Posts Tagged ‘Government’

Business Insight – Innovation Training – does it work?

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2016

Innovation Training – Can it work?
By Roger La Salle

These business insights aim to deliver useful information that can be used to enhance businesses in some manner. However, there comes a time when it may be appropriate to reveal some outcomes of the work we do.

In past months we have conducted as many as seven one day workshop events around Australia. The funding source is not relevant, only the results.

In essence only twelve companies, with revenues of between $2m and $100m were invited to each workshops, with the CEO and another senior executive present. In every case each workshop was fully subscribed within three days of advertising, but what’s more important is the feedback received from the 84 companies that participated.

The outcome!
In short 81 of the participating companies scored the top category for relevance, value, knowledge of the presenter and presentation format and materials provided.

Moreover some 75 companies reported that the value delivered would be implemented within their businesses in three months or less.

The results speak for themselves. CEO’s of SME’s do not waste a day if they do not believe they are getting real value.

Yes it works!
The bottom line is that innovation techniques properly structured and delivered provide real tangible benefits.

Enough said!

Roger La Salle, trains people in innovation, marketing and the new emerging art of Opportunity Capture. “Matrix Thinking”™ is now used in organizations in more than 29 countries. He is sought after as a speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and business development and is the author of four books and a Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies both in Australia and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panelist on the ABC New Inventors TV program. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at “The Queens University” in Belfast. www.matrixthinking.com

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So it’s good to fail – is it?

Thursday, May 19th, 2016

So it’s good to fail – is it?
By Roger La Salle

Are these people “for real”
Yet again I was at a conference hearing speakers on innovators and entrepreneurship in essence extolling the virtues of failure. The inverted logic suggests that if you fail often enough the learnings from this will somehow as if by magic eventually lead to success. It seems that for some it’s axiomatic that failure begets success.

Does this really happen?
Time and time again the common theme of all speakers that have made it big is that they had to fail first to learn the lessons that led to their success. Further, many, no in fact all, suggest that it was their persistence against all the odds that led to their success. The doubters and naysayers were aplenty, but they persisted and won. I have no argument with these people and one must admire their success. Of course the take aways from such presentations are twofold. First, it’s ok, indeed perhaps even good to fail and second, if you persist you will win.

There is a saying I picked up that was doing the rounds in Malaysia some time ago to the effect that a person has only two options, to persist or die. This saying was indeed embraced and promoted as good business thinking. I trust not too many took it literally.

What’s the real message?
Whilst persistence is important, indeed vital, one must be aware of when to stop. It’s a bit like what Einstein is said to have stated, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome is madness. Admittedly, the new product entrepreneur may simply be looking at different ways to make or sell something, but notwithstanding, there does come a time to cut ones losses and move on.

As for the art of failure, yes it’s ok to fail, but fail fast and fail cheap, don’t bet the farm on any single initiative as the odds of success are small, almost vanishingly small when you compare the number of successes with the number of triers.

The digital age
In this the digital age we can now see budding entrepreneur nerds popping up everywhere where the cost of exploring new horizons can be negligible. I wonder how much was invested to get Facebook off the ground, or Twitter or Amazon for example, compared with a company such as Apple where the start-up investment would have been huge.

Sure the digital age has opened new doors, but still the same advice applies.

What now
As more speakers come to the podium, and of course we only get to hear from the successes, please refrain from preaching these uninformed opinions. Failure may be a good learning curve, but it’s not a virtue, nor is blind persistence.
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Roger La Salle, trains people in innovation, marketing and the new emerging art of Opportunity Capture. “Matrix Thinking”™ is now used in organizations in more than 29 countries. He is sought after as a speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and business development and is the author of four books and a Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies both in Australia and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panelist on the ABC New Inventors TV program. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at “The Queens University” in Belfast. www.matrixthinking.com

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Business Insight – Is it Innovation or Research?

Monday, April 4th, 2016

Is it Innovation or Research?
By Roger La Salle
Setting the scene!
To preface this article the following TED talk may be worth a watch, (although I did give this link in the last article). This talk shows some of our energy problems and is a real laugh as you get into it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg1lFjRKKHY

A little one sided
The ABC in Australia recently screened a program on the virtues of home battery power storage. Unfortunately they failed to once mention that with present technology there is absolutely no financial payback for such a system. Further, even a 10kWhour battery would have insufficient power to cook a single large family roast dinner.

Of course the charging of batteries can be from solar panels but no mention was made of the cost of these or the need to keep them clean or that in Australia even the most sun drenched place has only 36% of full sun hours. To their credit the program highlighted the great benefit of off peak charging from the grid.

No doubt that in the fullness of time local power will be the order of the day. How long it takes us to get there is anybody’s guess but one thing is certain, whilst this technology is being rolled out, with vast subsidies, power prices are being forced up and tax payers worldwide are footing the bill whether or not you embrace this technology. Much the same of course can be said of the power from the ever growing array of wind farms.

On the positive side one may think this will eventually lead to the extinction of the ugly, expensive and fire prone poles and wires – not so.

More poles and wires are being installed every day to support the growing farms of wind generators, again subsidised by the taxpayer.

Personally, I am all for renewables, but at what cost and who is driving this agenda and what is the effect on power hungry industries such as aluminium manufacture or smelting and the like. Is this agenda killing industries in developed countries, industries that make essential products that are not then removed from the face of the earth but simply relocated to lower cost countries with the nett effect on carbon emissions being the same or more likely, even worse.

Can it work anywhere?
Presently I am involved in a project that uses battery power, supplemented in some small way by the grid, but this is a commercial application with real payback, a positive value proposition. That makes it workable and different and we don’t need any government subsidy to make it workable.

Innovation – the way forward
Anybody that knows me recognises I am a champion of innovation, but in the commercial world innovations need to stand on their own legs.

Innovation is about “change that adds value”, otherwise it’s called research.

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Roger La Salle, trains people in innovation, marketing and the new emerging art of Opportunity Capture. “Matrix Thinking”™ is now used in organizations in more than 29 countries. He is sought after as a speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and business development and is the author of four books and a Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies both in Australia and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panelist on the ABC New Inventors TV program. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at “The Queens University” in Belfast. www.matrixthinking.com

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Is Sustainability – sustainable?

Tuesday, March 1st, 2016

Is sustainability – sustainable?
By Roger La Salle

Is the video more powerful than the pen?
This business insight is a recent TED talk. It exposes some very serious issues, but is quite entertaining and funny as well, so I am advised.

The talk actually went for close to an hour but the TED people very skillfully edited it to their preferred 18 minute format.

Please have a look, think about the message, have a laugh and forward it to a friend or colleague.

Next month’s article will ask the question – “Is it good to fail?”

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Roger La Salle, trains people in innovation, marketing and the new emerging art of Opportunity Capture. “Matrix Thinking”™ is now used in organizations in more than 29 countries. He is sought after as a speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and business development and is the author of four books and a Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies both in Australia and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panelist on the ABC New Inventors TV program. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at “The Queens University” in Belfast. www.matrixthinking.com

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Australian are a forgiving lot!

Tuesday, June 4th, 2013

Aren’t we Australians a gullible lot? Roger La Salle

Over the course of the 20th century the taxes of the Australian people built the PMG Department that included both telecoms and post.

Some year ago these entities were separated and the PMG became Australia Post and the telecom part, Telecom Australia.

Some years later, the Government, probably in a cash grab, decided to privatise Telecom Australia and create Telstra; and guess what – they had the cheek to sell it to us. To sell us an asset, we the Australian people, already owned!

The government made a bucket load of money from that transaction.

Now after many years of successful trading and bringing innovation to the market, guess what, my taxes are now financing a rival to Tesltra in the form of the NBN.

The government sold me Telstra and now is using my money, my taxes, to build a rival.

Sometime in the future, you can bet the NBN will also be put up for public offering, no doubt after an unsuccessful attempt to decimate Telstra.

Boy are we suckers for government policy.

Finally, to add insult to injury, just how clever are those Telstra people.

Telstra have long realised that their cable network and ducts were fast becoming a liability and that in the not too distant future wireless will be the dominant internet delivery means. So what did Tesltra do – of course they sold all their ducts to those idiots running the Government, and for billions to boot!

Whether I am a labour or liberal voter is irrelevant, what is relevant is that too often our so called leaders make monumentally stupid and in my view unethical decisions.

Roger La Salle, is the creator of the “Matrix Thinking”™ technique and is widely sought after as an international speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and business development. He is the author of four books, Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies both in Australian and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panellist on the ABC New Inventors TV program. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at “The Queens University” in Belfast. Matrix Thinking is now used in more than 26 countries and licensed to one of the world’s largest consulting firms. www.matrixthinking.com

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Ill informed – Bill Shorten

Tuesday, June 4th, 2013

Ignorant Labour “Experts”? Roger La Salle
In a radio one on one with Joe Hockey a couple of weeks ago Bill Shorten criticised Joe Hockey regarding the NBN to the effect saying, “why would you want to use that crusty old wireless technology when we can use the vastly superior fibre in NBN”

Well, let us ask a few questions of Mr Shorten?

Firstly, as a non-technical person, you are a trained lawyer I believe, where do you get your information?

Is it from the same bureaucrats that advise you on border protection, or the mining tax, global warming, remember Tiny Tim Flannery saying ”even the rains that fall will not fill our dams”, or the treasury fanciful budget estimates, etc.

Finally Bill, do you have a wireless network at home, a LAN (if you know what that is)?

Yes, I’ll bet you do. So it’s OK to use that “crusty old wireless technology” for the last 100 meters it is it Bill, but not the last mile?

Further Bill, I wonder if any of your experts have told you that wireless signals in fact travel slightly faster, yes faster, that those down a fibre.

Further, do you know that Samsung have just announced that within a few years, long before the NBN is ever completed, if ever, that they now have a technology that can wirelessly download up to 10gbits per second, That’s a quite fast Mr Shorten.

Last of course, wireless will mean we do not need to be tethered to a glass fibre hanging from the wall, unless of course, we all use that crusty old wireless technology for that last 100 meters.

The NBN is a costly extravagance that will never be completed and will be obsolete within a decade at most.

Roger La Salle, is the creator of the “Matrix Thinking”™ technique and is widely sought after as an international speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and business development. He is the author of four books, Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies both in Australian and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panellist on the ABC New Inventors TV program. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at “The Queens University” in Belfast. Matrix Thinking is now used in more than 26 countries and licensed to one of the world’s largest consulting firms. www.matrixthinking.com

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The Picture is mightier than the word!

Wednesday, October 31st, 2012

“The picture may be mightier than the word? © Roger La Salle

Let history be the judge!

We all know that multimedia is taking over the world at the expense of the print media.

It is with this in mind that several recipients of my “Business Insights” have suggested a short YouTube clip may be a good and dare I say, “innovative way” of giving an update on the innovation process and Matrix Thinking.

Below is a link to a YouTube video from a TEDX presentation I did several months ago. This gives quite a good overview of some of my material.

Over 450 people attended this event and nearly as many were turned away.

This talk received the most “Likes” on YouTube of all presentations on the day. I will be doing another TEX event in the New Year.

I hope you find this form of “Business Insight” of value?

Roger La Salle, is the creator of the “Matrix Thinking”™ technique and is widely sought after as an international speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and business development. He is the author of four books, Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies both in Australian and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panellist on the ABC New Inventors TV program. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at “The Queens University” in Belfast. Matrix Thinking is now used in more than 26 countries and licensed to Deloitte, one of the world’s largest consulting firms. www.matrixthinking.com

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The “Third Eye”

Thursday, September 27th, 2012

“The Third “Eye” © Roger La Salle

Too Close to see the business

Often those of us involved in business are simply too close to daily issues to see the potential for real value adding innovations and opportunities or indeed to appreciate some of the things our businesses and people do really well.

Even in the case of business plans, which seldom play-out as forecast, the so called independent “third eye” to review the plan before it is finalised is always a good idea.

The transfer “catalyst” of the “Opportunity Matrix” thinking platform asks us to see if we can transfer this so called “third eye” used on business plans to other aspects of our business.

Following this idea we may implement a formal “third eye” across the business on a periodic basis.

“The Third “Eye” innovation initiative.

Network with a group of your peers and allow them a tour of your facility to review in their own minds what you are doing and how you go about your business.

This does not have to be limited to just the physical or operational aspects of your business but can include your telephone answering technique, your staff presentation and manner, your business card presentation, your signage and even the overall presentation of your facility.

For example, would you prefer to attend a dentist or a restaurant whose premises were beautifully maintained with lovely gardens as you enter, or instead one where the gardens were a mangled mess with absolutely no interest in presentation at all being shown by the business operator?

Obviously, the clean and beautiful presented premise inspires confidence.

With your network now briefed conduct a tour of your business and ask each person to take a note pad with them and write down three things that they individually observe that you do really well.

Also ask them to write down three things that they believe are lacking or need attention and can be done better.

Thus we now have 3 plus 3 innovation initiatives we can explore in an endeavour to innovate or improve our business.

The cost is nothing

A “Third Eye” tour need only take a few minutes and will provide invaluable third party or “independent third eye” insights. More importantly it will assist in identifying your strengths and weaknesses.

This simple third eye can be a real innovation eye opener and can be done at no cost at all.

Roger La Salle, is the creator of the “Matrix Thinking”™ technique and is widely sought after as an international speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and business development. He is the author of four books, Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies both in Australian and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panellist on the ABC New Inventors TV program. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at “The Queens University” in Belfast. Matrix Thinking is now used in more than 26 countries and licensed to Deloitte, one of the world’s largest consulting firms. www.matrixthinking.com

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