CREATING A TECH-WISE BOARDROOM

You could be a banana farm. An insurer. A school network. It doesn’t matter. Digital tech is now so integral to day-to-day life that, whatever business you’re in, you’re now a technology business.

Paul Smith is joined by Non-Executive Director and Innovation Strategist, and founder of Venture X and Fund WA, Pia Turcinov & startup founder mentor and tech investor, Alan John who is a partner with M8 Ventures, and the chair of Catalysr, an entrepreneurship program focused on marginalised migrants and refugees.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Android.

EP #78:
Why isn’t tech at the front of every board’s mind? (with Pia Turcinov & Alan Jones)

Why don’t more boards have tech at the top of their minds? Why are Australia’s ASX toppers the top tech laggers? That forms the topic of conversation today between board directors Pia Turcinov Smith and Alan Jones and FDI’s Paul Smith.

The trio probe:

• What is tech knowledge - just IT and cyber? Or strategy and digital innovation too?

• Why do boards need to be tech-minded? From consumer expectations to internal efficiencies and outside competitors.

• What’s holding tech-mindedness back in Australian boardrooms? Why is Australia uniquely complacent, even in the wake of the Optus and Medibank breaches?

• The role of external consultants in outsourcing tech smarts and the need to uplift the board’s collective tech creds.

EP #79:
How to bring tech-mindedness into the boardroom? (with Pia Turcinov & Alan Jones)

It’s part two of last ep’s convo with FDI’s Paul Smith and tech & governance experts, Pia Turcinov and Alan Jones. This time they’re thinking about how those ‘dangerous and disruptive tech folk’ can reframe what they offer, in order to get a seat at the boardroom table in the first place. 

The conversation spans:

• Why techy directors are seen as risky.

• Creating bridges in to the boardroom that can then grow more organically - from digital innovation subcommittees, to just one expert at the table.

• Getting the supply by reframing technologists as innovators. Speaking the language the board is speaking right now.

• Not just bringing in the technology of innovation, but also the processes of innovation – including, comfort with failure.

Watch our LinkedIn Live session with Pia and Alan