Dr Kia Pajouhesh was invited to speak at the 2015 Telstra Business Awards as an alumni, having won the award the previous year. This is what he had to say…
Hello everyone. I’d like to thank Telstra for having me back.
Our businesses are living and breathing microcosms of society at large.
Is society getting more complex? Ask any business owner and you’ll get a resounding “yes”, because running a business is getting harder every passing year. We are seeing it with our own eyes.
Back end of companies are spiralling into complexity – compliance issues with accounts and finance, the legal conundrums, HR departments going mad, the load of scrutiny from all corners – insurance, authorities and governing bodies.
Why is it happening? Is it just a reflection of population growth? Is it an increase in people’s expectations through knowledge; more specialisation in each and every field; or is it just more wealth, more options, more voice to more people? Interesting.
So although society has a propensity for spiralling into complexity the individuals within it yearn for simplicity. It’s a paradox.
Think about it: the social and sensory experiences that we cling to as human beings are the simplest ones. We are all united in one belief: That there is so much happiness in simplicity.
Like pixels on a screen the images they make as a sum of all the parts are complex, but the individual pixels live astonishingly simple lives.
Yet our businesses don’t interact with society, there is no conduit or form of communication with society. We interact with individual consumers. In a funny way, with each pixel yearning for simplicity.
I researched many of the wonderful businesses represented in this year’s Telstra Business Awards. There is a common ingredient in each and every one of them. They have shouldered society’s complexities, absorbed its challenges. They have filtered them and have developed products and services that are pure and simple. That is my definition of innovation. I see innovation as an obligation on our free thinkers and our entrepreneurs, NOT a choice.
So those businesses that have converted complex society issues into simple solutions for the individual are deemed the most disruptive. Parkhound (genius); Appster (one stop shop); Skin Smart (fight the good fight, you good thing); Family Time Australia (if only you had a dollar for every time you raised an eyebrow)… All truly disruptive businesses.
So let’s turn the spotlight on Smile Solutions and why I am the one with the microphone.
We reinvented the dental service model by housing 50 plus clinicians, including general dentists and board registered specialists in every field of dentistry, under one roof. Daily, we deal with the administrative, social and system complexities that go with it, to ensure our patients are in the best hands and under the one roof.
We took on the challenges of an almost derelict building with a heritage listing and over a period of 11 years provided 80,000 patients with the most serene ambience for dental and surgical space.
And we continue to research, source, finance and implement the most incredible technological advances in dentistry to provide our patients with the simple knowledge that they are receiving the best care available.
Smile Solutions is innovative and disruptive to its core foundations and therefore incredibly simple in its offerings. No different to every other business represented in this room tonight.
Thank you and good luck.