Tech Transfer Talk

In our discussion with Stephen Angus, of Snowy Advisory, we hear about some of his experiences and reflections on the importance of accountability in innovation and we explore a new role for companies actively investing and undertaking innovation – the CVO.

This podcast is particularly timely in our view. Innovation, as a word, is arguably becoming tired, misplaced and misused in a range of government and private sector forums. What we are also seeing is innovation tending towards a performative activity, with social media and contests providing stages on which actors can perform. The short timeframe programs that abound across the private and public sectors are tending towards the vanilla and undifferentiated, producing many applicants, some participants, few winners and occasional successes. However, businesses are rarely built in 12 weeks! And when the innovation actors have left the stage and the day-to-day needs to be implemented, with operational realities replacing the euphoria of presentations, pitches and performances, how do participants perform in the mid to long term? Not just with today’s idea, but do they have the tools to seek out and secure success for the next ideas that emerge through their experiences?

From these observations, this podcast has sprung to seek out what could be missing to drive success beyond the performative innovation that we are seeing. We see the need for honest conversations, business discipline and accountability. We believe that these (cultural) settings, embodied in the notion of role of the CVO – Chief Veracity Officer, can start to reorientate these phenomena over the mid-term. We hope that catalysing this discussion will contribute to that process.