WA Business News is well known for highlighting the depth and sophistication of commercial activity in this state. In this week’s edition we showcase WA based innovation arising from the resources industry that has led to significant business growth and economic diversity. That doesn’t mean the epithet, “China’s Quarry” is totally inappropriate or not a distant possibility in the future, but it is worth taking a look at the remarkable amount of world beating innovation taking place here in WA.
Some of the innovation we see is driven by mining and oil and gas, and this can extend the economic rewards beyond serving WA’s resource projects to open up global opportunities. Entrepreneurial activity like this is part of the substance and benefit of what we get out of being an “oil and gas hub” or whatever the buzzwords are to describe the evolving role of Perth in particular. Fastwave and Matrix are examples of companies with world beating technologies arising out of the sub-sea sector and we also present a number of high tech examples where innovative solutions have won worldwide acclaim and secured international business deals, right out of here in WA. In the case of iWebGate, Perth’s isolation itself was the inspiration behind the technology. For further research on the subject we covered the recent Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards which really highlight how the resources industry is the mother of invention. Mark Pownall's column this week also relates the surprising story of an intrepid Western Australian, aiming to break the world land speed record, illustrating the amalgam of isolation and wanting to prove we are as good as anyone else.
To innovation of a different kind, growth in professional services has also been driven by work done in the mining industry over the last 30 years. The makeup of Perth’s capital firms today reflect the skills and experience of individuals who started their careers as young people either in the industry, as engineers, geologists, and lawyers or in the financial services sector as stockbrokers and analysts. Today, Perth’s capital firms, ranging from boutique services to large players, advise on and manage sophisticated transactions around the world. It is not unusual to see a company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, with assets in Mongolia, Customers in China and Korea and investors from a number of countries across the globe, involved in a transaction led by a Perth based capital firm acting as lead manager. This represents welcome diversity in our economy and a rise up the value chain with services. In this week’s edition of WA Business News our cover feature on “rainmakers” highlights some of these individuals, not just in the capital markets, but in law and other professional services firms.
