Combinatorial Confidence: Interview with Victoria Great

Asia P3 Hub
Jul 27, 2017 · 3 min read

Victoria Great is a Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility consultant, with over 15 years of strategic communications leadership experience at Procter & Gamble. She is currently a volunteer Communications Advisor to Asia P3 Hub, and is one of the “Combinatorials” who gave birth to the idea of Combinatorial Innovation.

What have you learnt about Combinatorial Innovation while working with the Hub?

Combinatorial innovation is a new way to approach innovation , whereby you tap into the combined resources and assets of different partners to come up with breakthrough ways to solve problems. In the context of Asia P3 hub and the work that is being done to reach the Sustainable Development Goals, such as clean water and sanitation, this means tapping into resources from different sectors (government, private sector, civil society and Academia). These multiple sectors have talent, knowledge, expertise, or funding which each can contribute to help make progress towards these goals.

A good example is the work with P&G and WorldVision, called Children’s Safe Drinking Water program, whereby P&G provided water purification packets to help clean water in disaster situations, and Worldvision had the network and infrastructure to get it to the communities in need.

How has a new understanding of Combinatorial Innovation changed your approach to your next role, adventure or project?

I have a better understanding and appreciation of different types of equity that each party can bring to the table, which allows for broader and greater shared value in partnerships.

What are some examples of things you learnt from working with your Hub team mates?

I have learnt firstly about start ups, and how to approach putting together a team of people with diverse backgrounds and experience, to work together towards a common vision. In particular how to make the most of limited resources , Christy (Davis, Executive Director of Asia P3 Hub) is a master at this and her network and strong relationships with multiple stakeholders is a real testimony of how to do this successfully.

I have also gained a better insight to the needs, considerations and agenda of the NGO sector, very different to my corporate experience.

What would be the top three highlights for you while working with the Hub?

First of all, the importance of an inspiring and driven leader who sets out a vision and rallies the right people together to make this into a reality. Secondly, the importance of having small, but meaningful milestones to help encourage progress and celebrate achievements along the way. Thirdly, the fact that not everyone has to agree or has to have similar opinions. In fact, having a devil’s advocate or someone with entirely opposing views can help challenge a team to come up with even better breakthrough solutions.

I am more inspired about the change that we can make collectively to ensure the world is a better and more sustainable place, after working with Asia P3 Hub and meeting like minded stakeholders operating in this field.

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An open space to spark and incubate shared-value, market-driven solutions for transformational change. http://asiap3hub.org/

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