Three innovative Brisbane businesses highlighted the region's unique capabilities and growth prospects when the Brisbane Innovation Scorecard was presented by Lord Mayor Campbell Newman at Customs House last week.

Councillor Newman presented Aluminium Boats general manager Stuart Pascoe for the firm's product innovation, Teys Brothers chief executive officer Brad Teys for his firm's product innovation, and GHD principal process engineer and manager Kostas Athanasiadis for his company's innovation in service.

"These individual award winners are perfect examples of Brisbane entrepreneurs who have personally embraced and adopted innovation throughout their business practices," Cr Newman said. The winners were judged by Deloitte, Queensland Government, Brisbane City Council, UQ Business School and Brisbane Marketing.
The Brisbane Innovation Scorecard is an initiative of Brisbane Marketing in collaboration with Deloitte, University of Queensland Business School, Brisbane City Council and the Queensland Government. It was presented at the Lord Mayor's Leaders of Innovation lunch.

Cr Newman said a key finding in the inaugural Brisbane Innovation Scorecard was that an increasing number of globally competitive Brisbane companies take an "open approach" to innovation, inspired by external sources.

Based on a survey of 100 Brisbane businesses, the Scorecard is a formal measurement and benchmarking tool of the city's commercial innovation capabilities. Cr Newman said the purpose of the Scorecard is to measure, showcase and promote the unique commercial innovation occurring in Brisbane and to use its findings and case studies to credibly position Brisbane as Australia's new world city.

Cr Newman said the Brisbane Innovation Scorecard had reinforced Brisbane's high commitment to innovation and provided additional insights into the strategies used by the city's business community.

"The scorecard has delivered some really useful data that can be used to better understand the behaviour and attitudes towards innovation in the future," he said.

"We now have a credible measurement tool to showcase Brisbane as an entrepreneurial and progressive city that is open to new world thinking."

"The Scorecard findings have shown that Brisbane's unique global competitive advantage lies within its open and collaborative business environment, coupled with the city's lifestyle and emphasise on infrastructure. These qualities have in turn fuelled the attraction of talent from around the world and cultivated commercial innovation in Brisbane's marketplace.

"I encourage all Brisbane businesses to obtain a free copy of the Brisbane Innovation Scorecard at http://www.enablebrisbane.com.au/ and use it as a guide for transforming their business," Cr Newman said.

Brisbane Marketing CEO John Aitken said innovation was critical for Brisbane to maximise its economic development, growth and prosperity.

"The Brisbane Innovation Scorecard will provide solid evidence of Brisbane's ability to innovate and challenge companies, businesses and individuals to keep pursuing world-class knowledge and innovation," Mr Aitken said.

"It will be a key promotional tool in marketing Brisbane as a city of innovation that is globally focused and continues to attract leading national and international companies to locate and innovate."

Tim Biggs, Brisbane managing partner for Deloitte said, "Almost one third of Brisbane's businesses that responded to the Innovation Scorecard use innovation in their products, services, processes, systems and distribution channels. This is impressive.

"The more ways businesses in Brisbane can be innovative, the more likely it is that we will carve out an unassailable niche as a shaper of innovation for the nation," Mr Biggs said.

"The Brisbane Innovation Scorecard 2010 establishes a benchmark for all of us to become better learning organisations, putting more investment into knowledge; to grow the virtuous cycle of innovation with customers and suppliers; and to strengthen our policies to foster growth and new markets."

Academic Dean and head of school, Iain Watson said UQ Business School's commitment to entrepreneurship and innovation was demonstrated by its role in the research.

"Another example is our Enterprize Competition which showcases outstanding start-up companies and awards a $100,000 in funding to the winning entry," Professor Watson said.

"We received a record number of entries this year, from all over Australia. The contribution these businesses make to the economy is considerable."

Queensland Treasurer and Minister for Employment and Economic Development Andrew Fraser welcomed the release of the Brisbane Innovation Scorecard.

"This is good news for Queensland," Mr Fraser said. "The scorecard clearly demonstrates that Queensland businesses are becoming increasingly innovative and that Brisbane is a growing hub of innovation, well positioned to tap into markets in South East and North Asia, India, and South America."

Mr Fraser said the Queensland Government recognised that innovation was fundamental to strengthening the resilience of the state's economy and assuring future prosperity in an increasingly competitive, global business environment.

"Innovation is one of the key tenets of our Q2: Towards Tomorrow's Queensland vision with its goal of developing Queensland into an innovative, knowledge economy by increasing by 50 percent the proportion of Queensland businesses that undertake innovation or research and development by 2020," he said.

"The scorecard clearly shows that the development and adoption of new products, services, business and production processes, practices and models leads to greater productivity, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, competitiveness and profitability."

http://www.enablebrisbane.com.au/

Key findings from the Brisbane Innovation Scorecard:

Many Brisbane businesses display ‘open innovation', using external sources for inspiration such as customers, suppliers, governments, and universities.

‘Open' enterprises, those using external sources of innovation, were more likely to have combinations of innovations in goods, services, manufacturing processes, and logistics and distribution methods.

Companies that employ 'open innovation' were more likely to be selling into international markets and tended to have a higher dollar turnover.

There is a clear linkage between the range of innovations undertaken and the source of innovation used to improve business performance. 

Finance is currently the largest obstacle to further innovation (43 percent). 

'Open innovation' is demonstrated by borrowing ideas learnt through contact with (for example) buyers, suppliers, trade fairs and governments.

Smaller companies take more risk in bringing entirely new ideas to new markets and industries.

Smaller companies are more likely to innovate in ways that are new to their industry or their market.

About the survey:

The first of its kind in Australia at a city level, the Scorecard is a composite of international surveys used to measure business innovation. 

The survey instrument is based on the European Union's (EU) Community Innovation Survey which is the international benchmark for innovation surveys at the business-level, used by EU members since 1991.

The instrument gives a greater insight into a firm's view of innovation, from organisational and marketing innovations, through system innovation, to product and process. 

The agreed definition of innovation used in the survey is that accepted by the OECD: "A new idea that creates value". This includes the concept of new as ‘new to the world' and ‘new to industry'.

The Brisbane Innovation Scorecard is an initiative of Brisbane Marketing in collaboration with Deloitte, The University of Queensland Business School, Brisbane City Council and the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI). 

The initial objective of the Innovation Scorecard is to measure, showcase and promote the city's innovation and its effects on growth, productivity and the region's economic prosperity. 

Data was collected longitudinally in order to measure and benchmark innovation in businesses throughout Brisbane annually.

The online survey platform was delivered using Deloitte DTermine and conducted over a three week period in April and May 2010. 

Future studies will involve additional sampling methods to control any bias.

ENDS

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