Global innovation magazine_issue10

ISSUE 10
JAN 2017
Innovating with
Team Sky
a new product that
has got the world of
swimming talking
-
The
Powerbreather
How to Put a Value on an
Athlete’s Brand?
-
Tactical
Sports
Software

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CONTENTS APRIL 2016
002 | FOUNDERS VOICE
THE SPORTS ISSUE
004 | AMSilk & Adidas
Jens Klein CEO of AMSilk talks to us about
the trainer collaboration with Adidas
that produced a pair of biodegradable
trainers using AmSilk’s innovative
material Biosteel© (a nature based high
performance fibre).
006 | Brandix
Brandix gives football players and
clubs real time value based information
coming out of playing performance
and off-field digital activity. Interview
with CEO Jon Rosenblatt - Jon talks
about his journey from post room at
Virgin to CEO of one of the most
exciting start-ups in the UK.
008 | Globall Coach
The Globall Coach software has evolved
from a tool devised by football coach
Rafael Benitez, to become one of the most
talked about companies operating within
the world of football. Special Projects
Manager, Ciaran Skinner, gives us the
inside take on working within one of
the most glamourous sports in the
world, and how things are not always as
they seem.
010 | Team Sky
Are a British professional cycling
team that compete in the UCI World
Tour, and arguably are one of the
most successful teams in modern
sport. We talked to Simon Jones the Head
of Innovation and Performance to hear
about his career, and how ‘being in the
right place, at the right time’ was crucial.
014 | Kitman Labs
Kitman Labs was founded by Stephen
Smith, a former Irish rugby head trainer.
Starting in 2012 Stephen and the team
aim to turn abstract data into real-time
actionable insights, ultimately reducing
player injuries and optimizing athlete
performance.
016 | News
A few things that caught our gaze.
018 | The Powerbreather
Interview with Jan von Hofacker who
talks to us about this innovative new
product that has got the world of
swimming talking.
020 | NYU Stern Innovators
Cliff Thornton takes us back to his old
University and discovers some of the
exciting and innovating companies that
some of the alumni are spearheading.

GLOBAL INNOVATION | JAN 2017
FOUNDER’S VOICE THE SPORTS ISSUE
As a fan of the football team, Leicester City, 2016, for me is not going to
be a year that is ever going to be repeated. What I mean by this is that
my little team, a team not over washed with success during its history,
won arguably the greatest prize in world club football, the Premier
League during 2016.
2016 brought so much happiness to this small part of the world. I
watched every game with anticipation and a perplexing sense of wonder,
because never, ever, had I seen my team play this way before. As a father
of 3 young boys however I did have to explain to them that this doesn’t
really happen to Leicester City Football Club, and that they should suck
it up, because it will never happen again.
2016 also brought us Leicester City fans back down to earth because
a new season started. Within this new season we have shown our old
qualities again, our very old ones which means we are now losing more
than we win. It’s not easy, and to quote the band ‘James’ in their seminal
hit ‘Sit Down’, “If I hadn’t see such riches I could live with being poor”.
Anyway, chin up. This is our sports issue of 2017, and the 2015/16
football season was my sporting moment of a lifetime. I hope you enjoy
the issue as well as finding it interesting enough to dig out some of the
companies and products featured.
Best
James O’Flynn
Founder
JAMES@GLOBALINNOVATIONMAGAZINE.COM

©VisitBritain
founders voice |002

AMSILK & ADIDAS |004
AMSILK & ADIDAS Collaboration and Creation
adidas has partnered with AMSilk to develop the first
premium innovation footwear made using silk biopolymers.
What this means in real terms is that they have together
developed the world’s first performance shoe using Biosteel®
fiber, which is a replication of natural silk. Take this one step
further and it means that the trainer is 100% biodegradable
in a fully natural process. This continues the adidas’ journey
towards sustainable innovation – from a starting point of
virgin plastics, to recycled plastics, to its partnership with
Parley for the Oceans and now a totally new frontier of
investing in solutions that leverage science and nature as an
integral part of innovation.
Collaborating with adidas provides a unique set of exciting
opportunities for AMSilk, as did the initial development phase
so Jens Klein, CEO of AMSilk, told GIM’s James O’Flynn.
Tell us about yourself Jens.
I grew up in the south of
Germany with 2 sisters and
studied business administration
at University. I worked as a
management consultant for
some time, and earned an MBA
whilst in New York. I grew up in
Stuttgart. Working in America
was great, New York is one of my
favourite cities.
Tell us about your work
at AMSilk
I am CEO of AMSilk, where we
are providing silk biopolymers
with unique functional properties.
We are producing them
sustainably using a patented
and optimised biotechnological
process, which is very mindful
regarding the use of energy
and carbon. This makes us a
leader in the field of industrial
biotechnology. We hope that
our products will have a huge
effect on the protection of the
environment, one example
being, the shoe we have just
made with adidas, which is fully
biodegradable.
How did this collaboration
with adidas occur?
We came up with the bionic
fiber, which has all of this
environmental integrity, and we
spoke to and got into conversation
with adidas. There was a good
connection and the relationship
developed. The product that came
out of this work with adidas looks
cool and it has all the properties
of a high-performance shoe,
and at the same time you have
a fiber which is biodegradable
and unique. The future of this
material is really exciting.
What is your companies
approach towards
innovation?
In general innovation is an effort
which takes years so you need
good leadership and resource
management. Innovation should
be part of your business strategy.
We have great ideas of course,
but it boils down to making it
happen, to bringing it to market
and that takes time and effort.
We encourage our staff to come
forward with ideas which is also
really important for innovation.
We want to be a major player with
our products so we have to be
quite diligent and focused upon
the innovation process.
What advice would you have
for your younger self on your
first day at work?
Be interested and excited but keep
some excitement back for the
months to come. Take a deep,
long breath!
Any books you would
recommend to our readers?
I like this book a lot, ‘Against the
Gods: The Remarkable Story of
Risk’ by Peter Bernstein. Risk is
so important in business and we
often forget that, this book places
risk front and centre and I found it
to be really useful.
What words of advice have a
family member given you?
My parents always told me to
walk the talk and to be reliable.
Especially when you work in a
small organisation like AMSilk,
‘walking the talk’ means a lot, it is
really important.
What are you currently
working on?
The most important thing is to
take our product to the world
and to make it available to people
everywhere. We are really proud
of it and we think that it can have
a definite impact in so many
different future products and
innovations.

Brandtix IN A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN.
Brandtix are the sports industry’s first ever global index
platform, for real time athlete brand value analytics. What
does this mean? In short Brandtix take several streams of data
in relation to athlete’s, from their performance and sporting
prowess to their social media value and combine them to
enable understanding in relation to each athlete’s brand.
If that still doesn’t make sense, it all becomes much clearer
from talking to their CEO Jon Rosenblatt, which is what
Global Innovation Magazine did.
Tell us about yourself
I grew up in Liverpool, until
I was about 13 then I moved
down south. I was educated
in Hertfordshire from 13 to 18
at Aldenham school. Did my
A-Levels there, and ended up
doing a theology degree at Oxford
Brookes. When I was 21 I knew
that theology wasn’t going to be
for me, and I always wanted to get
into entertainment, I wasn’t sure
how or when it would happen but
I knew that it was for me, music,
TV, Video games that whole world
was so exciting.
I landed a temp job in the post
room at Virgin Interactive which
was Richard Branson’s original
gaming company. I was basically
in the post room but part of my
job, i.e. delivering mail meant that
I got to meet lots of interesting
people, lots of the executives, and
I got to know some of them quite
well. That then got the head of PR
to realise that I could be good for
them, as I was good at talking to
people. That is what PR is isn’t it?
Literally from that day on I was
in the video games business for
about 20 years. I worked for big
corporations like EA Sports and
Ubisoft. At EA Sports I become
Marketing Director for Europe
and Asia. Amazing time and
amazing years.
So why start Brandtix?
I did feel like there was an
opportunity being missed, I have
always been analytic and insight
driven. In marketing I think you
can be either creative or analytic
and I am very analytically driven.
For any Chief Marketing Officer
today I think you need that perfect
blend between art and science
and if you have got that you’re
onto a winner.
Brandtix was created a year ago,
to solve the challenge I had at
EA Sports which was working
with sport talent to endorse a
product, but never really truly
understanding the value of the
brand on 2 legs. So, if I look at
Ronaldo, Lebron James or Rory
Mcllroy they are brands, they
just happen to also be humans.
We would end up spending a
fortune with consultants in the
past trying to work this out and
often all we got were very old
reports, based upon old thinking
that didn’t really produce value. It
dawned on me that to understand
an athlete’s value on any given
day you had to take lots of data
streams and put them together
in real time. So, with someone
like Ronaldo for example we
are taking performance data i.e.
how he performs on the pitch,
and blending the on-pitch stats
over the course of a period of
time, together with his social
media statistics, where the fans
are coming from, when and how
they are engaged, and wrapping
sentiment analysis around this to
understand the fans discussion.
We have built a 24/7 index
currently of 1500 footballers
across the Premier League and
Champions League. We are now
looking at branching this out
across multiple sports, both team
based and individual. Things are
going really well.
What were the challenging
parts of the journey?
The tough bits are trying to
convince investors that you
are going to disrupt a very
established consultancy and way
of business. Sports as an industry
is the most exciting sector in
the world. However as forward
thinking as they are , only last
year was a billion dollars spent
in sports technology which is not
a lot of money if you compare
the market and compare it next
to other markets like fintech.
Sports sponsorship on its own
is worth 60 billion dollars and
yet only a billion was invested
in the tech side of things. It is
changing though. This is where
the opportunity is for us.
What is your current
business model?
Clubs may take our product for
one player, or a brand may take
if for all their boot wearers, there
are lots of different kinds of
customers and opportunities. We
sell a subscription to our product
which provides incredibly rich
data and the opportunity to get
insight via reports. Subscription

to our dashboard, reporting and
customisation of our tools are all
areas that customers can buy.
We want to be across all sports
and this is our ambition but
presently we are football and
Formula One focused. We are
looking at moving quite quickly
into other areas though. No
one does quite what we do, by
wrapping up sentiment data and
performance data to come up
with one overall score. There are
some great data sports companies
around sponsorship and social
indexing, but our advantage is
that we are unique.
Do you find it a challenge to
get the right staff?
I think that we have been really
lucky, in the sense that we have
been able to attract talent that
want to work on really cool
products. Developers that we have
met in the past perhaps, whilst
they may have had the experience
and expertise, have perhaps found
that it can be culturally quite
different to go from working in
a bank or insurance company to
working for a start-up. We are
seeing more and more interest in
people wanting to work for us.
Any books that you would
recommend?
Leading by Alex Ferguson was
brilliant. I think he was one the
most incredible leaders the world
has ever known.
Do you have any words
of advice for people
looking to follow their
business dreams?
I think ‘focus’ is something which
needs to be at the forefront of
what you are doing. 30 people will
give you 30 different bits of advice
so if you try and follow everyone
you will get nowhere.
How is the business going?
It has been a huge challenge we
are a young start up in a very
competitive space, but we are
getting traction now. Since the
start of the season things have
been going great. We have been
voted one of the best tech start
up’s in the world, we are getting
there but to do anything properly,
it does take time.
BRANDTIX |006

Globall Coach Coaching on a Global Scale
Soccer or football as us Brits prefer to call it, has no shortage
of money floating around it, and you would think that
would equate to an eco-structure that was at the forefront
of innovation, and development. Well, that’s not quite as
you would probably think, but things are accelerating at a
massive pace currently. There are a number of start-ups and
more established companies that are focusing on technology,
software and analytics to support the beautiful game.
Globall Coach are one such company, who are taking the
coaches thoughts on tactics and approaches towards the
game and making them adaptable and visualised for all
staff and players to see. In the old days, a manager would
move magnets around a board, or use a marker to illustrate
tactics. Globall Coach enables this all to be done digitally,
via software.
Global Innovation Magazine spoke to Ciaran Skinner, special
projects manager at Globall Coach to get his take on how
football has evolved to embrace this new type of technology.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself Ciaran?
I’m the special projects manager, the man in the middle between the
users of software, clubs, coaches etc. and my colleagues at Globall Coach.
Our new ideas all come from the users, so it’s my job to ensure that the
customers are happy with it and to feedback any improvements that are
suggested. Feedback tells us that our product is the closest thing to football
that is out there.
I’m 25 and a massive fan of football, grew up in Sheffield and went to
university in Liverpool and studied human biology. I came across Globall
Coach via a previous job, and I told them that I loved the product, started
working for them, worked really hard and naturally fell into the role that I
do now.
Can you give us an overview of the product.
There is nothing else out there like us, and we don’t really have many
rivals, paper and pen perhaps, because if you need to get ideas out of your
head as a coach then that’s what you probably use. We are designed for the
professional sports arena to help coaches with the delivery of tactics. We
make life a lot easier and give great presentation options. It’s a central hub
for all the ideas and tactics towards the development of the team. When we
start to show people the product people start to get enthused and it starts to
click and people get excited. The software looks the same on all platforms
and people are really responsive to it.
The tactics come from the coach, they may have analysed the opposition,
they may have an idea as to how they will approach the game, but it’s when
they tell the players this, when we come in. They can use Globall Coach and
create animations really quickly. Every coach can have a log in and share
with other staff and players.

GLOBALL COACH |008
Where did the idea come from?
Our CEO worked for the football coach Rafael Benitez, as part of his staff.
Rafael needed to get some of his tactics across as part of an event and the
idea came from there. It came from inside football. The insight that we get
from all parts of the game is so valuable, we can come up with ideas but if I
talk to a professional coach we get to hear direct what is needed. As we are
unique we can’t necessarily borrow or innovate from others who are doing
the same thing, because no one really is doing what we do.
It must be a dream job for a football fan?
It is, yes. Although for other fans looking in the reality is probably not quite
what people would imagine. Its hard work but rewarding, particularly
working with customers, coaches, players and getting feedback and then
using that to improve the product.
What is the business model?
It’s an annual license, so we have one product for professional football,
but this market is not as big as you would think. We have another product
called Globall Coach Junior which is for the grass roots teams. It is popular
in America where they have an incredible amount of youth players and the
market is really big for that particular product.
Do you have a particular approach towards innovation?
We have an in-house development team, they are really talented so it’s great
to be working with them. We are honest, so if we can’t do something we
are quite upfront, which I think is refreshing. We work with Agile in short
sprints and iterate constantly so there is value being delivered all the time
for customers. We can get fast feedback from customers this way and rather
than doing all the planning up front with slow delivery, we are fast because
we are delivering after every sprint.
Is there any advice you wish you would have had at the start of
this journey?
I have worked really hard and the software is becoming successful and
getting better. You just need to make sure that you focus on what is needed
‘now’ for the customer. Sometimes people miss the focus on the product,
and developing it via speaking to the customer. That’s really important. I
was always think that football gets a bad reputation and that it gets hit with
a big stick, but other sports can learn a lot from football. There are some
really clever things going on at the moment.
Learn more about Globall Coach at their website www.globallcoach.com

TEAM SKY |010
Innovating at
Team Sky
‘Innovation is very seldom
this eureka moment, it comes
from a lot of hard graft’.
Team sky are the cycling team that need very little
introduction. Suffice to say that they are the cycling team that
the man on the Clapham omnibus could name. What is also
quite well known about this cycling team is that they have a
culture of success, of perfection and endeavour to reach the
very top, and you don’t get to that place without innovation
being part of your dna.
To that end it made perfect sense for Global Innovation
Magazine to talk to Team Sky’s, Head of Performance
Support and Innovation, Simon Jones, to get the lowdown on
innovation at Team Sky.
Tell me a bit about
yourself Simon?
I come from Bristol. I was a really
keen cyclist from a young age,
from about 11 that was my passion
and I always used to watch the
cycling on television, particularly
the Tour de France. Academically,
I wasn’t great at school, I always
just wanted to be a bike rider, I
grew up on the edge of quite a
rough part of Bristol and my
memories of school are not great
to be honest.
I followed my passion for cycling
and raced in France for a year as
an amateur, I wanted to be a pro
but didn’t make it. My friend then
told me about a degree course
called ‘sport science’. I managed
to get enough A-Levels for me to
think about pursuing that course.
Back then though there wasn’t
really the career path in sport
that there is today, unless you
were a pro.
I went to Cardiff University in
1992, I managed to get on that
course without having a massive
science background. I learnt quite
quickly and realised that physics
was a massive part of cycling, and
found that really interesting. My
interest wasn’t in the academics
per se, but really in the application,
so taking the science and applying
it to particular situations.
Do you live in the
Bristol area?
I do. I moved back recently after
spending years in Manchester UK,
and before that some time
in Australia.

What did you do after
University?
I got a job with British Cycling,
as a sports scientist on a part
time basis, after seeing the ad
in the Guardian newspaper. I
remember flicking through and
seeing the advert and being
surprised to even see such a job.
There really wasn’t many jobs
in this area of sport back then.
So, that was that, I did that for
a few years and that was just
before the lottery money came
into the system. I then became
an endurance coach, without
too much experience of doing it
beforehand actually. My career
really has been about being in
right place at the right time.
Tell us about your role at
Team Sky.
I support the team, and I horizon
scan in regards to knowledge.
Looking for things that will
improve the performance of the
team is perhaps the easiest way
to describe what I do.
That sounds quite wide.
It is, but we have a performance
framework so I’m always
looking at things that we
know will have an impact. Our
framework keeps us focused and
in line with our culture.
What is the culture at
Team Sky?
I guess it is one where people are
never satisfied. We are always
thinking about how we could do
better, never standing still. The
reason why? is perhaps that
we just don’t like to lose, and
if you don’t like losing that’s a
great impetus for change and
review. That’s the unsexy bit
of innovation, there is a lot of
intensity and soul searching. No
one is settling for second best.
Any examples that you can
share with us as to how you
have improved aspects of
performance?
If you’re looking at innovation
from a continuous performance,
improvement perspective, then
there have been lots of examples
as to how we have improved.
Aerodynamics for one, we
worked quite closely with other
organisations on improving
things in that area, Jaguar the car
manufacturer for one. This area
will always be key for us here, it
is so important.
Modelling and prediction are
also another key area that we
do lots of work around, looking
at strategies around team and
individual performance, then
looking at how we can implement
those key findings into the field
of competition. Once we start
thinking about problems we
often find those small gains,
those marginal gains are really
important as we win and lose on
that basis.
The things that failed, are always
the good ones to look back on
as well. We tried to implement
some ideas around having data
displayed to the riders through
various visual technology, heads
up display that kind of thing, but it
wasn’t quite there at the time. It’s
not a new idea, but embedding it
at that particular time, was just not
working 100%. We got some great
feedback though from the riders
and that’s all part of the process
of development. Innovation is
very seldom this eureka moment,
it comes from a lot of hard graft,
but we are intensely focused and
we are always searching for new
opportunities for improvement.
Are there any books or films
that you would recommend
to our readers?
A really like space and space
exploration, so the film
‘Interstellar’ was great. I am quite
aware of the science behind it, at a
lay level at least, so I got it.
In terms of books I am more of
a scanner and a flicker rather
than a book reader. However I
was listening to a podcast by Dr
Michael Gervais the other day
which was good, all around the
psychology of high performance,
I can recommend your readers
looking into that and checking out
his work.
You can find out more about Team
Sky at www.teamsky.com

TEAM SKY |012
“we just don’t
like to lose, and
if you don’t like
losing that’s a
great impetus
for change
and review”

Kitman Labs ALL THE RIGHT MOVES
Kitman Labs are on a mission. To enable elite sports teams to
win through injury reduction. In capturing relevant athlete
data and applying algorithms grounded in scientific research,
their products and services provide actionable insights on
injury risk that allow coaches and staff to take preventative
training and treatment actions before injuries occur. In doing
so, teams can improve player availability and deliver stronger
team results.
James O’Flynn spoke to Founder and CEO Stephen Smith
while he was traveling in Sydney Australia.
Do you want to tell us a bit
about your background?
My background is that I worked
in professional rugby for my
entire career. I have always been
fascinated by sports medicine. I
started working for Leinster rugby
where I was responsible for injury
prevention and rehabilitation for
the club. We put a lot of emphasis
on getting athletes back to work
as soon as we could. The bottom
line though, was how could we
prevent injury in the first place?
The sports science evolution was
just kicking off, we were the first
northern hemisphere team, I think,
to start using GPS, so we were
very forward looking. However, at
the start we had all this data and
we didn’t know how to interpret
it to fully utilise and understand
what it meant. I decided to start
a Masters looking into research
around athletic injury and based
on this we realised that we needed
a solution to mitigate risk that was
very individualised. To this end, I
founded the company and looked
to involve scientists and engineers,
to provide the unique approach,
that is Kitman Labs.
It would be good to get an
overview of Kitman Labs.
We are a sports and data science
company, we produce software
and tools to manage sports
science needs, and we are a data
science company. We are unique
in the sense that we place injuries
at the centre of what we are doing,
we relate all the data we collect
back to injury events. What this
allows us to do is to customise
the data and how teams use it, to
make important decisions around
their athlete’s performance.
Teams don’t just get software
from us, we are the team behind
their team. We have over 30
people with a unique blend of
skills working on this day in and
day out. This is something that
our clients find valuable.
It sounds like you cover a lot
of data points, how do you
make it easy for a team when
dealing with this much data?
We learn their workflow, the
environment that they work in,
and the demands that are placed
on them so we can help teams
focus on the biggest areas of
impact. It is all about speed as
you may only see your athletes
for a short window each day, so
collecting the data easily is crucial.
Our solution means coaches don’t
have to double handle data, or
spend hours extrapolating data.
We came from that background,
we lived it and we are on a mission
to make things better by reducing
injuries in the teams and athletes
that we work with.
Having the idea for the
business is one thing but
making it a reality
another matter.
Yes, there were lots of challenges
in those early days to be honest.
Everyday. I think at the start we
were trying to paint a vision for
what we were doing, and trying
to get people on board with that
and getting people to understand
where we wanted to go. Trying
to get people to believe in the
opportunity and that we could
capitalise on it. That took lots of
effort. Very definitely for us, we
didn’t have a business background
so it was a big jump to running a
company, but I think that people
understood that we were excited
and passionate and that the
approach that we took had some
knock-on implications for not
only elite sport, but for consumer
driven spaces as well. So yes, it
was hard in the early days but we
are not unique, most companies
have those challenges to overcome.
Do you have a particular
approach towards innovation
in the company?
Innovation is at the heart and soul
of what we do, and I think that if
we don’t innovate as a company
we are dead. There are plenty
of tools out there to collect and
store information but what we
are doing is trying to be smart
about it, and build upon this to
deliver back a layer of knowledge
and insight that powers decision
making. Innovation is key and
drives everything we do. I don’t
drive this on my own, all the team
know it themselves and they drive
and push innovation everyday.

KITMAN LABS |014
We very definitely operate as one
team. We are proud of this, we are
all passionate about this, and we
look for people to challenge. We
certainly don’t want ‘yes’ men or
women working here. We want
staff with strong personalities and
ideas. We are lucky as that’s the
kind of people that are at the core
of our company.
They are quite hard things to
judge in an interview when
you’re looking for staff, things
like talking truth to power?
It is difficult and you don’t always
get it right. We involve numerous
people in the interview process.
What we are looking for is key
traits and a cultural fit. Once
someone has showcased that
they have the right skill set we
look at things like personality. If
they don’t fit with us we won’t be
able to nurture them. It hugely
important that they can get along
with us and if they can that’s a
great foundation on which to build.
So how is the business
progressing?
Great. We have been going for 4
years now. Our first 2 years were
very much bootstrapped, there
were only 2 or 3 people working
here. Now we have more than
30 people which introduces
different challenges, but no, it’s
really superb. We work across
21 different leagues and we are
touching all corners of the world,
India, New Zealand, Europe etc.
We are disrupting, it’s different
and really rewarding. We work
across every kind of sport really,
track, field, soccer, cricket and
rugby to name a few.
that have really influenced
you in some way recently?
Yes, there are 2 books that I am
passionate about. One is called
‘Legacy’ which is about the All
Blacks. I absolutely love it, it
is fascinating. Success doesn’t
need to mean arrogance which is
something that for me the New
Zealand Rugby team never had.
They were hugely successful but
very grounded and I think that’s
a book by James Kerr. The Talent
Code by Daniel Coyle is also great
and it is about how you can find
talent in sport, looking at coaching,
genetics etc. Fascinating read if
you are interested in coaching.
Are there any words of advice
you wish you had heard at the
start of this journey?
Nobody can prepare you for
how hard things will be or
the problems you will have to
overcome. If you want to have a
go, and if you have a strong sense
of belief and passion then go all
in, 100%. Other people can’t tell
you about the sense of pride that
you will feel either, when you
take those first few steps towards
success. We are working with
really inspiring teams and athletes
across the globe. To look back
and see how far we have come is
incredible. Just go for it and give
it your all, that’s my advice for
other people who are considering
making the leap into business.

NEWS |016
NEWS
A few things that caught
our gaze
Let it Grow, Let it Grow
Let it Grow is an innovative
initiative developed by Royal
FloraHolland. It offers ‘innovators’
a platform by developing new
applications for flowers and
plants. Promising innovations are
given that helping hand needed
to realise a concept or idea. Ideas
like ‘Sprinklr’ which delivers
seasonal boxes with a special
selection of plants taken directly
from sustainable growers to the
consumer’s home. The Sprinklr
app helps them keep the plants
green, making it easy and fun to
create a green oasis at home.
Find out more at
www.royalfloraholland.com
Project ANT-ARCTIC-LAB
The ANT-ARCTIC-LAB is a highly
ambitious yacht building and
sailing challenge that highlights
several industrial developments
which bring more sustainability to
the marine industry.
The goal is to sail a 60ft. yacht,
single-handed, nonstop and
without assistance from Les
Sables d’Olonne (FRA) to the
Arctic, through the Northwest
Passage, down the Pacific Ocean
and passing Cape Hoorn to
circumnavigate the Antarctic
continent. After rounding Cape
Hoorn a second time, the journey
will continue north through
the Atlantic Ocean to the final
destination of Les Sables
d’Olonne (FRA).
ANT-ARCTIC-LAB challenge will
take place from July 2018 until
February 2019. To succeed, the
yacht will be built using 100%
sustainable and/or recyclable
materials.
This undertaking will be another
extreme sailing adventure for
skipper Norbert Sedlacek Koch,
which will take him more than
34.000 nautical miles and around
seven months on his 60ft. racing
yacht Open60. He will navigate
through the most dangerous
waters on our planet, through
ice, stormy waters, the doldrums
and many more. Good Luck
Norbert from all at Global
Innovation Magazine.
GT2 - Introducing the
GT Spreader
We love stories about real people
at GIM. Those stories when
someone has burnt the midnight
oil, designing a product and
pushing a business are the ones
that connect most strongly to us
and here is one such story.
Tim Hudson, Owner/Inventor
starting by dumping salt on his
counter and using cardboard
to spread it out. Then creating
a small bench top prototype in
his home shop, the concept of
spreading aggregate at reduced
speeds began.
When it came to slow speed
deployment of gravel on driveways,
farm yards, and small towns, TJM
Trucking needed a solution. TJM’s
solution was to create a product
that gives an operator the option
to spread aggregate at reduced
speeds yet still allowing the trailer
to haul other material, killing 2
birds with one stone.
For more information go to
www.mygtspreader.com

The
Powerbreather
Experience Swimming
and Snorkelling in a new
dimension
The Powerbreather is an innovative sports tool for swimming,
triathlon and diving. No matter how long and intensively you
swim, it supplies you with optimum oxygen without water
infiltrating - in contrast to conventional snorkels. The upshot
being that you can improve your technique and concentrate
on swimming rather than getting a mouthful of water, or a
less than optimal lung full of air.
Global Innovation Magazine spoke to Jan Von Hofacker, the
Managing Director behind the AMEO Powerbreather.
A little about your
background Jan please.
Sure, I was born in Munich
Germany, I’m 53 years old. I
did an apprenticeship in a bank
initially, as a first step then I
studied economics. I started a
business in the financial sector,
it was a financing company for
family owned businesses, we were
quite successful. We started with
3 people, me and my partners
and ended up having around
50 people employed by us. The
crash in 2008 was dramatic for
all businesses in financing, this
was an important experience
though, for being an entrepreneur.
That’s what I am. I love being
an entrepreneur, building up
companies and that is in part why
I decided to do this once again
with the Powerbreather.
So how did you get involved
with the Powerbreather?
Many years ago, I visited a friend
who showed me a prototype,
just 2 pipes, left and right and a
mouthpiece. My friend said try it.
We were in the Balearic Islands
so I went for a swim, but I wasn’t
a great swimmer. Although I do
a lot of sports, my best marathon
was a 2:43 hours. 200 metres
crawling was ok but after that I
used to get exhausted if I swam
much more. What I found when
I tried the prototype was that I
improved immediately, it was
a ‘wow’ moment, I was able
to crawl half an hour without
taking a rest. That was my first
experience with the product. The
owners of the patent, my friends,
were looking originally to just
sell the patent, but I thought
it needed to be developed to
a sellable level and often big
companies don’t wish to do this,
so that’s why some years passed
and the Powerbreather still
wasn’t on the market.
In 2003 things changed and
my friends approached me to
look at being a shareholder, and
a driver behind launching the
product. I thought about it, put
together a business plan to try and
understand the product and market
better. That brought us to where
we are now, we really think that we
have a product that is the snorkel
Mark 2.0, a second-generation
snorkel, which can generally
change the understanding of how
to swim in the future.
What problem does this solve,
what does it give us that we
didn’t have before?
Most people have the problem
that when they front crawl, as
an exercise, they are not able to
breathe properly, the technique is
very hard. Turn left, turn right and
breathe. This is a great challenge
for most people. You could use a
snorkel but you are not breathing
in 100% fresh air, particularly
as your intensity increases. Our
product gives you the chance to
front crawl for longer distances
with a good quality of air, and a
freedom that allows you to get
into rhythm and flow. Longer
distance swimming, free and calm,
while watching the beauty of the
underwater world. We at
AMEO call this new experience
‘swim trekking’.
As part of the testing, did
you get good feedback
from people?
Oh yes, people that used the
product gave us awesome
feedback. People are really
happy with what we have done.
Yesterday I got feedback from
one of our customers who lives in
America and they told me: “the
Powerbreather revolutionizes
swimming, thanks for the
invention”. That kind of feedback
is invaluable and brilliant to hear.
The challenge is also about
education though, as yes, it is
more expensive than a normal
snorkel but it has many new
benefits which a conventional
snorkel does not have. It is about
changing people’s perception and
once they try it people love it.
Did you face any particular
challenges in starting up
the company?
It is an innovative product and
the swim sector has big players in
it, who have their own products
for swimming. If people have
bought a product for 35 years
at a certain price and all of a
sudden, a new product is out
which costs more, then this is a
challenge, although it has new,
highly valuable benefits for the

POWERBREATHER |018
user. Also, coaches and trainers,
getting them to use the product is
something to address. Change can
be tough for people to adapt to,
but this is normal and something
we continue to work on.
Does the product allow you to
improve your cardiovascular
performance?
There are several benefits. You can
combine technique and interval
training as you always get 100%
fresh air. There is a membrane
to give you lung muscle training
which is available on some of the
Powerbreathers. In other words,
you can adjust the membrane to
allow more or less oxygen through,
which is a lung muscle training
technique. This respiratory
training is very good for all kind of
sports – swimming, triathlon,
boxing, football,
skiing, running, cross-country, as
well as for asthmatics.
So how is the business going?
Yes we are happy with how things
are progressing, volume goes up
every month and we are seeing
more and more connectivity
in our core markets which are
Europe, UK, USA and Australia.
What advice would you have
for young entrepreneurs?
The most important thing,
alongside creating a realistic
business plan is to be focused
from the beginning. We have so
many ideas, so many challenges
and opportunities but you need
to remain focused. You
need a great
team with lots of skills, but always
remain focused on your core goals.
that you would recommend?
An old movie that connects with
our product is ‘The Big Blue’.
When I swim with the product
I really connect with this film.
We are not just about making
money here at the company, we
are more than that, we have a
vision, which is about connecting
with the elements, connecting
with the planet and the sea. Our
feedback from customers has said
to us that since using the
Powerbreather people’s lives have
been enriched. Perhaps after a
period of illness people have
reconnected to swimming and
found peace this way, and this
means a lot.
Find out more at
www.powerbreather.com

NYU STERN
Innovators
Alumni Paving the Way to the
Future in Energy Monitoring
& Management and Digital
Media Software
By Clifford M. Thornton, New York University, Leonard
N. Stern School of Business, BS Business Administration,
Marketing, 1997
I believe that people are at the heart of innovation.
For example, when we think of electric lightbulbs, we
automatically think about Thomas Edison and when we
think about flight, we think of the Wright Brothers. For it
is individuals who conceive of a new product and service
and then work tirelessly to develop it, structure a team and
organization around it, and eventually bring it to market.
These innovators are driven by identifying an unmet market
need, a better way to do something, or a way to make their
business more competitive.
My Alma Mater, New York University, Leonard N. Stern
School of Business (i.e. known to most as “Stern”) has
been traditionally known as a “finance school”. This
perception is driven by many of its graduates flocking to
positions with investment banks and corporate finance
management positions. However, in recent decades, Stern
MBA programs have greatly expanded related curriculums
and now 20 distinct specializations are offered, including
Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Stern, a New York City
based business school, is ranked within the top-20 business
schools for MBAs and within the top-5 for undergrads by
U.S. News & World Report. Additionally, it is ranked third in
business research contribution by the School of Management
at the University of Texas at Dallas. Stern has been a leading
business school in the United States and throughout the world
for over a century as it was established in 1900 and it is a
founding member of the Association to Advance Collegiate
Schools of Business. Stern’s current Dean, Peter Blair Henry,
an economist, is dedicated to maintaining Stern’s stature as a
business education leader as well as a positive force for social
change (i.e. corporate responsibility).
Stern has a strong influence on business throughout the
world since many of its Alumni originate from all corners of
the globe. Through its evolution and expansion, it now has
multiple partner programs throughout Europe, Asia, and
Australia. Besides working to provide its programs throughout
the world, Stern is also dedicated to fostering an innovative
and entrepreneurial environment. One of the key components
of Stern’s innovation engine is its W.R. Berkley Innovation
Lab, launched in 1982. The lab’s website describes its objective,
“Through an array of co-curricular activities, the Berkley Lab
equips students, alumni, and researchers from across NYU’s
campus with the skills, know-how and ability to launch and
grow sustainable ventures.” Luke Williams, an internationally
recognized authority on innovation leadership and author
of “Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation
in Your Business” (FT Press, 2011), is the Executive Director
of the W.R. Berkley Innovation Lab. He is also a Clinical
Professor of Innovation & Marketing.
In order to provide some real-world examples of NYU Stern
Alumni who are carrying the torch of innovation for the school
I would like to present you with two related interviews. I asked
these Alumni both about their perceptions of innovation as a
profession and endeavor as well as how they are pushing the
boundaries of innovation to strengthen the companies which
they are affiliated with as well as bring to market advanced
and previously unavailable products and services. Our
discussions generated a great deal of insights on innovation
as well as the market and technological forces which are
supporting and driving the need for their commercial
products and services.

NYU STERN |020
Interview with Felix Lipov, Lead Software Developer,
Enertiv, Inc.
What does innovation mean to you from both historical and
modern perspectives?
Innovation is a function of time and place of where you are. For
example, the iPhone or Android. It’s about seeing something new; a new
perspective which is not familiar.
What aspects in the field of innovation fascinate and
motivate you?
Creative endeavor and new technology. It’s what you do with it.
Connecting the dots. Taking these things and putting it together. Things
that motivate me regarding Enertiv are developing a system for managing
data that represents energy use and building understanding from there.
New technologies, whether they be sensors, connectivity, data and servers
are reaching price points, where they can now be effectively leveraged
together in new and novel ways. At the same time, data in itself is no
longer interesting, but rather how can we take disparate data sources and
derive insights from their interaction.
Please tell me about both your company’s existing and soon-to-
be-released products/services.
According to the EPA, 40% of energy in buildings is wasted. We believe
one of the key reasons for this is that there is not adequate transparency
for building managers in terms of how much energy their buildings are
using. We want to bring the percentage of energy that is wasted down
to zero and to give building managers a way for them to stop throwing
money away. Enertiv provides software and solutions for monitoring
energy consumption of commercial real estate. These properties have
not had at their disposal the type of analytics that we offer. Data without
analytics doesn’t equate to insights. Typical buildings with a handful of
data points cannot provide insights into its operations. Enertiv’s solutions
provide direct, real-time understanding of what’s going on, maximizing
operational efficiency, while keeping tenants comfortable. We are working
to build better sensors, software, and analytics, leveraging existing data
streams and adding more as necessary to get the pulse of a building. We
call this “Enertiv AI”, as in asset intelligence. Right now, a lot of buildings
are “working in the dark.” We work mostly with commercial building
managers and owners as well as Energy Service Companies (ESCOs). Our
thinking with all of this is, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”
What is your company’s vision or roadmap for these
products/services?

Collecting much more granular information. Collecting anomalies on
building equipment failures. An example is an internal ventilation fan.
There’s a lot that can go wrong in commercial buildings. Motor failures.
Our software allows building managers to see what’s going on so that they
can isolate the problem. We’re also doing more benchmarking - here’s
how it could or should work. Tying the various data stream to provide
real-time notifications. We also want to create solutions that work across
the board.
Please discuss some of the trends in your field or forces
which are driving the technology which your products/services
rely upon?
Building more power plants, which depend on fossil fuels are not
sustainable. The electrical grid as we know it will be driven on the basis
of data. We feel that more effective management of energy consumption
is a key part of this equation. We also want to make our customer’s
property more valuable. We are asking ourselves, how do we leverage this
information and gain 8-15% energy savings.
Do you see any disruptive technologies in your field on
the horizon?
Enertiv is disruptive. What we have done has been too hard and too
expensive for other entities in the past. We feel that the Enertiv team and
technology can now accomplish these things. Enertiv was launched in
2011, so we have been doing this a fairly long time. We have familiarized
ourselves with granular data across a large cross section of equipment
over many years such that we can quickly identify problems, solely by
looking at data. That knowledge continues to grow as our algorithms learn
over time.
Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Yes, Enertiv is the first New York company to get into the NYSERDA
Real Time Energy Management (RTEM) program. This program offers
commercial properties, which purchase our solution with up to a 30%
subsidy from the state of New York. The realization is coming that to
optimally run a building, more data is necessary, as well as the insights
that Enertiv that can provide to guide operations to the max.
See more at: www.enertiv.com
Interview with Richard Napoli, CEO – ObjectFrontier
Software (OFS), Inc.
Company Website: www.objectfrontier.com
What does innovation mean to you from both historical and
modern perspectives?

NYU STERN |022
Innovation is the offspring of both necessity and dreams. We are
driven to innovate either when we are pressed against a wall with a
problem or when we dream of what life could be like. People tend to
stick with what they know unless they are compelled to change. The
Wright Brothers, for example, dreamt of the wonders of flight and
worked hard to build a device to enable that.
In the digital world which I’m involved with, we’re seeing a type of
renaissance in our industry. In the next 100 years, our world will
change at a pace not seen since the original Renaissance period in
the 15th century. Looking back before that time, most knowledge
was passed on through apprenticeship and it took years to learn and
master. But once the printing press was invented in 1440 and people
learned to read, they were able to more quickly learn what was already
out there in their field and then build on top of that knowledge. That
led to an explosion of ideas and inventions that spurred on the
Industrial Revolution.
The software world was in the pre-Renaissance period until recently
because there was no repeatable framework available until around
2010. Up until then, the hardware, software, and networks kept
changing dramatically every 10 years and we had to start over and
rebuild everything. But, since around 2010 (which corresponds to the
introduction of the iPad and the emergence of real cloud computing),
software developers finally have a robust framework of mobile devices,
cloud computing, and APIs that are truly leverageable for the first
time. So we don’t have to reinvent everything each time we build new
software. This saves a great deal of time and as a result, dramatically
speeds the development time and shortens the release cycle.
So we have entered a digital Renaissance period now where we can use
robust technology to do basic (development) chores and focus on the
important new stuff instead. In the past, we had maybe one software
release per year and it was a big effort. Now, we can do a release within
a week or even a few days. These days, for example, Amazon releases
new software every thirty seconds!
What aspects in the field of innovation fascinate and
motivate you?
I like to think in terms of business needs. For example, when
contemplating a new product, a key question to ask is “What one thing
in the industry is impossible to do today, that if you made it possible,
would change how an industry works”. On example is 3D Printing.
With this amazing technology, for example, you no longer have to
worry about running out of spare parts. You can just get the specs and
print out the part locally.

As far as ObjectFrontier, we’re a software engineering company
supporting multiple industries. One question that I like to ask is,
“What assumptions are baked into the industry that we can break with
new technology? For example, prior to ride-sharing companies like
Uber and Lyft, there was a high barrier to entry in the taxi industry.
There were a lot of associated costs to get into that business; obviously
that has all changed now.
The thing about innovation and business is that everyone wants to be
the next Apple, but the reality is that very few will. I like the Edison
approach to innovation, “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety
nine percent perspiration.”
Please tell me about both your company’s existing and soon-
to-be-released products/services.
We don’t actually sell products, we sell software engineering services
to build digital products for our customers to help them drive their
revenue. Once we complete a project, our customers own the software
we built. One key and successful project that we worked on was for
a major sports network that covered the PGA Championships. In
order to improve their viewership (i.e. which is correlated with
advertising dollars), we developed a special TV app for them. Viewers
could download this app to their SmartTVs. Then, while watching
Tiger Woods tee off, they could pull-up his scorecard and standings,
using their TV’s remote-control. This made the game an interactive
experience for them. The client won an “Appy Award”, sponsored by
MediaPost, for this effort, and we were happy to have built it for them.
What is your company’s vision or roadmap for these
products/services?
As I mentioned earlier, we provide software engineering services to our
clients but the intellectual property (IP) is theirs. So consequently, I
can’t share any plans we have to enhance our customers’ products. I
will say in general, however, that we are heavily invested in mobile,
cloud, data analytics, and augmented reality (AR) technologies that
we utilize in our customers’ products to help them execute their
digital transformation strategies. Every company is now faced with
transforming and reinventing their business model with modern
technology that engages their customers in new ways - think Uber,
NetFlix, Betterment, StichFix, etc. and we are in the business
of helping companies like those to envision and execute that
transformation.
Please discuss some of the trends in your field or forces
which are driving the technology which your products/
services rely upon?
Because of the tremendous amounts of data that is being generated
in certain fields, we are doing a lot of work in data science. The new
technologies in this space allow us to digest many trillions of bytes of
data in near-real time. For example, a single flight across the Atlantic can
generate petabytes of data (i.e. due to all of the monitoring equipment
that is now standard on commercial aircrafts). So, with all of this data
available, the question then is, “How do you aggregate it up and find
patterns quickly so that decisions can be made at the right time?”
We’re developing software to harness the latest in Natural Language
Processing and Machine Learning Tools such as Spark to give us the
speed and insight we need for all this data. And given that this data
crunching involves a lot of regression analysis and mathematical
modeling, we have a number of math and statistical wizards on our team.
Do you see any disruptive technologies in your field on
the horizon?
That’s the exciting thing about the technology industry and the time
period we’re in now-there are MANY disruptive technologies emerging
right now. The two that we’re investing the most in right now are
Augmented Reality (think Pokémon Go) and IoT (Internet of Things).
Both of them are already exerting pressure on existing businesses to
think in new ways and are enabling new business models to emerge.
Is there anything else that you would like to add?
We need more creative thinkers to enter the technology arena and
bring their unique perspective. In my day, people stayed away from
technology as something too geeky. But now, technology is everywhere
and can be used in so many amazing ways. So, for those of you out
there deciding where to make your career, I encourage you to become
part of the digital Renaissance age that is just beginning!

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