Proven Success in Action: Real Results from Real Businesses
Discover how we’ve partnered with businesses like yours to overcome challenges, seize opportunities, and achieve measurable growth. Our case studies showcase practical strategies, tailored solutions, and results that speak for themselves, because your success story starts with the right approach.
Start Up
The Challenge:
In 2019, the Queensland State Government issued an edict to the State’s power infrastructure providers (Powerlink & Energy Queensland) to “commercialise the spare telecommunications capacity of Government owned infrastructure” with the mission to “Break the digital divide in Queensland”.
The challenge began with merely a folder, produced by the Government, of expensive reports, legal structures, and governance requirements. It was a folder best described as “what you can’t do”.
The challenge was to bootstrap a commercially competitive telecommunication business (“wholesale carrier” in telco speak) to supply, and at times compete against, the county’s Top Tier telecommunications carrier – to build a business to leveraging government owned telco asset on order to improve the delivery of telecommunications services to regional Queensland.
The Workings:
What was originally proposed as a Start-up consultancy under the Fastlane banner, for governance and compliance reasons, quickly morphed into a formal CEO role.
This required building the business from the ground up:
- Define the strategy in-line with the Government’s directions.
- Determine the appropriate operational and organisational structure to enable immediate outcomes and smooth growth
- Team recruitment across Sales, Marketing, Operations, Network Design, PMO, and Finance.
- Brand creation and developing digital & traditional marketing campaigns
- Product development Launching a portfolio across Layer 0 (Co-location), Layer 1 (Dark Fibre, Spectrum, Wavelengths), Layer 2 (1/10/100GbE), plus wireless services (satellite, LTE, microwave).
- Business process and system design and implementation.
- Introduced best-in-class systems across service delivery, NOC, ticketing, inventory, GIS, and IT security (pursuing ISO 27001 and DISP compliance).
- Led a data visualisation initiative to unify system insights into strategic dashboards.
Working with the team to agree of the core values of:
- Innovative Simplicity
- Agile Reliability
- Responsive Advocacy
The Outcome:
After a successful 5-year term as CEO, during which the organisation exceeded its financial targets every year, QCN now operates the fourth-largest optic fibre network in Australia. It features interstate and international interconnectivity, serves all Tier 1 and many Tier 2 carriers, is authorised to deliver services across all levels of government, and is an approved supplier of telco services at several major Over-the-Top (OTT) providers.
Back to topCommercialisation
Patented On-line English Language Learning
The Challenge:
A group of university academics had developed and patented a phonetics-based English language system designed for students whose first language is not English.
Early-stage Government grants were secured, along with private and venture capital (VC) funding, based on the presentation of a “working prototype” of an interactive online English language course—purportedly just “a week away from completion.”
The challenge was to assist the VC firm in transforming this prototype into a viable commercial business.
The workings:
As is often the case with emerging technologies, claims of being “a week away from completion” warrant closer scrutiny. It is a question of “which week is that?”
In this instance, the prototype turned out to be a non-functional, hand-built concept. The immediate priority was to reset investor expectations and initiate the scoping, design, and development of a commercially viable product.
Product development included not only building the platform but also creating and validating a full curriculum, as well as testing and evaluation mechanisms to support learning outcomes.
By leveraging both domestic and offshore development teams, a market-ready product was delivered within 12 months.
The company was successfully registered under the Federal Government’s Commercialising Emerging Technology (COMET) program and the R&D Tax Incentive scheme, providing valuable support for the development phase.
Concurrently, we launched go-to-market activities:
- Defined a product launch strategy
- Identified target markets and institutions
- Built a sales team and established a sales structure targeting universities in Japan, China, and Malaysia
Regular and detailed project and commercial updates were provided to a multi-stakeholder Board that included founders, independent directors, and VC representatives.
The Outcome:
Fastlane’s involvement in the start-up and commercialisation journey resulted in several key achievements:
- Securing Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) status for the business
- Developing a comprehensive market expansion strategy
- Securing HELP University in Malaysia as the anchor client who later acquired exclusive marketing rights for the product across Asia.
Revitalization
Leading premium private institution
The Challenge:
The initial brief was to establish and launch a “Foundation” to support ongoing investment in the organisation’s major infrastructure projects. The goal was to ensure that the student experience and facilities aligned with the premium fees being charged.
However, during early discovery and analysis, it became evident that the proposed Foundation was being used to mask deeper structural, financial, and commercial issues. Most critically, the organisation was not generating an operating surplus and could not sustainably fund its infrastructure plans.
The Workings:
The project was promptly re-scoped to address the broader commercial challenges of the organisation. The focus shifted from simply launching a Foundation to strengthening the underlying business model—particularly across non-academic operations such as infrastructure, maintenance, IT, enrolments (sales), and marketing.
Three parallel workstreams were initiated:
- Organisational and Operational Structure:
A review of the existing structure was undertaken to improve cross-functional collaboration, enhance team cohesion, and better align roles and responsibilities with organisational goals. - Data, Systems and Decision-Making:
Existing data sets were audited and assessed for accuracy and usability. System and process improvements were implemented to support stronger, data-informed decision-making and performance tracking. - Capital Projects and Financial Alignment:
All existing and proposed capital works—both new builds and refurbishments—were reviewed. Projects were re-costed, re-prioritised, and aligned with realistic cashflow projections to ensure financial sustainability.
The Outcome:
While the Foundation was successfully developed and launched in line with the original brief, its intended role as the primary funding mechanism for infrastructure was significantly scaled back.
This was made possible by a substantial improvement in operational performance, which led to the generation of reliable cash surpluses. These surpluses enabled the institution to fund the majority of its capital projects internally, reducing reliance on external donations and improving long-term financial sustainability.
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