What are you working on?

The team at SignOnSite are continuing to work in the construction safety space, with a keen focus on fatigue and how it can be combated and managed for workers who might be on multiple sites in one day.

Personally, I have been focusing on surviving my MBA studies in one piece.

Why is innovation important to you?

I truly think that innovation is the best thing that anyone can do.

My beliefs are that people and companies alike get too focused on their core, they look at what people need today, what brings in money today and they don’t dedicate the time and resourcing to asking ‘what will people need in 5, 10 or even 15 years time?’. Innovation is such a good catch-all phrase for that style of future forward thinking, and without it we aren’t progressing as people.

What drives you to make a difference?

Honestly, it’s the team at SignOnSite, the way that they work together and genuinely believe in what they do is amazing. The ripple effect of someones idea in 2013 becoming a team of people dedicated to expanding on that premise and in the process tirelessly pushing an industry to do better and be safer is just amazing to see and experience.

Do you have any advice for getting more women into the innovation ecosystem?

You can’t do it alone.

Innovation and entrepreneurship is underpinned by a willingness to fail, and it’s one of the few industries that fully embraces the idea that failure is the price of success, but that doesn’t mean that failing is easy. So for the times when failing is really hard and it gets you down you need to have a good team behind you, Mitch and Krishan (CEO and CTO at SignOnSite) are two people that I trust immensely and who have been there when things were good, and when things were really bad too. Have a good team around you, trust them, and rely on them when you are exhausted – then celebrate when you have successes!