ACN: 062 305 784
ABN: 91 062 305 784
About CCS Corporation
Developers of the CCS
Originally known as Compatibility Pty Ltd, CCS Corporation is an Australian company that started out developing games for the toy and game industry and is now well known as the developer of the communication tool known as the Compatibility Communication System, or CCS.
With extensive backgrounds and experience in training, education and staff development, the company's founders saw an opportunity to use gaming principles in the world of training and communication.
Gradually the company's focus centred on one game, Compatibility. The image-based eductive principle of this game was then adapted as a face-to-face communication system.
CCS Corporation has now been developing the CCS concept for more than 16 years and the tool is used in more than 70 countries around the world. CCS Corporation HQ is in Martinsville, NSW, Australia.
The CCS is shipped all over the world from our HQ in Australia and our partner in New Zealand (for NZ and Pacific Islands).
In addition to developing and supporting the CCS, the company now regularly produces customised organisational and people development products.
CRAIG BROWNE
Managing Director
Craig is the Managing Director of CCS Corporation and principal developer of the Compatibility Communication System (or CCS), a face-to-face communication tool used by hundreds of organisations throughout Australia and internationally, in areas such as staff training, facilitation, performance review, management meetings, vision and values creation, coaching, mentoring and education.
Originally trained in education and media communication, Craig Browne has spent more than 20 years in teaching, adult education, management, corporate training, learning and development.
In addition to his corporate work, Craig is the inventor of a number of successful board games including, 'Sorts', 'Sorts for kids', 'Deal or no deal', 'Bert's family feud', 'The biggest loser - round table challenge', 'Childrens charades', 'The price is right', and 'Compatibility.' The latter was picked up by Mattel in 1996 and distributed in 10 countries and 5 languages. He is also a singersongwriter and has recently released his first album, For the dream, on the Relatively Creative music label. See www.craigandrewbrowne.com.au to find out more and listen to some tracks.
LEONIE CUTTS
General Manager
As General Manager at CCS Corporation she is the principal author of the CCS training methodologies and an expert at teaching others to apply the system to their business cases. Leonie also oversees all aspects of CCS Corporation's project selection and management – a role she pursues with strength and motivation.
With a Bachelor of Education, Leonie Cutts has used her extensive education, training and senior management experience to develop a unique philosophy and passionate approach to business.
Leonie has spent many years in both staff and management training roles in national and multinational companies. Throughout this time she has learnt to place a strong emphasis on a manager's responsibility in staff development and achievement.
As a presenter, Leonie is enthusiastic and always original. Her wide training experience has seen her develop a warm, confident approach to adult education – a style she gainfully employs to deliver the CCS.
RELATIVELY CREATIVE PTY LTD.
In addition to CCS Corporation, Leonie and Craig are also the directors of Relatively Creative Pty Limited. RC is a purely creative development company specialising in the design and development of products for the entertainment, toy and game and educational marketplaces.visit Relatively Creative
WHILE working as an Education Officer at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia, Craig Browne was assisting in some research that was being done to test museum visitors' attitudes to ideas the museum had for a new exhibition. Visitors were given a pile of pictures cut-out from magazines and asked to find images that they thought showed the type of things they expected to see in the new exhibition.
Craig explains:
"As I watched the people filing through these images, I was struck by their absolute concentration and obvious delight in finding suitable images to represent their point of view.
People who had not been saying much started sharing ideas and even asking questions of others. I said to myself, there's got to be a game in this! What followed was several years of trial and error, prototyping, testing and trying to get game companies to take notice. In the end we started our own little company, Compatability Pty Ltd and set out to market the game ourselves. As fate would have it, while meeting with the toy and game buyer for a major retail chain we were introduced to the MD of the well-known Australian games company, Crown & Andrews. In the meeting that followed the game was accepted.
We licensed the board game to, Crown & Andrews, who launched it in Australia in 1995. Compatibility was then licensed to Mattel and introduced to the world at the New York Toy Fair at the start of the 1996, with a fanfare promotion that involved Ivana Trump and Ed Koch (the then New York mayor). Mattel launched the game into the US, UK and French markets in September of that year.
The game was eventually translated into 6 languages, released in 12 countries worldwide, won several industry awards and sold more than half a million copies.
Now, while all this exciting stuff was happening around the world with Mattel, my partner, Leonie Cutts, and I were beginning to play with the idea of using the image cards in training, facilitation and face-to-face communication. Our backgrounds are in education, training and management so it was a natural progression.
Initially we used the system primarily as a conference ice-breaker, to get people focused, ready to participate and work cooperatively. However we quickly came to recognise the extraordinary ease with which this unique collection of images was able to generate open and honest communication in just about any face-to-face session.
So, we set about creating a range of products for professional facilitators we now call, the Compatibility Communication System, or CCS."
Having been reprinted many times since its first release, versions of the Compatibility board game are still available in selected toy stores around the world. And the popularity of the CCS as a versatile personal and corporate communication tool, continues to spread further every year. There product has been used by thousands of participants and facilitators in more than 70 countries.