Culturing Success event speech – Parliament House: 18 March 2015
Pip Marlow, Managing Director, Microsoft Australia
Good evening everybody.
I’m Pip Marlow – Managing Director of Microsoft Australia.
It’s great to see so many people here tonight who share our passion for innovation and the future of small business in Australia.
Thank you all very much for coming.
I would like to start by acknowledging that this event is being held on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal people, and I pay my respect to elders both past and present.
I am also delighted to acknowledge the Honourable Bruce Billson MP, the Minister for Small Business who is with us tonight as well as all the members of Parliament.
The video we’ve all just seen gives me tremendous confidence about Australia’s future.
The energy coming from those small and medium sized businesses is remarkable and truly inspiring.
Take Julie and Sali from Stylerunner – who I’ve had the pleasure of spending time with over the last couple of months.
In less than 3 years, these twin sisters have created a multi-million dollar business, selling fashionable sportswear around the world.
Stylerunner now has an annual growth rate of 500 per cent!
I just love the way they are true visible leaders.
They encourage their staff to share ideas and think like entrepreneurs.
They don’t get upset if things fail. In fact, they tell them to keep pushing boundaries until things do fail to see where they can maximise opportunities.
They don’t get upset if things fail. In fact, they tell them to keep pushing boundaries until things do fail to see where they can maximise opportunities.
Then there’s Martin and Melissa. They’ve run their Bondi Chai Latte business from their home on the north coast of NSW for nearly a decade.
The couple have gone from selling an initial 17kgs of chai in their first month to 70 tonnes of Chai powder a year around Australia and the world.
Martin and Melissa have crisscrossed the country, handing out hundreds of thousands of chai samples at food shows and cafes over the years – collaborating with partners and understanding their customers intimately.
And then there’s the ingenious body measurement scanner developed by Dipra Ray and his team at mPORT, who I am thrilled to have here with us at Parliament House tonight.
What I love about mPORT is Dipra’s passion for innovation and his approach to ensure all his team has the time to experiment and develop new ideas regardless of the risks.
And as a result, his mPOD body scanners are finally being placed in 38 Westfield shopping centres across the country.
The scanners have the potential to revolutionise the way people get measured up so they can buy clothes that fit just right – I can’t wait for that!
What do all these business owners have in common? – They have an unquenchable thirst for innovation and improvement.
They don’t just talk about being innovative – they live and breathe it day and night – pushing boundaries, taking risks, learning from mistakes and maximising new technologies.
They don’t just talk about being innovative – they live and breathe it day and night – pushing boundaries, taking risks, learning from mistakes and maximising new technologies.
They couldn’t be better role models – because they demonstrate the best cultural traits common to businesses that are successful, due to innovation.
Since Microsoft began in 1975, we have always focused on finding new ways to help people and businesses realise their potential, like those we’ve seen in the video.
We also believe in making a valued contribution on matters that affect the whole of society.
That’s why 12 months ago, we launched the Joined-Up Innovation project to start a conversation around
Australia’s future and the role of innovation – with a particular focus on small and medium sized businesses.
One of the project’s key findings was that we needed to drive better connections between all the parts of our innovation ecosystem – including Government, business and academia – to increase productivity.
And the topic of culture also came up time and time again … But people would often talk about Australians being fearful of failure as if it was a national, macro issue.
Our belief has always been that cultures are built person by person and organisation by organisation.
Our belief has always been that cultures are built person by person and organisation by organisation.
That’s why we embarked on a new study to determine the linkage between workplace culture and innovation outcomes for small businesses.
We also wanted to provide some practical solutions to help businesses break through the barriers.
We engaged a world-leading corporate anthropologist – Michael Henderson – to unpack the behavioural blockers that were holding so many SMEs back.
And to complement this, we commissioned AMR – one of Australia’s leading research agencies to survey more than 500 SMEs.
The result of all this is the Culturing Success report, which I am pleased to officially launch tonight.
Of real concern, the report found that nearly 7 out of 10 small and medium-sized businesses are failing to reach their full growth potential – because their workplace culture is making it impossible for innovative ideas to flourish.
Given than they are the lifeblood of the Australian economy, creating 7 in every 10 private sector jobs and more than half of private sector value, it’s a scary outlook.
But the more positive news is that cultural change is possible, especially when businesses have access to support, but are still masters of their own destiny.
The Culturing Success report has been designed with this in mind.
More than just a research paper, it contains tips and guidance for businesses on how to become more innovative.
The advice is based on six identified cultural traits of successful businesses – like the ones showcased in the video.
And to take the report a step further, Microsoft is also launching a new online self-assessment tool today for Australian small businesses.
In a first for Australia, the tool will help businesses identify their culture-related obstacles and then implement tangible solutions to become innovation leaders.
In a first for Australia, the tool will help businesses identify their culture-related obstacles and then implement tangible solutions to become innovation leaders.
Given our venue here tonight and our audience, one of the things I have been asked most often in relation to this project – is what is the role of Government in driving innovation?
That is an interesting question and one many of you might be pondering yourselves.
There may be no absolute answer to this, but a really interesting case study is the city of Boston in the United States.
Boston is an international innovation capital – a city where top-tier talent clusters together to drive business growth.
In 2012, it was named the most innovative city in the world.
This amazing achievement didn’t happen overnight.
It’s the result of a 20 year vision to address the city’s workplace culture and infrastructure around innovation.
This transformation has been backed by out-of-the-square thinking by the city’s leaders and careful planning which has led to measurable economic growth.
There’s much for us to learn from Boston’s unique journey.
And that’s why I am delighted to announce tonight that Microsoft will be taking a special delegation to Boston to see what’s happening there first hand.
We hope that Minister, (direct to Minister Billson), you will be able to join us in July to take a closer look at the policy settings and initiatives there that could be implemented here in Australia.
It’s an initiative we are really excited about – because we do believe Australian cities and their SMEs have the same potential to become world innovation leaders.
Thank you again for being part of our Joined- Up Innovation vision.
