Australians lend talent to international think tanks

Technological developments are happening at a faster rate than ever before and in this rapidly moving environment, businesses are starting to see the value in creating time or situations for 'thinking' and 'innovation', away from the normal work environment.

More and more companies in the financial services industry are establishing 'think tank' like centres or departments within their organisations in order to foster this kind of innovation.

In the past six months two Australians have joined international think tanks at different organisations. Mercer's Financial Advice business leader, Jo-Anne Bloch (pictured, left) was appointed to the position of team leader at Mercer's new Innovation Hub in Hoboken New Jersey in July. And Sonja Lee (pictured, below), former marketing director at Towers Watson in Australia, joined the Towers Watson Thinking Ahead Group in London three months ago.

The Thinking Ahead Group might be over a decade old, but the Mercer hub is yet to celebrate its first birthday.

"It was officially up and running in June. I joined it as team leader in July," Bloch says.

It looks at "disruptive or transformative change" according to Bloch in order to "always stay ahead of our clients and we're always looking at quantum leaps of change because the world around is changing."

"I think you can innovate any way you like, it just depends on how quickly you want to get there and innovation is only half the equation. You've actually also got to execute it." Jo-Anne Bloch, Mercer

Both Bloch and Lee are protective of their intellectual property and unable to talk specifically about what the units are working on at the moment.

But both are looking at the global transition in pension fund systems from defined benefit to defined contribution, something Australia has a big head start on.

"I think it helps having an understanding of DC," Lee says of her position in the think tank.

And Bloch says they do a lot of thinking about the shift in liability from the employer to the employee, something in which she can see parallels to the discussions around MySuper in Australia.

"The biggest thing we need to think about is the fact that consumers are taking on more and more of the risk," Bloch says.

"And whether employees are equipped to take on the responsibility."

In Australia MySuper superannuation products were introduced because of these kinds of concerns.

"It's like giving people permission to test and learn. If we continue to do things in the same way then we can't possibly learn and grow and develop sustainable business models." Sonja Lee, Towers Watson

Bloch say that having a specific unit devoted to innovation expedites the transition from research to execution.

"I think you can innovate any way you like, it just depends on how quickly you want to get there and innovation is only half the equation. You've actually also got to execute it," she says.

It's also important to create a space where you can try new things and are allowed to make mistakes.

"It's like giving people permission to test and learn," Lee says.

"If we continue to do things in the same way then we can't possibly learn and grow and develop sustainable business models."

The think tanks have a venture capital or start up feel to them.

According to Lee, this kind of model recognises that even if only two or three ideas out of ten are good or really good, and the other seven ideas end up on the cutting room floor, they still had value in assisting the ideas generation in its totality.

"An important part of our role as well is to challenge our own thinking and also too to stimulate and challenge our clients and to get that extra 1% in their portfolios," she says.

It takes a special kind of organisation to create the right environment for a think tank. It needs the right skill sets under a leadership that can see the benefits of encouraging a different approach. The leadership then needs to take the outcomes of the think tank seriously in order for any research or idea to be executed successfully. When all these things are aligned, industry-changing innovations can happen.