Smart 100 2012

I was building a house in Tassie, partly from the rock rubble lying around the building site. Packing irregular shapes together to form a nice-looking regular structure was hard work and I thought, "A computer can do this." I realised that as well as solving an intellectual problem, the software would enable the use of a local resource, unprocessed quarried rock, which is about 10% of the price and its production results in just 10% of the greenhouse gas emissions compared to manufactured and processed masonry material like concrete, brick and dimension stone. So, great for sustainable development.

I came to realisation that not all recruitment agencies needed to be the same. There was in fact a demand for very responsive and customer-focused recruiters to provide an open-book service. We place a high emphasis on quality and service standards. We employ only the best, most eager young professionals and set the standards for their account management. Our managers remain hands on and lean by example.

Pepperstone created an electronic network linking the trading floors of 22 banking institutions together. Previously linked by primitive systems or phone networks, we noticed a gap in the marketplace for fast and affordable electronic foreign exchange trading. Taking pride in passing all cost savings through to our clients we broke the industry mold and offered some of the lowest commission charges in the industry.

Having spent close to two decades working in the male-dominated corporate arena of investment banking and professional services, I recognise sport is a key way to build rapport with colleagues, clients and senior executives. The Australian culture is pervaded by sport and for those who have not grown up watching or playing Australian sports it can be difficult to engage with others, particularly when much of our corporate networking and social interaction relates to sport.

Technigro CEO Nick Bloor realised that traditional commercial boom sprayers -- which are unuseable in even moderate winds -- created a lack of predictability for when our spraying activities could be carried out and, ergo, a lack of predictability for our clients. He therefore put the challenge to Technigro's R&D department to develop a solution that would allow spraying to be undertaken in all kinds of weather conditions, and thus make it easier to let clients know when work would be carried out.

Our Operations team wanted to become more proactive with leak detection from our water main network in order to a) minimise non-revenue water; b) minimise customer disruptions/frustration; c) minimise repair/reinstatement costs for water main bursts; and d) gain greater understanding of the water network (i.e. make it smarter).

Businesses’ biggest complaints were that they were sick of the quick turnover they faced from agency-found employees, as well as the high costs. Paula decided to fill the gap with an innovative recruitment/HR business, where business owners could talk to business owners through a franchised delivery model.

We all have a passion for giving something back to the community. We wondered if there was some way that we could combine our charity work with business. As a result the concept of Karma Contacts was born. We believe that people should be able to change the world simply through their daily purchases of everyday items like contact lenses.