March 2010 - Swinburne University of Technology

March 2010 swinburne
i phone, I shop …
nutrition at your fingertips
story by Tim Treadgold
Not many Vegemite lovers realise that their
daily dose of “concentrated yeast extract” also
gives them a dash of caramel colouring (150d)
and sulfur dioxide preservative (220). Sandy
Abram knows and soon subscribers to her latest
business venture will have that information
at their fingertips, even while shopping.
‘Our Food’ is the next step along a career
path that has taken the Swinburne University
of Technology MBA graduate from hospital
wards, to computer technology, into a
business designed to help people eat healthier
food and live better lives.
If that sounds a little circuitous then
consider the unique combination of skills
that Sandy has acquired along the way.
She is a former nurse, turned information
technology professional, turned healthy food
‘preacher’, who is now armed with business
skills and entrepreneurial drive.
“Our Food will be all about offering
people the tools to help them make better
food choices,” she says. “It’s not just about
selecting organic or fair-trade food, it’s
about enabling people to decide at the point
of purchase whether a particular product is
good for them or their child.”
Our Food, scheduled to launch in April,
integrates food information with modern
mobile communications, especially the
power and versatility of ‘smart’ telephones
such as Apple’s iPhone.
A practical example of Our Food at
work could be a parent concerned about the
ingredients or additives and artificial colours
found in a product about to be selected off a
supermarket shelf. A few taps on an iPhone
and the information is found immediately. In
the future, scanning a barcode will also be
able to produce this information. The same
result could be achieved with a conventional
mobile phone by keying in data such as a
food colouring number and sending that to
an Our Food free-call number.
“We’re putting information in the hands
of people when they need it,” Sandy says.
Helping people is something that comes
naturally to Sandy, who started her working
life as a registered nurse at Royal Melbourne
Hospital. After five years she needed a
change though by starting part-time IT
studies she probably did not plan such an
adventurous move into business.
Sandy Abram: offering
people the tools to make
better food choices is the
next step for this Swinburne
alumni in a career that has
ranged from nursing to IT.
Key points
Swinburne MBA graduate
Sandy Abram is launching
her latest business venture
‘Our Food’ integrates food
information with modern
mobile communications and
is designed to help people
eat healthier foods and live
better lives
At Swinburne, Sandy
combined practical
knowledge with academic
rigour
That was in the mid-1990s and the
first wave of the internet revolution was
spreading across the world. Sandy’s IT
studies landed her a job as executive
assistant to the Asia–Pacific director of US
software company Macromedia, and then up
to Asia–Pacific marketing manager.
A taste for business and a desire to learn
more led Sandy to Swinburne University of
Technology and her MBA studies, where
she integrated practical knowledge with
academic rigour.
“Swinburne exposed me to the whole
range of professional skills needed to run my
own business,” she says. “I learned how to
develop a business plan, formalise strategy
and gain a better understanding of issues
such as customer relationships.
“As well as the books, I learned a lot
from my peers in the MBA course. When
you’re working in small groups you are
exposed to people from a range of different
industries, learning from them as well as the
academic staff.”
It was with this background of caring
(nurse), IT (Adobe) and MBA (Swinburne),
that Sandy moved deeper into the business
world as a marketing consultant and then
as co-founder of an organic, fair trade and
sustainable food importing business called
First Ray (www.firstray.com.au).
Products, including tea, sustainably
caught tinned fish, curry pastes and sauces,
imported by First Ray can be found in highprofile
retailers such as David Jones or in
Oxfam shops, and even the lounges of the
Photo: Paul Jones
airline Virgin Blue.
The next step is Our Food. This is where
Sandy is combining her practical knowledge
of why eating well helps prevent lifestyle
diseases such as diabetes and high blood
pressure with her IT and business skills.
“Rather than focusing on a product or solely
on the organic industry, it’s about combining
technology with food choice,” she says.
To Sandy it is about giving people access
to the best information possible at the point
of decision making or POST (point of
shopping trolley). By doing so she hopes to
help people choose a product that does not
contain chemicals or additives that might
negatively affect their health.
“It is about linking the technology
experience I had with Adobe/Macromedia
and healthy living. Better-educated people
eat better, with a positive ripple effect from
farmers right through to consumers.”
Sandy acknowledges that what she is
trying to achieve with Our Food is stretching
boundaries in terms of integrating personal
communications technology and food.
“I probably am ahead of the curve, but
there is often an advantage in being an early
adapter and marketer of a new technology
… and while it might sound corny, I really
am passionate about helping people make
conscious, informed lifestyle choices.” ••
Contact. .
Swinburne University of Technology
1300 275 788
magazine@swinburne.edu.au
www.swinburne.edu.au/magazine
alumnialumni profile
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