WESTERN Australia is widely perceived as a state of opportunity, where mineral wealth offers almost unlimited potential for a range of business sectors.
WESTERN Australia is widely perceived as a state of opportunity, where mineral wealth offers almost unlimited potential for a range of business sectors.
Gary Holder knows the reality is a little less clear cut. Mr Holder developed MDR Certification Engineers in 2001, a third party, independent quality assurance and inspection company.
Initially the business operated primarily in the oil and gas sector, with growth into the lucrative mining, construction and fabrication markets the goal.
Mr Holder said he hired the right staff at the beginning, knowing that having quality people on board was imperative in providing quality assurance services.
Building a name and reputation in the WA business scene, even during boom times, proved difficult, however.
“We have tendered for a lot of large projects where clients have said, ‘you are great with what you do, but you have got no history in this and therefore we are going to go to a large international company to provide the service’,” Mr Holder said.
“Getting yourself recognised as a quality company, as someone who can be competitive and deliver a service better than large international companies is the challenge. It doesn’t come from overnight success, it just comes from hard work.”
It took some time, but MDR built its reputation, which Mr Holder said resulted from providing quality service and creating a market presence.
“Coming through two dark economic stages the clients have seen we are still here. During the GFC we employed people rather than put people off, we have grown from being a small operator consultancy to being a well recognised quality assurance and third-party inspection company,” Mr Holder told WA Business News.
Despite the high Australian dollar and the resulting increase in tendering competition from overseas companies, MDR recently won a substantial contract with a multinational mining giant to perform non-destructive testing and inspection on its construction of a gas plant in India – a contract of the kind Mr Holder has sought since he started MDR in 2001.
“It is a big achievement; the large international companies already had people there (India), locals there who could provide the service very cheaply compared to an Australian company, they also wouldn’t have had the cost of flying over there and [staying in] hotels,” Mr Holder said.
MDR was competing against large internationally renowned companies with up to 80,000 staff and Mr Holder believes his company was awarded the contract because of the standard of work its inspectors provide.
“The trend these days is to send fabrication overseas, go for the cheapest. I guess we are going against the grain here because we haven’t been cheaper than the other companies that can provide it (third party inspection), but we still got the contract,” he said.
“Projects won’t necessarily go offshore if you can prove you are a better option than the people offshore; it is not all about money.”
From Mr Holder’s perspective, winning that contract ultimately said something about MDR’s services – that regardless of where the dollar was, or company’s budget, good service would always be rewarded.
Instead of hiring local subcontractors for the job, MDR workers are employed for the duration of the contract, something Mr Holder said had contributed to the company’s successful tender.
As well as being focused on hiring experienced workers who are well appraised of the WA safety standards, MDR’s structure is such that the inspectors doing the work are in direct contact with the client, as opposed to the more common structure where a middle man or operations manager liaises between the inspector and client.
Mr Holder said consistency was key in a field where subcontracting was common, and having staff on board for the length of the project allowed accountability within MDR’s unique structure.
“If something goes wrong, you know it comes back to someone in the company,” he said.
For Mr Holder, the goals for MDR are still high, but attainable.
“When large companies know that local companies can provide the same services as large international companies, I will know I achieved what I set out to do,” he said.
