Tag: smart 100

From my own experience of having a brain-injured daughter as a result of seatbelt injury. I spent hours researching pregnancy and driving and seatbelt effect, and I was convinced that something must be done. Hence, the Tummy Shield was invented.

This innovation initially came to life when two of the founders, Mike and Michael, were looking for a new, innovative online retail product to launch in Australia. The third founder, Jodie, had been designing her own shoes and having them made in Asia for a while. The three co-founders figured this could be done online and the idea for Shoes of Prey was born.

This innovation initially came to life when two of the founders, Mike and Michael, were looking for a new, innovative online retail product to launch in Australia. The third founder, Jodie, had been designing her own shoes and having them made in Asia for a while. The three co-founders figured this could be done online and the idea for Shoes of Prey was born.

Researchers at the ANU collaborated with Volvo in Sweden to explore advanced driver safety systems based on monitoring the driver (instead of monitoring the vehicle or environment). Using a video camera and video image analysis the team learnt to accurately track and monitor the driver's face and facial features. That technology allows the driver's eyes to be monitored (open or closed?) and to track the direction the driver is facing (looking at the road or not?). Crucial innovations along the way include coping with eyeglasses, sunglasses, working night and day, and being fully automatic and remaining off-body/non-contact.

After 25 years in hospitality businesses and at the age of 45 I knew I had one last chance of making it big. Sat down with 18-year-old son (doing business at Uni) and said, this is the big picture of a successful business and lifestyle. It can take you all your life following everyone's path or let's start at the top first. Lifestyle, money, minimal staff, outsource worries, outsource expertise, go national (more money), biggest ROI with least investment. The business dream. 6 months R&D globally distinguishing up-and-coming industries. A fully accountable national advertising platform on digital network.

Emily found herself limping home barefoot after a rather fancy wedding and had found herself in this rather unladylike position a few times in the past, and decided to take action giving ladies the opportunity to get home with (most) of their dignity intact for under $20. The Tipsy Toes concept was researched and product developed between January and June 2009; it was then the business name was registered after some serious "sole searching" for the right name...

This innovation initially came to life when a typically short snow season left the inventor thinking about how he could get the snowboard experience all year long. A love of extreme sport, a desire to ride a board off-road all year long and huge amount of ingenuity allowed the inventor to construct a proof of concept. It took 10 years from having the idea to riding the proof of concept in 2004. The outcome will be the best of skating / snowboarding / motoX all combined into one awesome electric powere off-road product.

Paul, Southern Innovation’s founder, was researching new technologies for the detection of antipersonnel landmines. Landmines, which lie active for decades after a conflict, are one of the most insidious artifacts of conflict, severely restricting communities getting back on their feet. Paul was investigating technology which could detect the explosive in the landmines; however, the detectors were so inefficient that detecting a single landmine could take 20 minutes. Paul and his PhD supervisor Prof. Rob Evans came up with a data-processing algorithm which would provide a twentyfold improvement in the efficiency of radiation detectors.

Our business concept came to life when we had both permanently swapped our weekends for 20+ hours working as lifeguards. During this time we discovered that we had both studied Logistics, were passionate about business, technology and innovation, and hated the idea of working for someone else. We realised that we had complimentary skills. I have the tech/web knowledge; Michael has experience in the logistics industry, providing him with insider knowledge and many contacts. We knew that by working together we were in a unique position to innovate in an industry that wasn’t keeping pace with new technology.

The founding technical directors came together in 2006 as individual contractors to contribute specific intellectual property to some unique product development. In 2007 the group identified a safe, environmentally friendly opportunity: an energy efficient, direct replacement for halogen downlights. The science behind Indice Ecotech had started to evolve at that time and it was recognised that it could make a meaningful contribution to saving lives, property and the environment. This valuable research has produced a rich suite of additional lighting products that will replace old inefficient and costly products in fields that naturally lend themselves to Indice Ecotech’s control technology.

Melbourne physiotherapist Luke Goodwin wanted to continue to make a difference in the area of falls prevention in the community, aged care and hospital environments. Following on from his internationally successful GripSox product, the REDuce Falls Sox are special ‘red’-coloured GripSox that allow staff members in hospitals and aged care facilities to easily identify a patient who has been assessed as a high falls risk, and therefore is someone requiring extra supervision to help reduce the chance of a fall. The socks therefore provide both a non-slip effect as well as a very important visual identification.

A bright idea in response to a customer’s need to analyse multi-dimensional data, led to the development of a new type of business intelligence (BI) software by QlikTech in Sweden in 1993. They called this new software QlikView because it provided a point-and-click simple way to view data. QlikView is now a global phenomenon and delivered to Australia by Inside Info since 2003. The founders of Inside Info could see that the time, cost and complexity of traditional BI software was underwhelming. They chose to change this, developing QlikView applications that greatly simplify how businesses measure and analyse business performance.

From dealing with a number of international brands such as Red Bull, Toyota and Microsoft we realised that Australian subsidiaries have a challenge in identifying local content. Customers had to deal with ‘noise’ as they tried to determine what conversations are local and what they should care about. We needed to work out a way of pinpointing where conversations were happening beyond a domain basis (all the main social media sites are .com so would be attributed to the US). Our technology can now take a conversation sat on any domain and pinpoint the creator down to a suburb level.

We were designing the mozo.com.au website. We realised that many people who shop around for loans and credit cards already have one. While other parts of the site provided a wealth of information about available products, we also wanted an interactive tool that started with the user’s existing product and picked out those products that would save them money. And once we started to develop Health Check we realised how impossibly difficult (and time consuming) this would be for the average person to do by themselves.

We understood the need for a comprehensive college management system that incorporates various business processes simplifying the management of Registered Training Organisations using one system to manage efficiently and effectively.

This innovation came to life after a discussion with a friend who owned an Ice manufacturing and distribution business in Adelaide. I noticed there was a blank space on one side of the bag and asked him why he didn't sell the space off to advertisers. We also discussed the vast opportunities due to his distribution network into all supermarkets and convenience stores. From this we looked at potential markets and agreed to trial the concept through his business.

I accepted a consulting assignment to help an ASX 100 organisation improve the way its staff sourced and selected external service providers. I was astounded at the difficulty and inefficiency staff faced in simply trying to work out which Service Providers in the market had the ideas, experience, capability and availability they needed. It went beyond business managers being frustrated at wasting time. The organization was at significant commercial risk from poor process and selection. Ironically, service providers were still struggling to find good clients. It didn’t make sense. When I realized this was common across industries, the penny dropped.

We used to be an outsourced sales and marketing organisation conducting campaigns for SMEs right up to large brands such as 3 mobile. We now use this ability of putting in place a sales and marketing division, in order to acquire a large equity stake in the businesses we work for. We have now become a hybrid blend of a private equity firm and a sales and marketing organisation, implementing sales systems and structures in exchange for up to 40% ownership in the business. A model such as this is a world first.

Business coaching is delivered 1-on-1 at a cost of $2000/month. Results vary and the industry is overrun by advisors that have little understanding of financials and no systems to track financial results. Many SMEs need help but cannot afford this type of coaching. IP represents a paradigm shift in the way that business coaching is provided - online, anytime and leveraged. It all comes down to the numbers and the numbers don’t lie. IP pinpoints pain and teaches owners how to improve their bottom line and cash flow. SMEs access the best coaching available at a fraction of the cost.

ImGreenPowered is a simple and easy way for individuals or organisations to minimize their impact on the environment in an overt way so that you the consumer can show others how green and responsible you are and how easy it can be for others to offset the negative environmental impact of an everyday product like a Mobile Phone or Laptop computer, a front-of-mind product most of us use every day.