His association is due to launch a potential alternative to Ofsted, dubbed "Instead", at its conference later on Friday.

BBC: Schools 'struggling to recruit head teachers'

In Bottineau, North Dakota, partners Ronald Bergman and Paul Sund scoured trade magazines, joined a trade association and wrote out a list of potential customers and key decision-makers who might handle their invention -- a power broom to deal with snow, leaves and dirt.

FORBES: Getting a better mousetrap to market

They enlisted one of their fellows to do a statistical analysis, and published a Sept. 2001 paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association calling for an investigation into potential heart risks caused by Vioxx and Celebrex, a competing drug from Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people ).

FORBES: Behind Merck's Fall