Mark Pownall

IT might be every little boy's dream to run a company that owns trucks and diggers, but yellow goods group Emeco Holdings' new CEO Keith Gordon gives little indication of living out a childhood fantasy.

MOVEMENT at Perth law firms continues after a busy March of major shifts in the wake of the arrival of London-based Allen & Overy, with several big legal defections taking place.

A man who loves bancruptcies offers insight into how to make a business work.

THE Perth-based chief of one of Australia's leading medical sector players – St John of God Health Care CEO Michael Stanford – has warned of a shake-up in the pathology business as a result of changing federal government policy.

AQUACULTURE has a chequered history in Western Australia but the growth in demand for seafood from Asia, coupled with the decline in wild stocks, continues to generate new opportunities.

State Treasurer Troy Buswell has killed off the privatisation of government employees' superannuation administrator GESB, ending almost two years of doubt about its future.

There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to engaging indigenous enterprises.

Australia is ill-prepared to deal with potential threats in the north-west

LAST year, the leadership at Aboriginal-owned BYAC Contracting learned a very big business lesson when the global financial crisis hit – the dangers of its over-reliance on a long-term customer.

DEPUTY Prime Minister Julia Gillard's whistlestop tour of Western Australia last week returned the political conversation to industrial relations for the first time in several weeks.

Premier Colin Barnett's former chief-of-staff, Deidre Willmott will be leaving her role as coordinator for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Perth but has ruled out a tilt at parliament, for now.

Do the wealthy have a moral obligation to help those less fortunate?

The signs aren't good for MIS plays after major upheaval in 2009.

MINING magnate Clive Palmer might be from Queensland, but he doesn't mind weighing into Western Australia's political scene, as he did in Albany at the weekend with promises to spend up big in support of The Nationals WA campaigning at state level.

THE official stock exchange listing of Osborne Park-based rural merchandiser FarmWorks Australia has highlighted the seemingly sluggish passage of corporate plans at two other agribusinesses, AACL and Rewards Group.

AS Perth surveys the damage wreaked by Monday's storm, political observers were picking over something completely different – the results of two state elections at the weekend and trying to assess the implications for Western Australia.

The launch of a new internet service by Kerry Stokes raises intriguing questions about the strategy.

Canberra doesn't have the money to take control of the health system – yet.

As Australia's fiscal muscle shifts inexorably to Canberra, so too does the focus of everyone, from the premier down, who is seeking funding decisions from the national capital. And they are just as likely to be disappointed by the process as Colin Barnet

FINANCIAL responsibility was the big subject last week, as the state government and opposition sought to expose each other's weaknesses on the fiscal front.

Perron Group chairman Stan Perron is a survivor, having ridden out the tough times and prospered in the good over several decades. Examining his business philosophy reveals the art of wealth preservation ... starting with an early shift into property.

PROMINENT demographer Bernard Salt has added his voice to calls for the development of a major population centre in the state's north-west, believing a big military presence is a key element to that development.

The maternity leave plans of both major political parties leave a lot to be desired.

THE destruction of wealth wrought by the global financial crisis has focused many private business people back to their core operation, and given them cause to think about strategies for preserving what they have in case of another big bust.

Big private businesses have generally withstood the shock of the GFC.

A look at the banks' treatment of property developers has proved the value of corporate memory.

AT first hearing, the book title sounds more like a view from a London boiler room or something spoken by an East End barrow boy than the thoughts of one of Western Australia's finest business exports.

BUSINESS has been cautiously supportive of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's National Health Reform Plan, the centrepiece of which is a takeover of majority responsibility for hospitals as well as other structural reforms to the health system.

Political reality has put an end to a brief period of cooperation between Colin Barnett and Kevin Rudd.

Kerry Stokes' move is a little bit Buffett, a little bit Wesfarmers.

INFANT mortality is a rarely used measure of economic strength but, ultimately, it could be regarded as the key performance indicator.

LISTED agricultural property investment company, The Ark Fund, has extended its deadline for private managed investment scheme player Rewards Group to pay rent owed on its widespread portfolio, understood to be 30 properties around Australia.