A leading Perth business figure started down the entrepreneurial path at an early age.
Iain Hutchison, founder of drilling consultancy Merlin ERD, was just in his youth when he came up with his first money-making enterprises.
The 53-year-old said: “My first entrepreneurial venture was selling gooseberries from the garden at the local shop, aged 12.
“I also had a range of weekend and holiday jobs.
“Eventually I worked for myself as a consulting engineer for 14 years.
“Merlin was my first real business motivated by not wanting to die wondering if I could build a company.”
From Western Australia to the Fair City
After graduating from university, Iain embarked on a career in the oil industry that took him around the world.
After seven years in Australia, he and his family returned to Scotland 15 years ago – choosing Perth to found oil and gas service company Merlin.
The enterprise describes itself as a drilling engineering advisor, collaborator and educator – specialising in extended reach and complex wells.
To date, it has helped clients successfully deliver more than 400 projects in 47 countries.
Iain said the venture has grown strongly over the years – creating jobs, prosperity and collecting numerous accolades, including two Queen’s Awards for Enterprise.
This led to him being presented to the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
Iain is proud to have built a world-class company in Perth with a team of more than 20.
He attributes much of Merlin’s success to being based in the city.
“Perth has a capable workforce, low business costs and superb connectivity,” he said.
“This combined with a high quality standard of living and education options provides a potent mix to attract the quality of individuals required to build a brilliant business.”
‘Results only limited by your aspirations’
Last year, the entrepreneur switched to a non-executive director role at Merlin as part of his succession.
That started in 2017 with Merlin’s transition to employee ownership.
He is married to Debbie – who he says is the marketing genius behind Merlin’s success – and they have three children.
Iain, who flies a replica Spitfire to relax, said the best thing about being your own boss is knowing that results are only limited by your own aspirations, drive and ability. Then finding the way to make it work – whatever the economic factors at the time.
And the worst?
He replied: “Knowing that it’s down to you. At start-up, it’s balancing various tasks from hoovering to invoicing. With success, comes different challenges as you create more jobs and adjust the business to suit.
“Invariably you’re going to have to move people out of the business.
“That’s really tough, but your team deserves the best – and that includes brilliant colleagues.
“The best possible team will share exceptional results in the good times and resilience to support each other and sustain employment in the difficult times.”
Move to governance role with Merlin
Iain said since transitioning Merlin to employee ownership, he has moved to a governance role with the board.
He added: “The oil and gas industry is still necessary to deliver our energy transition, but my interests lie in contributing to sustainable energy and business.
“Perth City Leadership Forum has an ambitious aspiration to make Perth the world’s most sustainable city.
“I’m supporting local government and business groups on unlocking enterprise and prosperity opportunities.”
He said the most exciting venture he is involved with is geothermal – the “free energy” produced from hot water deep in the ground.
Iain added: “Drilling is the key its viability, which we have combined with renewable energy in a new business to position us ahead of others.
“This technology has the potential to de-carbonise heat – the holy grail of renewables, since heat is 50% of UK energy use.
“As the crossroads on the way to most renewables projects and its lead in hydro power, Perth is perfectly positioned to be the centre of excellence in the technology.”
Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs
Iain also passed on his advice to aspiring entrepreneurs.
He urged anyone who wants to run their own business to seek advice from multiple sources.
He added: “When hiring, look for people better than you and take a forensic interest in cost control – remember turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, cash flow is king.”
Iain said he has been on an amazing journey, which at so many points could have gone wrong.
He added: “I was fortunate to have great support from family, friends and business peers.
“My message to anyone reading this and wondering if they could build a business is: ‘Yes you can. Do it. You miss every shot you don’t take. Life’s short.’”
Scotland competing with the world
Iain feels that Scotland under-performs entrepreneurially.
But he says our busiest, most-accomplished business people “understand that prosperity unlocks higher standards of living for all” and “know that Scotland’s competing with the world, not each other”.
He added they want the next generation to succeed to higher levels than they have.
“Our greatest, most-resilient success will come from investing in the very young, the parents rearing them and the support services to give them the best chance of attaining their full potential,” he added.
“Avoiding the problems through education and support is inevitably better – and cheaper – than trying to fix someone once broken.
“Imagine how powerful we would be as a nation if each child excelled in reaching their full potential.”
Conversation