Episode 62 -- Dr Munib Karavdic and Thomas Kerr from WAVE Design

@AuManufacturing Conversations

Welcome to this special episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski, one which we're running as part of our quest to identify Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers.
Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers is a new campaign by @AuManufacturing. It has been made possible by the generous support of MYOB, SMC Corporation Australia, and Bosch Australia Manufacturing Solutions. Be sure to check our website and social media channels for regular updates, including profiles of nominees and other information.
In this episode we hear from Dr Munib Karavdic and Thomas Kerr, CEO and Design Lead respectively at WAVE Design.
Karavdic and Kerr tell us about avoiding the spectacle and focussing on the reality of innovation, getting from idea to implementation, why customer case should come before business case, and much more.
Episode guide

1:30 – introduction to guests

3:58 – What WAVE Design does – “our main focus is on helping established organisations to navigate innovation and leverage human-centred design as a way of delivering outcomes for customers and clients.”

5:46 – How they understand innovation. And why it needs discipline and structure, a focus on human needs and desires, and not spectacle.

8:08 – How you put a human at the centre.

9:34 – Establishing a customer case before you establish a business case.

10:58 – Why you need to keep learning, experimenting, and even failing. “If you haven’t done anything wrong, you actually didn’t learn.”

12:10 – Knowers versus learners.

13:30 – Organisational knowledge increases, but your connection with end users might not be keeping pace.

14:32 – A story about leaps of faith versus leaps of logic and the importance of validating assumptions.

16:10 – Avoiding “nice landing, wrong airport.”

19:55 – Taking an organisation’s culture from using innovation tools to having an innovation mindset. And why it’s not as hard as it sounds.

22:45 – An example of investing time understanding the problem and why it mattered at a pharmaceutical company and the longer-term results in culture.

24:30 – A few thoughts about lifting innovation among the nation’s manufacturers, concerning scale, culture, government support and IP.

28:10 – Some closing comments about what leaders need to know about innovation.

Relevant links
WAVE Design's website
http://www.wave.design
Lessons from Australia’s most innovative manufacturers
Nominations flood in for Australia’s 50 most innovative manufacturers campaign