Meet Jeff Sharp
Group Manager – Technology and Innovation, Downer Group
Jeff Sharp is engineering change across the diverse business interests of Downer, the leading provider of integrated services in Australia and New Zealand. As Group Manager – Technology and Innovation, he’s charged with advancing and commercialising emergent technologies such as IoT (Internet of Things) and Downer’s Smart City applications. Jeff is at the forward edge of transforming possibilities into reality. And he knows that results are driven by matching ideas to customer needs, and networking – in all its guises.
Downer knows infrastructure better than any other single organisation in the country. And it holds onto that No. 1 position by keeping customers at the heart of everything it does” Jeff says. “Importantly, we don’t try to be all things to all customers. By teaming up with the best technology partners Downer isn’t locked into any platform or solution. We can see what’s coming and provide a service that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the market.
As someone tasked with keeping one of the region’s largest and most progressive engineering firms on point for a long, successful future, Jeff’s perspective as an innovation lead is influenced by how passion, choice and luck have intersected throughout his career.
On leaving school, Jeff encountered the difficulty facing most young people as they head off to uni: “You can’t see what the real world looks like or what careers will unfold”. It was only as he was coming to the end of his double Civil Engineering and Science degree that he connected the primary purpose engineers serve. He saw that at its core, engineering is problem solving and “I liked puzzles, so this profession was actually a good idea for me!”
He says a “great stroke of luck got my career off to a flying start” as he was thrown in the deep end overseeing the construction of a factory in Singapore: “I was given the plans, a list of contractors and told to go and work out the best way to build it. It was project management at the ownership level.” The opportunity to create something from the ground up provided Jeff early and valuable lessons in self-motivation, accountability, stakeholder management and the critical importance of building and supporting high performance teams.
A powerful combination of ideas
His next venture took him into the dynamic telecommunications sector with its relentless assimilation of change across structural, regulatory and technological aspects of the industry. This exposed Jeff to new ways of thinking, to understanding the ramifications of change in concept and reality, and how to communicate ‘the new’. He took those learnings with him as he then moved into the world of infrastructure. “Everything relies on networks – in all their inter-personal and technological guises,” Jeff says.
By the time Jeff had combined his civil engineering with telco experiences – building intelligent transport systems, autonomous mines, smart hospitals – he had a powerful set of thinking tools in his arsenal.
Start-up experience aligns with innovation
Armed with this experience, Jeff’s career took a different turn into starting up two experimental businesses within a corporate environment – one in the health sector and the other in the embryonic area of electric car charging. He feels strongly these experiences defined his continued success as an innovation leader, saying “committing to a start-up really aligns with innovation because it’s more often about commercialisation than the idea”. He sees this risk taking as the modern equivalent of an MBA – “a degree now becoming less relevant in our fast-moving world”. He also went on to create his own start-up business creating a market place for providers of kids activities.
Creating a business from an idea “is a fantastic, challenging learning curve because you’re responsible for every element of the company. You get to understand – in your own microcosm – everything that happens in a big corporation, all the things that are hidden behind the support structures that magically do things for you,” Jeff says.
Leading innovation from a fast front line
Fast approaching three years in his role at Downer, Jeff is now influencing the apparent limitless impact on transport infrastructure from technologies such as drones, driverless cars and autonomous robots. As they change the way we use roads, footpaths and airspace, Jeff’s far sighted expertise sees the knock-on effect to the transformation of our workforce and economy as traditional businesses disappear and new ones emerge.
Being able to offer customers the best of large corporate strength with the fast-moving agility of a start-up was part of what attracted Jeff to the company and he believes it is inseparably linked to Downer’s market leadership.
One of Downer’s primary customer groups is the public sector and, he explains that “while government customers tend to be particularly keen to move on innovation and take on new technologies, it takes time and careful development to deliver shared success. Sustained communication at many levels is essential if we’re to truly understand and be able to predict client needs”
Jeff highlights the importance of balancing the appetite for innovation with an appreciation for the regulatory challenges involved. The application for technologies such as drones and driverless cars are far outpacing the rules of law, and this can present some risks. However, Jeff is hoping for a little innovative thinking from regulators and policy makers. “Legislation can and does stifle innovation. What we need is some sort of innovation permit system, something that provides space to test.”
New Ideas Need Their Own Space
Facilitating the sharing of ideas across business units is a practical step Jeff endorses for all companies aiming to promote growth mindsets amongst their people. Downer has over 56,000 employees providing services to customers in Transport Services, ICT, Utilities, Engineering, Construction, Mining Infrastructure and Integrated Facility Services; and has operations in Australia and New Zealand, Asia-Pacific, South America and Southern Africa.
Such a vast and diverse set of businesses offers a rich pool of possibly untapped ideas so, ever the engineer, Jeff has implemented a framework and systems that make it faster and easier for fresh new thinking to be surfaced across the organisation. This includes an Innovation Hub – a portal through which employees can post thoughts or problems to an internal forum and get feedback – “because innovation has to come from the people doing the work”.
Jeff says: “The spin out benefit from this is that we already know who has invested in those ideas. So, if we’re going to progress, we already know who’s got the passion for it. We know how to put the team together.”
The Hub generates the critical mass and is part of a wider structure that makes innovation happen: “I’ve set up a group of innovation champions across the organisation because to make it happen you need commitment and the authority to invest in creativity. We match ideas and champions who then help build the business case, find the management sponsor to secure funding, and then support the initiator to bring it home.”
Jeff sees HR as an essential ally in building a culture that revels in change: “You need not only the right processes, but the right sort of people – glass half full types who are open to ideas and can inject diversity of thought. Downer’s HR policies help us not only find those people, but ensure they are developed and promoted within our businesses.”
Practical advice from the heart
Ask Jeff what he wishes someone had told him when he was starting out, and his number one is to follow your natural passions. “It makes life more interesting, work more satisfying and difficulties easier to overcome. I spent too long in project management. It gave me great skills in running and developing a business, but I got caught in my own rut. Once you realise what your passion is, get into it. I love new things and should have gone to the start-up experience earlier in my career.”
He also nominates the power of listening: “No one innovates in a bubble. Ideas and solutions come from interactions. So, the more networking you do, the better you’ll go. Sometimes collaboration isn’t intentional as, often, a tangential comment can be invaluable because it comes from left field.”
And his third wish is that someone had told him how important it is to have fun at work: “We underestimate the power of a laugh. If you’re happy in your work environment you’re more likely to be open to ‘the new’. Look for the sort of camaraderie that helps you overcome the issues and quickly get to the gains from change.”
We underestimate the power of a laugh. If you’re happy in your work environment you’re more likely to be open to ‘the new’. Look for the sort of camaraderie that helps you overcome the issues and quickly get to the gains from change.
– Jeff Sharp
All individuals interviewed for this series were selected based on their professional standing and experience, and are wholly independent of any commercial relationship with Konica Minolta. Their comments and insights were provided freely without any form of payment. None of the comments provided constitute an endorsement of Konica Minolta products or services.
