By Sheryle Moon, CEO Australian Information Industry Association

For the first time in a long time we're worried. You can see it on people's faces as they read of the malaise in the global economy, or in the way they fidgit at any mention of interest rates.

And the reason we're concerned is for a long time we've been taking our economic situation for granted. In a strong global economy we have allowed our trade deficit to get seriously out of balance, especially in areas where we should be doing well, like the service sector.

At the moment we import more knowledge than we export, and this is a problem we'll need to face if we want to get some control over our destiny.

To gain this control we need to cast off our sheepish tendency to false modesty, and begin to innovate.

And don't come back at me with the invention of the stump-jump plough, or the black box, or the hills hoist. I'm not talking about invention, I'm talking about innovation; the capacity to do things differently, to refuse to accept the status quo, to look for ways to make thing run more smoothly or more efficiently.

Innovation is the capacity to think outside the box and try out new ideas.

Innovation is about inventing new ways of doing things, not just by coming up with a new product or service, but also by looking for ways to streamline a process. It's about problem solving, often when there doesn't appear to be any problem in the first place. 

Whether it's cultural, economic or historical we simply aren't good at innovation.

According to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, only 34 percent of Australian companies say they innovate, which is pretty poor given innovation is at the root of all economic development.

Part of the challenge is that we don't actually think of ourselves as innovative, and we don't look for collaborative ways to solve problems. We don't look for opportunities to learn from other's experience, or to take a successful new technique from one sector of the economy and trial it in another. We don't get excited about doing things in new and different ways, we don't look for novel solutions to old problems, we just keep living with the problem.

To become innovative we need to start by investing more in our knowledge sector, and work on better ways of sharing information. Invest more in higher education, research and development and systems which encourage more innovative thinking. Open up the lines of communication between the universities, government and the corporate sector.

But most of all we need to begin to recognise that we are in fact able to innovate and begin to value innovation at a cultural level.

But there is cause for hope. When the Australian team returned from the 1976 Montreal Olympics with one silver and four bronze medals, we managed to turn our disappointment in to positive action.

Five years later, then Prime Mininster Malcolm Fraser opened the Australian Institute of Sport on a 65 hectare site in Canberra. It was to become an intensive training ground for athletes in a range of disciplines, and went on to become a centre of sporting excellence now copied throughout the world.

The formation of the AIS was an innovative response to what we saw as an untenable situation of failure in the sporting arena.

If only we were to look at our economic track record with the same critical eye, and call for innovation in the way we fish and farm, learn and teach, manufacture and create. If only we were to be as proud of our innovation as we were of our sporting achievements, imagine where we would be on the world stage.

Just think for a moment.... the possibilities are endless.

1999 Australian Business Woman of the Year, Sheryle Moon brings to bare more that 25 years of experience in senior leadership positions in companies such as Computer Sciences Corporation, and Manpower Services Australia. She recently stepped down from the position of CEO of the Australian Information Industry Association to take up the role of Australia and New Zealand Director for recruitment company Ross and Julia Ross.

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DISCUSSION THREADS ON INNOVATION:

• Innovation in Australia [0] forum
• National Policy for Innovation [0] forum
• Peter Roberts' Innovation Blog [0]