all these different 06:37 departments working in silos 06:39 that you know it’s it’s not very helpful 06:42 if you look at all the other companies 06:44 out there they’re trying to help smes by 06:46 leveraging the rnd and 06:48 you know gearing or aligning themselves 06:50 with the where the handouts are for 06:52 government but i’ve kind of gone well i 06:53 don’t think that’s working 06:55 and i really think i can create value 06:57 for companies after r 06:58 d in those steps and make them help them 07:01 make fast and effective decisions around 07:03 that 07:04 based on what i can see on the on the 07:06 news that i i it feels like public 07:08 resources 07:09 may not be fast and effective 07:12 enough uh particularly yeah particularly 07:15 for parts 07:16 of the economy like small to medium 07:18 businesses social enterprise or people 07:21 a little bit older and we what we try 07:23 and do we try and leverage what they’ve 07:24 already got 07:25 and that’s the capabilities that they 07:27 have before we talk about building and 07:29 acquiring new ones 07:31 that’s the system yeah i think it’s very 07:34 important that way because 07:35 work what you got i wonder what do you 07:38 enjoy the most about 07:40 working on your own business 07:44 working on my own business i like the 07:46 fact that you can you can you yourself 07:48 can make things happen fast i’ve got a 07:50 really good 07:51 um couple of workers that i’ve got that 07:54 help me 07:54 you know on a freelance basis and then 07:56 as i build the thing is you just 07:58 you don’t have to sit there and wait for 08:00 things to be approved you can make fast 08:02 effective decisions in your own business 08:04 and things can happen 08:05 rapidly like in what i’ve seen in 08:08 working in larger companies before to 08:11 get something 08:12 implemented the amount of steps it has 08:14 to take it’s just ridiculous but if it 08:16 is your own business 08:17 and you’ve you’ve done your homework so 08:19 your decisions are pretty well founded 08:20 you can move really quickly 08:22 we want to make things happen and then 08:25 sometimes there are limitations in a 08:27 bigger organization 08:28 or businesses that that there are 08:31 processes 08:32 involved and i respect that but 08:35 sometimes 08:35 it just and the thing is because we come 08:38 up with those 08:38 ideas and strategies so we are 08:40 accountable for those things so 08:42 we will give it the best so the best 08:45 shot 08:45 or the best yeah so small service 08:48 providers like you and i because i mean 08:50 we’re in sme 08:52 so where we can really add value is now 08:55 that these companies are more 08:57 comfortable with outsourcing and 08:59 having remote staff we can plug into 09:01 their organization and help them 09:03 think more agile and think more 09:05 entrepreneurial 09:07 and enable them to do a lot more you 09:09 know they can leverage our capabilities 09:11 and that’s where i think there’s a 09:12 really good fit for small service 09:14 providers like us 09:16 yeah it’s uh well look i mean it’s just 09:19 one of the i think we’re in a world that 09:22 we need to see things 09:23 as an opportunity and i i think you 09:26 would be the same that i chosen to look 09:28 at 09:29 everything under um silver lining or 09:32 whatever with silver lining or something 09:34 like that and you know we just kind of 09:35 do our best 09:36 and yeah so yeah yeah now finally 09:40 in this is a strange question in a 09:42 parallel universe 09:44 it’s a parallel universe question so 09:47 like you know 09:48 in a parallel universe where you would 09:50 work in the different field 09:52 what area what profession do you think 09:54 you’ll be working in 09:56 well that’s interesting isn’t it you 09:58 know what i remember it’s i grew up in 10:00 the country 10:00 very very small country town near the 10:02 ocean down the great ocean road 10:05 and i really really really love um 10:08 marine biology for some reason so i love 10:11 the water 10:12 so maybe i could be like a marine 10:13 biologist in a completely old 10:16 world but it certainly hasn’t gone that 10:18 way lucas thank you so much for your 10:20 time for 10:21 taking part in this interview get chatty 10:23 about your local businesses 10:25 now do you mind telling people how they 10:27 can find you 10:28 linkedin you can find me and io which is 10:32 n-e-w l-e-d-g-e dot io 10:36 and feel free to contact me my email 10:39 address as well lucas l-u-c-a-s 10:42 at new ledge dot io happy to help 10:46 and i think we can create a lot of value 10:48 together so be happy to hear from any 10:50 small businesses with a with a product 10:52 that they want to increase the value of 10:54 and or 10:55 save some money in their business send 10:57 an email send a message see how it all 10:59 goes seriously 11:00 yeah and in that case thank you so much 11:03 for taking part in this and 11:05 good luck with newage and all the 11:07 contact information are underneath this 11:09 video 11:10 and uh yeah so let’s keep on chatting 11:12 about businesses 11:14 thank you
Lucas can be contacted via:
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