Think Consulting Group director and former Supre international brand manager Catherine Taouk recently penned an explosive blog on how Australian brands are losing their way. In this series, she names her innovators.
Innovation through People
When it comes to innovative and impressive strategies that envelope the core of your business – it’s about the people, looking at companies that are engaging their teams, motivating, challenging, empowering and teaching them.
Work life balance, share options – giving team members a stake in the business, keeping teams informed and building relationships with teams are all tactics forming the basis of running a sustainable human resources model.
The GPT Group, a world leader in developing sustainable properties that owns and manages a number of shopping centres across Australia including a new development in Wollongong was recently described as one of the most innovative companies in Australia.
After recognising that their company culture was in need of a shift they developed a cultural renewal program, focused on defining their culture and developing a tailored plan.
The cultural renewal plan comprised of seven business projects, which were chosen following an extensive audit of current business practices and the identification of key behavioral shifts needed to achieve the desired culture change.
In 2012 a team of thirty-nine people drawn from all areas and levels of the business were responsible for implementing the cultural renewal plan, which focused
on the value of “Accountability”.
In addition to the core cultural shift comes an initiative focused on activity based working styles providing their people with the freedom and flexibility to choose a space and facilities that best suit the task that they are working on.
Each and every day they could be sitting in a new “neighbourhood” with new neighbour
“colleagues” – generating new ideas and forming new employee relationships.
With quiet spaces for reading and reflection, technology enabled rooms for video
conferencing sessions, collaboration spaces for innovation and ergonomically designed open plan work areas, this innovative set-up gives their people access to facilities that enable them to achieve higher levels of performance in their roles.