Waiting for Silicon Valley to solve the economic, industrial and social ills in Oceania? It might be smarter to pair advanced technology with local wisdom about region-specific problems. What comes out may be groundbreaking, globally scalable products and services.

This is the idea behind Cisco Systems Inc.’s globally dispersed innovation centers; San Jose, California, doesn’t have a patent on innovation. Cisco operates 12 innovation centers around the world. It taps various entities and individuals to collaborate on unique solutions to regional issues. They might be startups, customers, partners, academia or governments.

“The problems for Japan may not be necessarily the same that they are for Australia,” said Alex Goryachev (pictured), director of innovation strategy and programs at Cisco Systems. “What we really want to do is be able to work on an issue of national relevancy and focus on the economic strengths and problems that are in that particular area so that we can make a meaningful impact.”

Goryachev spoke with Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the The Conference Board’s Innovation Master Class event in Palo Alto, California. They discussed Cisco’s innovation centers and the out-of-the-box ideas that come from all-hands collaboration.

All hands get dirty in Aussie agriculture

Cisco goes into collaboration with local professionals eager to get its hands dirty, according to Goryachev. “We want to work with customers that have real problems, and with startups that can potentially close that gap and help us develop a solution with them,” he said.

This involves looking at the country’s priorities, the opportunities that exist there, engineers’ skills, and ideas for development. It’s important to engage the talents of the entire team and be willing to go against the grain, Goryachev added.

“It’s not only about new product development — it’s not only about top line growth. It could be about process improvements; it could be about other things that bring value to the company; it could be about corporate social responsibility,” he said.

Cisco has an innovation center in Australia, whose economy centers largely on agriculture. Cisco is working with a consortium there on agricultural innovation through internet of things connected devices, which could possible scale globally, according to Goryachev.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of The Conference Board’s Innovation Master Class event.

Photo: SiliconANGLE