Irena Yashin-Shaw

Adaptability & flexibility turns expertise into entrepreneurialism

Dr Irena Yashin-Shaw PHD — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:56:59 +0000

I am currently immersing myself in the topic of how to improve competitiveness and profitability in manufacturing organisations through innovation in preparation for the Enterprise Connect funded WIIN workshops entitled “Innovating to Compete in a Global Economy”. Manufacturing systems need to be flexible (FMS) to allow reconfiguration to meet rapidly evolving market demands. This is what smart, successful and innovative manufacturing SMEs are doing to succeed in a very competitive global marketplace despite difficult external factors. Similarly there is another complex system that needs to be flexible, responsive and easily adaptable. I refer to the system inside our heads, the one that ‘manufactures’ our ideas.

Being highly skilled has always been desirable – and still is – but today it is also important to be adaptable. Being highly skilled implies knowing how to do something very well and being able to do it efficiently and effectively. The down side of that is that people can become so good at operating in a particular skill area that they then can’t adapt that knowledge to apply it to different kinds of problems. That kind of system becomes obsolete very quickly. The best way to guard against that is to continually tackle challenges that require creativity rather than just competence to solve. Constantly looking for new ways to synthesise knowledge and skills turns a knowledge expert into a knowledge entrepreneur.

Adaptability is the key to sustainability – whether that applies to a system manufacturing a product or to manufacturing ideas. We need to be knowledge entrepreneurs as well as a business entrepreneurs.

Toyota – resting on its innovation laurels?

Dr Irena Yashin-Shaw PHD — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:45:38 +0000

It is good to see that Senator Carr describes the financial assistance given to struggling Toyota as a “co-investment” rather than a handout or bailout. However my question is ‘What are they doing to protect that ‘investment’? What steps is the company taking to ensure that this tax-payer funded assistance is being put to good use for a long term solution. If we have simply bought 350 jobs, that is a great short term solution (especially for the 350 people whose jobs were saved) but it is not a sustainable option because inevitably the company will need another injection again down the track.

Supporting their R and D is only part of the solution. What evidence is there that Toyota is focussing on innovating their business model to become self reliant and viable long term. Simply waiting till the Australian dollar looses strength is not a strategic and intelligent response to their challenges.
The pressure is on for all organisations, large and small alike, from start-ups to fortune 500s, to find innovative ways of doing business, staying competitive and creating opportunities. Only adaptable entities will survive. What worked yesterday won’t necessarily work tomorrow. Similarly the markets that were there yesterday won’t necessarily be there tomorrow. And a great track record in the past isn’t a guarantee of future success. That’s the world we live in.

Accusing Toyota of a lack of innovation is certainly killing the proverbial sacred cow. After all it is part of their core branding – a quality on which they pride themselves. But fact is, they are in trouble. Sure there are a number of beyond- their-control factors like the high Aussie dollar but to quote Graeme Spurling, former head of Mitsubishi Australia, “Some radical thinking is needed”. Perhaps Toyota should apply some of that famous design innovation to their business model.

The Elegance of Simplicity

Dr Irena Yashin-Shaw PHD — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:54:12 +0000

Yesterday I went to the Matisse exhibition at GOMA here in Brisbane featuring his drawings rather than his paintings. It was intresting to observe the progression of his style from his early academic, complex, realistic work to the fluid, flowing simple lines of his later drawings.

It is an interesting paradox that the more expert he became – the simpler became his forms. But that simplicity was infinitely more creative and compelling. That is one of the characteristics of expert creativity – the expression of elegant principles that encapsulate so much with so little. (Think E=MC2).

It was a great reminder to me to keep this principle in mind with my own endeavours. Look for the simple rather than the complex solution.

It was the best of times it was the worst of times

Dr Irena Yashin-Shaw PHD — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:13:51 +0000

Charles Dickens’ famous opening phrase to a Tale of Two Cities could be describing our present age.
We are living in one of the most exciting times in history where ideas are the new currency and technology has changed the way we create, communicate and educate. It is an exhilarating time of discovery and experimentation as we embrace new technologies. Yet at the same time this age has exposed problems that are so complex (think climate change, depleting non renewable resources) that it is going to take all our human ingenuity to address them effectively so that we can leave a worthy legacy to our children and grandchildren. What do you think is the best and the worst of our current age?