R&D tax incentive (RDTI) A great opportunity to make a difference

The Government has shown they can make decisions and they can make decisions fast.

There is a window of opportunity for government to support innovation in Australia -  and make it attractive for innovators and  IP to stay in Australia. 

They can do this by reigniting the R&D Tax Concession (RDTI) as a tool to encourage Innovation and R&D and  keep Innovators and IP in Oz! 

This should be the focus of the government, rather than its planned $1.8 billion cut to the R&D tax incentive (RDTI). This cut is absolutely the wrong thing to do in a post Covid-19 environment .

Our Treasurer agrees that tax support for innovation is key 

“We need to have a tax regime around intellectual property to attract companies and maintain their investments in Australia,” Mr Frydenberg said in the UK last year.

The easiest way to ignite Innovation is to encourage innovation by expanding the definition  of R&D in the RDTI programme 

Do you agree that the  R&D Tax Incentive to be reignited 

Write “agree” in comments below

 👇👇👇

How Startup funding works - Splitting the Pie

100% of Nothing is a lot less than 17% of a Company 

By Anna Vital - from linked in post of David Synge- Smith 

If you are lucky, you, as the  founder will end up with 20pc of your company after the journey from idea to ipo. 

In my experience, the founder would get around 5pc, as their is usually a seed round, a series A, B and C round before an IPO.

What do you think?

2016 Aussie Businessmen of the Year

 

Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar named by the fin review as business people of the year. 

There tech startup  , Atlassian has grown from strength to strength and now listed at many $billions!

They have built an incredible business and are great supporters of the innovation ecosystem. 

Congrats Mike and Scott - and thanks for being awesome! 

The Instagram Story

Building our Future - Nurturing our Innovators

1n 2002 BSI identified a need to support innovators.... 13 years on, with innovation squarely on the agenda, and 13 years of blood , sweat and tears, helping entrepreneurs and innovators grow, we are looking forward, together with the Superannuation and Investment community,  being a contributor to Australia's future, supporting and nurturing innovation!

Our call for Investment in Startups in 2002.... 13 years on... the time has come!! from Ivan Kaye

Are public companies dinosaurs? Is it better to invest your super in startups and the new economy ? Can the 2 paradigms work together to create a win win win?

Ownership and management

Managers deal with anonymous owners, represented by fund managers who buy and sell shares listed on a stock exchange with no emotion. By trying to align management with stock options aligned to financial returns - short term decisions are made, innovation stifled (you can't go wrong by hiring IBM) and profits tend to be manipulated to manage shareholders expectations (HIH in Australia, Enron, the 2008 banking crisis, what's next?)

Ownership and management of a startup however, is aligned . Founders, staff and backers exert control directly. 

The new way

Young entrepreneurs are creating new firms in shared spaces and collaboration, fuelled by  beer, pizza coffe and dreams- turning dreams into business.

Startups are in every facet of business -  

• spectacles (Warby Parker) 
• finance (Symphony and XERO).
• fashion (BCNU adn Lulu Lemon) 
• Airbnb put up nearly 17m guests over the summer 
• Uber drives millions of people every day. 
• WeWork, an American outfit that provides accommodation for startups, has 8,000 companies with 30,000 workers in 56 locations in 17 cities.

and the list goes on

• Startups exploit new technology, enabling them to go global without being big themselves. They expand  fast and efficiently by outsourcing. 
• They can incorporate online for a few hundred dollars, 
• raise money from crowdsourcing sites such as Kickstarter, 
• hire programmers from Upwork, 
• rent computer-processing power from Amazon, 
• find manufacturers on Alibaba, 
• find designers on 99 designs,  
• arrange payments systems at Square, 
• build their CRms on Zoho and 
• manage their accounting on the phone with Xero, 

and immediately set about conquering the world.

Vizio was the bestselling brand of television in America in 2010 with just 200 employees. WhatsApp was sold to  Facebook for $19 billion with fewer than 60 employees and revenues of $20m.

In Australia ......

Xero , Redbubble. Dimension data,  Rhype, Spectrum Health, 99 designs. Spreets, Canva, Referron, incubation places such as Fishburners and muru-d.

How can ordinary people invest in startups directly through platforms?
There are organisations  who invest in startups such as SeedInvest .

The Australian Government is putting  out a paper in December to encourage this type of investment. WIll let you know... watch this space!

• Is Crowdsourcing sourcing the future? 
• SMSF Investment?
• The ASX and public company can be a brilliant efficient way for startups to scale and give public a chance to share ..... But they will be investing in the people not the machine.

What needs to be done for this to happen?

A change of mindset in the investment community and an ease up on regulations. 

Personally, I am looking forward to the next 10 years to 2025!!!

Creating more entrepreneurs and innovators in Australia

 Australia’s new prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has announced what he calls a “21st century government”. This article is part of The Conversation’s series focusing on what such a government should look like.

Perhaps it’s because spring has arrived, but the change of government seems to have brought new life and more optimism to Australians. Many people – from university colleagues and taxi drivers to wait staff and cleaners – have remarked that they are tired of doom and gloom, and are heartened to hear from our new prime minister that “there’s never been a better time to be an Australian".

They may not understand how to be innovative, but they definitely want to be. They may not know how to get better jobs, but they want them. They may debate the merits of a commonwealth vs a republic, but they definitely want to maintain Australia’s place in the world.

There are three business imperatives for our government leaders to consider as they set out to fix and grow the economy.

1. Balance “strategic vision” with execution

Leaders, whether in business or government, are required to articulate a vision and engender confidence that it’s possible to achieve that vision. Painting a clear picture is necessary but not sufficient. With it must come strategies, goals, tactics and actions for achieving that vision within a reasonable time frame.

Once the plan is developed, the team needs to execute and achieve results. And if the outcomes are better – or worse – than expected, they need to talk about why, and about what they have learned.

2. Recognise that education is the key to our future on many fronts

There’s a growing recognition that we do not have enough students graduating in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

The problem cannot be fixed at the university or even the TAFE level. We need to change the way we educate our children and encourage them to be curious, to experiment and to ask “Why?” We need them to believe that STEM careers are exciting and rewarding.

Universities: To bring universities and business closer, why shouldn’t every student be enabled to have work experience in a company, or a shot at creating their own company? This is one approach being taken at the University of South Australia. The Innovation and Collaboration Centre co-funded by UniSA, Hewlett Packard and the South Australian government is another example.

Founders: Startups need to be taught how to scale up. Co-location facilities are places where people “test out” whether they really want to be in business, or set up business as a sole proprietor. Although it’s great to have a place to test one’s appetite for risk and the will to start a company, Australia will not be able to grow if we are a nation of sole proprietors. So we need to do a better job of teaching startup founders how to grow companies, and enable them to transition from founder to CEO and build companies that create jobs.

CEOs: Established CEOs also need to learn how to grow companies. Too many have grown to a certain size and aren’t sure what to do next, so they plateau and try to protect what they have. The good news is that CEOs can be taught how to grow. Case in point: after nine months in the UniSA Centre for Business Growth’s program, participating companies’ revenues increased 24%, profit by 29% and they created jobs.

Angels: We need to encourage and teach people to become angel investors. There’s a myth that US companies are successful because they get venture-funded. Actually, less than 1% of the companies in the US receive venture capital!

In 2013, while 548 active venture capital (VC) firms were investing not quite US$30 billion, nearly 300,000 angels were investing US$25 billion. Angels invested in 16 times as many deals as VCs (71,000 vs 4,050), including 300 times as many seed stage deals and over 20 times as many early stage investments. Educating and encouraging more people to be angels should have a very positive impact on the numbers of startups that are able to grow.

Australians who have money can choose to consume or invest. But it’s worth noting that in Silicon Valley it’s now more prestigious to have a successful seed investment than to drive a Ferrari. We need to make it “cool” to invest and mentor promising companies in Australia.

Venture capitalists: Assuming we want to create more venture funds in Australia, we need to educate more people to be venture capitalists. The Kauffman Fellows Program is an apprenticeship in venture capital. This program has created a new generation of venture capitalists, with Kauffman Fellows creating more than 100 new funds in the last six years alone. The program has been running for 24 years, but so far there is only one Kauffman Fellow from Australia. At the same time we are increasing the amount of venture capital available to Australians, we need to be sure that those who manage VC funds are effective venture capitalists.

3. Measure and communicate progress

Education is not a quick fix and unfortunately we don’t have much time. The rest of the world is running faster and we need to as well. We will need to prioritise, set goals, allocate resources, execute, measure and report progress.

Measure activity, productivity and outcomes: How many courses are being offered and how many students, CEOs or angels are enrolled in each of these? How many students transition to STEM-related university majors or jobs? Measuring outcomes or results entails looking at the numbers of STEM graduates, additional jobs created, increase in the numbers of growth companies, more university or CSIRO technologies commercialised by Australian companies, growth in angel investments and increase in numbers of companies receiving venture funding and growing. And when we have proof that we are growing, we need to be just as excited as our children are when they discover they have grown several inches since the last time we measured their height.

Communication: The media have an important role to play in amplifying the message, but everyone needs to understand that not all ventures will succeed – and that’s to be expected. The list of reasons why companies fail is very long, and the odds are high that many will fail. The fact that entrepreneurs continue to start companies is a testament to optimism. We need them to continue, and we need to celebrate and support “the man in the arena” who steps into the ring and gives it a try, and not take shots at him or her if or when they fall.

Australia is at a crossroads, a unique moment in time. We have the power to shape our future, but we must act. Balancing vision and execution, recognising the important role education plays in the knowledge economy and measuring and communicating progress are three imperatives for the new government to consider as it works on fixing the economy.

Jana Matthews, ANZ Chair in Business Growth, Director, Centre for Business Growth, University of South Australia

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Hatchtech provides significant exit for Australian VCs

Blue sky, Oneventures, Uniseed, FBs Ventures and QIC has just had an exit with biotech startup Hatchtech, securing a deal worth $280m

Hatchtech is a biotech focusing on the treatment of HeadLice.The technology company offers the only treatment effective in killing both hatched lice and their eggs in a single treatment.

Elaine Stead of Bluesky says that the investors worked well to add value to the startup. 

Hatchtech has reached a commercial agreement with Indian-based Dr Reddy’s Laboratories for upfront and pre-commercialisation payments of $84 million and commercial milestone payments of $193 million.

Blue Sky invested in the Melbourne-based health-tech company in 2013 as part of a $12 million syndicate led by OneVentures.

“The company executed its strategy perfectly and this is precisely in line with the investment thesis,” she says.

it’s a great result for investors, and for the Australian venture capital sector.

“It’s an excellent example of what can be achieved with world class research, innovation and management teams and collaborative venture investors.” 

NICTA NAD CSIRO merge to create one of the largest Digital Innovation Teams in the world!

NICTA (Australia’s chief IT research facility) has merged with CSIRO’s Digital Productivity flagship creating  a new organisation, Data61

Minister for industry and science Ian Macfarlane said Data61would be one of the largest digital innovation teams in the world.

“Both CSIRO and NICTA have an impressive track record in digital innovation and have demonstrated their ability to take homegrown technologies to market,” he said.

“Together they will be a force to be reckoned with, creating an internationally-recognised digital research powerhouse that will benefit Australian industry as it reaches into new global markets and seizes new opportunities for jobs and growth.

“I’d like to thank the NICTA members and the Board for embracing this opportunity to supercharge Australia’s digital research.”

Communications minister Malcolm Turnbull said having a single national organisation would enable Data61 to produce focused research that will deliver strong economic returns.

“The new combined entity will continue to train Australia’s future digital technology leaders through the enhanced PhD programme, with more than 300 technology PhDs enrolled at partner universities,” minister Turnbull said.

“Both CSIRO and NICTA are confident that through this merger, Australia’s digital research capability will be enhanced, providing an opportunity to leverage off complementary strengths to build a better, more impactful capability for Australia.”

Data61 will be led by local technology entrepreneur Adrian Turner - a succesful silicon valley veteran, who said his vision for the organisation is to harness the start-up culture of NICTA and multidisciplinary strength of CSIRO to deliver maximum benefit to Australia.

NICTA was founded in 2002, as part of the BITS programme. Its core purpose was to “build capacity and strengthen investment in strategic information and communications technology research, and improve Australia’s ability to fully capture the productivity and transformational benefits that ICT capability can deliver”.

Exciting times for Innovation in Australia!!

Do share prices move because of quarterly profits - or is it a furfy?

SEEKs share dips - apparently on Executive decision to invest strongly in R&D and Long Term Strategies of accessing offshore markets in lieu of short term profits. 

SEEK's chief executive is taking a stand against short-termism among investors unhappy with his plans to spend aggressively to build a global online job search giant.... With fewer Australian companies investing in growth, investors are showing no tolerance for slowing profits. 

Last week, CSL chief executive Paul Perreault committed to interrupting a decade of double-digit profit growth for just the second time to invest in his manufacturing and sales force and two new drugs treating haemophilia due in 2017. The stock fell as much as 6 per cent in response.

read more from article in Sydney Morning Herald SMH 

Is it true that investors care only about quarterly earnings and short-term stock prices, so companies skimp on R&D?

James Surowiecki in the New Yorker, makes an interesting declaration: short-termism is myth.  http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/24/the-short-termism-myth

According to his article, companies are investing heavily in R&D and getting strong returns as a result of it.  

In a profit-oriented context, investments in knowledge like R&D or knowledge management are easy targets when firms face quarterly earnings pressure - but is that the right decision?

People back innovation and strategic thinking

• Cuts can yield immediate increases in profit, but the impact of those cuts on long-term sustainability can be devastating, as Dell [DELL], Hewlett Packard [HP] and Sony [SNE] have discovered.

• Companies  like Amazon and Tesla and Netflix, whose profits in the present have typically been a tiny fraction of their market caps, have been able to command colossal valuations.

• There a steady flow of I.P.O.s for companies with small revenues and nonexistent earnings. 

• The biotech industry is now valued at more than a trillion dollars, even though many of the firms have yet to bring a single drug to market. 

None of these things are what you’d expect from a market dominated by short-term considerations.

Share value is based on perception by the public, and the ability for the executives and board to make the stakeholders feel comfortable about the risk they are taking in R&D having the potential to generate exceptional returns. 

Its all about communication and trust. 

If you believe in the Board and Executive in SEEK or any stock that you invest in, and believe in their long term vision and its people,  short term profits should not be a factor in determining your support of the share. 

The BSI Ecosystem

BSI Ecosystem

Our organisation is an ecosystem… whereby our pulse is to create generational legacies by assisting our team and people who service our clients and investments. If we can inspire them to love coming to work and do what they do well…. They will provide an awesome service to our clients - helping them create generational legacies!

If they are 50% utilised… we are making good money…. That means they have 50% of excess capacity to add value to BSI’s investments…. So a startup/company  who we “back”  or take an active position in   … gets access to all of our resources…. They can then exit/ become clients/ become a service line.

What BSI does

We help Entrepreneurs create their generational legacies 

Each business unit runs autonomously – ideally 10 – 20 in a business unit….. where the entrepreneur has a stake in the success of the business…..
We have found that as an entrepreneurS starts up…they are passionate at what they do… but as they grow …. There is a whole heap of stuff that happens around them… taking their eye away from the bouncing ball and not focussing what they are good at. 

That’s where we come in…. we provide the backoffice/ structure/ non-negotiable values/ money/ resources/ adminmistration/marketing  … whatever they need to get them to do what they do best….

So instead of a pyramid structure and organisation chart… we are sort of an arrow that goes through all the businesses providing the core services.

I must say… the business has worked a treat over the years….. with some interesting stories… and some amazing results….. also massive challenges…

We are at a stage where  we have lots of bsi brands … and now need to consolidate into one brand to take advantage of synergies…. Challenging…. To say the least…….

Lots of chiefs/vested interests/ a type personalities (especially me! J )

But we are all  looking forward towards the journey to 2020!!

Happy to share more for those who might be interested…

What happens when it all gets wrong before it all starts.

This post was inspired by Luke Hally from Dragonbill 

which was in turn inspired by Mike Moyer who wrote a great article in BRW called "Slicing the Pie" which discusses how to split the pie when there is no money in a start up - equity is split based on relative value that is agreed between the party based on what each brings to the table. (Eg 50/50 or 60/40 or 80/20! ) 

A common dilemma that I have seen all to often in a start - up is when a co-founder of such a company decide to split - but the company is still  effectively valueless 

Situation:-

2 people get together to commercialise an idea  that has been inspired by a pain in the marketplace.

The non- technical founder - the entrepreneur - let's call him Harry

The technical founder - let's call her Nadine

Both have no money - but decide to work together to create an MVP (minimum viable product) that's going to turn into the proverbial Unicorn (the next big thing)

It's now 1 year in - and the MVP is hot! The entrepreneur (Harry) is convinced that customers will be chomping at the bit and that the Unicorn will form.... But there is still much to do.

Nadine has had enough - she wants out - Harry is driving her mad - it's like Harry has come from a different planet and cannot communicate - he does not understand code - he does not understand that it cannot be done - and that it is impossible to do it his way - he is crazy - (it's like coders are from Mars and Entrepreneurs are from Venus :))

The business is effectively still valueless at this point .

Nadine has the code and will not release it until he gets paid for the work that he has done and is not prepared to get diluted!

Harry is seriously pissed off - as he cannot go forward - what does he do?

LESSON

"Whatever you do to set up you company and what ever contract and agreements you have, make sure you regularly get copies of the source code."

It’s not being untrusting or suspicious, it’s being prepared. Aside from arsehole protection, you need to be prepared for accidents or illness. Death or incapacitance is a tragedy, but it shouldn’t kill the business. 

(By the way - make sure you have in place a buy- sell agreement and key man insurance - it is key!!!)

ACTION POINTS to do TODAY

1. Do you have access to the source code for your project? If not, get it sorted out today. Call or message or email your tech cofounder right now and tell them you need to have a backup incase they have an accident, go rogue or die.

2. Get a developers agreement with your developer saying your company owns all the IP

3. Have the talk about equity and make it official - set up a company and have a shareholders agreement - so you all know where you stand and what is expected of each of you. Once everyone knows what is expected of them and the intention is that they will be fairly rewarded, you can focus your energy on building your empire together.

If you need any of the above feel free to email me on ikaye@bsi.com.au .

Technology Disruption will cause current leaders in Industry to disappear in 30 years

 

Insights from Vivek Wadhwa based on his talk from big think on youtube – extracted from April 2015 acuity magazine ( Aus / NZ Chartered Accountants Magazine)

In 15 – 20 years things will be significantly different to where they are now, and Industry leaders who are not ready for these could well dissappear.

Reinvention of manufacturing

•       Robotics and 3d printing – will change the need for employment in manufacturing

Reinvention of finance

•      Banking industry and pivate equity will turnon its head…
•       Bitcoin
•       Crowd funding
•       Crowd lending

Reinvention of healthcare

•        Health data storage and wearable sensors
•        Human genome sequencing
•      Robotic Surgeons
•      Virtual GPs based on data – monitoring.

Reinvention of the energy industry

•       Fracking will make America an energy exporter – reduce need on Middle East
•       Solar energy – now affordable – will eclipse fossil fuel industry
•      With unlimited energy – we can have unlimited clean water – simply boil ocean water!

Reinvention of food industry

•       we don’t have to slaughter animals – we can 3d print our own meat!

Reinvention of communication Industry

• Landlines replaced by Mobiles which is now replaced with data. Just call over skype or zoom and wifi will be everywhere.

The vast majority of companies who are presently the leaders in the industries will cease to exist in 30 years - unless they reinvest the money, energy and resources that is required to reinvent themselves. They should not be protecting legacy businesses and not be overly focused on short term performance.

The survivors will have strong leaders with a solid vision – which includes innovation and the ability to adapt to change.

“Trillion dollar industries will come out of nowhere and will replace existing trillion dollar industries – this is the future we are headed for – for better or for worse! “

Big Corporates - Innovate or Die!!

Innovation is becoming the buzzword - not only in the innovation hubs of startups - but also in the land of the big corporates

Indications that the Bureacratic Disease is setting in

• Are you starting to defend your margins through pricing?
• Is bureaucracy rife and issues re people trying to maintain their positions an, titles and jobs a problem?
• Is it a mission to do something different?
• can you relate to the drain phenomena?
• Is the early vision of your Company exhausted?

A growing number of large brands are investing in non-core innovation for Growth. They must.
Disruption knocks. For some, disruption has all but destroyed the current status quo.

As my mentor Allen Pathmarajah says - when the rate of change on the outside is greater than the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.

there are 2 fundamental reasons why large corporates don't thrive in innovation
1. risk appetite is low and
2. fear of failing

Below are 8 examples of how organisations have started to infuse innovation into their culture

1. Silicon Valley outposts, Nestle detting up a facility there
2. Telstra supporting Muru-D
3. Google supporting Fishburners
4. On-Premise accelerators: Polleniser incubating Spreets
5. Co-location with entrepreneurs, such as the RocketSpace model in San Francisco (soon             NYC and London)
6. Continual learning - The Innovation Masterclass and the 10X Coaching Club and its                   accredited Business Diploma
7. Attending investor forums
8. Create a space where its ok for risky behaviour and the ability to push the edge with the             comfort that its ok to fail 

Many organisations need a good dose of new leadership to make innovation real and sticky.

Innovation is not a nice to have - its a necessity - and its good business.

Steve Blank talks about innovative businesses needing to both improve and invent!

So - in summary

• Continuous disruption will be the norm for corporations in the 21st century

• Continuous innovation – in the form of new businesses-  will be the path for long term corporate survival

• Current corporate organisational models are inadequate for the task

• Look to set up an Innovation Mastermind Group

The video below ( emphasizes that companies will need to have an organization that can do two things at the same time:  executing and improving existing models and inventing  – new and disruptive – business models.

When I speak to a founder of a start-up - it really gets my juices flowing 

They don't talk about building a lifestyle business (which represents 90% of all SME's). My Dad was a pharmacist, and his why was to earn enough money to live well, feed and educate his family and enjoy a day at the races to get is adrenalin pumping…..

Founders of Startups talk about

• How they are going to change the world by doing something important
• They are disrupting
• They are making a massive difference
• They are going to take over the universe
• They are excited and they are on a mission

DO you think there should be a position for an Chief Innovation Officer? 

Can this position be outsourced? 

Would you like to learn more about innovation? 

• -->

5 Initiatives that SME's can Benefit Significantly from the 2014 Budget

Relevant Budget Programmes can be shown in detail at
http://www.budget.gov.au/2014-15/content/bp2/html/bp2_expense-16.htm

• Continuation of EMDG

The Government will provide an extra $50m per annum to the EMDG Scheme.

• Continuation of R&D Tax Incentive

The Government will continue with the R&D Tax Incentive Scheme reducing the entitlement by 1.5% to 43.5% (still significant benefits for Innovative companies)

• Entrepreneurs' Infrastructure Programme — establishment

The Government will replace $845 million suboptimal programmes (such as Commercialisation Australia and IIF Funds  with  $484.2 million over five years to establish the Entrepreneurs' Infrastructure Programme to implement its new approach to industry policy.
The programme will focus on supporting the commercialisation of good ideas, job creation and lifting the capability of small business, the provision of market and industry information, and the facilitation of access to business management advice and skills from experienced private sector providers and researchers.
The programme will be delivered through a single agency model by the Department of Industry to achieve efficiencies and reduce red tape.

• Industry Skills Fund — establishment

$476.0 million over four years to establish the Industry Skills Fund (ISF) from 1 January 2015 to support the training needs of small to medium enterprises which cannot be readily met by the national training system. Industries targeted will include: health and biomedical products; mining, oil and gas equipment technology and services; and advanced manufacturing, including defence and aerospace.
The ISF is expected to deliver 121,500 training places (providing participants with qualifications, skill sets and recognition of both prior learning and current competencies) and 74,300 support services (including mentoring and foundation skills) over four years. Businesses will be required to make co contributions towards the cost of training on a sliding scale depending on the size of the enterprise.

• Community Business Partnership —

re establishmentThe $6.0 million over four years to re establish the Community Business Partnership to advise the Government on philanthropy in Australia. The Community Business Partnership, to be chaired by the Prime Minister, will bring together prominent business and community leaders to provide leadership and high level advice for encouraging growth in volunteering and philanthropy and promote partnerships between business and community organisations.
Further information can be found in the Coalition's Plan to Encourage Great Philanthropy and Strengthen Australia's Charities and Community Groups

(referron programme in conjunction with mission Australia)

The top 100 Australian Innovations

Who says that Australia does not  'punch above its weight' as an 'innovation nation'?

Australians have come up with brilliant innovations and  have created successful products, processes and systems and people based on many of those ideas.

We are more than just a hole in the ground that exports raw materials!

Australians have developed innovations in nanotechnology,  biotechnology, information and communication technology at the cutting edge, and sustainability has become a major driver of Innovation. Mobile technology and Apps continues to change our lives, and we are still innovating in food, household, transported, health, education and leisure.

Innovation is all about trial and error, and over the years, many outstanding innovations have failed for a variety of reasons. It is the entrepreneurs that have an unwavering belief in themselves and their ideas and dreams, and persevere through incredible hardships to make their dreams a success.

We as a nation should encourage these innovator, and entrepreneurs and assist them in any way possible. Many of these innovations would not have occurred without the support of Government Programmes, start up investors (fools, family and friends),  that have enabled these innovators to survive and thrive! Let us hope that the policies of assisting innovation and entrepreneurship is encouraged over the years to come.

In the list that follows, there are some world-changing innovation stories

• like Florey's leadership in taking penicillin from unstable product of a mould to useful life-saving antibiotic, 
• the legendary blackbox that is in every aircraft; 
• That much-cited icon of suburbia, the Victa lawnmower, makes the cut because it created a local industry that has thrived through continual innovation and has earned substantial export income. 
• Other innovations, like Racecam TV sport coverage, which spawned a family of cams including stumpcam and slamcam, serve mainly to brighten up our lives. 
• Referron - the worlds leading referral application

SO HERE ARE THE TOP 100 Innovations of the last 100 years:-

Agriculture and food

1.     Fire-stick farming
2. Boomerang
3. Australian merino
4. Ridley wheat stripper
5. Harrison's mechanical refrigeration

6. Granny Smith apple
7. Peppin merino
8. Ammonia refrigeration to freeze meat for export

9. Stump-jump plough
10. McKay stripper-harvester
11. Wolseley shearing machine
12. Federation wheat
13. McKay Sunshine header-harvester
14. Howard Rotavator rotary hoe

15. Vegemite
16. Nematodes for pest control, by CSIRO
17. Nogall pest control for fruit trees and roses
18. Pink Lady apple





Communication and IT



1. Pre-paid postage

2. Secret ballot, introduced in Victoria in 1856

3. Automatic totalisator
4. School of the Air


5. Mountbatten Brailler

6. Eddie special effects software
7. Ericsson's phone queuing system
8. Passport security
9. WiFi, a spin-off from CSIRO's radio-astronomy research
10. GiFi, NICTA's gigabit wireless chip
11. Jira, collaborative workplace software by Atlassian
12. Imceda – compression algorithms to sequel servers
13. Referron – referral social network system

Energy and environment

1. Goldfields Water Supply Scheme

2. Cactoblastis moth for biological control of prickly pear

3. Snowy Mountains Scheme

4. Flat plate solar hot water system
5. Rib Loc pipes
6. Clean Up Australia (and the World)
7. Buried contact solar cell
8. Orbital Combustion Process engine
9. Evacuated tube solar hot water system
10. Cap-XX capacitors to power mobile devices
11. H2Zero, Caroma's waterless urinal
12. Earth Hour
13. CSIRO ultrabattery
14. Ausra large-scale solar thermal system




Health

1. Tea-tree oil disinfectant
2. Flying Doctor Service
3. Penicillin
4. Begg orthodontic braces
5. Microsurgery
6. Grey-scale ultrasound
7. Resmed breathing aids to treat sleep apnoea
8. IVF embryo freezing
9. Relenza influenza medication


10. Spray-on skin for burns victims

11. Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine

12. Peptic ulcer treatment with antibiotics
13. Compumedics devices for sleep diagnosis
14. Signostics hand-held ultrasound
15. Starpharma dendrimers
16. Cochlear Implant



Household and clothing

1. Brick veneer construction Speedpanel
2. Speedo swimwear
3. Shepherd castors
4. Hills hoist
5. Victa lawnmower
6. CSIRO wool technology
7. Caroma dual flush toilet
8. Balarinji designs
9. Bonds
10. Fashion - Collette Dinnigan, Akira Asigowa, Jets, Zimmerman


Leisure

1. Didgeridoo
2. movie, the world's first being The Story of the Kelly Gang
3. Surf lifesaving movement
4. Fairlight music synthesiser
5. Sydney Opera House
6. Super Sopper for drying sports fields
7. Racecam
8. Water Cube



Mining and manufacturing

1. Froth flotation to separate ores
2. Humespun pipe
3. Continuous refining of lead
4. Warman slurry pump
5. Isasmelt process to win metals from ores
6. Coalscan rapid analysis of coal
7. Jameson Cell for mineral separation
8. Polymer banknote
9. Whittle mine planning software
10. Kelsey centrifugal jig for mineral separation
11. RAFT process for precise production of polymer molecules

Research

1. X-ray crystallography

2. Flame ionisation detector for gas chromatography

3. Atomic absorption spectrophotometer

4. Australia Telescope

5. Gradiflow for separating proteins






Transport

1. Michell thrust bearing

2. Black box flight recorder

3. Baby safety capsule

4. Bishop variable ratio steering

5. Audio-tactile pedestrian detector


6. Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System
7. Wave-piercing catamaran
8. Solar Sailor
9. Thompson coupling
10. Park Assist
11. CAtec’s Caliper Support System



People

1. Kylie Minogue
2. AC/DC
3. Midnight Oil
4. Crowded House
5. Doobie Brothers
6. The Wiggles
7. Barry Humphreys
8. Rolf Harris






Globalisation and Exports

Today, many products are born global, perhaps designed in Australia and made in China for sale in the USA and Europe.

Some innovations on the list are the result of international efforts led by Australians:

• X-ray crystallography, penicillin, 
• the Snowy Mountains Scheme, 
• Sydney Opera House 
• Water Cube, the swimming venue for the Beijing Olympics. 
• The Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS) has been adapted for use in over 30 cities around the world, 
• Parkassist enable one to find parking in shopping centres with a lighting system and has exported their technoloigy around the world!
• The use of tea tree oil as a disinfectant is particularly interesting because this very old product is now used around the world, including as a component of Bactigas for the very modern task of banishing bugs from air-conditioning systems. 
• CSIRO's WiFi breakthrough has been commercialised by several large overseas companies, as has IMCEDA – SQL server compression algorithms , sold to Quest for $60m that then sold to Dell for $1.2b. The founder Douglas Chrystal is now partnering with Ivan Kaye to roll out 
• REFERRON www.referron.com  

Many creative industry companies have international clients. For example, Animal Logic began by creating Eddie special effects software, has continued to innovate, and has enjoyed much success in servicing the film industry.

Sustainability

• The dual flush toilet reduces water use. 
• Vegemite makes good use of a waste product from the brewing industry. 
• Polymer banknotes last much longer than paper, saving energy in manufacture and transport. SCATS improves traffic flow, reducing fuel waste. 
• CATEc in Portland has developed the Caliper Support System. The CSS is designed to significantly extend disc brake pad and rotor life for road transport vehicles.
• The Michell thrust bearing was an early twentieth century innovation that improved energy efficiency. By radically reducing friction compared to older bearings, it reduced the amount of waste heat generated and made large turbines for ships and power stations feasible, leading to further gains in energy efficiency. 
• In renewable energy, Martin Green's team at the University of NSW has long been at the forefront of photovoltaic research, and its buried contact solar cells are made in large numbers overseas. 

There are several other Australian groups contributing in this area,

• Solar Sailor is an application with large potential. 
• Solar thermal has a bright future: 
• Ausra is building large systems in several countries; and millions of flat plate and evacuated tube collector hot water systems on roofs worldwide are based respectively on technology developed by CSIRO and by the University of Sydney. 
• Nulok has develop a tiled roof system that is franchised worldwide. 
• Speedpanel - has produced a building product that is better than Hebel!

Biotechnology

• Nogall was the first genetically modified organism released to the market anywhere in the world. 
• The Pink Lady apple, bred by John Cripps, is the focus of an innovative marketing campaign. It is protected under Plant Variety Rights legislation that was not even imagined in Maria (Granny) Smith's day. 
• Meanwhile, biotechnology tools are being used to assist conventional breeding programs that constantly improve many of our crops and livestock. 
• Starpharma has a core technology (nanoscale dendrimers) that has great potential, it has some diagnostic products on the market, and it is close to releasing Vita-Gel, an HIV barrier with a huge potential market and the potential to save many lives. 

Much of GDP in Australia has been from service based industries while  mining is currently  19% .

Let’s focus on innovation and again become known as the Innovation Nation!