Ken MacKenzie’s resistance to anything like an appropriate public profile leaves BHP’s latest annual report probably the most important indicator yet of the way its new chairman is working to recast Australia’s global resources champion.
But you have to look well beyond the chairman’s typically clipped and modest opening message to BHP’s owners to identify the early results of the rolling reformation that MacKenzie promised when he took over from predecessor Jac Nasser in September last year.
The chairman’s introduction is notable for its reiteration of the board’s five core priorities – safety, portfolio management, capital discipline, capability and culture, and social licence. And it is made useful too by its confirmation that chief executive Andrew Mackenzie has added a catchy new line to his productivity mantra. Apparently the “laser focus” years have become the “optimise without” era.
“Your CEO, Andrew Mackenzie, has coined the phrase ‘optimise without’, meaning that employees need to look for ways to achieve productivity gains without cost or volume as inputs,” the chairman wrote.
