Purple Panda Pty Ltd: an outcome of a concept

The focus of Swinburne Knowledge, at Swinburne University of Technology (SUT), is on the development and commercialisation of university research originating from all areas. In simple terms you are attempting to convince an external audience to invest in an item such as air. It is all around us and essential for life but we can not hold it in our hands, can not see it and find it difficult to put a market value on it. How is success achieved? (1) Lots of steps that build up tangible worth in the eyes of the market; (2) Developing effective relationships with a broad and diverse audience; (3) Having the ability to be flexible, adaptable and not averse to change; (4) Looking with a wide field of view and learning about new things; (5) Building packages that make sense; (6) Management and facilitation on early stages of business development activities; (7) Understanding the differing characteristics of people and ensuring clarity exists. Swinburne Knowledge's mission is to identify opportunities across the university for commercial development, and to support and facilitate commercial activities. By its nature, the unit interacts with a diverse range of activities. This includes identifying and evaluating commercial opportunities, managing intellectual property, business planning, proposal preparation, negotiations, establishing commercial activities, and administering the university's involvement in these activities. We are dealing with novel ideas and intellectual capital then identifying a pathway that takes the concept on a journey of creation and value generation. Simply put it is about making things happen, accepting that it is a hard task and finding a way to move forwards. The critical resource that binds everything is people.