There is an old business axiom with words to the effect that...

There is an old business axiom with words to the effect that "nobody got rich selling to the rich"!

With a former MD/CEO having an elite sport background, a marketing strategy aimed at elite sport to get a list of "names" as users (as a marketing tool) and a lack of understanding that the device actively and actually works AGAINST elite level sport, no wonder we are where we are today.

At last, a news report that indicates where HIQ should have been positioning itself for the last couple of years - parents and junior sport. It does not take an Einstein to work out that elite level sports cannot afford to use such a device as it would too negatively impact on the availability of its participants with regard to exclusion from competition if a player received too many independently recorded concussion incidents (through using this device) for medical staff and administrators to ignore.

The obvious market is suburban, volunteer, amateur, school and recreational contact-sport, with parents squarely in the cross-sites. It is obvious that the vast majority of these participants will NOT go onto a professional sports career. It is obvious that parents will be concerned over their child's welfare and would be prepared to pay for the assurance of their wellbeing. It seems obvious that the first market would be the school-sport market, as many schools require students to obtain a new mouthguard yearly.

Advice to the Board is to get off the elite sports bandwagon and work at a community level. Rather than a "trickle-down" approach, embed the concept with youth who will carry the device upwards to the point that elite sports cannot ignore (which they seem to be doing quite well at currently).

But again, .............. the above may be just too obvious and not sexy enough for the Board.