By Eleanor Wilson
Electronics design and software development company Successful Endeavours is continuing to make its mark in the tech world.
The husband and wife run company was recently awarded the Best Complex Electronic Technology Business 2022 at the Australian Made Awards – an award the company’s managing director Ray Keefe said is “right up our alley”.
“I set the business up with the aim to design products that could be made in Australia,” Mr Keefe said.
“That was 25 years ago and since then we’ve worked on more than 300 products.”
There is no doubt Mr Keefe knows the manufacturing business – and the impact it can have on the entire workforce.
“The reason we focus on products made in Australia is that manufacturing creates lots of other jobs around it and it also creates fundamental value.
“If you look at some of the most successful modern economies, such as Japan and Germany, they are all heavily invested in manufacturing.
“Manufacturing creates lots of jobs and lots of leverage for other businesses and the other important thing is that we spread wealth throughout the economy, because that way it employs people at every level.”
With its head office in Narre Warren, Successful Endeavours works on a range of projects in the technology and software design field.
Some of the company’s current projects include anything from digital musical instruments, to high voltage power distribution equipment and safety testers that stop people from injuring themselves in the workplace.
But what Mr Keefe is really proud of is the company’s IND technology – a world-first technology that finds the location of electricity grid faults within a few metres, so they can be repaired.
Aside from the Made in Australia Award, Successful Endeavours is also a finalist in two categories of the upcoming Manufacturer’s Monthly 2022 Endeavour Awards.
The company is nominated for Australian Industrial Product of the Year and Best Industrial IoT Application, with both categories recognising Successful Endeavour’s work on the Plumb Guard MkIV Bluetooth, which works by monitoring plumbing pipes to notify workers when they come across electrically hazardous material.
“It is the number one way plumbers die in Australia and not many people know about it,” Mr Keefe said.
“We’ve added Bluetooth to it to add to an app on your phone, so a shift supervisor can be notified and can respond more effectively to the hazard and log it to the internet web service so you have traceability,” he said.
The winners of the Manufacturer’s Monthly 2022 Endeavour Awards are due to be announced on 3 November, but Mr Keefe said being a finalist is already a win for the business.
While Mr Keefe heads the technological side of the business, there is no underestimating the contribution of wife Junette to the Successful Endeavours team.
“She doesn’t consider herself to be technologically minded, but she does a great deal,” Mr Keefe said.
“She does the websites, accounts, she also does custom coding, she solders and assembles products, she’s proofread software and fixed it.
“Working as a husband and wife team has been really useful for us because she covers my blindspots really well.”
For Mr and Mrs Keefe, being business-minded isn’t about profiteering.
“Business needs a purpose beyond making money; the idea that business is just about making money is a lie.
“Business is the modern partnership for working together to change the world for the better.”
Together, Mr and Mrs Keefe decided they would only commit to projects they believe would make the world a better place, Mr Keefe said.
“We’ve got grandchildren and I want to continue to leave them an economy full of value.
“Manufacturing is a strategically important component in being able to achieve that, which is why I picked it in the first place.”
