IA02 PMSEIC Report.indd - Department of Innovation, Industry ...

“FOR MANY YEARS WE CONCENTRATED ON THE ECONOMIC SIDE.
B UT IF YOU WANT THE ECONOMIC SIDE TO FLOURISH, YOU NEED MORE ENTREPRENEURS,
YOU NEED MORE CREATIVITY. THE TWO MUST GO TOGETHER”
Prime Minister of Singapore, Goh Chock Tong, 2002
I NTRODUCTION –
A CULTURE OF CREATIVITY
What the arts, social sciences and humanities call
creativity, science and technology calls invention
or discovery.
Creativity, like inventiveness, is a fundamental
curiosity. It’s our imaginative capacity to generate new
ideas, images and ways of thinking; new patterns of
behaviour; new combinations of action. It is an innate
and universal human trait. Every sphere of human
thought and activity can be creative, though some
people are by education, training or natural attribute
more creative than others.
Like scientific invention and discovery, creativity
only becomes economic innovation when it is applied
systematically within business to generate new
products, services or processes for the purpose of
commercial benefit.
We are in a highly competitive environment with many
countries endeavouring to enhance their economic
performance by improving their innovation systems.
Australia’s ability to sustain and improve economic
performance and well-being will significantly depend
on improving our innovation and creativity.
For decades we have worked to build new skills and
technologies that would drive commercialisation, and
we’ve made many gains in that direction. But already the
goalposts have shifted and they will continue to do so.
These days, globalisation means that many of the skills
and services at the heart of business competitiveness
are being outsourced to regions with low costs and
large pools of technical expertise. To be competitive we
need to find smarter ways of conducting business and
of building knowledge for business. We have to move
from our current position of relying on ‘commodity’
knowledge production to a point where we are
constantly innovating on the basis of creative ideas.
If we are to compete and excel in the global
economy of the future we must move now to build
a more innovative economy that recognises the key
importance of creativity and design.
China has fast become the world’s manufacturing
workshop (McKinsey 2005). Further, China recognises
that it needs strategic design to future-proof its
mammoth manufacturing sector.
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