ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY
IF COLLABORATION IS THE
KEY TO DIGITAL INNOVATION,
HOW CAN COLLABORATION
BE MANUFACTURED?
BY PAUL JOHNSON
As part of Economic Development Australia’s
(EDA) Overseas Study Tour Program, Paul
Johnson, Manager Business Development at
Wellington Shire Council in Victoria, travelled to
New Zealand and the United States in November
2018. Paul would like to thank EDA and
Wellington Shire Council for the opportunity to
participate, learn and share this research. AUCKLAND COUNCIL
There is an old adage “Success has many parents,
but failure is an orphan”. This highlights two things: Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic
Development reports that over the last 10 years,
the digital innovation sector has witnessed 25%
growth. ICT and Digital Media accounts for 3.2%
employment in Auckland or 1 in 30 jobs. Half (48%)
of New Zealand’s ICT companies are based in
Auckland, employing 37,000 people. GridAKL’s
role is to assist high-impact, growth-orientated,
technology-focused businesses and entrepreneurs
to develop and commercialise their innovations.
1. No one wants to be associated with failure!
2. Sitting behind a successful outcome is a team
of people have worked together to make it
happen. It is extremely rare to cite a major
achievement in the field of medicine, sport,
space travel or any other pursuit and pinpoint
success solely to one individual.
During my study tour to New Zealand and the USA
in late 2018, I visited the Computer History Museum
in Mountain View, California, a short distance from
Googleplex and the Facebook’s headquarters. The
Museum tracks the history of computing and its
ongoing impact on society. The Museum clearly
illustrates that collaboration is key to innovation:
•
•
•
Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and the team at Apple
Paul Allen and Bill Gates at Microsoft
Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew
McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes
at Facebook.
Whilst an individual innovator may have had a
ground-breaking idea, collaboration was the key
to unlocking the idea’s possibilities and ultimately
driving its economic potential.
So, if collaboration is critical to success, what is
being done in New Zealand and the United States
to foster collaboration to achieve digital innovation?
Below are a few examples from my EDA Study Tour
Scholarship which provide some insights.
Auckland Council and Auckland Tourism, Events
and Economic Development have established
GridAKL located at the heart of Auckland’s
waterfront in the Wynard Quarter Innovation
Precinct. The Precinct is home to global innovators
including AirNZ, IBM, Microsoft, Fonterra and Spark.
GridAKL offers modern collaborative spaces for
start-ups, SMEs and corporates across three
flagship buildings which aim to connect people,
places and resources to help businesses become
stronger, more successful and more innovative.
People can connect via:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
regular events featuring local and global
keynote speakers,
seminars focussed on technology and
innovation,
interactions in modern, open-plan co-working
spaces for start-ups and early stage SMEs,
free desk space within the Tech Café,
mentoring programmes and investment networks,
‘Slack’, an online communication service
accessible only to GridAKL users/tenants,
community notice boards which profile who is in
the space.
Whilst GridAKL’s is Auckland Council’s flagship
innovation project, in October 2018 Council opened
Ngahere Communities in Manukau, approximately
25 kilometres south of the Auckland’s CBD.
Manukau is the capital of south Auckland.
VOL.12 NO.1 2019 | 17