Global copier giant Konica Minolta is also at the forefront of innovation in the digital workplace, robotics and 3D printing. We caught up with the Chief Strategy Officer of its Australian operation, Ted Garner, who will visit Papua New Guinea soon for the Innovation PNG 2023 conference.

Konica Minolta’s Ted Garner

What does the word innovation mean to you?

Most people tend to think innovation is the creation of a new device or software; a thing.

To me, the most impactful innovations involve ideas; specifically to bring a positive change in a person, team, business or even society itself.

It’s a powerful thing to impact a life or lives – to change or transform ‘the way it has always been’ for the better.

How does it feature in your role at Konica Minolta?

Not to say innovations were not occurring at Konica Minolta before me joining the team, as there have been many new things designed and created over the years.

‘The process of transformation (which almost every company wants or needs to do) is enabled by a culture of innovation.’

My role is to change the culture – at its roots. I am here to disrupt from within. It’s not an easy task, as Konica Minolta has existed for 150 years, with a strong history delivering things a certain way and I push against that every day.

To transform this company, we need to believe in our Why (why we are doing this – why we need to change). So, that means transforming the leadership team, and building a new foundation of innovation (new ideas) that we can build all our new services upon.

Is there a particular innovation that you’re most proud of being involved with?

Based on lessons learned in transformation projects around the world, we have taken a different approach here in Australia. We are not acquiring an IT company with the goal of merging the two organisations. That is proving difficult elsewhere in the world for Konica Minolta (and almost every company for that matter).

We are building organically – with the goal of one customer experience. We built a customer app that first focused on modernising the customer relationship for our print business. It now serves as the primary vehicle for changing our relationships to allow us to introduce new IT Services without taking away from the core business cadence and value.

It’s like upgrading an airplane while it’s in flight. Within this project, we also repurposed the internal IT team to be customer-facing, thereby enabling many talents and skillsets to contribute to our revenues and be supportive of the investments we need to continue to make while this airplane is flying toward our BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal).

What are you hoping delegates will take away from your talk at Innovation PNG?

I really hope our guests will see the process of transformation (which almost every company wants or needs to do) is enabled by a culture of innovation – and to be excited about change.

Human nature is primarily to avoid change, so resolving that is where we need to start this process. I would feel I did my job if people left the event with a bit more confidence to become the catalyst for change in their organisations.

Innovation PNG 2023 will be taking place at APEC Haus, Port Moresby on 10 November, with a Gala Awards Dinner the night before. For further information and to register, visit www.innovationpng.com.