Innovation has always been a part of the Interflow way of doing business and is critical to delivering its purpose of ‘improving the lives of the people we work with, the communities we serve and the environment we work in, for generations to come’. Many advances in trenchless technologies have come from people within the company – from crews, engineers and support teams.
Now, as the pace of change accelerates, the time has come for the development of a more structured way of capturing, assessing and scaling ideas.
The new innovation program will bring visibility and momentum to ideas from across Interflow. The goal is to ensure that great thinking doesn’t get lost, that ideas can travel and grow, and that people responsible for those ideas receive the feedback and recognition they deserve.
Joseph Curkovic, Innovation Manager at Interflow, says the program signals a shift from informal innovation to a more disciplined, organisation-wide approach.
“In truth, the innovation team can’t innovate in isolation,” Joseph says. “As a team, we support our people to deliver innovation. We create the tools, manage the framework and bring the business along the journey to support the initiatives.”
So, how does that work?
Historically within Interflow, ideas have been actioned at team level. As teams have sought to solve problems locally, they have developed new processes and sometimes products that potentially were not visible beyond their immediate environment.
That has led to good outcomes, Joseph says. And some of those ideas have eventually spread across the organisation. At the same time, the process has often been slow and disjointed and some ideas have not been captured or developed.
The new innovation program has a goal of changing that, with a structured funnel through which ideas can freely and transparently flow.
“There will be steps and stage gates in that funnel,” Joseph says. “Through the assessment of those ideas, the highest priorities will be identified.”
Importantly, those priorities will not be determined by financial return alone, he says. Each will be assessed across multiple factors, including environmental impact, safety, quality and cost.
This means the business can respond to changing priorities throughout the years – whether they relate to improving the environment, improving the lives of its people or enabling more efficient ways of working – while still maintaining a consistent evaluation process.
It’s no secret that innovation can only succeed if a diverse range of people from across a business are deeply engaged in the process. That’s why the Interflow innovation program is being designed to involve everybody.
Rather than focusing only on large, disruptive ideas that require massive budgets and deep engagement from senior leaders, the program recognises that the majority of innovation happens in small, practical improvements that affect everyday work.
“There is bottom-up, continuous improvement and there is top-down innovation,” Joseph says. “Both are of great value, meaning everybody should be involved.”
Crews and local teams will be empowered to identify and implement improvements that make their work safer, faster or more efficient.
These ideas will be assessed and approved locally, allowing them to gain traction quickly without getting lost in a centralised system. Then, they will be promoted throughout the system so other teams can learn from them, copy them and customise and improve upon them.
“What we want to do is keep those local initiatives local,” Joseph says. “Incremental initiatives should be assessed, prioritised, funded and executed near the source.”
At the same time, the program also offers a pathway for larger, more complex ideas to be escalated and developed at a national or strategic level.
At the very top of the funnel, there is also room for a focus on longer-term, transformational innovation.
“That’s where we’re scanning globally, looking for disruptive technologies, partners, research, new markets, etc.,” Joseph says.
The result is a layered approach that supports everything from a simple idea on a site to multi-million dollar, business-wide initiatives.
By cutting across silos and bringing people together from different disciplines, the program offers strength through diversity.
Ideas are tested, refined and strengthened in an environment of support and with input and expertise from numerous levels.
“You’ll be able to see who’s driving the idea forward,” Joseph says. “And the people that are following it can and say, ‘That’s a great idea. Let’s copy that.’”
Beyond processes and platforms, the Interflow innovation program is primarily about culture and about reinforcing a more professional, data and merit-driven approach to improvement.
“What we want to do is give people the tools to become professional innovators,” Joseph says. “The KPIs in the business case tool will get them thinking at their local level about how they can save time, resources, distance, energy, wastes, and deliver on our purpose.”
By promoting the link between the original ideas and the eventual, measurable outcomes, the program will help individuals and teams understand the broader impact of their work.
At the same time, it also supports Interflow’s long-term strategy.
“We’ve been around for 90 years,” Joseph says. “The whole point of this is to be relevant for another 90 years.”
The Interflow innovation program is in development now, with a target rollout next financial year. A key component will be a central input system where ideas can be submitted, tracked and progressed.
The team is also exploring ways to make that process simple and accessible for the future, including the use of voice input and AI to help submissions.
In the meantime, Joseph says the best next step is for people to start paying attention to their own ideas.
“What we really want is to build that culture of innovation where people think deeply about their daily activities,” he says. “How can I save time? How can I reduce effort? How can I improve safety? How can I improve the environment?”
For those working across Interflow, that might mean taking note of small inefficiencies, opportunities for improvement or ideas for doing things differently and capturing them somewhere simple.
When the formal system goes live, those ideas will have a place to go and a pathway to becoming something much bigger.
