Western Sydney storiesLocal icons provide their insights on how to make the most of the region’s incredible growth

Melting pot One aspect that makes me truly excited about this project is that the hopes and dreams of Western Sydney really are those of the new Australia. According to the last Australian census, this zone is one of the most multicultural areas in the world – in a city that is home to 70 nationalities, Western Sydney has a dozen of Australia’s most multicultural suburbs.

Half of Bankstown’s residents speak a language other than English at home. More than two-thirds of residents in Cabramatta, Wolli Creek and Hurstville were born overseas.

What this creates, is a sense of globalised community on a local scale. A recent Michael Page survey that tracked the responses from 2,895 Australian professionals confirmed this sentiment:

Why Western Sydney? A personal manifesto by Adrian Oldham

88% would like to increase their contribution to their local community if there was an opportunity to do so within their job.

And as demographer Bernard Salt noted, globally only New York and East London can boast greater levels of diversity.

New jobs Why wouldn’t you be excited about Western Sydney? Already Australia’s third largest economic region and home to 47 percent of Sydney’s population today, the area is already gearing up for a projected 1.9% population growth each year over the next 20 years.

Our survey confirms professionals throughout the country feel just as optimistic as we do about the region: 64% believe that in the next five years, Western Sydney has the potential to progress economically to the level of a large city like Sydney or Melbourne.

According to the plan, that feels like the perfect formula for employment growth: with a projected 200,000 new jobs expected by 2020. We anticipate a ‘balancing out’ of employment distribution in Sydney, and a boom for Western Sydney in sectors including property, infrastructure and construction, manufacturing, sales and service-related industries. Which is great news for the 91% of professionals in the region who would like to change their jobs to work closer to home given the right opportunity.

New homes are coming too: with land for more than 95,000 new homes having been rezoned in the Western Sydney growth centres.

And the added bonus of creating so many jobs in a place of such cultural diversity – and nearby one of the country’s soon-to-open business airports?

It surely makes Western Sydney one of the best places to launch an export business: proving your concept amid a global market, with a ready-made springboard to those same markets abroad.

It’s not surprising then, that 64% of Australian professionals would like to personally be a part of Western Sydney’s progression. And we feel the same.

Planting a garden Yet as any market gardener will tell you, whether it is eggplants or bok choy that you’re growing, no seed bed will grow without love and encouragement – and neither can an area’s potential turn into results without the proper support.

Luckily, we know that areas like Parramatta, Blacktown and Campbelltown have been earmarked for substantial investment, rejuvenation and economic growth by private business and government bodies alike.

The Badgerys Creek airport project, spoken of for more than a decade, is now a true pipeline project, slated for completion in 2026 – and having received the backing of the Federal Government, which is helming the project.

Why? Because they, like Michael Page, know these sites are considered perfectly strategic new business locations, given their centrality to large numbers of Sydney’s population, strong transport links and an aspirational local population. Smart businesses that are forward-thinking can capitalise on this, by targeting the 65% of Western Sydney professionals who would prefer to work outside the CBD over working within it.

Walking around Western Sydney as it is today, opportunity certainly abounds. How would I know? As the NSW head of a company that specialises in helping build both companies and careers, I have learned to spot the signs.

There’s an air of potential in suburbs such as Blacktown – and ambitions are rising in areas like Harris Park, Australia’s third most multicultural suburb.

91% of professionals in the region would like to change their jobs to work closer to home given the right opportunity.

64% believe that in the next five years, Western Sydney has the potential to progress economically to the level of a large city like Sydney or Melbourne.

What SMEs need Currently, the majority of Western Sydney businesses are small and medium enterprises (SMEs). And with the impact of decentralisation and consolidation in New South Wales, we know that large businesses are on the way – some already established companies like Woolworths and Aldi have moved here: many more including NAB and Amazon will soon be thriving in the region.

I also know, because our management is on the steering committee of Shaping Future Cities, a position that might give us fewer evenings in an average month to go for a run – but certainly provides a unique view on a project that’s truly gaining speed.

Helping out now People who work with me know I don’t hold back in ambition: which is why I’m crystal clear that I want our company to be the top recruiter in Western Sydney. But we’re not going to get there by being unrealistic. And I know it’s not easy to invest in the dream today.

I speak with SMEs every day who tell me, “Yes alright Adrian, but I’m over here already. And now what?” And that right there is the challenge. It’s one thing to invest in the green field, knowing what’s coming – but let’s talk to the pain points of doing business next year in a place that is not yet completely there.

What of the struggle for technology start-ups to find the right talent to choose Penrith, when they could be working five minutes from the Harbour Bridge? How are HR managers in small businesses in the West meant to compete in the costly effort of talent recruitment with global companies boasting budgets with more zeroes than theirs?

Let’s talk That’s why we’re investing in helping you out with today’s hiring problems.

By working with a team of talented recruitment specialists and some seasoned storytellers, we are gathering forces to help you through the landmines of hiring now.

But don’t just take our word for it. We’ve gathered a team of true Western Sydney champions, from across many different disciplines, age groups and cultures. We have the head of a local law firm. A founding partner in a property investor. The leader of a co-working space. A champion of women’s employees. And serial entrepreneurs.

Up for discussion will be hiring tactics and niche opportunities – ways to spread your HR spending in clever ways, and smart tactics around retention and marketing. It’s our way of building a tool-kit for SME managers to negotiate the road to a real Western Sydney dream: and our way of investing in being a part of that dream.

Can you tell I’m excited? Write to me here and join the march to the new Western Sydney today.

By working with a team of talented recruitment specialists and some seasoned storytellers, we are gathering forces to help you through the landmines of hiring now.

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How Jim Marsden is riding the wave of change

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When Jim Marsden and his older brother John were growing up in the 1950s, Campbelltown was a small rural community that felt completely separate from Sydney proper.

After training as a lawyer in the city, John decided to return home to found a locally oriented practice; Jim joined him soon after, and today is the firm’s senior partner. Marsdens Law Firm has grown significantly in the past five decades and now services all of NSW, but its head offices proudly remain in Campbelltown.

Law firms obviously rely on a ready supply of competitive talent. For an SME in Western Sydney seeking to retain a similarly qualified talent pool, what would your advice be?

My five siblings and I were raised in a pub in Campbelltown. Growing up in a pub gives you a close affinity with everybody in the town – all manner of people, from the homeless people that used to sleep in our garage from time to time on cold nights, to local doctors and lawyers, to the tradies. It was not an academic environment, but our family would regularly discuss the issues of the day around the dinner table. Nobody was excluded from discussing any topic. We were taught that everyone was equal.

My older brother John and I both had a tendency towards advocacy, which led us to the law. John started Marsdens Law Group in 1968 and I joined him in 1973. There was never any question of practicing law somewhere other than the West. We had a love of the area where we were born and raised. It wasn’t about making a commercial assessment.

We were basically a two-man practice. We set about expanding geographically, primarily in West and South-Western Sydney, then in 1979 we established an office in the Sydney CBD. Today, our main office is in Campbelltown and we also have offices in Camden, Oran Park and Liverpool. There are currently 14 partners and a total workforce of about 160.

When we were starting out, in the late 1960s and early ’70s, Campbelltown and the surrounding areas were not exactly cosmopolitan, but they were full of

a great mixture of migrant families and people from less fortunate areas who really wanted to make lives for themselves. There was amazing growth in the region, and my brother said, ‘We’ve got to ride this wave of growth.’ But that wave we were riding back in the ’70s was nothing compared with the growth that we’re seeing now. People used to talk about the ‘potential’ of the West, but it’s no longer potential – it’s actually happening. And this is just the groundswell. When we start to dig the first turf at the airport [in nearby Badgerys Creek], it’s just going to be amazing. And I think people realised that.

A lot of our clients now are significant commercial and property clients, but I never want to lose sight of ordinary people who want basic law delivered at a high standard, so that the young mums and dads who move to the West in the future have got affordable access to good legal services.

LOCAL APPRENTICESHIPS There’s a lot to be said for “going local” in your hiring: including investing time in getting to know local tertiary institutions, and offering graduate apprenticeships. This give you a strong local platform. In ‘candidate-poor’ areas such as law where there isn’t always a ready supply of talent, law firms rely on the ability to hire and retain qualified talent. But ultimately, many lawyers too want to work close to home because it enables us to have that kind of work-life balance, which is all the more important today. Our survey proves this too: a staggering 91% of professionals in Western Sydney would change their jobs to work closer to home.

Adrian Oldham, Michael Page

HIGHER LEARNINGThe first thing is a good relationship with Western Sydney University. And if you’re a law firm, the Law School within the University. Secondly, offer a happy working environment. Thirdly, pay well. And, finally, don’t let the good ones go.

Jim Marsden, Marsdens Law Firm

How Nathan Birch is investing in the heartland

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Western Sydney is the heartland. And that’s what I like about it.“

Born to working-class parents and raised around Parramatta, Nathan Birch struggled to focus at school and failed some of his classes. As a teenager, he craved independence and was inspired when his older brothers moved out and bought small houses in Sydney’s West.

He began saving, and bought his first property – in Mt Druitt – when he was 18. By age 30, he had a $30 million property portfolio. Birch founded the property investment group Binvested and was named runner-up in the Investor of the Year awards in 2013.

Obviously for an SME running on a tight budget, property costs are a key variable. What would your advice be to managers seeking the best location at an affordable cost?

REVERSE ENGINEER YOUR BUSINESSIt’s important to consider the logistics of your business when you search for property. Look for the infrastructure that will attract the right employees and the right clientele, such as good road links and ample parking for clients and public transport connections for employees. You need to understand the needs of your business and where your clientele come from – reverse engineer the business to understand these needs. If your clientele is travelling from the east or industrial parts of the inner West, consider a location such as Norwest Business Park, which has good motorway access to both the airport and city and will be serviced by the Sydney Metro NorthWest when it’s complete.

Nathan Birch, Binvested

LOCATION-PROOF STRATEGYOur digital environment gives many well-positioned businesses the chance to transcend location, by bringing goods and services to the customer, and handling service issues remotely where possible. If your business is built around a digital strategy that makes conversion easy and convenient wherever the customer is, you have the platform to be “based” almost anywhere – from which you can expand easily in future.

Adrian Oldham, Michael Page

I grew up near Toongabbie in a bit of a rough area. There was no silver spoon. My dad was an NRMA patrolman. He worked his entire life and died when he was 62. My mum also worked and didn’t retire until her mid-60s. I failed every grade from kindergarten to Year 12. I was an ADD kid – I didn’t fit into the system.

I was 13 when I first got excited by property. My older brothers had bought small houses nearby, just what they could afford, and I wanted to be like them. I realized that rich people owned multiple properties, and that property values almost always went up. There were lots of Housing Commission areas near where we lived, and during my childhood I saw those areas clean up and prices increase. Houses in some of those suburbs sell for $1.5 million now.

I decided that I wanted to own 10 properties by the time I was 30 and have each one bring me in some passive income that I could live off. So I started saving up. When I finished school, I didn’t have any real employment prospects. But I loved property, so I got myself a job at a real-estate agency. I also worked in advertising at News Limited, and worked on the door at a pub. For years I worked two full-time jobs, which meant 20-hour days. One year I only took seven days off. I saved every cent.

I bought my first property in Mount Druitt in 2003. Back then you wouldn’t find anything in Mount Druitt apart from mullets, Southern Cross tattoos, flannos and VB cans. Now, you see a wide range of cultures in the community. I used to feel unsafe going over there but nowadays it’s full of families and there’s lots of cool stuff happening. Migration and multiculturalism have been really good for Western Sydney.

I quit my day job at the age of 24, but I got bored, so I started the Binvested group of companies for fun. I employ about 200 people, from all walks of life. I’m 32 now, and I still hustle so hard. People tell me I should just stop working and enjoy life. But then what would I do with my days?

I used to give investing seminars in other parts of the city, and when I’d talk about Western Sydney, people would turn their noses up. That Western Sydney stigma is gone now. Sure, I could move our offices [located in Bella Vista] to the CBD or Barangaroo and have water views and drink pina coladas and drive a cool car. But Western Sydney is the heartland. It’s full of hard-working mums and dads and families. And that’s what I like about it.

Amanda Rose: Advocating for women in the region

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I’m a Western Sydney girl, and I’m proud of it.“

Encouraged by her family, the young Amanda Rose focused on study and nurtured her interest in business. As she moved through high school and on to university, she was confronted by the stereotypes that some Australians ascribe to Western Sydney, particularly its women.

So Rose co-founded Western Sydney Women, an advocacy group that connects and empowers women in the region during all stages of their lives and careers. Today, she juggles her commitments to the organisation with speaking and consulting work and appears regularly on TV and radio.

Amanda, as an advocate for Western Sydney women, what’s your advice to women managers seeking to tap into the local talent pool? Any great pockets of talent that you’d suggest looking into?

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOXThere are women all around Western Sydney looking for work. Don’t limit yourself to the typical places to source talent: use social networks – there are multiple online groups of women – openly discuss opportunities at events and meetings to help spread the word and, with the infrastructure boom happening over the next 30 years, look at skills centres across all of the region: they deal with women from school-age right up to senior management and are a great source of talent.

Amanda Rose, Western Sydney Women

DEVELOP SOCIAL REACHThere are a number of networking behaviours, which when combined with rigour, work well to expand your reach. We work hard to build a “social recruiter” culture, which involves our teams reaching out and sharing opportunities, and curating interesting stories through social media. We also prioritise face-to-face meetings, and getting out into the community. And where you’ve helped to create a successful placement for somebody in the past, that person is often happy to connect you to the right person in their own circle.

Adrian Oldham, Michael Page

I’m a Western Sydney girl, born and raised, and I’m proud of it. I believe it’s my calling to work with the women of Western Sydney and to develop their futures as much as possible. I often work with overseas companies who are hoping to establish themselves in Australia, and outside of my professional life I travel frequently. But my heart remains in Western Sydney.

Until recently, many people from other parts of the city considered the region to be the domain of the poor and uneducated. But now that the region is growing and there are more opportunities, people are starting to respect the West, which is powerful. It’s fantastic. There’s always been eclectic talent in Western Sydney but now outsiders are finally paying attention and realising that, in many ways, this region is the future of Australia.

There’s an incorrect assumption that if you’re a woman from Western Sydney, you’re not ambitious or you don’t want a career. But the women I work with do. And often they want to stay in the area where they were raised – to reinvest in the region. I believe that women in general will give back to the communities that help them, so if Western Sydney can help these women become who they want to be, they will return that favour. There’s massive untapped potential.

We have three brands within the organisation. There’s Western Sydney Women, which operates free workshops that help women with job readiness and financial literacy. There’s also Western Sydney Business Women, which co-ordinates workshops and networking events for those who run small- and medium-sized enterprises. And then we have Western Sydney Executive Women, which brings together executive-level women who either live or work in Western Sydney and acts as a sort of talent pool for organisations looking for board members.

Our goal is for women to be confident and economically independent, regardless of where they are in life. We want women to trust in their abilities, so they can make a major contribution to the Western Sydney economy.

I’m blessed because my work takes me all across the region, from Parramatta to Bankstown to the Hills. I’m everywhere. For me, visiting all the different food enclaves is a particular highlight of travelling around the West. The restaurant scene in Harris Park is my all-time favourite. I might be biased, but I think Ginger is the best Indian restaurant in all of Australia.

Le Ho on supporting young entrepreneurs

I’ve run all of my businesses out of Western Sydney.“

The multi-talented Vietnamese Australian Le Ho (she’s an entrepreneur, businesswoman, author and speaker) took out the top prize for business in the Western Sydney University 2017 Women of the West awards. Her childhood, on a farm in South Australia, was defined by sacrifice and hard work, and when she arrived in Western Sydney aged 18, she was determined to make a name for herself.

I grew up on my parents’ small farm in Virginia, South Australia. My parents were refugees who arrived in Australia from Vietnam in the early 1980s with a limited grasp of the English language. Like many other migrants, they compensated for their lack of language skills by using their practical knowledge from back home to start a business in their new homeland.

I came to Sydney when I was 18 and I’ve lived and worked in the West ever since. When I finished uni at age 21, my plan was to start a small business in retail, but within a couple of years I found myself heading a $10 million waste management company. Since then, I’ve tried to support other migrants and their families to get established in the area.

The region has grown incredibly since I’ve been here. Western Sydney has become a key arrival point for refugees and migrants – we’ve accepted many thousands into the community in the past couple of years alone. I think that the migrant mentality of starting a small business from scratch has been a key driver of the growth in Western Sydney – not just in recent years but over the past four decades. The businesses we have here now are strong and resilient.

In my experience, migrants and refugees strive in the workplace because they’ve overcome so much adversity to reach Australia. In most cases,

they don’t own anything – they are building a life from scratch. And it’s important to remember that refugees feel a great sense of loyalty and gratitude towards Australia, which translates into supporting the Australian economy through work. I came to Australia when I was a year old and I consider myself Australian through and through. Australia is the only country I know, and for me personally it’s really important to give back to the Australian economy.

“The other thing about Western Sydney is that it’s such a cool place to live. The eating is great: I’ve got Vietnamese food, Syrian food and Indian food right at my doorstep. There’s also a lot of green space in the West, which many people don’t realise, and there’s plenty of room here for future construction.

“It’s also very central: I’ve run all of my businesses out of Western Sydney because logistically the new freeways make it very easy to get into the CBD or out to Campbelltown or up to the Blue Mountains. For a waste management business, especially, being connected to the entire Greater Sydney region is key.

87% of professionals in Western Sydney agree that “to work for a small-to-medium enterprise, is to share in the vision of the owner.”

In a few short years, she turned a struggling waste business, Capital City Waste Services, into a $10 million success story. Today, she runs Aspiring Promotions, whose mission is to support young entrepreneurs.

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In terms of growing and maintaining a competitive team of talent, what fundamental advice would you have for entrepreneurs starting out in Western Sydney?

INVEST IN PASSIONWestern Sydney is probably Australia’s most culturally diverse area, so businesses here have the advantage of utilising the skill sets, experience and knowledge that migrants and refugees bring with them. That said, business owners will find it difficult to get past the start-up stage without a devoted and passionate team to drive the business forward – which is why they need to instil in their staff the same vision and passion that they have within themselves. They should also invest in up-skilling staff: this benefits the business, obviously, but it also benefits the staff because it gives them more pathways for personal growth.

Le Ho, Entrepreneur, Author, Founder of Aspiring Promotions

WALK THE TALKIt’s basically always about customer-first. Everything you do needs to suit the customer. What do we need to do internally to create that for the customer? If you have the customer in the forefront, they’ll help to curate a business framework. Within this framework, think hard about building a social profile for your leadership, and linking this to powerful messages within the community, messages that speak directly to your customers and partners. You’ll then have a platform from which to grow.

Adrian Oldham, Michael Page

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Brendon Noney on why education is the key to future prosperity

There’s opportunity in the West. Come and take it.“

Born to migrant parents from India and raised in the working-class suburb of Pendle Hill, Brendon Noney realised at a young age that education would be the key to his future prosperity. Through his work at HWL Ebsworth, a large law firm with a local focus, he has developed enduring ties with some of Greater Western Sydney’s most influential businesspeople.

Since 2013, he has also served as president of the Western Sydney Business Connection, an organisation that aims to facilitate networking between some 6000 business leaders across the region.

For some new business entrants to the area, Western Sydney may seem like a challenge in terms of attracting and retaining talent. How useful is a business network to this exercise, and what would your key advice to a manager be?

BUILD RELATIONSHIPSIn my time working in Western Sydney, I have found participating in business networks to be a critical means of establishing trusted relationships, be they with clients or with other lawyers and law firms. In our profession, building trusted personal relationships is the name of the game – and by establishing those relationships through business networks, opportunities arise to attract and retain talent. Participating in Western Sydney’s business networks is also a way for companies and individuals to demonstrate their dedication to the region. It’s an authentic thing to do, and colleagues in both Western Sydney and elsewhere will recognise that.

Brendon Noney, Western Sydney Business Connection

GO LOCALOur clients who succeed within a non-CBD space, frequently do so by adopting a “hyper-local” strategy: this involves investing time and energy into the local business community, and making sure your product offering is tailored to the community you serve. Business forums and platforms are a valuable platform for exchange and feedback, and can be a great away of meeting potential partners.

Adrian Oldham, Michael Page

When I was growing up, in many instances I didn’t want to let people know that I came from Western Sydney. But now, I wear it very proudly – and I think a lot of people from Western Sydney who have done well for themselves are similarly proud.

I grew up in Pendle Hill. My parents came here from India in 1971 and I was born two years later. We didn’t have a lot of possessions as kids, but there was a lot of love in the house. Not having a great deal encouraged me to study, because I saw that as my way to succeed. I did my tertiary education in the city, at Sydney Uni. Back then, Sydney Uni and UNSW were the best places to study law and medicine and engineering, but these days, I’d certainly do my law degree through Western Sydney University because its courses and academic staff and facilities are all so good. As a Western Sydney boy, I’m very proud of the fact that we can now offer world-class university courses right here in the West.

HWL Ebsworth is the largest law firm in Australia by partner numbers and having a Western Sydney office is incredibly important to us. Many of the firm’s clients are decentralising from the Sydney CBD or are solely based in Greater Western Sydney. And we’re picking up new clients all the time. Only last week I signed a new client based in Blacktown with a $300 million turnover. Our dedicated office at Norwest played a role converting that client.

The Western Sydney Business Connection’s tagline is ‘Connection for Growth’ and that’s exactly what we do: connect some of the leading businesses in Greater Western Sydney with each other and with government so they can benefit from each other and collectively grow the region. We also help set the agenda for future economic activity in Western Sydney. Currently, we’re doing a lot of work on developing the region’s visitor economy to bring more people to stay and play in the West, ensuring people are spending their money in cafes and restaurants, hotels and theme parks.

My message to migrants who are weighing up different parts of Sydney is, ‘There’s opportunity in the West. Come and take it.’ There’s enormous opportunity here. You can still get reasonably priced real estate – you’re not paying $1.5 million for a run-down shack like you do in the Inner West. Major businesses like Woolworths have their headquarters here. And it’s very Aussie and very multicultural at the same time. You’ve got the best of both worlds. I’m wearing my heart on my sleeve when I say this, but I think it’s a place of more acceptance than some other parts of Australia. We put our arms out and welcome people – that’s what we do. Everyone’s welcome.

Debbie O’Connor on the importance of community in business

Business owners in Western Sydney are incredibly dedicated.“

South-African-born Debbie O’Connor founded The Creative Fringe, a shared workspace, after moving to Penrith with her Australian husband, whom she met overseas.

O’Connor grew up in a tight-knit rural community in South Africa and felt isolated when she arrived in sprawling populous Sydney. The Creative Fringe was her solution: a place where small-business operators and freelance creatives such as herself could find camaraderie as well as business facilities. O’Connor is also the founder and creative director of White River Design, which operates out of the workspace.

Mine is a love story. I’m originally from South Africa but about 20 years ago I was on a holiday in Scandinavia when I met a lovely Australian man from Penrith. We began a long-distance relationship and about 10 months later I made my way to Sydney and we got engaged. We were really tempted to live close to the city but I’m a very family-orientated person, and so is David. We decided we wanted to be close to his relatives in Penrith.

What I discovered in Penrith was quite surprising, and it shattered all the preconceived ideas I’d developed about Western Sydney. It’s a very community-focused place: people know each other, and you normally don’t get that in an urban environment. When I arrived, I didn’t know anybody apart from David’s family, but I was able to meet people and network and grow my business. I don’t know if I could have done that if I’d started a business in the city.

This region has grown so astronomically since I moved to Australia. It’s making the area a very interesting and exciting place to do business. The most amazing part of running a co-working space in Penrith is the diversity of the people who come through. Right now, we have an Aboriginal archaeologist, an architect who designs tree-top adventure parks, a guy who runs a global online wedding business, a kinesiologist, plus social media managers, copywriters, photographers and web developers. In the past we’ve had personal trainers, mortgage brokers, naturopaths ... it’s just incredible, and it shows how diverse the business community here is.

In my experience, business owners in Western Sydney are exceptionally hard-working and incredibly dedicated. In fact, they work even harder than business owners elsewhere, and that’s because in the past there has been a stigma towards our region that they have been forced to overcome. Today, though, you only have to drive around Penrith and look at the types of cars that locals are driving to know that there is serious money in Western Sydney now.

Our co-working space is modern and distinctive. It’s not the sort of operation you’d necessarily expect to find in the West. We’ve been dubbed the Surry Hills of Western Sydney and the Paddington of Penrith. People walk through the door and say, ‘Whoa! This is in Penrith?’ And I just say, ‘Heck, yeah.’ Our space is indicative of the way Penrith is evolving. I see these kinds of spaces becoming the norm in this area.

I come from a country with 11 official languages: South Africa is a huge melting-pot of cultures. And that’s the feeling I get in Western Sydney, too. It’s got an energy to it that makes it a really exciting place to be. It’s not a quiet, dormant place. It’s vibrant, it’s energetic – it’s got a pulse. And I’m noticing a change within the people living here. There is a growing sense of pride that just didn’t exist when I moved to Penrith 17 years ago.

97% of professionals in Western Sydney say that achieving work-life balance is becoming increasingly important as they progress in their career.

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What advice would you have for SME managers trying to maintain a team that relies on innovation and creative vision? How would you suggest the Western Sydney location can be turned into a strength?

LOCAL AND EMPOWERED TEAMSEmpower your team to make decisions and to be creative with their thinking. When I give people the opportunity to take on responsibility, I usually find that they not only surprise me but also step up to a higher level. Creative thinking results in solutions-based ideas. This cannot be achieved with narrow thinking where everyone is confined to a formal structure. The power of many minds is far more exciting and effective than one, and in Western Sydney we have millions of minds to draw on. I also strongly believe in employing locals. When people work close to home, they have a stronger sense of community, they have better work-life balance and more time to connect with their families and friends. Employers get healthier, happier and less fatigued employees, so it’s a win/win.

Debbie O’Connor, The Creative Fringe

BUILD THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENTThe nature of our business means we work with growing companies: many of whom do a lot of work to make sure that their workplace is designed as user-friendly to the type of talent they are seeking to attract. And then it’s about ensuring that the opportunities available are interesting ones, and that you search well. The landscape will change: whereas previously, a lot of innovative and creative people previously felt the need to work in the city, many are now able to find interesting, dynamic roles locally. Talent congregates around talent: the main aspect is that these opportunities now exist in the West.

Adrian Oldham, Michael Page

It’s really special to be in Western Sydney while it’s in this evolution stage.

Scott Timbrell on the region’s real estate potential

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Scott Timbrell began his career on Sydney’s laid-back Northern Beaches, a world away from the buzzing West, and also worked on the Lower North Shore. When he was appointed director in charge of Western Sydney for property giant Knight Frank in 2017, he brought with him an appreciation of Western Sydney’s uniqueness and its staggering potential compared to other parts of the city.

Richard Horne, Knight Frank’s NSW managing director, said Timbrell’s appointment would help “to spearhead the continued expansion of our Western Sydney business, including Liverpool, and also to drive our metropolitan Capital Markets business in Western Sydney.

As someone who needs to build dedicated sales teams in Western Sydney, what would your key advice be for SME managers around training and retaining talent? Do you have strategies to deal with the competition from the CBD?

STRONG TEAM CULTUREThe CBD is currently a highly competitive environment that has a strong and dominant presence from key agents across all sectors. With that in mind, businesses that are looking to attract and retain talent in Western Sydney should prioritise building a strong team culture that looks after its employees as a way to create value. Ambitious talent looking for career opportunities should be reminded that Western Sydney’s urban activation precincts have plenty of guaranteed growth in the pipeline to be taken advantage of.

Scott Timbrell, Knight Frank

PUSH TRAINING Building and developing a sales culture is something we work hard at as well. While suitable background and certification are a must, successful businesses often invest in training and development, to create a culture which supports and nurtures a career path within the organisation. Then the key is to provide a stable environment within which your team can realise their potential.

Adrian Oldham, Michael Page

From a real-estate perspective, Western Sydney is exploding, and it’s only going to get stronger. It’s the largest commercial real-estate market in the Greater Sydney region right now. There’s huge growth going on in terms of infrastructure – including roads, rail and the airport at Badgerys Creek – and that’s helping the various town centres across the West to grow, too. For Knight Frank, it’s simply good sense to have a full-service agency out here that looks after office and commercial leasing, industrial leasing and sales, and house-and-land sales.

In Parramatta, you just have to look at the current slate of commercial DAs and the incoming government tenants to realise what a big deal the current boom is. There’s a buzz in Parramatta when you walk around – everyone can feel it. And, of course, as the commercial side grows, there will be a need for more housing. Further West, everything’s gearing up around the new Western Sydney Airport. Once that starts construction [in February] next year, it’s going to drive that area even more. The interest will only intensify.

The foreign investment into Western Sydney seems to be growing exponentially. There’s interest from across Asia: Chinese, Malaysian and some Vietnamese investors as well. Even some of the bigger established Chinese developers who previously focused on high-density development near the Sydney CBD are now looking at house-

and-land packages in the West. They view this as a safer investment option in the current environment because growth has slowed in the city’s East.

A great joy of taking on this new role for Knight Frank [Timbrell was appointed in early October 2017] has been learning about Western Sydney myself. I grew up on the Northern Beaches so I’m still discovering things about the West. A lot of the people here are second- or third-generation residents, and they’re very passionate about their home. They’ve seen the area grow over the years and their excitement for this new phase of growth is palpable. People in the Western Sydney community are very open and friendly towards people like me who have something to contribute to the growth story of the region. There’s a lot of passion out there.

For me, nothing beats spending time in Parramatta. I think a lot of people from other parts of Sydney don’t realise just how big Parramatta has become, and how much further it has to grow. It’s just constantly evolving. I love walking around and seeing new developments spring up before my eyes. It’s really special to be in Western Sydney while it’s in this evolution stage.

Let’s discuss the opportunities in Western Sydney!

Adrian Oldham, Managing Director, New South Wales T +61 2 8292 2226 E adrianoldham@michaelpage.com.au

Future City Minds - Western Sydney

For more information on the series, contact our content team on: contentteam@michaelpage.com Stay in touch with the campaign here: www.michaelpage.com.au/future-city-minds/western-sydney

AUSTRALIA Sydney West Level 4 110 George Street Parramatta NSW 2150 T +61 2 8836 0700 Sydney CBD Level 32, 225 George Street Sydney NSW 2000 T +61 2 8292 2000

Sydney North ShoreLevel 6, Tower B, Zenith Centre821 Pacific HighwayChatswood NSW 2067T +61 2 8292 2500

Melbourne CBDLevel 19600 Bourke StreetMelbourne VIC 3000T +61 3 9607 5600

Glen WaverleyBuilding 5, Level 1, 540 Springvale Road, Glen Waverley VIC 3150T +61 3 8562 5400

BrisbaneLevel 5, 100 Creek StreetBrisbane QLD 4000T +61 73414 6100

PerthLevel 6 Westralia Plaza167 St Georges TerracePerth WA 6000T +61 8 9215 9500

Canberra Level 5 15 Moore Street Canberra ACT 2601 T +61 2 6169 4204

The survey findings quoted in this report are based on a recent Michael Page online survey that tracked the responses from 2,895 professionals all across Australia. The aim was to get a sense of the sentiment around work, factors influencing job decisions, lifestyle and the rise of urban areas such as Western Sydney.

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Attribution This publication should be attributed as follows: Marketing Department, Michael Page Australia

Image credits Jonathan Cami; Stock imagery supplied by the iStockphoto

Story creditsStoryation - http://www.storyation.com/