WTCBN
Esther Anderson
How well do you really know Western Australia? Beyond the place where you live or work lies a network of industries, regions and supply chains that continually influence one another. The WA Industrial Flow is about seeing those connections and understanding how activity in one part of the state can create opportunities in another.
I’ve had a lot of conversations lately about opportunity. From businesses across the Western Trade Coast and people in the Goldfields to students at Murdoch University, the question keeps coming up in one form or another: where is the next opportunity?
My answer? Maybe we’re looking too hard in the obvious places.
There’s certainly enough noise to distract us. Defence. Westport. Energy.
Infrastructure. Major projects and even bigger numbers. When something gets that much attention, naturally everyone turns and looks in the same direction.
But sometimes you need to look sideways.
Case Study: The Opportunity Left Behind
A local supplier wins Defence work and shifts people and capability across to service it. Great opportunity for them — but what happens to the work they were doing before?
Their existing customers still need maintenance, services and suppliers. That creates a gap for another business to step in and backfill what has been left behind. No Defence contract required, no major pivot — just recognising the low-hanging fruit created by someone else’s growth.
Sometimes the opportunity is in the space somebody else has just vacated.
If you’ve spent years supplying mining, perhaps the opportunity isn’t another mining contract. What do you already do exceptionally well that defence, infrastructure or advanced manufacturing also needs? You might already have the systems, people, equipment and experience. The opportunity could simply be applying that capability somewhere different.
Or look around the edges of the big projects. Defence growth isn’t only an opportunity for businesses that build ships. More people means workforce, training, accommodation, transport, property, technology, maintenance and professional services. And those businesses need other businesses. Follow that chain far enough and you might be surprised where you fit.
Case Study: Look Beside the Supply Chain
A local supplier starts winning more work from a major project. As they grow, they need more than materials — they may need recruitment, training, transport, technology, safety support, professional services or additional premises.
That’s the sideways opportunity. Instead of trying to win work from the major project yourself, look at the businesses that already have and ask what their growth will require.
You don’t always need to be part of the primary supply chain to benefit from it. Sometimes the opportunity is in supporting those who are.
It can be even simpler. Maybe one service is consistently more profitable than everything else you offer. Instead of inventing something new, could you multiply it? Take it into another sector? Find another type of customer who has exactly the same problem?
I also pay attention when I hear someone say, “Why doesn’t somebody just…?”
That little sentence usually means there’s a problem nobody has solved particularly well. And where there’s a problem, there may well be an opportunity.
So yes, keep an eye on the big announcements. Know what’s coming and understand where WA is heading. But don’t become so distracted by what everyone else is chasing that you miss the low-hanging fruit sitting beside you.
Look at another sector. Look at your existing customers. Look at what you’re already really good at. Look at the problems being created because of all this growth.
Sometimes the next opportunity isn’t over the horizon.
You just need to look sideways.
