Home topics technology HR Small Business Strategy HR Customers aren’t the only beneficiaries of Australia’s most innovative companies Amantha Imber September 6, 2016 Australia’s most innovative companies are not just innovating for their external customers, they’re also innovating for their internal ones – their staff. Refusing to be like the plumber with the leaky taps, they are turning their innovation efforts inwards. The Australian Financial Review’s 2016 Most Innovative Companies list features groundbreaking innovations ranging from: a courier service that owns no vehicles, a pornography film that encourages young men to check for testicular cancer, and a portable device that can diagnose infectious diseases without the need for a lab. But one of the things that sets these companies apart from the 1000+ organisations that nominated themselves for the awards, were what happens inside these companies. Serious intellectual horsepower The list was topped by Planet Innovation, who are constantly asking staff to solve not just customer problems, but those internal to the organisation. One of those problems involves table tennis. “Table tennis has taken off recently with grudge matches drawing big crowds at Planet Innovation,” describes Roger Langsdon, Marketing Manager at Planet Innovation. “However, the constant pinging and ponging of the ball can be heard in adjacent meeting rooms where we have clients. The answer of course is not to limit the table tennis activity – that would just be madness.” Rather than place ban on this noisy sport, the team instead turned their efforts to trying to develop a