Innovation ecosystems often exist as dormant networks despite structural potential. The critical difference between contact lists and active collaboration lies in problem-focused interaction, trust-building, engagement, and governance mechanisms that align diverse organisational incentives. Successful activation requires shared challenges that demonstrate mutual value, system integrators that facilitate cross-sector engagement, and policy frameworks that reward collaborative

Research analysing 26,000+ startups globally reveals founder personalities predict success with 82.5% accuracy. Teams combining diverse personality types are twice as likely to achieve successful exits. Six distinct founder personalities identified, from technical "Fighters" to business-focused "Leaders." For Australian innovation policy, this suggests moving beyond supporting individual entrepreneurs to fostering personality-diverse founding teams through redesigned policies

At a time when the language of innovation is everywhere yet the architecture for delivering it is so often absent, the need for honest, grounded, and practical thinking is urgent. The goal of this book is not to predict the future, but to inform and provoke those with the responsibility and agency to shape it.

For the first time in many years, there is a genuine opportunity to move beyond the oppositional politics that have hindered structural reform. This new parliamentary composition—more diverse but potentially less fractious—opens the door to building coalitions of the willing for major national reform. If we are to grasp this political moment, we must also confront the structural ambiguity that has long undermined innovation policy in this country. 

Since 1963, Australia’s federal industry portfolio has been restructured more than 20 times. This extraordinary level of administrative churn exposes a deeper crisis: a persistent uncertainty about the purpose, priorities, and pathways of industrial policy. This Innovation Insight calls for a reevaluation of institutional maturity—one that strikes a balance between executive flexibility and enduring strategic direction.

The transformation of public administration from a domain grounded in public management to one dominated by political analysis represents a fundamental epistemological and institutional shift in the theory and practice of governance. The path forward is to reconcile its tensions, revisiting the lost arts of administration while embracing the political realities of contemporary governance. Doing so will allow public policy to once again be both effective and legitimate.

Innovation has shaped prosperity and progress, yet its virtues are increasingly threatened by political opportunism and corporate betrayal. How can governments, firms, and individuals protect innovation’s role as a force for good? This Insight from Professor Mark Dodgson shows the way