BY KYM BERGMANN // CANBERRA
Kym: Let’s start with some background. Why have you come to Nova having already been in a variety of Defence and Government positions?
Jim: I felt it was time to get back into my natural habitat so to speak. I had completed almost two and a half years with the Premier of South Australia as the Chief Executive of the Department of Premier and Cabinet. As the South Australian Liberals hadn’t been in government for sixteen years, they needed some outside help to get set up which is why I was approached for the role. Then Covid came along and I felt like I couldn’t leave until that looked to be under control in the state which I think has been achieved.
I was casting around for ideas, probably not looking for a Chief Executive role – even though I was quite enjoying my current role – and then Jim Whalley, who established Nova Systems and is a good friend, almost jokingly asked if I would join the company.
I was attracted to the idea for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I wanted to stay in South Australia – where the company is headquartered but has offices all around Australia as well as in New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Norway. Secondly, in Australia we have been having on-off debates for a long time about the importance of sovereign capability – something that has been spurred on by Covid and widened the debate to include more than just Defence equipment.
This time we are having a serious national discussion – and I think that Nova is in a really strong position to benefit from the outcome of that.
Kym: To what extent do you think Covid has concentrated the minds of decision makers on supply chain vulnerabilities?
Jim: It has – and particularly so in the business of Defence. You can’t just press Control-Alt-Delete and phone up Microsoft when you are flying at Mach 2. There are certain things where a national capability is essential and – as we lawyers say – becomes ‘a fortiori’ a stronger argument with current experience. I don’t underestimate the difficulties in doing this, but we really have to find a way to translate policy into practice.
That’s the big challenge. It’s a bit like strategy and planning – strategy is relatively easy, but planning and execution is hard. At least we have made a start.
This is an excerpt from APDR. To read the full story, go here.
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