GARY COX
Injecting excitement and a desire to succeed into the office works wonders the Perth chairman of patent, trademark and IP attorneys Wrays tells Nick Sas.
Biggest or best career break?
I’m an IP lawyer, and a patent attorney with a degree in microbiology and microchemistry — that’s three different qualifications in different respects. So I was privileged enough to secure a position with IP Australia and actually break into the patent field, which is a difficult feat in its own right. The second career break was moving to Sydney and being exposed to (multinational biopharmaceutical company) Amgen, which at the time was small but has grown into a multinational.
Describe your leadership or management style.
Lead by example is part of it, but also being consultative. I’m very fortunate to have an awesome chief executive and a great management team, so it’s their dedication to the business, I guess, that drives my leadership and management style. There is a lead-by-example mentality though, taking the management team’s drive and pushing that through the organisation. So management here is about keeping people on path and on track.
Most memorable board or corporate moment?
We have a dry policy in that we have very limited capacity to sit on other boards. So I would say for me it’s a corporate moment. I started here in 1994 and we’ve taken Wrays from a group of 10 people to a group of 60 or 70-odd people — from a small focused organisation in Perth to now covering the whole of Australia. And for me the remarkable privilege is to be able to drive that growth through the organisation, and we’re now recognised as a substantial patent attorney firm across the world.
Best way to improve workplace productivity?
We employ incredibly bright individuals, often they have two degrees and are technology nerds, so to speak. The best way to motivate and drive a lot of these people is to give them the challenges they desire — make the work they do exciting — and get out of the way. Trying to devolve more responsibility as well, and allowing people to make their decisions, and then not jumping on them if they get it wrong. I was told a long time ago that you’re wrong 50 per cent of the time and right 50 per cent of the time.
Do you use social media? If so, how?
Personally no. Although I do use LinkedIn, through the business, to drive connections and business. But the firm does use it in trying to increase exposure.
What do you do in your spare time?
These days my spare time is spent with my family, looking after my 13-year-old twins. We spend a lot of time down south, relaxing with the family. We have a place in Myalup and spend a lot of time fishing.
Best Australian holiday destination?
You can’t beat the South West, and we’ve had some fantastic times in Broome. I’ve always enjoyed my time up north.
Last book you read?
I’m going change this and say the best book I’ve ever read is The Art of the Possible. It’s a collection of short stories about how the brain works and how we deal with situations.
What is the most common area of IP law where business trips up?
The recognition of IP (patents and trademarks) is lacking. Boards and businesses don’t recognise — or are slow to recognise — the value of their intellectual efforts. We suggest you get your protection before you get to market, before you go commercial or any disclosure. We often find that Australian enterprise is very slow to recognise they have something that they can cash in on. It is changing, but changing slowly. Isolation has nothing to do with it, it’s more about recognition. People look at it as a nebulous area. But look at something like Coke. It’s just a drink but their trademark is worth billions.
What’s the most difficult thing about running an IP firm in Perth?
I would say our isolation is our greatest difficulty but also one of our greatest strengths. We are within easy-to-reach time zones of the US, Europe and UK. I can ring the east coast of the US at 8pm and get them first thing in the morning. So I guess you can turn the negative into the positive.
