One of the hallmarks of a progressive company or country is planning for an uncertain future. While there are many “unknown unknowns” to quote Donald Rumsfeld, we should still be testing out different options and possibilities that may arise, preferably in order of likelihood and priority. To do this you require a workforce that is insightful and analytic. It is something we do as a matter of course at Telstra, starting off with the investigation of the different possibilities by my CTO group and culminating in field trials of new technologies by the engineering teams.

For example, take our Next G^TM network: For some time we have been evaluating the next generation of technology known as LTE or “Long Term Evolution”. My CTO team has been modelling the network performance both in terms of speed and coverage, and identifying the opportunities presented by the technology. Now, my colleagues in Wireless Engineering, are implementing trials of the technology to ensure that the actual real-world performance meets our theoretical expectation.

Unfortunately in my daily life I see too many engineering failures which could have been avoided through a willingness to invest a small amount in testing future options.

Witness for example the failure of the Melbourne Eye, a structure costing 10’s of millions of dollars and which needed to be taken down due to unforeseen structural defects.

Another example is the Citylink road from the Tullamarine Airport into Melbourne. The exit from the Bolte Bridge to the Westgate Freeway has just been rebuilt, no doubt at considerable expense. Having spent a lot of money and time on the project, you would have hoped that it would reduce congestion on the tollway, but in fact it seems to have achieved the opposite. As a taxi driver pointed out to me, the engineers who designed the system do not appear to have planned for the obvious discrepancy in traffic loads for different destinations. There are 3 different destinations for those exiting the bridge: Docklands, the South Eastern suburbs (via the Burnley Tunnel) and the Westgate Bridge, and each direction has been allocated one lane. This would be logical except for the fact that most of the traffic on the bridge is usually going to the South Eastern suburbs with the result that the lane in this direction is permanently congested and the other 2 lanes are empty!

In both these examples, a rigorous testing program prior to construction, could have helped to uncover these design flaws.

Our children’s future cannot rely on us being the “lucky country” and digging ore out of the ground. We do need to show that we can turn the overworked phrase “smart country” into a reality. To achieve this we need to be encouraging the smartest and brightest of our children to be entering the sciences and engineering. We need a workforce that is analytical and intelligent to plan for a smart future – we cannot just assume that we will get one.

Please share your ideas on how we can plan for a smarter future.

@admin [+]June 3rd, 2010, 15:36