The “Queensland Entrepreneur” – Growing globally competitive businesses in Queensland

By Will Shrapnel

Against a backdrop of disruption to global priorities and trade, new frontiers of digital technologies, and the universal readjustment towards work-life balance within developed countries, Queensland’s entrepreneurs have continued to innovate and evolve their businesses to show the world how global impact and scale can be delivered from within our state’s local communities.

Entrepreneurship, to me, is the relentless pursuit of growth and opportunity, enabled by a mindset that will challenge conventional thinking and find new ways to realise value and overcome adversity. Using this definition, it is perhaps easy to understand why entrepreneurship is so prevalent in Queensland; it is simply part of a broader mindset that can be found across so much of our state. We are familiar with working around the challenges of the vast distances and isolation from major centres. We are often understated and casual in our approach, but we rise to any challenge, and love to compete and win against the odds. We have a strong community and volunteering base that will work together to overcome adversity and rebuild in the wake of natural disasters. But perhaps above all else, we love where we live; we are motivated to be here, and we are prepared to work hard and innovate to realise opportunities for growth.

Growing up in Queensland, I was able to enjoy everything that’s great about living in the Sunshine State. Being from a regional area, I started building and flying model aircraft with my dad at a young age and developed a passion for aviation. I wanted to pursue a technical career in aerospace, but at that time, industry opportunities close to home were limited. Like many others, I had to move away to gain the skills and experience for the career I wanted, but it was my aim to one day combine my career with the great lifestyle of the Sunshine Coast, where I grew up. It became clear to me back then that the only way for me to achieve this would be to start my own business. So, with the support of another local business offering me an unused part of a hangar at Caloundra Aerodrome and some work to help me get going, I started HeliMods, aiming simply to deliver value to the industry I was passionate about from a place that I wanted to be.

Like so many other Queensland success stories, I started out small with limited access to capital, and built a business upon a foundation of community and hard work. Running a small business provided me with hands-on experience in product positioning and delivering value into a market. It also gave me the freedom and autonomy to explore – to try new things, to adapt and evolve, to make mistakes and to learn from them. As my work through HeliMods is my passion, I was driven to find new and better ways to deliver value to our customers. I first looked at international markets as a way of benchmarking the value our team was providing to customers locally; however, it was not long before my business plan evolved to consider scenarios around potential earnings from future exporting. I still remember the significance of the decision to finally pursue export markets and display our products upon the world stage, and it is fair to say that we haven’t looked back since that day.

So, from humble beginnings in a small office at Caloundra Aerodrome in 2002, HeliMods went on to become a supplier to helicopter fleets right across Australia, and then a support for helicopter fleets in North America. We also went on from being recognised as Sunshine Coast Business of the Year to Telstra Queensland Business of the Year, and then Queensland Regional Exporter of the Year. Our growing success in export markets to date has proven that regional businesses can absolutely leverage Queensland entrepreneurship, technology, and talent to deliver products and services that solve complex problems on the world stage. The result is a business that is proudly local, with global impact.

Standout high-growth businesses such as GO1 and Safety Culture are further examples of the spectacular global reach that can be achieved by leveraging digital technologies from exurban, rural, and remote Queensland locations. The GO1 scale-up has demonstrated the value of challenging conventional thinking around CBD centric HQs. Co-Founder Vu Tran proudly speaks about GO1 choosing to strategically invest in building their HQ in the Queensland suburban centre of Logan, where he grew up, and where they enjoy a close link to the local community and talent pool. Safety Culture Founder Luke Anear has also always been passionate about realising growth opportunities from the regions and has demonstrated that high-value, high-growth businesses can most certainly be established and grown outside of major capital cities. Despite now running offices globally, Safety Culture still maintains an office in Townsville where Luke first started the business.

When considering the disruptive effects of new digital technologies that enable higher levels of connectivity and knowledge transfer, it is logical to predict the top talent that is required to leverage these technologies will become more distributed globally and move to locations with a better lifestyle offering. It is then reasonable to expect that both capital and business investment will do the same, following talent migration away from major centres. The impact of increased levels of digital connectivity across industries and workplaces globally has effectively caused an accelerated flow-over effect, immediately deepening the talent pool for technology-centric businesses that are located outside of the major capital cities.

Considerations of proximity and access to market have also been further challenged in recent years. Like workplaces, many industries have adjusted their expectations around how business is conducted from different countries with a much higher acceptance of digital tools enabling remote connectivity and trade. There has also been a pronounced consolidation of global options to preference trade between like countries that can offer greater certainty and stability in supply. These things together have created a unique opportunity to participate in a revised model of global trade that favours greater collaboration between like minded countries as well as supporting more activity in a wider range of locations.

The evolving global sentiment around interactions between companies, markets, and workplaces has also highlighted some of the unique opportunities around scaling globally competitive businesses from locations outside of major centres. Now, the renewed importance of resilience through community and connection, both locally and globally, combined with evolving expectations of work and life balance from founders and top talent alike makes clear the opportunity for business in Queensland – where a special blend of innovation, growth mindset and quality of life have perhaps always been understood by those who choose to live and work here.