Not only is Ian Taylor the founder of one of New Zealand’s most innovative multimedia companies, but he just happened to revolutionise the way the world watches sport with the development of real time 3D graphics for the America’s Cup.
But that’s not the only reason we wanted to talk innovation with him.
After 20 years with TVNZ, Ian went on to establish three successful technology businesses in Dunedin; multimedia company Taylormade Media, computer animation company Animation Research Ltd (ARL), and specialist online booking company BookIt.
He shot to fame in the computing world when ARL provided revolutionary real time 3D sports graphics at the 1992 America’s Cup. The company has gone on to expand this technology into a range of global sports, including golf, cricket, tennis and Formula One.
Besides sports, the company has contributed computer animation to television shows both within New Zealand and overseas including: Kiwi documentary series Human Potential, the BBC’s Inventions That Changed the World, and National Geographic’s Mega Disasters.
We should look on it as a strength. Sir Ernest Rutherford is quoted as saying “We didn’t have the money – so we had to think.” That could just as easily be “We are tucked away in the corner of the South Pacific – so we have to think.” We can, and do, provide a special brand of thinking that is valued around the world.
I like the description of innovation as “doing something better today than we did it yesterday.” In that context it applies to everything we do – not just technology. We are wrong to think that technology is the only place that innovation takes place.
The government has recently announced changes to its procurement process. That’s the talk. We will know that they are walking the walk when more small, innovative New Zealand companies start consistently winning government contracts.
No, but I think we need to understand that the knowledge economy isn’t new. Knowledge has always been at the core of successful economies. It was knowledge that created the first refrigerated shipping. We are just dealing with a new level of knowledge and a new way of delivering it. I have every confidence that if we don’t take full advantage of that, our kids will.
That’s not really something I can comment on. I have always worried about taking other people’s money to chase my personal dreams. Perhaps one day I will have an idea that is strong enough to warrant that investment from strangers.
That’s interesting because I don’t ever think in terms of risk. I have never done a risk assessment on anything I have done. Equally, I have never done anything that I didn’t feel excited and passionate about. Even when things have turned bad, like our excursion into Indian cricket, I had no regrets. We achieved everything we set out to achieve. We just happened to get shafted on the way.
I think it is overrated. Personally, I find Kiwis are genuinely proud of what we have done as a little company and it gives me great comfort to know that they care.
We do sport because we love it. But we also build air traffic control simulators, do city visualisation and planning, we work for one of the largest mining companies in the world visualising natural catastrophe data, we built the training simulator for one of the world’s leading F1 Race teams. There are lots of other things we do – but again, the motivation is doing things we like.
It’s unlimited. I was brought up in a house without electricity. I thought turning the light on with a flick of a switch was amazing. I have given up being surprised by the changes technology has brought to our lives. The big challenge is making sure that technology serves us, not the other way around.
