Thursday 19 MAY 2011
COLLABORATE AND PROSPER

Most companies strive to produce the best they can with their available talents, with smaller firms struggling to match the horsepower of the multinational competitor. If you think within the boundaries of your company you have boxed yourself in. Think outside the box. The big players know the value of harnessing like-minded collaborators to grasp an opportunity, to benefit from the boom and deliver beyond their own limitations.

Our three speakers for the May FRESH GROUND have joined forces for the better. Join us for breakfast on May 19 to hear how to tap into a strong resource boom without bursting the banks.

SPEAKER 1
MINING THE BOOM – TAPPING JOINT VENTURE RICHES
Rodin Genoff | Rodin Genoff + Associates | www.rodingenoff.com

Speaker Bio:
Rodin Genoff Rodin is an internationally recognised and award winning industry and cluster development expert. His work has been widely reported in the Australian and Danish financial press. His ability to develop strategies and business plans and then turn these into profitable opportunities for leading food processing, engineering, electronics and intelligent manufacturing companies is why he has earned a reputation for “turning ideas into action”. In Denmark, for example, he has helped to transform a traditional tooling and stamping company in to a prototyping company that is now collaborating with some of Denmark’s leading industrial designers. This was just one of Rodin’s Danish projects that led the Danish Design Centre to invite him to speak at their annual international design conference in Copenhagen. Rodin has worked with companies to develop strategy that has led to a doubling of turnover for one company and the formation of a global joint venture with companies from the UK, Germany, Malaysia and the US. This joint venture has created significant business opportunities globally and diversified the existing customer base. His experience comes from working with companies globally and at executive level of government, lecturing at an under graduate and post graduate level in Economics and Public Policy programs and writing a number of books on manufacturing and industry cluster development. Rodin has been running his own industrial consulting company since 1998. Over the past decade he has undertaken projects around Australia and overseas.

Presentation Overview:
Rodin will present his experience both in Australia and in Europe in turning regional, industry and cluster strategies into investment outcomes and collaborations that lead to new global joint ventures between companies. He will showcase his successes in transforming public perceptions of traditional industrial regions and marshalling the resources of the broader community and business to undertake innovation that delivers results and sets new benchmarks. Rodin will present insights into the possibilities that surround the current resources and mining boom, linked with the power of collaboration. Over the last year Rodin led the Mackay Area Industry Network (MAIN) through the MAIN Game project in conjunction with the QLD Department of Employment, Economic Development & Innovation (DEEDI), and Enterprise Connect. He will highlight the thinking behind the project and showcase the outstanding success achieved through a number of consortia arrangements, joint ventures and commercialisation projects for companies looking to expand their business networks beyond the Mackay region and into international markets.

SPEAKER 2
ENGINEERS AND DESIGNERS – OIL AND WATER OR A PERFECT BLEND
Allan Ruming | Group Engineering | www.groupengineering.com.au
Robert Geddes FDIA | PROdesign| www.prodesign.com.au

Speaker Bio | Allan Ruming:
Allan Ruming Allan is the Managing Director and Shareholder of GROUP Engineering Pty Ltd located in Mackay QLD. GROUP is celebrating twenty years consulting to mining sugar and support industries providing Electrical, mechanical, project, civil structural and specialist services. Allan also runs his own consultancy SMART Services that specializes in management and reclamation technologies. Allan has a trade background with extensive experience in new business development particularly in the application of technology to repair and reclamation engineering processes. Allan is currently: • Chair of the CQU Australia Mackay Campus Community Engagement Committee • Deputy Chair of MAIN the Mackay Area Industry Network Co Operative Ltd. • Member of the Rio Tinto Hail Ck Coal Community Development Fund Board. • Registered as a business mentor with QLD Gov mentoring for Growth Program. Allan has extensive experience in the development of industry networks and collaboration with role of foundation chairman of M.A.I.N www.main.org.au 11 years ago which today is one of the most successful industry network groups in Australia. Allan currently has a vision for GROUP to diversify into specialized product development and to grow business through a consortia model approach working with others who can bring a mutual benefit to business and has a number of initiatives in the pipeline.

Speaker Bio | Rob Geddes:
Rob Geddes FDIA Queensland’s Smart State Designer of the Year in 2008, Robert is a multi-award winning Industrial Designer with 30 years experience creating innovation through branding and product design in fields such as medical products, commercial and industrial instruments, transport, consumer and architectural products. Rob is the Innovation Manager at QMI Solutions where he is instrumental in helping them build innovation capability as a core strategic driver for Queensland companies, leading clients to build international competitiveness and create lucrative new markets through design-led thinking. An Accredited Designer, State Councillor and Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, Robert has been a Director, National Vice President and Queensland President of the DIA – Australia’s peak body for design professionals. He is also a director of design house PROdesign, which has a Joint Venture arrangement with Group Engineering.

The presentation:
Many engineers believe they provide good design in addressing client or market needs and opportunities. In many cases great opportunities to improve function, form and marketability are missed or restricted because engineers do not understand the role of design in the development and marketing of a product. Teaming up with a Designer can make the whole Concept to market process more successful and profitable. GROUP Engineering has partnered with PROdesign Australia in the development of the GROUP Belt Scanning system to assist in ensuring the greatest potential for the product is achieved. The story starts as an engineer’s University Thesis and the rest is a work in progress that with the synergy of Engineering and Design has the potential to become a worldwide product. Allan Ruming MD of GROUP Engineering Pty Ltd and Rob Geddes MD of PROdesign Australia will take you along the journey thus far and into the future with all the pitfalls frustrations and the now clearer future that the relationship has the potential to deliver.

“In an era when great ideas can sprout from any corner of the world and IT has dramatically reduced the cost of accessing them, it’s now conventional wisdom that virtually no company should innovate on its own.” Gary P. Pisano and Roberto Verganti Authors of: “Which Kind of Collaboration Is Right for You?”

Harvard Business Review Dec 2008
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