Day 2 Midday - Technology Innovation Week
Paul Sinclair from the Maven group talked about getting the culture of the organisation right to enable innovation. Some companies embed innovation then others and Paul shared some tips about building a culture of innovation. Innovation is counter-intuitive and messy topic and the culture often reflects this messiness. It more than astroturf, whiteboard paint and pretty pictures on the walls. Latent innovation resides in most organisations, the key is to create a culture which unleashes it.
People don’t buy into what you do but rather why you do it - innovative companies get that concept. Organisations need to understand their ‘why’, embed it into the organisation and do everything in line with their why.
Vaughan Rowsell of Vend talked about getting the culture right and knowing how Vend wins/succeeds. A large chunk of Vend’s growth comes from referrals and it’s their culture and customer focus which leads to that. Vaughan talked about how their core values directly relate to bottom-line results. A great no holds bared discussion about what makes the Vend culture successful and let’s them do “awesome shit”.
Mat Bolland from 2Degrees talked about the dog who caught the car. Mat talked about getting capital and then getting customers - a challenge more organisations face at one stage or another. Focusing on culture and stuff is not soft and fluffy - it’s critical to 2Degrees growth. It’s taken 2Degrees 9 years to become an overnight success - lots of hard work and tenacity. If you don’t build a culture then you get a culture - culture exists no matter what so organisations should focus on getting it right. Culture needs to be simple and authentic. 2Degrees runs a lean operation - not slides or segways - but ensures their culture fit that operating model.