A Luncheon with Dr Bob Every

Dr Bob Every

Today I had the pleasure of enjoying a luncheon with Dr Bob Every. You will be familiar with Dr Bob as chairman of Wesfarmers and now also Boral.

The luncheon was managed by The Australian German Association

Quite coincidentally given the events today with the leadership changes in Australian Government, Bob was educating our roundtable on 'Leading Change'.

A history...

Every has enjoyed a successful career that includes over 20 years in developing culture - since taking over as MD for Tubemakers.

As chairman, Bob sees his key tasks as 'custodian of culture'.

Bob remembers the day that he first was invited to be MD of Tubemakers. He thought it would be good to let his family know and rang his mum to let her know he had some news - though it was very confidential as it was being released in the media the next day.

When his mum found out her first question was - "Is that good Robert?" - so began Bob's executive career.

BHP took over Tubemakers and Bob found his first day at BHP level 44 with no-one at reception.

He randomly called a number on the phone and when answered heard in the background - "Some jerk is here to start work"

When another person heard it was Bob Every - Bob heard "... - he is the new boss!!!"

Bob has always detested a reception with no people.

Back when Bob started at BHP, everything was powerpoint. They had their own arrogance as #1 in steel, but Bob explains that their CEO Paul Anderson was not really a fan of steel - more petroleum and resources.

What followed was the change of BHP to BHP Billiton and the BHP steel sell off. (leading to Bob taking over OneSteel).

Leading Change...

Taking over OneSteel was where Bob really had the opportunity to establish a new culture. There were 8,000 staff, though they were No-Names and vulnerable.

First they had to come up with a name, there were a few banded around by their PR agency like 'Nova Steel' though when Bob found out a Nova was a short existing star - that was abandoned.

Conversation went through the staff and a email came through  "How about OneSteel  given we want to be #1 in steel in the market place and community".

That one stuck - the PR agency got their $65k and a staff member was recognised and rewarded.

Originally, OneSteel were like the Ugly Duckling that no-one knew. Bob recalls travelling to the US where a cabbie asked - 'who is OneSteel?'. Bob replied 'Who do you think we are?'. The response was "Thought you must be a heavy metal band"... which Bob thought very strange given their - agh-hm - years of experience...

Given the resurgence of The Stones and others these days - that is now understandable...

When thinking back to where the culture change started - Bob remembers it all began with what BHP did well - 'safety'.

So, the whole culture change revolved around '"Be Safe, Make a Profit"... anything else was secondary.

The best way of communicating this was through round tables with 20-30 people. They then became the ambassadors that shared the communication.

Such was Bob's experience at OneSteel that lead to listing at 350million with 2.5billion in debt and now sitting at $5-6billion market value.

What with Wesfarmers & Boral?...

Well, it has been pretty much the same agenda - aside from this time instead of spinning out a new business, recommendation has been to keep it all internal. If they don't work within 5 years - sell them off.

So, for example Coles was all operated through head office - known as the Battlestar Gallactica of Melbourne. Now, each division is individually responsible.

This follows all the way down to store managers now have autonomy. So far a selection have stepped up to the plate.

What about Woolies?

Bob sees retail in Australia is under performing. The future is for a much more competitive field and what Wesfarmers is looking at is 'Best Practise'.

Funnily enough as Bob jokes about the golf antics of the Woolies senior execs - they joke about entering into the hardware area.

In summary...

To be a leader:

• Define vision clearly
• Define Strategies
• Define operating style
• Separate out tools that help
• Lead by example

Finally, it doesn't matter how bad you are going - celebrate the successes and then improve on them whilst recognising gaps in performance.

Written by:
Grant Crossley

The next AGA luncheon has Bill Evans - Chief Economist of Westpac as key speaker.

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