The Change Makers by Shaun Carney

Author:Shaun Carney [Carney, Shaun]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780522874785
Google: 0UdYuwEACAAJ
Amazon: 0522874789
Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing
Published: 2019-01-15T01:06:30.390000+00:00

Alan Finkel

Pleasurable participation

Alan Finkel AO is Australia’s chief scientist. Having completed a PhD in electrical engineering at Monash University in 1981, Finkel headed to Silicon Valley and started a joint venture that became the international success story Axon Instruments. He also served as chancellor of his alma mater for eight years.

I’ve always believed in being open to opportunity. I took electrical engineering at Monash University for my undergraduate degree because I wasn’t ready to commit to my first love—medicine. I somehow knew that the physics, maths and technology in electrical engineering would make many future paths possible. Then I decided to do a PhD because I wasn’t ready to commit to a full-time job. I knocked on the door of the Biomedical Laboratory in the engineering faculty and discovered a welcoming supervisor who took me on to do a PhD inserting microscopic electrodes into snail brains to measure the electrical activity between the cells.

I discovered two things when I branched into neuroscience and biomedical engineering. First, that I was more passionate about perfecting the research tools than doing the research. And second, that I would always look at projects as an incurable engineer. With that bit of self-knowledge, it was time to seek the next opportunity. I made the choice to take the hard step away from full-time research and start my own company in California, making electronic instruments for researchers in universities, biotech companies and pharmaceutical companies.

Three decades on, I can say that the engineering way has never left me. Its essence is a deep belief that there is always a better way, and that every problem can be solved. As I’ve grown older, I’ve realised that that promise can be a little bit of an oversell. It’s true for specific engineering problems, but when you look at society and you encounter wicked problems that are beyond the control of any individual person, you know they can’t be solved by engineering logic alone. So I’m really talking about problems that can be defined and solved.

In the engineering process, you first identify the problem. It sounds obvious, but so many people start working on solutions before they’ve truly thought, ‘What’s the problem we’re trying to solve?’ That includes understanding the people you’re trying to solve it for, the beneficiaries. Next, you analyse the problem. The third step is to produce a trial solution—a prototype. The fourth is to test the prototype with your audience. Repeat steps three and four until you’re convinced the solution is of genuine value. And fifth, and finally, deliver the product.

It’s simple, and it applies to everything, not just engineering product development. It applies to business. It applies to putting on a really good New Year’s Eve party. It applies to fixing a national electricity market. It applied to building my company, Axon Instruments, from what were initially just some good ideas.

When people have asked me what made my company successful, my answer over the years has contracted to one simple answer: a relentless commitment to quality.

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