CHANGE MAKERS
The Australian RV industry is evolving. New technologies, construction methods, products and ideas are making caravanning easier, safer, more self-sustained and environmentally responsible.
Innovation is playing a huge role in this exciting shift. From simple adjustments to processes to large scale construction overhauls and high-tech advancements, the wheels of the industry are slowly turning in a different direction.
But exactly what is innovation in the RV context, how has it played a role thus far and what lies ahead? Here, industry leaders offer their perspectives on how the industry has fared, and their predictions on how well it can pivot to accommodate changing customer demands, cost efficiencies and ‘disruptors’ intent on flipping the RV sector on its head.
WHAT IS INNOVATION?
Dr Albert Szent-Györgyi, a Hungarian scientist credited with discovering and isolating vitamin C, said: “Innovation is seeing what everybody has seen, and thinking what nobody has thought.”
It’s a fitting quote given the myriad of responses to consumers, economic and environmental factors and competition. Everyone is looking at the same market, but not everyone is doing things in the same way they always have.
It’s often assumed that for something to be innovative, it has to be on the same scale as inventing the smartphone or creating the next Airbnb platform. Not so. Small changes can be powerful ones, too, says Louise Bayliss, CEO of battery and power management systems company BMPRO.
“Innovation does not necessary mean technology, innovation can mean a more efficient and effective way in the manufacturing process, using different more sustainable materials — the
