Bust or boom, businesses adapt

Interprojects took pride in creating a new building culture that specialised in hospitality and boutique retail stores and offices. Unfortunately, the bust in the construction industry had already set in before September this year and when that is coupled with the economic downturn that’s seeping through to other industries, it will soak through to hospitality and retail first.

However, economic tough times need not only be times of woeful down-turns, says the Business Development Director of another Darlington-based construction company, ICMG, Paul Attard. Mr Attard believes that it is in the hard times that fertile and inventive minds prosper through having to adapt to a new, liquidity-lacking environment. “A lot of creativity and innovation comes of difficult markets,” he said, adding that it was through the economic slumps that opportunities arise through the better management of current inefficiencies. 

Mr Attard is also anticipating more closures of smaller construction companies due, in part, to an inability to adjust to the current market. The boom that occurred in the mid-90s gave rise to numerous small businesses in the industry that knew only prosperous times.

“It’s easy to get on the band-wagon, but these young guys didn’t see [the 1987 stock market crash],” Mr Attard said. “There’s a whole generation who haven’t seen bad times.”

Although there may currently be a bleak outlook for many small businesses, some will recognise the opportunities available and will strike accordingly. It is not necessarily certain that biggest fish will survive, but those that adapt and evolve to meet the challenges ahead. “Opportunities will arise for the progressive and aggressive,” Mr Attard said. “What it comes down to is a focus on management.”

Photo: Neil Whitfield - Interprojects in Darlington

Source: South Sydney Herald December 2008 www.southsydneyherald.com.au