Smart Dust

What does a purpose-led global business look like? Nicole Sparshott knows; she's leading two of them through their biggest transformation yet.

CEO of Unilever ANZ and Global CEO of T2, Nicole is spearheading a sustainability revolution in Unilever – one of Australia's most iconic FMCG brands – and well on her way to making T2 certified sustainable by 2021.

In this episode, we talk to Nicole about reconciling commerce with our carbon footprint, overcoming barriers to achieve sustainable outcomes and more.

Having taken on a market considered to be 'conquered' by Google and Microsoft, Mark Tanner is living proof that entrepreneurs can still re-write the competitor landscape. Frustrated by PowerPoint and PDF, Mark and co-founder Dylan Baskin created Qwilr – a now global operation offering software for businesses to create elegant web-based forms, proposals and contracts with consistent design principles. Following in the footsteps of Australia's other design unicorn Canva, Qwilr just raised $10.8 million in a Series A round led by Airtree Ventures and Skip Capital and have their sights set on further expansion in Europe and the US. We chat to Mark in this episode about how he took on the tech giants…and won.

Has innovation taken a back seat during COVID-19? Andy Tsao, Managing Director or Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) joins us from Santa Clara to find out. Andy is leader of SVB's Global Gateway, which assists emerging market innovation companies as they seek US market entry and US companies looking to expand abroad.

SVB is a US-based commercial bank with over 3600 employees across offices in the US, India, Beijing, Ireland, London and Israel. It's one of the largest banks in the United States and has helped fund more than 30,000 start-ups. SVB was behind an incredible 69%of U.S. venture capital-backed companies with an IPO in 2020 so it's worth listening to his insider insights.

In this episode we chat about the world of neural implants where recent advances in computing and bioelectronics have enabled true bidirectional interactions between machines and the human brain. No keyboard, no voice interaction required. It is truly inspiring what these advances can do for medicine.

Also, we look at how tech is helping individual citizens deal with climate change , also the stunning IPO of Insurance disruptor Lemonade, who have reinvented the dusty old world of insurance.

Smart Dust is produced and edited by Daresay, the content specialists: https://daresay.com.au/ 

Hosted by Douglas Nicol, Strategy Partner, The Works: https://theworksagency.com.au/ 

And Nick Abrahams, Global Head of Strategy and Innovation, Norton Rose Fulbright: https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en-au/people/120114 

In this episode we chat with the amazing Tim Reed , the President of the Business Council Of Australia, the peak body for business in Australia. The BCA comprises of the CEO's of more than 100 of the top companies, who employ over 1 million Australian workers, including all 4 of the big banks, the major mining companies and supermarkets and the big tech players such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft.

He is also MD of private equity firm Potentia Capital, the only Australian private equity fund focused exclusively on investments in software, tech-enabled services and technology businesses. Potentia has recently raised $350m in a fund focussed on software investments in the $50-$200m enterprise value sector.

In this wide-ranging chat, we discuss the what kind of businesses Potentia is investing in and how gut feel plays an important role in the investment decision-making process . We also discuss terrain-based business strategy versus trajectory-based strategy and the challenges that Covid has presented the economy. Finally, Tim' BCA role means he meets some of Australia's best leaders, so we discuss what are the traits that he sees as critical to good leadership in 2020.  

Smart Dust is produced and edited by Daresay, the content specialists: https://daresay.com.au/ 

Hosted by Douglas Nicol, Strategy Partner, The Works: https://theworksagency.com.au/ 

And Nick Abrahams, Global Head of Strategy and Innovation, Norton Rose Fulbright: https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en-au/people/120114 

In this episode Douglas and Nick interview one of Australia's most respected business leaders, David Gonski. Gonski holds a number of impressive board titles, including Director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy, Chancellor of the University of New South Wales, President of the Art Gallery of NSW Trust and Chair of ANZ Bank, just to name a few.

We discuss the impact of COVID-19 on business and innovation, with Gonski sharing his observations on how the virus will impact the digital transformation agenda for Australian business. We discuss the role of pandemics on the national psyche, and focus on its implications for risk tolerance within the business world. 

Nick asks Gonski about the learnings brought forth by the two publications of the highly influential Gonski Report on the education system, whilst Douglas explores how creative thinking and creative intelligence is the core skill for the future. Gonski talks candidly about the dire need for better diversity within the workplace, to ensure a broad range of ideas and perspectives, which shapes the future of any country.

We dive head first into the world of banking and how the digital era is reshaping the way the way consumers approach finance, before touching on Gonski's personal story as a migrant to Australia, what he attributes to being his success, and the single-minded drive to constantly learn and improve oneself, in creating a meaningful life. Finally he shares his secret for giving good career advice to people.

In this episode of Smart Dust, we explore how COVID19 has sparked diversification with global tech giants like Google, as they move into the healthcare space. 

 We also discuss how software company Tableau has engineered a COVID-19 Data Hub for collating the latest in the virus outbreak and management. Douglas and Nick chat about the role of social platforms in tracking the spread of the coronavirus, before diving into the stats on streaming services in Australia and the implications for consumers in an increasingly saturated video on demand marketplace. 

 We wrap up the episode with a crash test of the latest VOD platform to launch, Quibi, and how it is providing a personalised experience to content consumption, built purposefully for mobile. 

Smart Dust is produced and edited by Daresay, the content specialists: https://daresay.com.au/ 

Hosted by Douglas Nicol, Strategy Partner, The Works: https://theworksagency.com.au/ 

And Nick Abrahams, Global Head of Strategy and Innovation, Norton Rose Fulbright: https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en-au/people/120114 

In this episode of Smart Dust we chat to Ashley Friedlein, the Founder of Econsultancy, an international marketing consultancy agency. Nick questions Ashley on how Covid-19 has impacted his Marketing & Digital Trends 2020-2030 report, before exploring the role of digital platforms in shaping internal corporate communications. Ashley shares his success in developing Guild, a professional's solution to ensuring conversation privacy, and Guild's mission for the app to be the preferred alternative to WhatsApp for work communications. Douglas asks Ashley about his success in the subscription economy and how he has navigated the free to use experience with his own paid service model. 

The role of Voice and its application in consumer's lives is briefly discussed, before the group evaluates the future of Unified Communications and the role that collaboration platforms like Slack will play in over forever digitally transforming professional lives. 

Finally, we ask Ashley about his work with young entrepreneurs at Cambridge University, discussing the challenges of being an entrepreneur in an increasingly competitive market. 

Smart Dust is produced and edited by Daresay, the content specialists: https://daresay.com.au/ 

Hosted by Douglas Nicol, Strategy Partner, The Works: https://theworksagency.com.au/ 

And Nick Abrahams, Global Head of Strategy and Innovation, Norton Rose Fulbright: https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en-au/people/120114 

Animal Logic CEO Zareh Nalbandian co-founded the animation company in Crows Nest, Sydney in 1991. Their films include the Academy award-winning Happy Feet, The Lego Movie, and Peter Rabbit.

In this episode, Zareh speaks to Douglas and Nick about how animation has developed over past 30 years, how the studio has grown and changed, and where he sees the future of creativity.

Smart Dust is produced and edited by Daresay: https://daresay.com.au/ 

Hosted by Douglas Nicol, Strategy Partner, The Works and Nick Abrahams, Global Head of Strategy and Innovation, Norton Rose Fulbright,

What German Ramirez's job is to focus on the relevance of blockchain. Whether it's renewable energy companies, cryptocurrency or the property market, he's looking to how to harness his 20+ years in digital innovation to understand this will impact on industries across the world and how to market to them.

In this episode, German, who is the CEO is Swiss-based blockchain marketing firm The Relevance House, takes Nick and Douglas through the industries that are ripe for disruption, how a decentralised ledger works, and what we can do to prepare for the future.

Smart Dust is produced and edited by Daresay: https://daresay.com.au/ 

Hosted by Douglas Nicol, Strategy Partner, The Works and Nick Abrahams, Global Head of Strategy and Innovation, Norton Rose Fulbright.