It’s a lot, however the sector needs a shake-up. Like the AFL mid-season draft, where clubs have the opportunity to add fresh, young talent to their lists, the defence sector needs an injection of new and innovative companies that aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo.
While that’s a straightforward proposition, it’s not a simple fix.
Australian start-up and scale-up businesses find it difficult to understand, enter and succeed in the defence sector, often placing it in the ‘too hard basket’.
However, by deprioritising the sector as a potential market, our country’s innovators are missing out – likewise the advancement of Australia’s defence technologies.
The Commonwealth’s recent announcement to establish the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator is a great step forward. Now collectively, the defence sector needs to focus on delivering advanced capabilities – faster.
One of the ways we are supporting this at BAE Systems Australia is by collaborating with national technology incubator Stone & Chalk, which fosters a community of founders, mentors, experts, corporates, partners, and collaborators to help entrepreneurs and businesses build, grow, and commercialise ideas in a range of sectors.
By leveraging Stone & Chalk’s national innovation community and BAE Systems’ extensive supply chain, capability and existing industry development activities, we hope to identify new, innovative companies, then encourage and nurture them into the defence sector and security sectors.
Together, we will host a workshop in Adelaide later this month, and then in Melbourne in October, known as the ‘Pathfinder Series’. The workshops will bring together around 40 cutting-edge start-ups and scale-up businesses to jointly explore opportunities and challenges within both sectors.
We are casting the net wide, and there will be a particular emphasis on attracting businesses owned by First Nations individuals and veterans, as well as those based in regional Australia.
Through hosting the workshops, we hope to identify the most disruptive companies and support them on an ongoing basis. Our business and industry development mentors from across BAE Systems will spend time each month with the chosen companies, to help nurture their minimum viable capability, connect them into BAE Systems’ supply chain, and provide guidance for them to establish contracts directly into the defence and security sectors.
There’s no doubt my colleagues will take great pride in giving a leg-up to any company that otherwise might not have been able to make the leap into the world of defence. More importantly, by injecting fresh talent into the sector, we will see the further advancement of technologies critical to programs designed to protect Australia and its people.
For more information about the Pathfinder Series and how to participate: https://www.stoneandchalk.com.au/pathfinder-series