Deloitte launches Centre for the Edge in Australia – strengthening its commitment to innovationDOWNLOAD |
21 June 2012: Professional Services firm Deloitte is strengthening its commitment to innovation by launching the Australian chapter of the Centre for the Edge - Deloitte’s global applied research and thought leadership development group.
Peter Williams, who formerly led Deloitte Digital, will step up to a new role as Chief Edge Officer, to build the Australian chapter of the Centre for the Edge, which will run in parallel with the Silicon Valley-based Centre in the USA.
The business of the Centre for the Edge is to help senior leaders interpret and profit from emerging opportunities that are at the edge of business and technology. “We look below the surface of current events, beyond the latest headlines and competitive moves, to find the outlines of a new business landscape,” said Williams.
“As performance pressures continue to mount, we can help executives see the longer term opportunities available and what needs to be done today to change course. “Our mission is to identify and explore these emerging opportunities. It is all about improving our clients’ profitability as their chartered courses are being challenged,” said Williams.
The focus for The Centre for the Edge in Australia will involve a combination of Australian-led research topics of unique interest to Australia and Asia Pacific, as well as co-releasing research outputs on topics of universal significance from the US Centre for the Edge.
Adam Powick, Leader of Deloitte Consulting in Australia, explained that Deloitte is investing in the Centre for the Edge to help clients be at the vanguard of understanding the implications of major emerging business and technological changes.
“The Centre for the Edge will focus on identifying key emerging business and technology trends and help clients understand how they should be thinking about tangibly responding to these trends.”
The first publication to be co-marketed by the Australian Centre for the Edge is Scaling Edges: A Pragmatic Pathway to broad internal change. It explores how successful organisations identify opportunities that force them to change and adapt.
The report demonstrates that organisations need to innovate at an institutional level not just at a product and service level; they need to rethink the primary objective of why they are in business which may require a change in management mindset.
The report provides a framework for executives wishing to embark on this difficult, but necessary transformation and introduces three prongs in a pathways framework:
- By focusing on edges, rather than the core of a company, change agents can better identify projects which align with ‘Big Shift’ forces, and are most likely to achieve significant and sustainable returns
- By leveraging external resources rather than internal support, these edges can circumvent the scrutiny and organisational resistance that change initiatives typically meet.
- Accelerating learning, rather than short-term outcomes, can create conduits of transformation that, help the company achieve institutional innovation and build into the opportunities of tomorrow.
“Although market opportunities are always around, it is the way business leaders and executives tap into new ‘edge’ markets which will set them apart,” said Williams.
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Deloitte launches Centre for the Edge in Australia – strengthening its commitment to innovation
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Contacts
- Name:
- Jane Kneebone
- Company:
- Deloitte Australia
- Job Title:
- Corporate Affairs & Communications
- Phone:
- Tel: +61 3 9671 7389, Mobile: +61 4 1614 8845
- jakneebone@deloitte.com.au
- Name:
- Peter Williams
- Company:
- Deloitte Australia
- Job Title:
- Chief Edge Officer – Centre for the Edge Australia
- Phone:
- Tel: +61 3 9671 7629
- pewilliams@deloitte.com.au