Posts Tagged ‘innovation’

Australian big businesses increasingly working with startups

Monday, July 21st, 2014
Photo courtesy of Mike on Flickr

Photo courtesy of Mike on Flickr

Business Insider Australia says big businesses are starting to work with startups more and more because they can no longer afford to ignore the new technology and innovation that these small companies bring to the table.

Large corporations, like the big banks and telcos, are realising that the experimental and disruptive technologies startups often utilise can be used to satisfy consumer demands and take market share away from competitors.

Startup accelerators such as Pollenizer are cashing in on managing the changing relationship between startups and big business

“The whole thing is coming full circle,” Pollenizer CEO Phil Morle said, adding startups can grow from their dealings with big business and corporations can learn from the entrepreneurship of startups.

“We can’t be reactive anymore,” Morle said. “You have to almost industrialise the creation of new business without knowing what they are.”

Some of Australia’s biggest corporations including Telstra and Coca-Cola Amatil are working with startups because the risk of ignoring the technology and innovative ideas the small companies produce is too high.

Telstra boss David Thodey recently said if startups aren’t supported Australia will lose talent and good ideas and the telco has backed up Thodey’s words by launching its own tech startup accelerator Muru Digital to harness and develop a group of the country’s startups.

To read more about this story, click here.

Innovation important for Australian small businesses

Tuesday, August 6th, 2013

Technology Spectator columnist Tim Reed has called for more innovation from Australian small businesses.

Reed said the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) report on ‘Innovation in Australian Business’ found the proportion of innovation to active small to medium businesses (SMEs) increased by 13% in the year ending 30 June 2012 across four areas of innovation: good or services, operational processes, organisational/managerial processes, and marketing methods.

As small business represents 96% of businesses in Australia, Reed said, what happens in this sector has the potential to drive improvement in the domestic economy.

One way for small businesses to adopt innovation is through the use of online technologies, he said. Most consumers are now searching online first when shopping for a new product or service and yet 2/3 of SMEs don’t have a website, meaning a significant proportion of businesses are missing out on sales and marketing opportunities simply by not having an online presence.

To read more on this story, click here.

Obama hands out innovation awards

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

SMH reports today that President Obama presented the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, and the National Medal of Science to leading US scientists and inventors, in a White House ceremony.  These awards are said to be the highest honour to be given by the US government.

One of the award winners was Stephan Sasson who was the first builder of the digital camera prototype in 1975. These cameras “revolutionized photography, as all these folks back here can testify,” Obama said to the press.

Awards also went to Federico Faggin, Marcian Hoff and Stanley Mazor, who designed in 1971 the Intel 4004, the California firm’s first commercial microprocessor, and Stanley Prusiner, the man who discovered prions, misfolded proteins that can cause mad-cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.