When you enter the Booragoon reception of Alcoa Australia, a poster advertising a concert for indie pop musician Ben Lee might catch your eye on the approach to the reception desk.
When you enter the Booragoon reception of Alcoa Australia, a poster advertising a concert for indie pop musician Ben Lee might catch your eye on the approach to the reception desk.
While the Ben Lee poster is for an upcoming concert with the WA Symphony Orchestra, it’s difficult to imagine a similar promotion happening in the reception area of other resources majors, or even juniors for that matter.
This alone underscores Alcoa’s differentiation in the marketplace.
In part, it’s a result of the company’s unusual position in Western Australian industry, but there’s also a reflection of the leadership of Wayne Osborn, a keen supporter of the arts, who stepped down recently as head of Alcoa’s Australian operations.
Mr Osborn took the reins six years ago at a time of crisis for the WA operations, when decades of effort to build strong community relations was being threatened by health scares.
The issue had regularly been on the front page of The West Australian for a few months by the time he was preparing to take over in December 2001.
Mr Osborn recalls the moment he realised the enormity of the task ahead of him.
“Only a few days before I was to take over I flew back from Japan,” he said.
“I was planning to sneak home to get some rest for a few hours, but I got The West and saw the front page.”
The huge, two-word headline favoured at the time screamed ‘Cancer Street’, above a story linking four people living on the same road in the rural suburb of Caroola with emissions from the nearby Pinjarra refinery.
“That certainly set the agenda for me,” Mr Osborn said.
Alcoa’s WA operations are much closer to population centres than any of its peers, big or small, and it was being pummelled over a variety of health allegations linked to emissions from its refineries, undoing much of its long-term community relations work.
For a company that prided itself globally on strong community ties, this was a unique battleground.
“I have a great regard for Alcoa,” Mr Osborn said of the company he’s been with for almost three decades, since starting as an engineer in Geelong involved in building a plant there in his late 20s.
“This was such a different and out-of-character issue to deal with. It took us a while to recognise and come to terms with it.
“Keeping the government and regulators informed about issues, and essentially rebuilding the confidence of the community at Wagerup and setting the scene for us to be able to expand again became a dominating agenda.”
The long and difficult battle to restore Alcoa’s reputation – at least with key stakeholders like the state government – is largely over, with Mr Osborn pointing to vindication coming in the form of environmental approval for the expansion of Wagerup, which allowa the company to develop its refinery when the cost, capital and demand scenarios add up.
However, there remain grumbles from Yarloop near Wagerup, with one local politician describing the town as split between those who want compensation and those who wish to move on.
The appearance of celebrity US anti-pollution crusader and lawyer Erin Brockovich on the scene last year shows the matter Mr Osborn inherited cannot entirely be laid to rest.
Another frustration has been access to gas supplies, which continue to thwart the company’s plans even after his departure.
“It seemed hard to get Canberra to understand that this was not a company saying ‘we want cheap gas’,” Mr Osborn said. “The state government understood the issue here very clearly.
“The premier came back from Asia and realised that other people were managing their energy better.”
Mr Osborn remains pessimistic that things will change in that regard within the next five years, which he thinks is a pity because Alcoa’s WA refineries and high-quality bauxite combined with gas have a lower environmental impact than anywhere else.
Former Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA chief executive Tim Shanahan said he admired the way Mr Osborn had tackled difficult challenges.
Mr Shanahan said Mr Osborn had changed the way Alcoa operated in WA, recognising the need to re-engage with the community, and do so at a broader level.
“Over the last five years, Alcoa has had to endure and weather a few storms,” Mr Shanahan said.
“During Wayne’s tenure, the Alcoa stance has been very much to involve the community and to recognise that this relationship is fundamental to the company and the industry’s ‘licence to operate and grow’.
“Wayne has successfully guided the organisation to achieve the suite of approvals needed for the Wagerup expansion; he has secured gas supplies for the company through the pipeline ownership arrangements that they have, and recently we have seen the more innovate deal with Arc to explore for more gas.”
Part of those efforts to secure Alcoa’s future found Mr Osborn working closely with the former WA utility group Alinta Ltd, with both involved in the consortium that bought the Dampier-to-Bunbury natural gas pipeline. Alinta and Alcoa also jointly developed cogeneration power plants at Pinjarra.
Former Alinta boss Bob Browning said Alcoa’s US head office took some effort to be convinced about the viability of the cogeneration project.
“Wayne was a great emissary in this regard,” he said.
“He understood the economics and potential of the project and helped to sell it to the right people both inside Alcoa and in WA.”
“As with any project or relationship, there are always rocky spots. Throughout those inevitable events, Wayne was always the calm voice of reason.”
That voice of reason may be a natural setting for Mr Osborn, but it is clearly a style that works well within Alcoa.
He said working with the multinational’s global management team was about coming up with best decisions, not putting your own case up in isolation.
Alcoa cross-pollinates ideas across its geographic regions to share ideas and get best practice.
“We don’t want our refineries operating in isolation or competing,” Mr Osborn said.
“Sharing between plants is important, don’t invent it yourself.
“We do a lot of comparing results across the business. It can drive people nuts at times but it does allow you to know where you stand. I think that is one of the strengths of the management style.”
In his own fiefdom, Mr Osborn said he is against hierarchies.
“You have to have confidence in your people; you are on the road a lot and overseas a lot,” he said.
“I have put great reliance on strong personal relationships with the people I work with; it is not hierarchy, it is based on trust.”
“When you have worked in an organisation for 28 years, you have strong relationships to fall back on.”
Of course, long-term relationships work both ways. Perth-based utility Verve Energy managing director, Shirley In’t Veld, recalls receiving significant help from Mr Osborn during her 19 years with Alcoa.
Ms In’t Veld said Mr Osborn had been a strong advocate for women from the start of her career at the company, something many women recognise as a current strength of Alcoa.
She said he was very helpful when she took over the rolled products business in Australia, his last position before taking the helm at Booragoon.
Ms In’t Veld’s was also appreciative of Mr Osborn’s decision, despite his protests, to take on the role of chairing the WA chapter of the Australian Business Arts Foundation, which she had to vacate after just one month due to the change in executive role.
“He baulked,” she said. “He said ‘I don’t know anything about the arts, I have a Leonard Cohen CD and I am learning the guitar’,” she added.
“He has done an outstanding job; that is one of the measures of the man, he is willing to take on these challenges and step out of his comfort zone.
“He is simply unflappable.”
