In the first of a new series, PWPro interviews speakers from its IPWEA 2015 conference, to be held in Rotorua, NZ from 7-11 June 2015.
Electronic engineer Roger LaSalle has worked in many industries across the world, including telecommunications, banking, IT, science, service and governments. IPWEA’s keynote speaker talks to PWPro about finding opportunities and making them a reality.
Q. Tell me about your background as an engineer.
I studied electronic engineering. My first 11 years of work were with the civil aviation department as a navigation specialist. Most of that work was in research. We were doing absolutely cutting edge stuff that no one else in the world was doing.
In the 1970s there was a push by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to find the next generation of landing guidance systems for aircraft. There were a number of countries that entered the competition: Australia, America, England, Germany, Russia, France … All of them had to come up with the best idea for a landing system, then build it and demonstrate it.
Australia won the competition and that became the new standard. Our competitors were England and America. It was unbelievable.
Q. After leaving the government you worked for Motorola as a product manager, tell me more
During my time in government, I also developed a woodworking tool in my spare time. I patented that, developed it, put it on the market and wrote a little book about it. The book explained how hard it is to get an idea off the ground and into all the hardware shops, which I succeeded in doing.
When I was ready to leave the government, I sent my book to Motorola, who was looking for a production manager in Australia, with my CV and I got the job. It was a sea change and a great place to learn.
Q. Since then you have worked in many industries in management and development roles and gained lots of experience developing new products. What will you be speaking about at IPWEA’s conference?
At the conference, I’ll be talking about why we need to innovate. I’ll lay out a simple definition of what innovation is and then I’m going to show people how to do it. I can promise you while I’m talking, someone will shout out an innovation within four seconds.
Then I’ll move onto what is an opportunity and how you search for one. Then some of the showstoppers; why we have so much difficulty in implementing innovation and why people resist new ideas. That’s one of the real problems that we have. Finally, I am going to suggest ideas that I believe could be implemented to solve some problems that are ever present, such as traffic.
Q. What one thing do you want people to takeaway from your session?
The single takeaway is, I don’t care what it is you do, what you use today – product, process of service – there is always a better way. If people want to disagree with that, what they are saying is what we do or use today will be the same in 25 years. That’s absurd. So, walk away with the mindset that whatever it is I’m doing, using there is a better way. I’ve just got to search for it. I’ll give them the tool to do that.