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Written by: Nick Lush - Trials in Focus

Australia''s competitiveness for hosting clinical trials is on the decline, says Bayer Managing Director, Joerg Ellmanns, a situation he regards as "unacceptable and untenable".

"We have seen up to a 30% decline in industry investment in clinical trial research in Australia between 2008 -2009. Although some of this decline can be attributed to factors such as the global financial crisis, the fact is, the trend looks likely to continue," he told a gathering of biotech and medtech industry executives in Sydney during the week.

"Without Australia being viewed as a key location for trials the ability to maintain this country''s reputation for innovation is seriously under threat," Mr Ellmanns said, adding, "This is an unacceptable and untenable situation. Clinical trials are vital for not only the medical community but the health of our population and economy."

He said there were three reasons why why companies like Bayer withdraw investment in clinical trials, "cost, capacity and timeliness". In Australia, the main problem is timeliness.

"In Australia it can take in excess of six months where as in many of the emerging key locations, such as South American and Eastern Europe, setting up a clinical trial takes less than half this time," Mr Ellmanns said.

"The approval process in Australia is more complex. In Australia there are more than 250 human research ethics committees and if a company is planning to invest in a multi-location clinical trial the process has been to gain ethics approval from a committee in each of the locations."

Mr Ellmanns said he was pleased by National Health and Medical Research Council initiatives to certify research institutes to approve multi-centre trials but added that different approaches across state jurisdictions were tending to complicate the process.

He stressed, however, that Bayer was not giving up on Australia and had increased its research spend here last year.

"Unlike many of our competitors Bayer is also increasing our local research investment here in Australia. In 2008 alone, Bayer had 659 Australian patients involved in trials carried out at 143 research sites across Australia. This increased by 36% in 2009 to over 195 research sites."

"With 42 pipeline drugs in the making internationally, Bayer also has some very exciting innovative products currently under development in Australia. We have a significant local commitment to the development of a molecular diagnostic product for the diagnostic imagery of Alzheimer''s disease.

"Two thousand and ten will also see Bayer involved in some essential studies to make our own very promising molecule rivaroxaban available to paediatric patients at risk of deep vein thrombosis and for paediatric cardiovascular surgery patients. This will be an important program and will also result in a rational process for dosing in young patients. In each of these programs Australian researchers are centrally involved."

For the full text of Mr Ellmanns'' speech, click here.

Source: Trials in Focus , 22 February 2010

Business Acumen Magazine Issue #61, Nov / Dec / Jan 2009 Edition . Page 3

It is already being called ‘Australia’s Biotechnology Heart’ and in coming years the cluster of research infrastructure nearing completion in Brisbane is likely to deliver a series of world-changing innovations in health and biotechnology.

That is certainly the aim, as attendees of the Queensland Innovation Series  were told recently by Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser, Prince Alexandra Hospital executive director Richard Ashby and Mater Medical Research Institute chief executive, John Prins.

Mr Fraser said the precinct – that links the Queensland Bioscience Precinct at the University of Queensland with the PA Hospital, the Translational Research Institute, the Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence (PACE), Mater Hospital and the new Boggo Road Ecosciences Precinct – will “provide bricks and mortar for the real investment, which is the brains – attracting the people who are to be involved in these industries”.  Queensland has already been labelled  an ‘innovation hotspot’ by the World Health Forum, Mr Fraser said. “This has been a journey of bricks to brains ..... and we now have a critical mass to capitalise upon it.”

Click here to download PDF version

Source: Business Acumen Magazine Queensland , Nov/Dec/Jan 2009 edition, Page 3

Business Acumen Magazine Issue #61, Nov / Dec / Jan 2009 Edition . Page 32

The interlinking of new health research and development (R&D) facilities on Brisbane's south side with the new Queensland Bioscience Precinct at the University of Queensland and the new Boggo Road Ecosciences Precinct - already being dubbed Australia's Biotechnology Heart - will supercharge Queensland's competitive advantage in these sectors.

That was the overwhelming message at the final Queensland Innovation Series luncheon for 2009 at Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre last month, with addresses by Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser, Princess Alexandra Hospital executive director Richard Ashby and Mater Medical Research Institute chief executive, John Prins.
Mr. Fraser summed up the work on the precinct as being to "provide bricks and mortar for the real investment, which is the brains - attracting the people who are to be involved in these industries".

Queensland has already been labeled an 'innovation hotspot' by the World Health Forum, Mr. Fraser said. "This has been a journey of bricks to brains... and we now have a critical mass to capitalise upon it."
Through the Queensland Government's Smart Communities initiative, a 'knowledge corridor' nicknamed the Clinical Spine that extends from the north's RBH and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research to the Biotechnology Heart and the Wesley Hospital.

"And that gives us the ability to aggregate that investment into the next pathways of innovation," Mr. Fraser said. He said in the health area innovation was the only way to provide a more economical system of better health care, as demand was constantly growing. People are living longer and healthier lives, he said, "and that's the circularity of the argument". "The cure to society's ills is in the society's balance sheet. The benefit lies in translating the breakthroughs into an efficient model of care," Mr. Fraser said. "the delivery part should be imagined the way it was delivered before."

Driving More Research
Mater Medical Institute CEO, professor John Prins categorised the three precincts of medical research that are being interlinked on Brisbane's south side as Australia's greatest health innovation opportunity.
"Research (in health) saves dollars, according to studies by Access Economics," Prof. Prins said. "It surpasses the value of the research in every other aspect of life. The annual rate on return is about $5 for every dollar spent, " he said, "and that's a worldwide value." But Prof. Prins said while Australia has the capacity to be world leader in research, reports such as Medical Research: Queensland's Health and Wealth 2007, and the Cutler Report revealed Australia was lagging behind in its spend on medical innovation.
Sweden spent 3.6 percent of its health budget on research, Japan 3.4 percent and Australia just one percent. This compared poorly with the average 12 R&D spend by the private companies. Prof. Prins said , "Health is inevitably agrowth industry. We know the challenges will be there and solutions will require increased complexity. "The reality is that component f the workforce (in health) must be paid to think."

E-Health Comes of Age
Queensland health professionals are in many ways already leading the world in terms of e-health delivery, partly driven by the state's vast geography. "You have to understand that Queensland Health is the largest entity in Queensland, apart from the Queensland Government itself - and it employs more people than any other organisation by a large margin," Prince Alexandra Hospital (PAH) executive director Richard Ashby said. Dr Ashby said the PAH was developing from a hospital and research institute to a bio-precinct. he labeled it the "co-location of intellect" or an area in which " you can break down the organisational barriers that allows the interaction of ideas".

He saw the area as an incubator for creativity and entrepreneurship, creating value, expanding the tax base and providing high value jobs. The Smart Community Dr Ashby describes engages the PAH, TRI, PACE 1/2/3, and the Boggo Road Ecosciences Precinct, which brings in the possibilities for the health sector to engage with biogenomics. The issue of electronic medical records, he said " is a subject of global focus". He said the National Health service Connecting for Health program in the UK is the biggest IT program in the world and in history. "E-health may actually have a greater effect on world population health than water and sanitation."

Click here to download PDF version

Source: Business Acumen Magazine Queensland , Nov/Dec/Jan 2009 edition, Page 3

Business Acumen Issue #60 . Page 2

The Queeensland Innovation Series will present three expert views on how health innovation is a key driver of the Queensland economy. Addressing the topic Health Innovation: A Key Driver for Economic Development is Queensland Treasurer and Minister for Employment and Economic Development, Andrew Fraser. He is supported at the November 6 event by Princess Alexandra Hospital executive director and director of medical service, Richard Ashby, and Mater Medical Research Institute chief executive officer, John Prins.

Mr Fraser will present on the importance of private sector innovation from a public health perspective, with particular emphasis on South East Queensland. Dr Ashby and Prof. Prins will discuss the role of ‘bioprecincts’ in health research and innovation with particular emphasis on the opportunities presented by e-health. The Innovation Series luncheon is resented by Zernike Australia with partners AIC and Brisbane Technology Park, at Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Source: Business Acumen Magazine Queensland , Issue #60 . Page 2

The nature of innovation – and how information and communication technology is its great modern enabler – was emphasised in the recent Queensland Innovation Series event. Leading and Enabling Innovation through ICT featured Richard Jefferson of QUT’s Initiative for Open Innovation, Deloitte Digital CEO Peter Williams and Steve Vamos, the current president of the Society of Knowledge Economics (SKE) and former CEO of ninemsn. Dr Jefferson set the scene by using navigation in the 1400s and 1500s as a metaphor for innovation today. Portuguese sailors such as Ferdinand Magellan led the world in maritime progress at the time because they had mastered IT of the time, cartography, first. “With maps, the information was held tightly – it was technology that held precious state secrets,” Dr Jefferson said. But as the mapping and information began opening up, more states began to participate in the mercantile trade, driving business. “Early maps were whimsical and had warnings of ‘here be dragons’ and so forth – but when developed they became a decision-making device,” he said. “Decision support is critical in innovation – to make the process efficient and equitable.”

It is a similar scenario today with ICT and innovation, Dr Jefferson proposed, “Except today’s reefs and rocks are patents and agreements.” The experience of protecting the ‘IP’ of cartography meant that without sharing new information the risks in sailing at the time remained artificially high. This meant costs remained high and fewer ventures were funded, which also meant the cost of goods delivered back to Europe was higher than it should have been. It also drove up piracy – a remarkable correlation for today. Dr Jefferson said the real innovative value of the technology only becomes realised when it is opened up to more participants. Historically, the data that helped make maps was protected – like intellectual property (IP) is today – but business only developed after the regions were opened up.

“The key is people with knowledge to look at things and bring new insights. Diverse people add value to the decision making process,” Dr Jefferson said, mentioning that this was a goal for the Initiative for Open Innovation, which has been established with the assistance of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Freeing up the IP, to boost innovative participation, is Dr Jefferson’s goal. “We have huge amounts to gain from enabling Europe and China,” he said. “The charts don’t have to be done laboriously by sinking ships.”

JUST GO INNOVATE
Peter Williams, CEO of Deloitte Digital, argued in favour of “massive action” being the best way to innovate – and the collaborative communication nature of Web 2.0 presented outstanding opportunities to do so. “Forget developing the business case and just do it,” Mr Williams said. “You can put the word innovation 50 times in your mission statement, but the real question is, how do you handle a new idea in your business? Innovation lives or dies on execution.” He offered a clear test for businesses as to whether they were prepared for true innovation. “An employee has a brain-wave idea (for a great new product) overthe weekend and turns up on Monday to tell you about it. What do you do?” he asked.

“People are our most important assets but we won’t let them express their ideas.” A good example of open innovation is the iPhone, Mr Williams said, which developed 65,000 applications by opening it up to the public. Apple offered open software tools for people to use to develop their own applications and share them. “Let people develop your product for you. It’s brilliant,” Mr Williams said. They key was to automate the process and invite a diverse range of people in. “Let’s use ICT to foster innovation. It helps to get the diversity from various domains to look at ideas. And why do we need to think about outsourcing when we’ve got the cloud (computing).” He urged business to include as much diversity as possible in regular ‘innovation council’ gatherings – geographical, age and expertise – to draw out innovative suggestions. A living example of the value of Web 2.0 was a community action he took part in following the Victorian bushfires. They built a web log to assist Flowerdale, devastated in the Black Saturday fires in Victoria.

“There is now a wiki plan to rebuild the village and we quickly had engineers and accountants involved online,” Mr Williams said. “They collaborated and it didn’t cost anything.” Through the site, a lot of vital resources were gathered and from people across the globe. “We were communicating between one guy on a boat in Indonesia and another guy in South Africa. That’s the power of it,” he said.

“We built it in one day and it now contains lots of information outside the organisation, plus there are community updates on Twitter and video on YouTube. We host all documentsand videos externally.”Within three days, for instance, they had 15 ‘dongas’ donated to house the homeless residents. The Flowerdale site was a good example of how action can drive innovation and produce good outcomes. “Most of the time things will happen that are good. But you have to try things and learn to try again,” he said. “Learn, regroup, learn, regroup. Get used to that process.”

GIVE PEOPLE A REASON
Steve Vamos found out how vital innovation was to business survival when he took on the role of initially developing the ninemsn web portal. Ninemsn was resourced well, but he said the organisation was not open to innovate, or had an imperative to innovate, in its early stages. “We had $100million to spend – and we did at the time – and I was the idiot that tried,” Mr Vamos said. “We had cash and we had tech people, but the heart of the issue was we didn’t know where we were going and we didn’t know where we fitted in.” He quickly learned that people at every level have got to be engaged – “you have to give a context broader than the role.” By doing that simple thing, Mr Vamos turned the ninemsn staff satisfaction rating from 40 percent to 80 percent. It was all about clarity of purpose and aligning people’s objectives. That brought ninemsn the innovation it desperately needed. “Silos kill us,” he said

“Any organisation organisation can never be optimised by optimising one silo.” A manager or leader must align, enable, encourage and help others, he said. “Helping others helps you. “Our number one responsibility is people. The innovation discussion is really about people. It does not matter what technology you have got, how fat the pipe is, how skilled your staff are, it depends on the engagement of your people.” Mr Vamos said, “When I was at Microsoft, the people above me knew less than me and couldn’t help me. The people below me knew more.” Mr Vamos said once an organisation realised that, it opened up the flow of ideas and innovation. Ideas are a commodity, great execution isn’t,” Mr Vamos said. “Execution needs to be effective. “The inhibitors are management and cultural change. A well managed organisation will point to innovation and bring it through,” he said. “Building leadership capability builds innovation. And decide what you are not doing.”

Source: Business Acumen Issue #60 . Page 28 -29

Australian Financial Review 21 October 2009

The second Innovation Series luncheon for 2009 welcomed two highly respected leaders from within the medical research sector. Each speaker discussed how leading edge medical research discoveries will revolutionise both the healthcare industry and the lives of future generations.

In view of the global success of Australia’s own Cochlear Limited, Assoc Prof. Jim Patrick, Chief Scientist Senior Vice-President, CochlearLimited, discussed his involvement in cochlear implant research, and how advances in biology and electro-neural interfaces can be applied to improve future implant designs.

Drawing upon her experience at the Australian Stem Cell Research Centre and the Institute of Molecular Bioscience, Professor Melissa Little, NHMRC Principal Research Fellow, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, discussed ‘New discoveries in Tissue Regeneration’ and how Stem Cell therapy will be the next great advance in medicine. Davies Collison Cave are delighted to be involved in the Sydney Innovation Series.

The first Queensland Innovation Series event for 2009 at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre recently drew a clear and vital line from innovation to economic growth.

CSIRO chairman John Stocker and David Theriault, the business development leader of Dow Chemical Australia Ltd, revealed from experience how, even in times of financial crisis, innovators drive business forward. Dr Stocker, who is also the chairman of Sigma Company Limited and the Australian Wine Research Institute Ltd and a director of Telstra Corporation, Circadian Technologies Ltd and Nufarm Ltd, said Australian business must not waver in the quest for innovation. “At CSIRO we are all about building national prosperity and wellbeing,” Dr Stocker said. “Now more than ever in these tough times, Australia needs to focus on building infrastructure and to ignite the creative spirit of our people. At CSIRO we have learnt through collective research, the need to focus efforts on national issues of energy, water, oceans, climate and preventative health. In total we have nine flagship projects in place and now is the time to make some significant progress,” Dr Stocker said.

WEALTH FROM OCEANS
Dr Stocker outlined the Wealth from Oceans project – an ocean monitoring and reporting system developed by CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology and the Royal Australian Navy. Research from the project showed that strong ocean currents off Brisbane could be tapped as a source of clean energy. This project also contributed to the location of HMAS Sydney. Brisbane engineer Duncan Gilmore’s e3k consultancy, for example has designed an ocean turbine device to exploit that current and the technology is now being commercialised globally out of Singpaore (see Business Acumen #52) Through CSIRO’s Climate Adaptation program, Australia is preparing for the impacts of climate change on cities, regions, people and industries. Socio-economic diversity will mean that different areas will be affected in different ways, Dr Stoker said. For example, Sydney will be warmer and drier, and have an increased risk of inundation and coastal erosion. The CSIRO Energy and Water projects were key topics for the Innovation Series.

The CSIRO’s Water for a Healthy Country program is currently Australia’s largest research project, mapping the water inputs and outputs of the Murray Darling Basin. Dr Stoker said Future Manufacturing highlighted, amongst other issues, the development of the first 100 percent carbon nanotube yarn for sensors, photovoltaics and biomedical uses. Dr Stocker added that Australia needs to tap into overseas initiatives, particularly from the US. The 15-plus year partnership between Boeing and CSIRO has been a very successful one. The partners jointly developed a sophisticated model for R&D collaboration, which Boeing is applying to its other partnerships worldwide. CSIRO and Boeing are now working on opportunities for both organisations in the global market.

BIOSCIENCE BLUE SKY
David Theriault covers the entire Asia Pacific region for Dow Chemicals, with a focus on emerging technologies in bio-energy, biomaterials and crop germ-plasm and traits. At the Innovation Series, Mr Theroault put forward a bio-fuel development program that he hopes to see commercialised in Australia. Mr Theriault showcased a world first industry consortium manufacturing complex for bio-fuels that will revolutionise Australia’s industrial bio-fuels industry, presenting aframework to develop sugarcane into green carbon energy. “Amidst the financial slowdown, global drivers such as economics, petro-chemical sustainability and environmental concerns are pushing for such innovative solutions,” Mr Theriault said. The idea is based around an Australian Integrated Biorefinery Model (AIBM), and is identified by Mr Theriault as a green carbon manufacturing option to futureproof Australia.

Mr Theriault outlined several strengths of Queensland’s and Australia’s industrial bio-fuels industry. This included the food versus fuel debate, Australia being politically and financially stable, our IP security, government attitudes, worldclass science, access to Asian markets and our proven ability to support infrastructure. In terms of requirements for the infrastructure development, Mr Theriault proposed that various sites across Australia with a size of 50 to 150 hectares were all that was needed. “The real positive of this initiative would be the potential direct benefits of green carbon production. These would include thousands of new jobs, a genuine manufacturing industry established in Australia, regional development and increased export value,” said Mr Theriault. The next Innovation Series event in Brisbane is on August 7 at BCEC. Leading and Enabling Innovation through Information and Communication Technologies features ing Steve Vamos, president of the Society for Knowledge Economics (SKE) and former VP of Microsoft Corp, and Deloitte Digital CEO Peter Williams.

For more articles from business acumen please visit http://www.businessacumen.biz/

The Federal Government has been forced to delay the emissions trading scheme by up to six months, as the economic crisis bites down.Kevin Rudd said the scheme would start at the end of 2010 and not the proposed 1 July 2010.

The news comes as a welcome relief to businesses who are already struggling and don’t want the impost of a new tax at such a time.Emissions Trading Scheme opponent Mitchell Hooke said the scheme is flawed and will hurt businesses even more than the global financial crisis.

“If Australia imposes the world’s highest carbon costs, the result is easy to predict – fewer jobs and projects in regional and remote Australia, but little if any environmental dividend,” Hooke said.CRC Mining’s CEO Professor Michael Hood told MINING DAILY that Australia could reduce its energy consumption and meet its emission targets with the help of new, innovative technology.

“While it is simply too early to tell whether or not Australia is likely to meet its targets, it is feasible to say that we could meet them if we needed to.“This is the right time to invest in innovation and technology.“People should invest in innovation during the recession because when the economy returns to its robust self, the companies that have invested are better placed than all of their competitors.”

Hood, a key note speaker at yesterday’s Innovation in Resources conference, told attendees that cost effective, smarter R&D could help Australia meet its 2020 emission targets.Hood said if you looked at the true cost of energy, it is often more expensive than implementing new R&D.“Energy has been too cheap for too long. We need to look at the true value of energy including its externality costs.“An externality is a bad thing that happens when you do something good. Fugitive emissions are one example. Because we haven’t paid for fugitive emissions, energy is sourced cheaply. However, if you have to pay for these externalities then the true cost of energy becomes far greater and R&D becomes a favourable option.”

News Article Source: http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/Article/Rudd-delays-emissions-trading/470033.aspx

The Federal Government has been forced to delay the emissions trading scheme by up to six months, as the economic crisis bites down. Kevin Rudd said the scheme would start at the end of 2010 and not the proposed 1 July 2010.

The news comes as a welcome relief to businesses who are already struggling and don’t want the impost of a new tax at such a time.Emissions Trading Scheme opponent Mitchell Hooke said the scheme is flawed and will hurt businesses even more than the global financial crisis.

“If Australia imposes the world’s highest carbon costs, the result is easy to predict – fewer jobs and projects in regional and remote Australia, but little if any environmental dividend,” Hooke said.CRC Mining’s CEO Professor Michael Hood told MINING DAILY that Australia could reduce its energy consumption and meet its emission targets with the help of new, innovative technology.

“While it is simply too early to tell whether or not Australia is likely to meet its targets, it is feasible to say that we could meet them if we needed to.“This is the right time to invest in innovation and technology.“People should invest in innovation during the recession because when the economy returns to its robust self, the companies that have invested are better placed than all of their competitors.”

Hood, a key note speaker at yesterday’s Innovation in Resources conference, told attendees that cost effective, smarter R&D could help Australia meet its 2020 emission targets.Hood said if you looked at the true cost of energy, it is often more expensive than implementing new R&D.“Energy has been too cheap for too long. We need to look at the true value of energy including its externality costs.“An externality is a bad thing that happens when you do something good. Fugitive emissions are one example. Because we haven’t paid for fugitive emissions, energy is sourced cheaply. However, if you have to pay for these externalities then the true cost of energy becomes far greater and R&D becomes a favourable option.”

News Article Source: http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/Article/Rudd-delays-emissions-trading/470033.aspx

Innovation is a strong and potent force for Australia’s future economic prosperity that must be harnessed at a national level to secure the nation’s success.That was the message delivered to more than 200 people attending the Innovation Series Queensland Luncheon recently (21 July 2008) by Craig Pennifold, Head of Innovation at the Australian Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research on behalf of Minister for Innovation, Science and Research, The Hon Senator Kim Carr.Mr Pennifold said the Government was committed to assisting researchers and industry to come together and was awaiting the results of an Innovation Review, due on 31 July 2008, before implementing more plans to address the issue.“Australia is facing challenges including climate change, water scarcity, an ageing population, the escalating energy crisis, increasing competitive global markets and the rise of new strategic powers in our region,” he said.“Bold and decisive action that serves the long term interests of the nation is needed.”

He said thinking laterally and valuing human and intellectual capital was critical.Mr Pennifold said unfortunately the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index showed Australia ranked 22^nd in the world on innovation performance, behind Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.“We need to become a nation that trades in knowledge,” he said, which was why the Government had established the new Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Department, to encourage close and productive working relationships across all areas.  He said the department provided an administration umbrella that would oversee the development of a coherent innovation system.In addition to focusing on Australia’s innovation future, the second Innovation Series Qld event for 2008 focussed on ‘Forensic Technologies – Safeguarding your assets’, continuing its five year tradition of addressing leading edge innovation and technology issues for Australia, and specifically Queensland.Guest speakers on forensic technologies, Professor Hilton Kobus, Director of Flinders University Forensics Science Centre and Matthew Westwood-Hill, Director and Principal Computer Forensic Examiner for Forensic Digital Services Pty Ltd presented compelling information about new technologies changing the way forensic science was used. Professor Kobus said that while the crime programs seen on television had given forensic science popular appeal, it was not as simple as portrayed. He said however rapid development of forensic technology was increasing the number of crimes solved and the way in which they were approached. “In the past, forensics were used to back up other investigative work but more and more forensics is the key to success.  More and more forensics is being used at a very early stage in investigations.”

Professor Kobus said being able to gather the invisible traces of material that were left behind was the basis of intelligence-led investigation.  “Some of this technology has been around for some time but the way it is being used and the stage at which it is utilised is changing,” he said. He said however there was tremendous pressure on forensic scientists to achieve results and with it being utilised more often and earlier in an investigation that meant resources were stretched. “Forensic Science is the poor cousin of the legal system.”  He said government funding was one issue but he said the problem was more complex than that.  “There is a shortage of skills in the area that needs to be addressed.” Professor Kobus said the future of Forensic Technologies was for trace amounts to become even more reliable and for better, faster, smarter DNA testing and interaction with databases. Mr Westwood-Hill said that forensic science in terms of Information Technology was also a rapidly developing area. “The ‘CSI effect’, recovery of deleted information is only one component of IT forensics for example,” he said. “We can examine anything digital and the examination could range from recovering information or to uncovering the history of transactions or activities.” He said for example from latent information uncovered in a computer made it possible to create an overview and timeline of an incident.  “If there is a dispute over the contents of an email for example, by examining the information that gets automatically and invisibly sent with an email we can discover where the email was changed and on what piece of equipment.” He said the key to utilising forensic technology in terms of digital devices if necessary was to stop using the piece of equipment and call in the experts. The next Innovation Series Qld event on 28 October 2008 will look at ‘Energising Innovation – Sustaining our Energy Resources’ with keynote speakers Professor Max Lu, the Director of the ARC Centre for Excellence in Functional Nanomaterials and Sylvia Tulloch, the Managing Director of Dyesol Industries. 

For more articles from business acumen please visit http://www.businessacumen.biz/

Companies that don’t adopt a culture of sustainability now, could find themselves out of business according to experts speaking at the Innovation Series Queensland Luncheon recently. (Thursday 10 April 2008)

DuPont Australia & New Zealand Managing Director Hutch Ranch told the 220-strong crowd at the event that management needed to change the way the decisions in their companies were made.

Murray Hogarth, Ecos Corporation Managing Partner, went further. “For many businesses the rewards of getting on board now may not be there so clearly, they may be down the track, but if they don’t have a seat at the table now, and are not developing their skills and influencing how this market will develop, then they are likely to find yourself out of the game and the early movers will have an advantage,” Mr Hogarth said.

The first Innovation Series Qld event for 2008 focussed on ‘Going Carbon Neutral – Developing Solutions for a Positive Bounce” continuing its five year tradition of addressing leading edge innovation and technology issues for Australia, and specifically Queensland.

Mr Ranck said for DuPont – one of the world leaders in sustainable practices – their journey began in the early 1990s when they were labelled the largest polluters in the US by the New York Times.

He said the headline followed the release of figures by the EPA about waste materials produced putting Du Pont as the largest chemical company came up at the top of the list. While the definition of what waste included was very narrow rather than try to get the public to understand limitations of the definition, the then Du Pont CEO, Ed Willer realised it was time to change.

“Ed decided if we didn’t change out trajectory that we wouldn’t be around in 100 years so we had a lot of incentive to start. Once we had a target and we had the management will to do it, we then developed the technologies, processes and practices to make it happen,” Mr Ranck said.

Mr Ranck said the lessons others could learn from Du Pont’s experience was that while there were some quick fixes along the way, for real significant change you had to start with the culture of the company and build sustainability targets into budgets.

“We had the benefit of having a safety culture and a culture of operating with discipline so while it took effort, this made it easier than some other organisations that don’t have operating discipline and a culture that supports protecting the environment,” he said.

“You can’t treat this like a fad, you have to have the culture that supports it and then you have got to adopt the technology that is going to deliver you the results that you are looking for.”

Mr Hogarth said sustainability wasn’t just about the nice things businesses could do but it could have a real effect on a company’s bottom line.

He said it was about the big social and environmental issues of climate change and sighted the past couple of years as the classic example of how market forces had created a real shift in the way business was done.

“There are risks and opportunities for business associated with them (sustainability issues) and business need to respond to those like it would any other issue,” Mr Hogarth said.

“If climate issues were just a nice thing to do they would always remain at the margins of business but if you can say to a business this is about your profit and your growth and whether you will be able to stay in business then they will put real resources in.”

Mr Hogarth said over the past decade and certainly five years ago, much of Ecos Corporation’s work was just in getting businesses to begin to see that there was business value in becoming more sustainable ad environmentally focussed.

“Now it has completely changed, people are coming to us and saying ‘our competitors are doing this’ or ‘the regulatory environment is turning hostile to us’ or ‘our customers are demanding that we do certain things’ so it has completely changed,” he said.

“In Australia, the turning point happened in the last months of 2006 when climate change really burst out as a powerful driver. In that one month of September 2006, you had Al Gore come to Australia with An Inconvenient Truth, you had a really hot spring and bush fires started really early and the drought started to really bite, not just in the bush but in the cities as well, and suddenly you had this shift start. 

“It caught everybody by surprise, not just the Government and the Media by surprise, it caught the Environment Movement itself by surprise. They thought they were still fighting the battle of whether there was an issue at all and suddenly the population just moved.”

Mr Hogarth said becoming more carbon and cost-efficient would mean different things for different businesses. 

“There are some businesses that have been on board for years and I think they are in an incredibly advantageous position now. They are market ready for this shift when many businesses are only just saying what does it mean and what do we do next.

“Some don’t even understand if there is more opportunity or more risk and they need to understand that pretty quickly. Typically what we do is help businesses understand the issues and what the strategic drivers are for their business. No two businesses are the same,” he said.

Mr Hogarth said however sustainability was much more than just the environment. 

“Sustainability is like the three legs of the tool, its environment, its social and its economic. Increasingly you see, even in the Environmental Movement itself, a sort of divergence of paths. 

“There are some people who are like the eco greens, who are really just totally ecology focused, but more and more you are seeing a group who are the sustainability greens to recognise you are just not going to get solutions unless they have got a social and economic dimension as well.

Mr Hogarth and Mr Ranck agreed that having a culture to adopt the changes necessary was absolutely paramount. 

“Many people I believe mistakenly think it is just about technology - we’ll innovate on technology and we will fix it and there won’t be a problem. They are thinking about climate change and saying we’ll get these step change technologies be it clean coal or new nuclear or large skill renewables and that will fix it. But I just don’t believe that is true,” Mr Hogarth said.

“I think you have to have a cultural shift towards sustainability. It is particularly vital now for the early action because there are many changes that can be made now.”

He said if you just took energy efficiently as an example, currently Australia as a nation and many companies still had a culture of complete disregard for energy use.

“We’ve had cheap energy and we haven’t had to pay for the pollution aspect of it so we have developed a culture of laziness and it’s a culture of fault and defects in the system. Energy prices are going up with or without the carbon price, but there will be a carbon price so increasing it will just go straight to the bottom line and that culture of laziness on energy efficiency will be more and more expensive.”

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Now in its fifth year, the Innovation Series Queensland is a program of luncheon events that foster networking and collaboration while also showcasing innovation and technology success stories.

Focussing on Australian, and particularly Queensland, success stories, the Innovation Series has built a reputation as one of Australia’s premier business luncheon series.

Not only does it set out to bring people from the research sector and a wide range of industries together, it offers key-note and guest speakers who are the leaders in their fields, providing extraordinary inspiration to the audience.

“By addressing issues at the cutting edge of Queensland business, and bringing together key players from the research and industry sectors, we are able to offer an opportunity not only for networking, but also a foundation to provoke real forward thinking,” Series Leader Gill Laird-Portch said.

Ms Laird-Portch said the format of the events which involved networking before the luncheon, as well as time to chat at a table level during the meal while providing thought-provoking presentations from speakers, meant that participants could take away more than just a couple of business cards from the occasion.

She said in networking terms it was also very valuable because each attendee also took away a booklet including the names and positions of everyone else there so they could then follow up and increase their own network.

Ms Laird-Portch said the first 2008 event on Thursday 10 April, “Going Carbon Neutral – Developing Solutions for a Positive Bounce” would feature experts in the area, Hutch Ranck, Managing Director of DuPont and Ecos Corporation's Strategy Project Leader Murray Hogarth.

“By examining the importance of developing a sustainability culture to reduce your environmental footprint and lower cost, we hope to offer attendees some information of how to apply the principles of sustainability in their own businesses while also looking at the social and environmental challenges and the value at state,” Ms Laird-Portch said.

The second event will have a different focus – Forensics and Criminalistics – an area where innovation and technology are continuing to evolve at a rapid pace.

Innovation and Forensic Technologies a strong and potent force for Australia’s future