Hunt Hospitality has been honoured as one of Australia and New Zealand’s Most Innovative Companies, ranking second on the Retail, Hospitality Tourism and Entertainment list.

The prestigious annual list, published by The Australian Financial Review and Boss Magazine, is based on a rigorous assessment process managed by Australia’s leading innovation consultancy, Inventium in conjunction with a panel of industry expert judges.

The assessment measures a top innovation implemented in the past two years. Specifically, the judges look at how valuable the problem is that the innovation is solving, the quality and uniqueness of the solution, and the level of impact that the innovation has had.

Inventium also assesses internal elements such as innovation culture, strategy, resources, and process, which demonstrate a sustainable and repeatable approach to innovation.

Founder of Inventium, Dr Amantha Imber said it’s great to be able to recognise the extraordinary talent and innovation coming out of Australia and New Zealand – especially during such unprecedented times.

“After the enormous impact 18 months (and counting) of a global pandemic has had on the way we live, it’s so inspiring to see all the amazing innovations our winners have created to help make our lives better,” she said.

From over 700 nominated organisations across Australia and New Zealand, Hunt Hospitality stood out from the crowd for their innovation, Shoeless Jack: Hospitality’s Industry companion

Hunt Hospitality Managing Director, Stephen Hunt said Shoeless Jack was born out of necessity in the industry – to educate, train, and inform people who are coming into the hospitality sector.

“Hunt Hospitality was growing, as a result, we appointed a new Operations Director with a background in Sales and Marketing was appointed. However, this position was previously held by me – someone with 20+ years of experience in the industry.”

“Upon review of her personal short comings in the role, a realisation was met that the success of traditional pubs hindered on knowledge, habits, and disciplines that were undocumented.

“This became an opportunity to fill in the gaps tertiary education qualifications were missing.”

What Alexia is for Google, Shoeless Jack is for the hospitality industry.

‘Jack’ can answer any industry question with hundreds of internal processes converted to a set by step best practice system.

From cash handling routines to learning to pour the perfect beer, ‘Jack’ aims to empower its users to autonomously take initiative and maintain consistency across all departments every day of the week.

“’Jack’ has been so successful in streamlining processes, he quickly became the backbone in developing a small bar franchise model named ‘Shoeless Jack’. The ‘Shoeless Jack’ model is currently searching for its first location where the digital ‘step by step’ processes will be put to the tests in a standalone venue,” Stephen said.

“Shoeless Jack innovates the checklist approaches and verbalises the extensive traditions of pub management etiquette into an engaging and interactive system that effectively enables employees across all ranks and departments to grow.

“This innovation at heart is about safeguarding the wealth of knowledge of all Publicans while adapting to the contemporary changes of the modern world,” he concluded.

The AFR BOSS Most Innovative Companies list (previously the BRW Most Innovative Companies list) is now in its ninth year. The full list of winners can be found here.

IMAGE | Managing Director, Stephen Hunt is recognised for industry companion innovation, Shoeless Jack.