Policy and Strategy for the Innovation Economy

Dates for 2009 will be available soon.

To express interest in attending this course in the future, click here.

Innovation is at the forefront of the debate on lifting and sustaining Australia's productivity and economic performance. This short course is designed for public sector executives with an interest in the dynamics of the innovation economy and in assessing the appropriate roles that government can play in acting as a catalyst in the process. Government's primary contribution to stimulating innovation is to tune the policy settings to facilitate and remove regulatory and other barriers that inhibit private sector action.

The program will cover key elements of the innovation 'system' including human capital [skills and capabilities], knowledge [development and transfer], organisation [including networks] and finance [capital allocation, risk management and tax]. Australian and international experience will be compared. An emphasis will be placed on policy development to make innovation happen.

The program combines presentations on core concepts and peer-to-peer learning through discussion of industry case studies on innovation. The program's length is designed to enable participants to explore the subject in some depth and link the conceptual tools to their own innovation tasks.

Who should attend?
This course is aimed at public sector policy makers and managers who need to understand and contribute to the role of government in stimulating the innovation economy in Australia.

Course Leader Professor Jonathan West

Professor West is the Director of Australian Innovation Research Centre which was founded in 2006. Educated at the University of Sydney, he has recently returned to Australia after eighteen years at Harvard University, where he taught technology and operations strategy to a generation of MBA students. He was founder of the Harvard Life Science Initiative, a cross-university program to understand the industrial dynamics of the genomics and proteomics revolutions. Professor West has served as advisor to the leadership of several global corporations, including some of the world' most renowned names in medical research, biotechnology, semiconductor production and agribusiness. His research interests include science-based technologies, agricultural and pharmaceutical biotechnologies, innovation and corporate governance, innovation and risk management, and innovation policies. He has provided advice to the governments of Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand and France on programs to promote technology innovation.

Other presenters include:

Tom Bentley, ANZSOG Director of Applied Learning
Peter Thompson, Director, Centre for Leadership