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In the wake of the end of the Resources Boom and the recent Government Innovation Statement, the Pivot to the Knowledge Economy is now accelerating. This pivot is vital to the long term sustainability of the Australian economy and businesses large and small each have a role to play in its success.

For me, three developments last year are driving rapidly burgeoning momentum around this pivot:

  • The series of measures outlined under the government’s recently announced Innovation and Science Agenda
  • The successful IPO of Australian software development and collaboration tools provider, Atlassian
  • The signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement to promote trade between 12 Pacific nations

Yet, should this pivot be successful, it's unclear what Australia would look like 5 to 10 years from now. How will it impact the way business connect and build relationships with their customers and partners? How can businesses increase their "Innovation Fitness" to ensure they remain relevant? What will it mean to be a leader and executive in this new normal?

But the most sobering question is: what will be the impact on attracting and retaining talent? For all the uncertainty, I am certain that this will be - or should be - a critical question.

In less than a generation, I believe the marketplace around us will be quite unrecognisable from today’s as Australia shifts from supply to demand side economics - equivalent in difficulty to moving from being right handed to left handed. From companies being valued by their hard assets to the strength of their customer relationship. In perhaps only 5 years the skills you need to succeed will be so different from those we look for today. Frankly, this is something we are not talking about enough!  

We are approaching the dawn of a brutal talent war as it becomes clear that the skill sets needed to lead or make a difference in this new economy are not the skills most workers have today. Those who do have those skills will become scarce assets, able to demand top dollar and define their own working conditions. These are the “10x-ers”:workers that have a massive impact on a business, whether it's a coder, a designer or a manager. The battle to attract and retain this talent will almost be of existential importance to some businesses.

I see this challenge evolving in two phases - beginning in perhaps only a few months’ time:

1.   Attracting & Retaining Global Talent.  Lets face it we don’t have enough “10x-ers” working here in Australia right now. We’ll have to attract them from overseas. Some are part of the Australian diaspora in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. But some will need to be foreign imports . We must use our imagination to think beyond just dollars to provide compelling incentives to become a magnet for the best talent in the world. The “Aussie lifestyle” is talked about being our competitive advantage, but surely that is not enough. Moreover, beyond initial attraction, companies must change the way they engage employees to encourage a new generation of workers to stay put even amid intense salary wars.

2.   Developing Local Talent: The other side of the coin is how best to develop local talent to create a rich pipeline for the future. We need a greater focus on ‘STEM’ subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) to give children the skills needed for future development. This is essential to whether or not Australia adapts successfully. Last year the Australian Government committed a thumping $12 million to boosting this area - following up on another $5m the previous year. (Salesforce is very committed to this area, for instance read about our “Hour of Code” program from this 13 year old student participant here.)

Salesforce is helping customers and the wider Australian economy address these huge challenges. At our upcoming World Tour event in Melbourne on April 12 will feature an Innovation stream where  themes around the skills and talent needed for the new knowledge economy will be explored. The conversation will include perspectives from founders, corporate innovators, venture capitalists and government - who are all key to helping Australia successfully pivot to the new economy and win the war for talent.

Join us on April 12 to learn from leading innovators who are operationalising  entrepreneurialism within their organisations.