It’s been so refreshing to see the emergence of digitalisation in the corporate landscape and how it was once a small part of teams trying to innovate.

Now, digital change and transformation are on every company’s leadership and cultural agenda. Digital innovation and transformation are necessary to stay ahead of the competition, exceed customer’s expectations and improve performance. The disruption from startups has contributed to this change.

Corporates are not only innovating by creating new software solutions for themselves to be more efficient, or creating new channels to be faster to market, but are also innovating by acquiring startups. We are seeing these two worlds merge as corporates find the need to reach new customers, access new skills or expand globally and into a new market.

According to a KPMG trend report, US $630 million of Venture Capital has been invested in Australia over the 2017-18 financial year.

We see large corporates create dedicated strategic venture teams to focus on these investments in startups. NAB, for example, is increasing investment in their corporate venture fund which will see it at $100 million by 2020. They have invested in over 12 FinTech startups providing the bank with access to world-class technology.

SEEK has strategically invested in startups that are aligned to them such as Digitary and Sidekicker, partnering with these businesses and being part of the disruption taking place in the employment and learning sectors.

It’s impressive to see how digital transformation has evolved and to hear about the successes of startups. We will continue to see corporates innovate and broaden their offerings by investing in and acquiring startups throughout 2019. The corporate world is recognising the need to work with startups and be agile.

Why I joined MitchelLake Group

This evolution is one of the reasons I decided to join the MitchelLake Group – merging corporate and startup recruitment.

MitchelLake works with the most exciting tech companies in the world. They have a global reach with offices in San Francisco, Singapore, London, Sydney and Melbourne, and are the only recruitment firm in Australia with global access to market insights from the startup ecosystem.

MitchelLake are experts in the tech space and have an in-depth approach to research methodology accessing the best global tech talent.

Clients have included – Qantas, Facebook, Etsy, EY, ebay, dropbox, atlassian, Snapchat, Redbubble, 99designs, Envato, Flippa, McKinsey Digital Labs, Campaign Monitor, Xero, Yammer, Hooroo, Aconex, Vend, Wikia, Avanade, Lonely Planet, Hotels Combined, Groupon, The Iconic, Boston Consulting Group, 12WBT, ANZ Bank

My background

I have invested over 16 years developing deep networks across Digital, Marketing and Product and ensuring the recruitment strategy is always aligned with my client’s overall business strategy.

I have worked with both local and international markets and was a co-founder of a boutique executive recruitment firm. I have also worked for a global listed recruited firm as well as for internal recruitment teams in the UK.

With a passion for digital innovation within corporates, I advise growth businesses on how to build successful teams.

Sources: Smartcompany.com, Business Insider, AFR, KPMG, NAB Ventures