Introduction

It all comes down to risk and return, and I want to do things on my own.

-- Peter Bonac

Mobiado's founder and CEO, Peter Bonac, was delighted. After six months of hard work, his Vancouver-based luxury mobile phone company announced on April 5, 2011 that it would collaborate with Aston Martin to launch a special edition of the Mobiado phone. "There is a good fit between the two brands," said Bonac. "Like Aston Martin, Mobiado prides itself on design innovation and technological excellence." (2), (3) This brand licensing agreement caught the attention of industry players because Mobiado is a small market entrant. Unlike Vertu, which is financially supported by Nokia, the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker, Mobiado was founded in 2004 by a 28-year-old Engineering Physics graduate using his own savings. (4) Without a strong financial background and a long history in business, signing a global licensing deal with a British luxury sports car brand was a milestone for Bonac, a Canadian entrepreneur who had aimed to do things differently from the beginning.

Origin of Mobiado

You need to learn the manufacturing process in order to design things.

-- Peter Bonac

Bonac Innovation Corporation turned profitable soon after. These successes were driven by the fact that Bonac had produced a very unique product in the market: the world's first mobile phone produced through Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) machining from aircraft aluminum. (1) Bonac decided to brand his luxury mobile phone the "Mobiado," a conversion of the word "mobile" to give it a European flare reflecting his background and family heritage. His desire to produce the finest and most technologically advanced telecommunication product did not happen overnight. The origin of Mobiado could be traced back to the late 1990s, when Bonac was still a student at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He studied Engineering Physics with a specialty in mechanical engineering, a niche field that usually attracted about 30 students to a class. At UBC, Bonac was exposed to a variety of mechanical engineering techniques. He developed a strong interest in design and participated in several interesting school projects with his classmates during the fourth and fifth years of undergraduate study.

As the son of a wood engineer who operated his own machine shop, Bonac had been given the opportunity to learn about various CNC machining techniques from his father. The process of turning a simple-looking aluminum block into sophisticated manufacturing parts excited him. During his fourth year of undergraduate study, Bonac was working on a project on chip recycling. He had an idea to design a product that would help machine shops recycle aluminum waste chips and reduce harmful chemicals during the recycling process. Working with his classmates Jeffrey Chang, Vincent Kwong, David Moffat and Craig Wilkinson, Bonac's concept was brought to life. Their design was so appealing that it won not only the first prize in the PATSCAN Environmental Innovation Contest, but also the Molson Prize for best recycling concept in 1997. (2) The success of these school...