Deloitte officially launched its new d { } (dee space) innovation lab at the Communitech Hub on Monday, a few days after the professional services firm announced the initiative. During the launch, Communitech News sat down with Terry Stuart, Deloitte’s Chief Innovation Officer, about what the new lab means for the company and for the Waterloo Region tech ecosystem.
Q – How is tech changing the consulting business?
A – Technology is helping us do business much better, much faster, much more efficiently, but also disrupting us. So, think about crowdsourcing capabilities and new technologies that could actually do some of our consulting instead of us. We have to think about both sides; what’s the opportunity, as well as what’s the disruption that’s coming for us.
Q – What does Deloitte want to get out of being in the Communitech Hub?
A – It’s really threefold: 1) looking at sensing; working hand in glove with the startups, seeing what the new technologies and the new capabilities that are being built; 2) taking some of our industries and our clients and saying, what are some of the new solutions that can be built with them; and 3) ultimately changing the DNA of our firm, so, hiring co-ops that have the new capabilities and bringing them in through the journey.
Q – The region is known for its startup activity. What role did that play in deciding to set up in the Hub?
A – We could have put an incubator in anywhere, including inside of our new space that we’re building across the country, but we wanted to be in the centre of the technology activity. Waterloo Region is obviously a great space; I happen to be a University of Waterloo grad from engineering.
So, we’re thinking about how we put ourselves right in the centre of the ecosystem, where all the talent is, where all the new systems development is and the capabilities. And we think that the fact that the Communitech Hub is here will allow us to rub shoulders with the startups and think about how we bring new technologies faster to our larger corporate clients.
Q – What specific plans does Deloitte have to work with the region’s startups and small- to medium-sized enterprises?
A – Right out of the gate, Norm (Malloch, Director of ?Deloitte Innovation Lab), as our activator, and the team are trying to help us connect with the startups that are most relevant. Are there interesting ones in the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine-to-machine (M2M)? Are there interesting ones in AI (artificial intelligence), data analytics and all the way into 3D printing?
How do we bring those capabilities in and think about building them into solutions?
We have industry sessions, where we bring our industry partners down; we have collision days that we are going to do with some of our clients, and make sure that our clients are looking at the startups.
Q – How do you anticipate the d { } lab will work with the existing innovation labs?
A – Several of the existing labs are clients of ours. We’re thinking about how do we co-create potentially, but really it’s about rubbing shoulders and sharing ideas and thinking through challenges that we have; if we have a challenge that they have already solved, sharing that advice and vice-versa.
We will see how it goes. I think the accidental collisions are the ones that are going to be the most interesting here.
Q – Tell us a bit more about the “Discovery” zone. How might that operate?
A – We’ve done a lot of research on exponential technologies and business models, and we created a discovery zone to bring some of those technologies to life for our clients. We’re thinking about how we leverage that here; how we put in some of the technologies and capabilities so that people can touch them, try them and figure out how they can build them into solutions.
For example, we’re looking at wearables applied to safety analytics for mining, so how do we actually bring Google Glass or Moverio glasses into that capability. And we’re thinking about companies like Thalmic Labs and what they are building out. How do we connect the dots and solve really big, really important industry problems?
Q – What are your overall thoughts on the region?
A – Waterloo Region is absolutely one of the crown jewels of Canada and it’s really our technology hub for the country. We wanted to be here because of the access to talent, access to the startup community, the active and vibrant startups and growing and emerging corporations.
