By Dr Marcele De Sanctis
Oppeus International Managing Director, Nicholas Varigos and Principal Consultant, Marcele De Sanctis represented our firm at the 2014 Australian Institute of Company Directors Conference, held in Hamilton Island in May 2014.
Titled ‘Igniting the Growth Agenda’, the conference was the perfect forum to explore global thinking on entrepreneurship, innovation and Australia’s position in the global economy. In this blog post, we are delighted to share our highlights from the Company Directors conference and key ‘take home messages’ that we are continuing to discuss some three weeks on.
We particularly enjoyed the first presentation by Nader Mousavizadeh, Co-Founder and Partner of Macro Advisory Partners, who explored the notion of a political economy, with China being a prime example of that. Proposing that we cannot think about politics without economics and vice versa, he presented the highly appealing notion of the current global market being a divergent, archipelago more so than the united, convergent system we often perceive in a highly globalised world. Citing the movements of Russia and China as two powerhouses that are working to create their own markets in technology, internet, energy, banking processes and systems so as not to risk being exposed to sanctions imposed by the West, Nader proposed perhaps trade agreements may be negotiated regionally. Particularly intuitive were his comments around leaders needing to demonstrate legitimacy (i.e. people in power earning the right to be there) and accountability (i.e. when people in power fail, they can be held accountable), in how they occupy their leadership position.
Later, the session by Dr Robert Morris, Vice President of Service Research, from IBM, explored disruptive technologies citing IBM’s Watson creation being at the forefront of thinking in artificial intelligence. A few weeks later, we are still thinking about the power of data and his statement that ‘data has the power to suggest things you never thought to ask’. Greg Ellis, immediate past CEO and Managing Director of REA Group, then discussed the importance of innovation and posed a very logical argument that one cannot transplant innovation ‘because it leads to organ rejection.’ Instead innovation must be treated as a system with a culture created around it. Greg’s comments made the Oppeus International audience reflect on innovation and the concept of Paddy Miller’s stealth innovator, as explored in our first Boardroom Luncheon in November 2013.
On Day 2, we were particularly enamoured with Dr Robert Kay, Executive Director and Co-founder of Incept Labs, who proposed the two ways in which organisations can make decisions. We discussed the notion of ‘Explorers’ as people within an organisation who drive innovation, are the think tanks and explore unchartered territory in driving an organisation forward, versus ‘Exploiters’ who focus on driving organisational growth by exploiting markets in which the organisation currently plays. His description of ‘explore and exploit’ behaviours was highly intuitive and as always, achieving a balance, is optimal for organisation growth and success.
The panel of Peter Yates, Elizabeth Proust and Yasmin Allen, then led an interactive session with the audience and of particular relevance to Oppeus, the discussion evolved to explore the ways in which to build a Non-Executive Director career. Advice was provided by the panel suggesting that if someone is aspiring to sit on a ASX-listed Board, it may be advantageous to continue achieving success through the management structure of an organisation as opposed to commencing one’s Non-Executive Director career on smaller Boards.
On the final day, the morning commenced with the highly interactive forum sessions – we attended the session chaired by Non-Executive Director Jane Harvey, Juliet Bourke, Partner Human Capital, Deloitte, and John Morgan, Partner at Allens, exploring the topic of Board Culture & Dynamics, which was incredibly fascinating and thought provoking, particularly when explored from the perspective of team dynamics. We discussed the types of skills, experience and leadership qualities that will be required on a Board in the future compared to today with the audience all agreeing that regular Board reviews are a valuable way to assess Board Dynamics and foster positive Board culture.
Overall, the conference was thoroughly enjoyable as we made new connections, participated in lively discussion and had the opportunity to hear world leaders speak exceptionally well in their respective fields.
We look forward to continuing our relationship with the Australian Institute of Company Directors and attending next year!