When nickel producer Minara Resources decided last year to pursue the development of a $25 million heap leach demonstration plant, it ran into an unexpected problem.
Manufacturing is widely perceived to be an industry in terminal decline, so it’s rather surprising that the Australian Bureau of Statistics found it to be one of Western Australia’s biggest industry sectors, supporting more than 100,000 jobs.
Identifying and nurturing future leaders within the business was a key issue discussed at last week’s breakfast forum, with all four panellists highlighting the problems while stressing the importance of seeking out key personnel able to take up the compa
Mining might have received all the headlines in the past year, but Tessitura managing director and founder Liddy McCall is proof that other sectors are firing as well.
It seems to come around so quickly every year, but our search for the 2007 40under40 officially started last Wednesday at the ‘Dynamic Entrepreneurs in the Boom’ breakfast as part of the WA Business News Success and Leadership series.
Suzan Pervan says her luckiest break came following her departure from top four chartered accounting firm Ernst & Young, as it provided the catalyst for her, and Ernst and Young partner Dalton Gooding, to establish Gooding Pervan Chartered Accountants.
Finding a balance between work and life outside of business appears to be some way off for the entrepreneurial panellists at the WA Business News Success and Leadership event.
Brett Martin’s Trailcraft group of companies manufactures aluminium trailer boats, boat trailers and caravans and sells them through five of its own retail stores and 27 independently owner retail outlets across Australia.
Staff retention and costs issues associated with the state’s protracted economic growth were among the key issues raised by panellists at the breakfast forum.
His role as a technology leader in Western Australia was well-known when Michael Malone was crowned 40under40 1st Amongst Equals earlier this year; a far cry from when he graduated from university in the early 1990s, when few knew anything about the inter
Peter Meurs believes local companies seeking work on big resource and infrastructure projects need to ensure they meet the needs of project developers, rather than relying on work coming to them simply because they are Australian.
WorleyParsons has been one of the big winners from the resources boom, growing to be Australia’s largest engineering firm, and the Perth office under Peter Meurs has played a key part in that success.
All the stars continue to be aligned in favour of the Western Australian economy, on the back of a fourth successive year of above 30-year average real global economic growth.
Western Australia has all the ingredients the rest of the world wants and is willing to pay for.
This has been the recipe for the success of the state, which is showing up its counterparts in every domestic economic indicator from house prices to state
Overwhelming interest in Western Australian property appears to have pushed the state’s median house price above $400,000 for the first time, and almost doubled the price of land in the year to June 2006.
The impact of booming economic conditions and high commodity prices led to a stellar year for the state’s finances in 2005-06, with a record $2.26 billion operating surplus.
It has been a year of record-breaking results in the resources sector as economic powerhouses China and India fuel demand and world prices for the majority of commodities continue their upward trajectory.
Strong wages growth has outpaced the rise in Perth’s Consumer Price Index, which rose by 4.2 per cent through the year to the March quarter 2006, much higher than the national increase of 3 per cent.
We all know that Australia is benefiting from another resources boom – the latest in a long history of export-orientated, resource-led growth spurts that we have experienced since the gold rush of the 1850s.
The Western Australian economy has gone through an exceptional phase of economic growth and development over the past four years, and has gained further momentum so far in 2006.
Western Australia’s strong economy has produced an extraordinary fall in the state’s unemployment rate to less than 4 per cent, a level many economists thought would never be reached.
The shortage of skilled labour is the biggest issue facing many Western Australian businesses. WA Business News reports on some of the innovative responses to the skills crisis.
