Page 30 - Australian Defence Magazine June 2021

30 DEFENCE BUSINESS PARTNERING
JUNE 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
FIGURE 2
$ - revenue from Innovation Hub, R&D Next Gen Tech Fund, R&D Agenda Agenda
Capability & Capacity
Max benefit to warfig ter
Max revenue for Aussie industry
SIC
Defence Needs
$$$ - revenue from delivering goods or services to Defence
$ - Revenue from grants
eg Capability Improvement Grant SICP Grant
offer, or is in contract – which is essential to get insight into the latent capability that the business could deliver.
Relationships and knowledge of ‘who’s who in the zoo’ across the Defence sector take years to develop, decades even – but they can be fast-tracked through the right part- nerships, exceptional communication, and ability to dem- onstrate that a business fits in the Defence ecosystem. It’s about communicating why the capability and capacity is potentially game changing for Defence.
Given the current agenda, it is incumbent on the whole industry ecosystem to work together to solve the time/cost, complexity and inaccessibility, triple-hit dilemma.
A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
So how do we move it out of the ‘too-hard basket’ for De- fence and business? What if Aussie Foundry knew how to partner effectively to mobilise into the Defence sector? And what if Defence truly understood how to be a better partner to emerging Defence industry?
Figure 2 demonstrates what it could look like if both understood exactly:
• what Defence needs
• what industrial base Defence is currently investing in
to build capability and infrastructure and resilience in
Australia
• which technology Defence is willing to take a bet on
• how the specific business’s product or service offering
fits in.
There are four key elements to unlock the latent capa- bility for Defence, as shown in Figure 2.
Defence has established a clear agenda for enabling the ADF to achieve its future outcomes, and mapping a busi- ness’s capability and capacity across these high level require- ments is a critical first step. It requires imagination and vi- sion – both on behalf of the business, but also Defence.
1. CAPABILITY AND CAPACITY
What is it that lies beneath a business’s current offering that allows it to make an existing product or deliver a cur- rent service? And how much can that business deliver when the rubber hits the road.
Identifying business’s capability and capacity, in con- sideration of what Defence needs, is key. Defence doesn’t just want to buy an existing product – it wants what lies beneath the ability to create that product or deliver that service – things like:
• STEM skills – both white and blue collar • Australian workforce
• design capability
• Australian Intellectual Property
• infrastructure • facilities.
This is about standing back and getting under the hood of a business – this is where the latent capability for Defence sits, because what a business makes now might not be exactly what Defence wants to buy. It’s what lies beneath a business’s ability to make or deliver or design something that is important.
2. DEFENCE NEEDS
Most businesses taking the journey towards being a De- fence supplier need to pivot their thinking. Defence is a needs-driven organisation, and the standards required to deliver into Defence are amongst the highest in industry – for good reason.
Understanding the Defence need is two-fold. What are the opportunities emerging in the Defence sector (that is, what is Defence buying and sustaining now and into the future) and what is Defence or a Defence industry partner going to assess when you want to do business with them?
Unlocking this requires an understanding of the whole business and its readiness for Defence delivery (based on the commercial and compliance requirements), such as its facilities and security including clearances, compliance and legal, products, services and production, supply chain and innovation, people and policies, marketing and busi- ness development, and so much more.
3. SOVEREIGN INDUSTRIAL CAPABILITY PRIORITIES
Defence is willing to invest in Australian businesses to ensure that specific Sovereign Industrial Capability Priorities (SICPs) can be provided locally, e.g. the Collins Class submarine main- tenance and technology upgrade. Defence is willing to pay a