Bay of Plenty Business News July/August 2018

The Groundswell effect
From page 1
Groundswell, said that companies
had to be across new technologies
and work out whether
they were going to be valuable
to them.
“One of the big quandaries
we have in our world is how do
you tell if something is a trend
or a fad,” she said.
“The fundamental reality
is that people do not change
their behaviour and adopt new
technology unless there is
something better about it for
them. For the vast majority of
people, there has to be a reason
why you are going to use it.”
As Isuru Fernando, IBM
New Zealand analytics & AI
leader, told Bay of Plenty
Business News: “Disruption is
all around us – with examples
like Uber and Airbnb – companies
that have reinvented business
models.”
Liz Maguire
One of the big
quandaries we have
in our world is how do
you tell if something is
a trend or a fad.
– Liz Maguire, ANZ
The challenge that
people - particularly
in smaller businesses
or non-commercial
organisations - face
at the moment is how
to make the right
choices.
– Russell Craig,
Microsoft NZ
Disruptive technologies such
as Artificial Intelligence (AI),
Internet of Things (IoT), or
Blockchain were no longer the
sole domain of large companies
with big budgets, he added.
“We are seeing many
small-to-medium organisations
right here in New
Zealand making use of these
technologies to power their
ideas. They are able to start
small, experiment and then
build out the ideas that work,
quickly and easily.”
Fernando said IBM NZ
was partnering with great local
organisations and startups that
were exporting their products
and services all over the world.
“And what is also interesting
is that the large incumbent
organisations in New Zealand
are thinking like startups,”
he said.
“They are structuring their
innovation teams to resemble
those of small organisations
and making a comeback by
building platform business
models using all of the data
available to them, and turning
it into insight. And they’re
adopting Agile methodologies,
using it as an innovation
engine for business transformation
and employing new
ways of working to foster
speed-to-market and competitive
advantage.”
Russell Craig, Microsoft
NZ’s national technology
officer, said that globally there
was an incredible phenomenon
of acceleration in the tech
sector.
“It’s very hard for everyone
to keep up,” said Craig.
“The challenge that people
- particularly in smaller
businesses - or non-commercial
organisations, face at the
moment is how to make the
right choices.
“The first challenge is trying
to wrap your head as an
organisation around what’s
actually happening in this
area of digital transformation,
because in many ways it’s
quite an abstract concept.
“At the same time, most
people are alert to some of the
more obvious sweeping changes
that are taking place. Look
at the retail shelf space and
the phenomenon of Amazon
there.”
Retailers were already facing
the challenge with online
shopping, and the media had
been dealing with it, he said.
“That’s going to extend
to all our businesses in New
Zealand eventually, no matter
what industry they are in.”
First find the relevance
Craig said technology came
second in terms of making the
right choices.
BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS July/August 2018 3
“First you need to understand
how technology could
be relevant to your business
to help you change for the
future,” he said.
“It’s important to try and
make things real at the local
level. For example, with
Airbnb, local businesses need
to ask themselves what it is
that consumers like about it.
It’s the flexibility and convenience.
If you’re a local motelier,
how can you use digital to
somehow match that customer
experience of finding somewhere
to stay? That’s all it’s
really about.”
Craig said one of the
things he’d be talking about
at Groundswell was trying to
frame up the idea of digital
transformation.
“What does it mean from
a global perspective? What’s
happening in the technology
sector, with particular relevance
on the impact of technologies
such as AI, machine learning,
big data and analytics?
“And obviously cloud
computing, the technology
platform that can enable any
business from a local plumber
We are seeing many
small-to-medium
organisations right
here in New Zealand
making use of these
[disruptive new]
technologies to power
their ideas.
– Isuru Fernando,
IBM NZ
The more we can
create a community
and awareness
of things that are
happening, the better
it will be for our
community.
– Jodie Tipping,
Cucumber
Jodie Tipping
through to Microsoft’s justannounced
strategic deal with
Walmart. Why did they partner
with us? Because they need to
compete against Amazon.”
ANZ’s Liz Maguire said
everybody was looking at how
to handle the impact of digital
transformation. She noted that
the scale of change could be
easily seen in the banking sector,
with less than two percent
of payments now happening in
a bank branch these days.
“There are amazing pockets
of innovation in the country,”
she said.
“But my sense of it is that
there’s a worrying amount of
companies that haven’t done
as much as they should have.
I think there’s much more that
could be done.”
Maguire said there was a
need to address the practical
issues.
“There’s lots of theory,
there are lots of academic
models. But the thing for
many companies is, ‘where do
I start? How do I get my board
across this? How do I really
understand whether what I’m
doing is good for our customers?
I’ve got 101 things to do,
so how do I really know which
ones are important’.”
Cucumber’s Jodie Tipping
said that in both larger and
smaller business there were
people who are scared of technology.
“They don’t really know
what to do and what not to do,
and I don’t think it’s just in the
small business space,” she said.
“We advocate ‘little and
often’ - don’t be scared to try
things. We work with organisations
to understand what their
customers are doing, to make
sure they’re applying the right
technology for the business
they’re in.
“Groundswell is an opportunity
for the community to
actually create what they want
Tauranga and the region to be,
rather than waiting for things
to happen. I really hope it
gains momentum.”
Priority One’s Nigel Tutt
said the organisers were excited
about the breadth and depth
that had emerged for this
year’s event.
“The Tauranga Art Gallery
and Toi Ohomai School
of Creative Industries will
be alongside the likes of
PowerSmart, Cucumber and
Google’s leading education
expert,” he said.
“Bringing people together
to create unexpected connections
and have meaningful
conversations is a big part of
the festival - it’s how ideas like
Groundswell came about and
who knows what will come out
of this year’s festival?”