6 November 2007
Dimity Dornan, Governor General, and Sarah Davidson
The commercialisation process for the Hear and Say Centre for Deaf Children's new export program, "Hear and Say WorldWide", started in a UQ MBA class.
Sarah Davidson, a 2006 UQ Business School MBA graduate, developed a business plan for licensing the Hear and Say Centre's unique end-to-end service delivery model, "The Hear and Say Way", as part of her Advanced Entrepreneurship course within the MBA.
For Ms Davidson, previously a Solicitor and Management Consultant, the process has involved working with the Hear and Say Centre in a number of areas including strategic planning, intellectual property identification and protection as well as preliminary market research and business case preparation.
Hear and Say WorldWide is a world-first Hearing Health Team Education Program which will involve establishing multi-disciplinary healthcare teams and a clinical professional training program to identify and treat babies and young children with hearing loss in selected international destinations.
Hear and Say WorldWide has been developed by the Hear and Say Centre staff and Board in consultation with various partners including the Queensland Government, Austrade and the Australian Institute for Commercialisation.
The program was officially launched last week by Hear and Say WorldWide Patron, His Excellency the Governor-General Major General Michael Jeffery, AC, CVO, MC from his residence at Admiralty House in Sydney.
Ms Davidson, Business Development Manager for the Hear and Say Centre said, "Hear and Say WorldWide will allow us to deliver our world class end-to-end hearing healthcare model and pioneering Australian technology into new global markets."
"We will lead the way in not-for-profit sector contribution to Australia's innovative knowledge economy by developing early intervention training, service delivery and technology export markets in Asia Pacific and Europe.
Hear and Say WorldWide will operate as the export arm of the Hear and Say Centre. Preliminary work was commenced this year in Russia, Germany and Papua New Guinea.
According to Ms Davidson, "The Hear and Say WorldWide program is expected to generate long term sustainable revenue streams to support the Hear and Say Centre's service delivery to children with hearing loss and their families throughout Queensland."
"At present 93% of children from the Hear and Say Centre program graduate into mainstream schooling with their hearing peers, compared to a success rate of only 33% in Europe and even less in developing countries.
Mrs Dimity Dornan A.M., Managing Director and Founder of the Hear and Say Centre, established the not-for-profit organisation in 1992. The Hear and Say Centre has since been widely recognised for its innovative approach to enabling children who are deaf to listen and speak using natural spoken language.
Sarah Davidson was last week awarded a 2008/2009 Vincent Fairfax Ethics in Leadership Fellowship, and won the Wilson HTM - MBA Director's Award for Academic Excellence and Leadership at the UQ Business School's 2005 Top MBA Awards.
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