TECHNOLOGY
campusreview.com.au
Innovate or perish
Why innovation matters more than
ever for our higher ed sector.
By Ragavan Satkunam
A
ustralia’s higher education sector
is experiencing ‘interesting times’,
as the country’s education export
industry – valued at $37.6 billion, according
to the federal government’s most recent
figures – comes under unprecedented and
ongoing threat.
Across the country, higher education
providers are being forced to revise revenue
forecasts and adapt operating models on
the hop, as the rapidly unfolding COVID-19
pandemic continues, keeping tens of
thousands of international students from
their classes.
In doing so, they’re providing an
apposite illustration of the key insights to
emerge from the Ricoh 2020 Workplace
Innovation Index. The annual survey of
Australian business leaders, conducted by
market research firm StollzNow Research,
highlighted the fact that business agility,
technology skills and communications are
key to innovation and growth.
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In challenging times, they can also prove
key to survival, as many higher education
providers are learning first-hand. In the past
month, we’ve seen a collective striving to
keep key stakeholders (students and staff
members) in the loop and to explore ways
in which technology might be used to
augment or replace classroom learning, at
least in the short term.
Technologies that underpin enterprise-wide
innovation, in good times and bad
Digital tools and platforms can play a
vital role in facilitating and supporting
innovation. The research suggests
organisations of all stripes that invest in
these tools and platforms are likely to find it
easier to effect change, at speed.
A digitised environment can serve as
the foundation for a more innovative
corporate or organisational culture, but
in many Australian organisations, there’s
a significant gap between ambition and
action. Currently, only 60 per cent of local
organisations have a program to migrate to
a digital environment, while just 45 per cent
say they’re reorganising their processes and
procedures to incorporate best of breed
digital technology.
Analytics, workflow tools, collaboration
and security are considered the ‘money
technologies’, but how well Australian
organisations – education providers
included – are exploiting their potential is
open to question.
While two-thirds of executive leaders say
they recognise the value of collaboration,
many organisations have failed to optimise
their investment in collaboration tools by
introducing collaborative practices in an
integrated and systematic way, according to
the research.
Those self-same leaders are also less
than enthused about the short-term results
delivered by new processes and systems
which purport to be more efficient. Almost
two-thirds stated they are likely to lead
to a loss in productivity, at least in the
short term.
Keeping staff in the dark about digital
transformation is an unfortunately common
business practice – a factor that can
contribute to employees’ reluctance to
embrace new workplace technologies,
even when there’s a clear benefit in
their doing so.
How do Australian organisations stack up
against those elsewhere in the world? Local
leaders are aware that there’s work to be
done. Just one in five believe the country
is ahead of other developed nations in the
digital workspace, while more than one in
four say we’re lagging behind.
Enterprise-wide, ongoing investment in
digital infrastructure and culture is needed
to arrest the slide, introduce people to
what’s possible with digital and enable
innovation to flourish.
Such investment entails a long-term
commitment, not isolated or exclusive
activities or exercises. Ideally, it should be
made at a time when the enterprise is on
stable footing, not while it’s in damage
control mode.
The challenges of today and tomorrow
Faced with unforeseen events whose
end points and long-term repercussions
are impossible to predict, identifying
ways to respond and adapt – in short,
innovating – is a necessity for leaders across
all sectors.
This year’s COVID-19 event is not the first
crisis to strike Australia’s higher education
sector, and it’s unlikely to be the last.
Educational institutions and providers
that are prepared to pivot and adapt –
and have the technologies and digital
culture in place to support their doing
so – will be better placed to survive this
and the other vicissitudes interesting times
throw up. ■
Ragavan Satkunam is a senior portfolio
manager at Ricoh Australia.