On 10th April we held our first Innovation Day at the International Convention Centre in Sydney’s Darling Harbour, designed to inspire business and technology leaders. The half-day program was attended by several thousand executives, start-up CEOs, IT managers and developers across a variety of industries.
Inspired by our ‘Day 1 Principles’ which govern our culture, the Innovation Day program focused on encouraging Australian businesses to create a mindset that promotes innovation at scale. The day included presentations from our local and international team, alongside external speakers such as Tim Fung, CEO and Founder, Airtasker, and Dominic Price, Futurist, Atlassian.
Russ Grandinetti, SVP International Consumer, Amazon, spoke to the audience about Amazon’s most important leadership principle, customer obsession; “Innovation always begins with what matters to customers. Customer obsession and innovation are a continuum. This means you shouldn’t start from the skills you already have; work backward from what customers want and learn those skills.”
Kate Burleigh, Country Manager, ANZ, Amazon Alexa Skills, shared the history of Alexa and gave attendees guidance on how to create skills that customers engage with and truly appreciate; “Voice represents the next major paradigm in computing. From day one, the design of Alexa was focused on the customer journey. Through voice, we are redefining how we bring everyday skills to life, whether that be ordering a pizza or a ride.”
