The Department of Business Strategy and Innovation (BSI) held its 2019 research and engagement retreat on 9 October at the Cohort Space at the Gold Coast.

Professor Rosemary Stockdale opened the retreat in the morning with Pro Vice Chancellor, Professor David Grant, and Dean Research, Professor Andrew O’Neil, with a team building activity and an open floor panel. Participants contributed with a sense of excitement, positivity and commitment for the future of the department to work towards research excellence and impactful engagement. During the panel discussion facilitated by Professor Dian Tjondronegoro, participants were asked to focus on Griffith ‘beacons’ and ‘spotlights’ as an exercise to work on interdisciplinarity, problem-driven, and user-focused research to solve major societal challenges.

“It is important to inspire our students as early as possible through our teaching on how research can make a real difference.”

Dr Tapan Sarker presented Griffith’s engagement framework and facilitated a panel of experts’ discussion on impactful engagement, including Helen Bulle, Manager, International Business Development Unit, Adjunct Professor Rod Welford, Adjunct Associate Professor Dr Pat Glynn and Professor Anneke Fitzgerald (BSI) who each showcased their case studies and engagement strategy, as we learned about how we want to engage and create impact to the socio-economy. It was an important segment of the day as we learnt to shift our focus to the next horizon to create real impact and build relationships.

In the afternoon, Professor Tjondronegoro introduced Professor Ian Hall, Griffith Asia Institute Deputy Director, and presented BSI’s research strategy. Professor Hall joined the two group discussions on research planning.

The first session set about visualising our research capability and ecosystem (garden or forest analogies) and identified with specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). BSI research strives for a sustainable process for producing ‘fruits’ that benefit people hence, the ‘root’ is our discipline and capacity, and we need to think about our ‘branches’… how are we going to produce the outcomes?

The second session focussed on brainstorming on the research impact pathway and business model canvas. It was all about identifying the process to go from what we have to what we can produce (i.e. value proposition) and work with all stakeholders to achieve it. This means thinking about the importance of the end-user and measuring impact beyond academic measure.

The day was rounded off with some remarks on BSI’s research and engagement priorities and strategies with Dr Rob Hales (GCSE) and Professor Ian Hall (GAI) outlining how they see BSI’s contributions to GCSE and GAI respectively. Professor Stockdale closed the retreat with the remark,

“Be proud of our work… our reputation is growing.”

  • Brad, Naomi, Byung, Dhara and Rob
  • Staff aligned their research to the SDGs
  • Andrew O’Neil and David Grant
  • Rosemary welcomes participants
  • Luke, Louis and Paul
  • Tapan, Gloria, Anneke, Gus and Peter
  • Yong, Katrina, Julienne, Bernard and Rosemary
  • Lili, Larry, Carla and Harsha
  • Gus, Tapan, Peter and Gloria
  • Ian Hall, Griffith Asia Institute
  • Adjunct Professor Rod Welford
  • Ian, Sara, Cathy, Carla, Harsha and Lili
  • Dian and Rosemary
  • Rob, Dhara, Brad and Byung
  • Louis, Paul, Pat and Brad
  • Dian, Harsha and Carla
  • Anne, Rosemary and Bernard
  • Helen Bulle, International Business Development Unit
  • Andrew O’Neil, Dean Research
  • Gloria and Heather
  • Yong, Katrina, Dian and Rosemary