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DRONESHIELD

How DroneShield Built Global Impact Through Australian Design Leadership.

DroneShield (ASX:DRO) is an Australian sovereign defence technology company that specialises in counter-drone and counter–unmanned aerial system (UAS) technologies. From its beginnings at a kitchen table only a decade ago, the company has grown into one of Australia’s most successful defence innovators, employing more than 400 people.

The firm designs, engineers, and produces its systems locally, reflecting a deep commitment to Australian industry and capability.

What distinguishes DroneShield is its identity as a design-led business. Design thinking informs every facet of the organisation—from engineering to leadership and culture. Rather than treating design as an aesthetic or technical afterthought, DroneShield embeds it as a strategic capability that shapes decision-making, guides product innovation, and ensures every solution is intuitive, effective, and aligned with end-user needs.

This design-centric philosophy has enabled the company to compete successfully on a global stage against much larger defence firms.

COCHLEAR

Designing at Scale: Cochlear’s 40-Year Journey of Purpose, Persistence, and Impact.

Cochlear is a global leader in implantable hearing solutions, founded on a singular mission, to help people hear and connect with the world around them.

Originating from Professor Graeme Clark’s determination to restore his father’s hearing, the company evolved from a groundbreaking research project into one of Australia’s greatest innovation success stories, now enabling more than 800,000 people worldwide to hear.

The company’s focus has never wavered from solving the human problem of hearing loss, even as technology and healthcare systems have evolved around it. Its design-led philosophy is rooted in a deep understanding of human need, seeing design not merely as product development, but as a mindset that shapes systems, behaviours, and access to hearing care.

RESMED

Designing Better Sleep, Better Health: How Resmed Puts People at the Heart of Innovation.

Resmed is a global health technology leader founded in Sydney, Australia, best known for transforming sleep and respiratory care through life-changing innovations.

With a mission to create life-changing health technologies that people love, Resmed is working towards a world where everyone can achieve their fullest potential. To do this, the company combines clinical expertise with design-led thinking to deliver intelligent, connected care.

Design is not viewed as a function but as a strategic mindset that drives innovation, empathy, and user experience across every level of the organisation.

All Resmed images and video © Resmed

STREET FURNITURE AUSTRALIA

Manufacturer Embeds Design to Create Lasting Enjoyment in Public Spaces.

Street Furniture Australia is a design-led organisation that unites research, development, and production within one operation. Its mission is to bring lasting enjoyment to public space experiences by embedding design into every aspect of its culture and operations. Street Furniture Australia exemplifies the Australian Design Council’s vision for a nation where design is a core capability, driving innovation, building competitiveness, and creating impact across society.

This integrated approach has allowed the company to position itself as a leader in urban design, influencing how public spaces are conceived, built, and enjoyed across Australia.

STELLA ENGINEERING

Design drives Stella Engineering’s shift from making parts to creating value through innovation and collaboration.

Stella Engineering is a privately owned advanced manufacturing company based in regional New South Wales, employing around twenty-five people. Founded by Mike Woodcock, the company has grown over the past two decades from a traditional precision machining firm into a vertically integrated business offering end-to-end manufacturing solutions. What makes Stella unique is its deep commitment to partnership, investment, and people. Rather than relying on external skills or outsourcing, Stella Engineering has deliberately built its own capability in collaboration with its customers. This approach allows them to develop bespoke solutions, maintain exceptional quality control, and respond quickly to changing customer needs.

A central aspect of Stella’s success lies in their ability to listen deeply to their customers’ pain points. They invest the time to understand the challenges their clients face, not just technically, but operationally and strategically, before proposing any solution. This ability to listen, empathise, and co-define the real problem is what underpins their value as a trusted partner. Stella also recognises that a critical success factor in creating these kinds of partnerships is having large firms that are open to collaboration, allowing suppliers like Stella the time and access to truly understand their operations and constraints.

Their vertical integration means that many manufacturing processes are brought in-house, giving them oversight across design, production, and delivery. The result is a business that thrives on relationships, talent development, and the pursuit of excellence in advanced manufacturing, a rare achievement for a regional Australian enterprise.

Planet Innovation

DESIGN AT THE HEART OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMATION

Planet Innovation is an Australian organisation that has built its reputation on creating breakthrough health technologies and the commercially successful businesses needed to sustain them.

Co-founder and Head of Innovation, Samuel Lanyon, describes the company as a contract developer and manufacturer with a distinctive approach to design. For him, design is a commercially oriented discipline that begins with deep understanding of stakeholders, context and opportunity.

It demands curiosity, rigorous insight and the ability to balance complex trade-offs so that solutions genuinely improve the lives of clinicians, patients and users. This definition of design has shaped the company from its earliest days and continues to anchor its mission to positively transform global healthcare.

Planet Innovation operates within the global health technology sector, an industry under immense pressure as diagnostics and therapies become more sophisticated while health systems struggle to deliver more with less. Costs are rising, expectations for healthier, longer lives are increasing and both local and global markets demand solutions that are effective, economically viable and simple to adopt. Australia adds further complexity with a small domestic market that requires innovators to think globally from the outset.

Planet Innovation has become a leader in this environment because it responds to these pressures directly. The company looks beyond individual products and works at the level of entire businesses, ensuring that the solutions it creates are grounded in real needs, deep insight and long-term commercial potential.

REDARC Defence & Space

REDARC DEFENCE & SPACE: DESIGNING POWER SOLUTIONS FOR EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS

REDARC Defence & Space (RDS) is the defence-oriented division of the South Australian electronics manufacturer REDARC Electronics, a company long recognised for its rugged, reliable power systems used across four-wheel driving, caravanning and off-grid recreational sectors. The Defence & Space division extends this capability into military and space markets, leveraging the broader organisation’s intellectual property, engineering depth and advanced manufacturing facilities.

As Executive General Manager Scott Begbie explains, the division exists “to leverage the IP that comes out of the REDARC group, everything from electronic design to surface-mount manufacturing lines, EMC test chambers, shock and vibration capabilities, and the know-how of how to manufacture product”. This foundation enables REDARC to design and produce silent, modular, mission-critical power systems for defence customers in some of the harshest environments in the world.

Their identity as an Australian manufacturer is a strategic advantage; products designed to survive Australia’s dust, heat, rough terrain and remote conditions naturally meet the needs of global military clients. Being based in South Australia also enables close collaboration with local suppliers, rapid response to issues, and deep integration with regional industry capabilities. The company embraces its position as both a sovereign capability builder and a global competitor from the moment its products leave the factory floor.

W&S Plastics

DESIGN-LED MANUFACTURING THROUGH TRUST, PROXIMITY, AND DEEP UNDERSTANDING

W&S Plastics is a family-owned advanced manufacturing business specialising in plastic injection moulding, tooling and post moulding operations, with its headquarters and primary manufacturing operations proudly based in Sydney.

Founded by Lindsay Wiseman and Trevor Syme and now led by second-generation director Andrew Wiseman, the business is also supported by members of the third generation, reflecting a strong legacy of family leadership. W&S Plastics has grown into a highly capable manufacturer serving medical, industrial, and consumer markets, while maintaining a strong commitment to Australian-based manufacturing.

In a highly competitive and globalised manufacturing sector, W&S Plastics has made a deliberate decision to remain physically located in Australia.  This choice is not incidental; it is central to how the company creates value. Being local allows W&S Plastics to build trust with clients through face-to-face engagement, transparency, and close collaboration. Customers can visit the factory, see their products being made and work alongside the W&S Plastics team throughout the development process. This proximity enables faster communication, stronger relationships, and greater confidence in quality, intellectual property protection and delivery.

For many clients, particularly those developing complex or regulated products such as medical devices, trust is critical. W&S Plastics’ Australian presence provides reassurance around IP security, compliance, and accountability. Rather than operating as a distant supplier, the company positions itself as a long-term partner embedded in its customers’ design and manufacturing journey.

ABI INTERIORS

DESIGN WITH PURPOSE: HOW ABI LEADS A DESIGN EXCELLENCE

Founded on the Gold Coast, ABI is a leading Australian company in the architectural hardware, fixtures, and fittings industry. Established with a vision to reimagine how people experience their homes, the company has transformed what was once a market dominated by chrome fittings into a world of colour, warmth and emotion. Starting from rose gold and matte black to brushed brass and pastels, ABI has helped make personal expression through interior design both accessible and aspirational.

Today, ABI employs over 200 people at its Gold Coast headquarters, with operations expanding into the UK and beyond. At its core, ABI’s mission is to design products that capture the feeling of “home”, an intangible sense of belonging, warmth and comfort that connects deeply with people’s emotions and everyday experiences.

ABI’s approach is not just about what looks good, but how good design makes people feel.

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