Dr Elaine Saunders is an award-winning audiologist, businesswoman and social entrepreneur who has worked in hearing research and technology for forty years. She is Managing Director and Co-founder of Blamey Saunders hears, the Australian hearing aid and telehealth company, and Adjunct Professor of Swinburne University of Technology. She is also Non-Executive Director of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) and a former Non-Executive Director of Alfred Health. In 2016 Dr Saunders was awarded the prestigious Clunies Ross science Medal for Entrepreneur of the Year.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
When business started difficulties overcame:
“In some ways I don’t think I know what it is not to be an entrepreneur, in that before I was an entrepreneur I was an intrepreneur. When I started this company it just seemed the natural thing to do to just get on and do it. When I started this business I had two difficulties, 1, I had 4 teenage children, the other was our transition from our first company to this one was going from signal processing to making hearing aids, and I needed the approval of the venture capitalists and they were’t really keen on the idea, and that slowed up the start a lot until I could afford to move”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
Malcolm Gladwell’s work, particularly Outliers: The Story of SuccessFavourite Quote:
“You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.” – Wayne Gretzky
Recommended Online Resources:
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“If you know you’re doing the right thing then persist, which goes contrary to a lot of things which says fast fail, but perhaps that’s because you haven’t put enough thought in, so I’d give it more than a first pass at something I’d really try and persist”…[Listen for More]
More About Elaine Saunders:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
Ruben Santiago-Hudson “I try to create an environment where it’s okay to make a mistake, though it’s not okay to be unfocused or come in unprepared. I’m challenging and demanding, but very patient. I don’t tell you how to get there and I don’t show you what to do, though I’ll ask leading questions.”
Other Quotes From the Chat with Elaine Saunders:
- “If you need to see your desk empty at the end of the day, being in a start up is not to you”
- “I want people who really do have good values and want to help other people”
- “I feel very uncomfortable if I let down my team”
- “Where there’s a margin somebody wants it”
- “My biggest skill is finding entrepreneurs who are better at things than me”
- “Working with partners, you’re really working with people. Getting to know an organisation takes a bit longer than a person, but you are making relationships with people, senior or junior, that will take you through the culture and personality of that organisation and give you the opportunity to understand the skill set. In some ways it’s easier to divorce with an organisation but I don’t think you go into a relationship thinking that’s the way it’s going to go, so I don’t think it’s all that different”
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