Tim Treadgold

OPINION: A failure to stick to their core competencies has led to significant disruption for businesses and organisations economy-wide.

ANALYSIS: The fortunes of an iconic residential property developer are a pointer to the health of WA’s economy.

OPINION: Iron ore miners Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart, Western Australia’s two richest people, are taking a different approach to growing their other major business interest – beef production.

ANALYSIS: With abundant supplies of energy and the raw materials growing Asian economies need, WA is set to ride out the economic headwinds facing the eastern states.

OPINION: Bank bashing is one of Australia’s favourite sports, and while it is generally played when banks are behaving badly, there is a time when the banks become political footballs for playing well, which is what will probably happen next week – for 16 billion reasons.

OPINION: A worldwide shake-up of the fertiliser industry may play out in WA, according to the investment bank, which has been watching Wesfarmers’ CSBP division.

OPINION: Corporate events such as takeovers and break-up proposals do not always have a political edge to them, but when they involve BHP Billiton, once Australia’s biggest company, politics are not far away (and neither is Western Australia).

ANALYSIS: Several factors are combining to reshape the future options for titanium minerals and zircon miner Iluka Resources.

OPINION: Despite a spike in iron ore prices, it will be the bigger, low-cost producers that rule the roost in the near to medium term.

ANALYSIS: Technology is exposing the resource-rich but isolated Yamarna region.

You don’t have to be a retailing expert to sense the sea change under way in shopping, but what you might not appreciate is that the first shots have been fired in what could become one of the great Australian retail mergers, with Myer and David Jones becoming one business.

OPINION: Wesfarmers has received some positive news on its move into UK hardware, but things are less rosy for investors in the local property trust in which it holds a major stake.

ANALYSIS: It seems like a case of right place, right time for shipbuilder Austal, although it has been a success many years in the making.

OPINION: Western Australia has a new billionaire, or to be completely accurate, it has an old billionaire who has made another billion dollars over the past 12 months without anyone really noticing.

OPINION: Supersized big-box retail is throwing down the gauntlet to the established order in Australia.

ANALYSIS: Any improvement in the state’s budget position is entirely dependent on the corporate sector returning to full health.

OPINION: Whoever wins Saturday’s election must know that state debt is too high.

The small diamonds produced in WA are falling out of favour with buyers, leading to questions about the industry’s future.

OPINION: Everyone exposed to the Australian retail industry knows how tough conditions are, but what they might not fully understand is the extent to which a once-local industry is being blasted out of business by international competition.

OPINION: Despite some widely publicised problems in the past year, Woolworths is emerging stronger in the supermarket face-off with major rival, Coles. 

ANALYSIS: Atlas Iron has emerged a leaner, better-financed company just a year after its near-death experience.

OPINION: Kalgoorlie has had a few wild rides over the years thanks to its reliance on two metals that can lurch from one extreme to another in a matter for days. Right now, it appears, the stars are aligning for gold and nickel.

OPINION: Expect Brendon Grylls to go hard at BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto over his tax plan ahead of the March state election.

The second-hand car business was revolutionised 20 years ago with the arrival of the internet, but there is a second revolution under way that promises to be even more disruptive and could have a significant effect on some of Western Australia’s best-known car yards.

ANALYSIS: Politics is getting in the way of timely and cost-efficient delivery of much-needed major projects.

OPINION: The effects of recent positive export numbers on WA’s trade-exposed economy could be a positive for the year ahead.

ANALYSIS: The popularity of online shopping in the US has reached a tipping point, breaking bricks and mortar retailers’ hold on the market.

OPINION: One month of data and a forecast for strong annual growth in exports is not a trend, but a careful analysis of Australia’s latest trade figures appears to confirm that an economic recovery is under way – and that could mean that the currency might be next to move up.

No sooner have retailers modified their business model to deal with a new technology than along comes a fresh challenge to the sector.

ANALYSIS: The widespread uptake of artificial intelligence is going to be a game changer across a range of industries.

OPINION: As promising as it sounds, the prospect of non-stop flights from Perth to London might not be the success some people seem to believe.

Kalgoorlie’s gold and nickel sectors could benefit if Donald Trump follows through with some of his plans.