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INNOVATION

DRA stays ahead

of the curve

by Michael Washbourne
John McGuire

he volatility brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic While only a matter of weeks into his new role with DRA,
Thas recalibrated the relationships companies have with McGuire has already started sinking his teeth into new
their customers and conventional solutions are no longer initiatives around products and services and how digital
the norm, according to new DRA Global Ltd chief innovation innovation can positively impact the way the company
officer John McGuire. provides its solutions.
DRA is widely recognised for its close working relationship “It’s [innovation] a broad-reaching gambit, it’s very interlinked
with clients, particularly around the way the now dual- closely with the strategic direction of the business, and it’s
listed engineering and project management group can very linked with the how we do work with our customers and
inject innovative processes into operations for the desired changing the customer’s experience that they have with us,”
outcome. However, the ongoing global health crisis means McGuire said.
the landscape is constantly changing and further challenges “If you take conventional approaches to how you work with
will inevitably arise. your customers, you’re going to get predictable outcomes.
To that end, DRA has appointed renowned innovation expert So, in the world of volatility that we see today, do our clients
and strategy executive McGuire to ensure the company really need conventional solutions, or are they looking for
remains on top of its game for the best interests of its clients. and need people who will work with them to challenge
“There’s no doubt the last two years have really changed the the status quo? Look at the what ifs, what might be’s, run
game for all of us,” McGuire told GMJ. experimentation for possible futures, all those types of
things. And that’s going to cascade down through every
“You really now have to focus on that relationship with your
element of our business.
customer and you’ve really got to be saying, ‘am I providing
value to that customer along every step of the value “We will be taking our staff on a capability-building journey,
chain?’. There’s no doubt the pandemic is yet to see the full particularly around the key topics of things like design
implications on the economy, on workforce, on the resources thinking, design-led innovation, disruptive innovation,
industry, and the ripples through what the consequences will sustaining innovation and then embedding that into how we
be. It’s still unfolding. go about our work.”
“In that world, I think innovation, as a mindset and as a Work connected to the precious metals space accounts for
culture, is incredibly important. In fact, if anything, it will nearly a fifth of DRA’s order book, with McGuire stating the
differentiate and distinguish organisations for the way they gold sector continues to be a “great absorber” of technical
go about the work that they do, how they deal with their innovation.
clients, how they deal with staff and the ideas they can bring “I think the sector has done really, really well but the question
to their clients. now is how can we keep improving it?” he said.
“We’re moving away from the time when, as engineers, we “What’s the next range of technologies that that we can think
were just simply problem-solvers – find the problem and about? What will blockchain do for it? What will machine
we go off and solve it. We’ve now got this shift to being a learning do for it? What will quantum computing do for it?
problem finder and making sure that you’re solving the right What will predictive analytics do for it? What are those
problem to start off with.” possibilities that will build upon what they’ve done already,
An engineer himself, McGuire brings more than 35 years which is no mean feat?
of industry experience to DRA, including a stint with “DRA has been front and centre with a lot of that work
international engineering, design and advisory group already. We want to take our teams further and be able to
Aurecon where he held the roles of both chief innovation co-design those possibilities with our clients. The rate of
officer and chief design officer and led its global innovation change around us is exponential and our job, in DRA, is to
and strategy management. be interpreters and translators of technological change into
During this time, Aurecon was named “Most Innovative our clients’ businesses.”
Company” by the Australian Financial Review.

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