Business News :: Great For The State :: Vol1, Issue 6

GREAT

for the

STATE 26 August 2019 | businessnews.com.au

EDITION 6

12 PAGE LIFTOUT

VALUES & PURPOSE

Building trust

P3

Indigenous impacts

P7

P8

Social licence

Values

in action P10

The Wesfarmers Way Michael Chaney highlights the profits of purpose P4

Partners

Michael Chaney Photo: Attila Csaszar

GREAT for the STATE

EDITION 6

Values and purpose In modern business having a purpose is important not just for organisations but people as well.

OUR PARTNERS – HELPING US SHAPE GREAT FOR THE STATE

Professor Julie Lee Director, Centre for Human and Cultural Values UWA

Professor Peter Leedman Director, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research Whether or not members of the public or staff get involved in your organisation’s activities sends a strong message about the value they place on what is being offered.

Dr Joanne Sneddon Deputy Director, Centre for Human and Cultural Values UWA ‘Values are like fingerprints.

Nobody’s are the same, but you leave them all over everything you do’ -Elvis Presley Values reflect what is important in life and give meaning and purpose to the things we do.

What is important to you?

What is really important to you?

Not just today or this year, not just at work or at home, but in life? Are you primarily motivated to seek personal achievement and the power to control your environment, improve the welfare of others, freedom and adventure, or certainty and stability? These are all good and worthy motivations in life. UWA Business School’s Professor Julie Lee and Dr Joanne Sneddon discuss how our values affect our decision-making.

Finding something meaningful that makes a difference isn’t always easy, but when more than 1,000 riders sign up for the MACA Cancer 200 year in, year out, and ride 200 kilometres over two days and fundraise for cancer research, it tells us that giving people the opportunity to do something to help tackle this insidious disease means a lot to people.

Many riders are far from peloton junkies, some are even going through cancer treatment. But regardless of fitness levels, everyone feels great pride that they are making a difference by helping research.

If you would like to ride, there’s still time to register at cancer200.org.au

Rob Slocombe

James Arnott

General manager, Civil & Surface East Macmahon

Group CEO RAC

Partner, Management Consulting KPMG Australia

Clearly, the purpose of business is to deliver value for shareholders. However, it has become increasingly important for companies to understand the additional value to a company’s reputation when they are involved in supporting their community either in the form of sponsorships or formalised partnerships.

Organisations with a tightly woven social purpose have stronger brand sentiment, attract and retain a higher calibre workforce, and are more commercially innovative.

Embedding a philanthropic focus into core business strategy will become vital in creating shared value for business, the community and the workforce.

Photo: LILA PHOTO

For many organisations, there is clear justification to direct energy away from the strategies that often typify today’s corporate social responsibility programs and toward a more substantive and vision-aligned social purpose platform.

KPMG’s James Arnott talks about moving on from his childhood ambitions of becoming a fireman to developing a higher sense of purpose and wellbeing through his work.

(See page 12)

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GREAT for the STATE

(See page 9)

(See page 7) 2

Carl O’Hehir

26 August 2019 | businessnews.com.au

Future editions Natural resources September 23 Generosity and giving October 21 Time and place November 18 Cultural growth December 16

GREAT for the STATE

Authenticity an opportunity for business success Story by Dan Wilkie

COMMITMENT Nick Bayes says a strong purpose and strong values result in a successful business.

Photo: Gabriel Oliveira

A

ll businesses have a purpose to grow and be profitable, but consumers are increasingly demanding companies commit to more than their bottom line for the benefit of society.

That’s the view of one of Western Australia’s most prominent advertising executives, The Brand Agency’s managing director, Nick Bayes.

Mr Bayes told Business News an ever-increasing element of branding and advertising for The Brand Agency’s clients was to embrace a purpose outside of the core operation of business, which for any company was to be profitable.

“It’s not enough to have a good product or service any more, people are looking for something more than that,” he said.

“It’s the biggest opportunity for any organisation to have a point of difference.”

A commitment to values and purpose, Mr Bayes said, was something that’s been embraced

by The Brand Agency itself, which operates on a philosophy of ‘opportunity today, prosperity tomorrow’.

He said the agency’s over-

arching purpose was to build strong brands that would in turn bring prosperity to the wider community.

“There is no point advising our clients on that unless we do it ourselves,” Mr Bayes said.

“If you’ve got a strong brand, a strong purpose and strong values, you’ll have a successful business, as long as it’s authentic.”

In today’s uncertain and turbulent global business and political environments, which Mr Bayes described as a “believability crisis”, trust had become paramount for business success.

“People are looking out for organisations or brands to fill that gap a little bit, actually stand for something and actually provide a level of trust that they may be not getting from those bodies that they are used to getting it from,” he said.

“That’s a real opportunity for organisations to actually stand for something and advocate on behalf of their customers, and people want them to do that, and they’re looking for them to do so.

“The brands that are brave are the ones that are winning, because they are standing for something.

“Because of the rise of the likes of (Donald) Trump and Clive Palmer, fake news and all that, people are a bit scarred.

“People are probably more loyal to their smartphone brand than they might be to a political party. Which is an opportunity.”

However, Mr Bayes cautioned that embracing a purpose was not simply about choosing a cause at random – it needed to resonate with their goals as a business.

“I’d like to see organisations think more about how they are spending money to align with who they are and what they want to achieve as a business rather than just sponsoring a sports team or something similar,” he said.

“That is great for some brands, but not all.

“Most companies need to really bring it back to what you stand for as a business, what your true purpose is and then spend the money to align with that.”

Mr Bayes said a local example of a company embracing its roots through its corporate social responsibility activities was insurance provider RAC, a company which The Brand Agency does not count as a client.

The RAC of course was established to provide roadside assistance to its members, and while its suite of services had evolved to include insurance, finance and vehicle maintenance, Mr Bayes said the organisation’s social activities remained true to the company’s identity.

“It’s about being believable, being true to who you are as a business that defines what you need to do from a corporate social responsibility perspective,” he said.

“I think the RAC, one of Western Australia’s heritage brands, stay true to who they are.

“They are a motoring organisation, yes they have diversified into other areas, but they make WA a better place based around the permission that their members give them to advocate around mobility.

“They don’t advocate for orangutans in Indonesia, that’s a very important issue but it’s not for RAC. “They know who they are as a brand and they do it well, and they have an effect through all of the programs they have.

“They are a shining example of what they do well.”

26 August 2019 | businessnews.com.au

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GREAT for the STATE

We’ve taken the approach that we can trust these people to do the right thing and with minimal reporting, make sure they are out there using the money for the cause that they are intended.

-Michael Chaney

CORE Michael Chaney says a commitment to core values has always been a part of Wesfarmers’ DNA.

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26 August 2019 | businessnews.com.au

GREAT for the STATE

Pursuit of purpose key to Wesfarmers rise Story by Dan Wilkie

T

Photos by Attila Csaszar

he 1980s were indisputably among the most turbulent chapters in Western Australian business history.

WA’s biggest political scandal – the infamous WA Inc saga – tarnished the reputation of the state and perpetuated a perception of corporate cowboys, swindlers and a culture of greed.

For those who didn’t live through it, WA Inc refers to a shadowy series of questionable deals by the state government of the time that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, the repercussions of which are still being dealt with today.

But the 1980s also marked the start of the rise to prominence of what is now WA’s biggest and most ethically run company.

In 1984, Wesfarmers – at the time one of the state’s oldest companies, having been established as a former cooperative 70 years prior – was preparing to list on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Chairman Michael Chaney told Business News Wesfarmers’ listing in 1984 prompted its board of directors and senior management to determine exactly what the purpose of the company was.

“We quickly came to the view that the main purpose was to provide a satisfactory return for shareholders,” Mr Chaney said.

However, providing a return was not the only consideration of the Wesfarmers board.

Continued on page 6

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GREAT for the STATE

Values set key to Wesfarmers Way MULTIPLICITY Wesfarmers’ community contributions span many sectors, supporting WA institutions such as the Royal Flying Doctor Service and WA Ballet.

$148m

Wesfarmers’ community contributions in 2018 Mr Chaney said the collective group was also mindful of the need to install a clear set of values and purpose, to ensure that Wesfarmers could achieve its stated objective.

Those values are now known as the ‘Wesfarmers Way’, and include commitments to look after employees by providing a safe working environment, taking care of its customers and their needs, treating suppliers well, and acting responsibly with regards to the environment.

Mr Chaney said Wesfarmers also resolved to provide support to the communities in which the company was operating, and to act ethically and honestly in all facets of its business.

“You have got to have a financial objective, but it is no good pretending that you can achieve it unless you can do all of these other good things over the long term,”he said.

“You won’t succeed, customers will walk away from you, people won’t want to get into business with you and so on, unless you’re acting ethically.

“So, they have always been part of our make-up and our DNA since we went public back in 1984.”

Mr Chaney recalled the principled approach to business was met with derision at the time by the maverick entrepreneurs involved in WA Inc, which included Alan Bond, Laurie Connell, Dallas Dempster, Robert Holmes à Court and Warren Anderson.

“During 1985 and 1986, people like those WA Inc business people would say: ‘Wesfarmers is just a staid old company, they’re not entrepreneurial like us and we are the new order of things in business’,” Mr Chaney said.

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“Of course, it all came crashing down for them later in that decade.”

While Wesfarmers’ introduction of values and purpose was a rarity in WA business at the time, Mr Chaney said the commitment gained recognition outside of the state.

tions to medical research and wellbeing and educational institutions.

Mr Chaney said Wesfarmers had carefully curated the list of causes it supported, conscious of the challenge of determining the best possible use of its philanthropic capabilities.

“Importantly, one of the differences between Wesfarmers and other companies is that while we have been keen to ensure that the money we provided was used appropriately, we haven’t burdened the recipients with huge administrative tasks in reporting back,” he said.

“We’ve given money where we’ve trusted the people and we’ve said ‘we trust you to use it’ because one of the problems often with corporations is we say ‘we better be responsible and make sure people are accounting properly for the money we give them’, and they put so many administrative burdens on them that they spend half the money reporting back.

It was a complete misconception about the role and duties of directors, and the misconception is that directors have a duty to shareholders.

-Michael Chaney “I remember one of the big stockbrokers from London writing a report in the late 1980s on Wesfarmers, and he started it off by saying ‘I have incredible news!

There is a reputable Western Australian company!’,” he said.

“It was gratifying that it turned out having those sorts of values was important, and proved successful.”

In 2019, those values have endured, with Wesfarmers evolving to become not only the most philanthropic company in WA, but also in Australia.

Wesfarmers made $148 million in community contributions in 2018, according to its shareholder review report, while Strive Philanthropy’s Giving Large report showed the company donated a larger proportion of its pre-tax profit (2.5 per cent) than any other ASX-listed entity last year.

The company’s charitable contributions range from supporting arts and culture in WA to dona-

26 August 2019 | businessnews.com.au

“If you think about corporate philanthropy or community investment, the big challenge is that there are endless causes you can support,” Mr Chaney told Business News.

“So we said we should have some sort of logic to it.

“One of the aims, of course, is to build the company’s reputation, and we then said ‘the arts is one area in Western Australia that really needs support’, so we formed a part of the business called Wesfarmers Arts.”

Wesfarmers Arts is now a major supporter of the state’s top cultural institutions, with West Australian Ballet, West Australian Opera, Black Swan State Theatre Company and the Art Gallery of WA among a long list of beneficiaries.

Mr Chaney said other community initiatives supported by Wesfarmers included Surf Lifesaving WA, the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Telethon Kids Institute, and Clontarf Foundation.

“We’ve taken the approach that we can trust these people to do the right thing and with minimal reporting, make sure they are out there using the money for the cause that they are intended.”

And while Wesfarmers’ impact is wide-reaching, Mr Chaney said

its commitment to sticking to its values had not been without its challenges.

“I heard a director say once that we had no right to give away a shareholder’s money to a charity,” Mr Chaney said.

“It was a complete misconception about the role and duties of directors, and the misconception is that directors have a duty to shareholders.

“That’s actually not the law at all; the law says directors have a duty to the company, and if the directors believe that by providing the community with support that it will enhance the value of the company, they have every right to do it.

“It’s a very important distinction that again is misunderstood.”

Mr Chaney’s thoughts on directors’ duties are borne out in Wesfarmers’ financial returns, with the company outperforming the wider ASX indices by a large margin.

“Here is an interesting statistic,” Mr Chaney said. “If you put $1,000 into the ASX 50 in 1984 and reinvested the dividends, it would now be worth $35,000.

“If you put $1,000 into Wesfarmers shares in 1984 and reinvested the dividends it would now be worth $384,000.

“It’s a big difference; our view is that it’s not a coincidence that we’ve been a huge supporter of the community and that we’ve had those values and that we’ve achieved those returns.”

GREAT for the STATE

Main Roads committed to indigenous impacts Story by Dan Wilkie

M

ain Roads Western Australia chief executive Peter Woronzow is embracing the unique opportunity for community development that comes with managing one of the world’s biggest road networks.

The state government agency manages more than 19,000 kilometres of roads stretching across WA, from Albany to Kununurra and everywhere in between.

In 2017, MRWA launched its Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan, a blueprint designed to help boost living standards, life expectancy, education, health and employment in indigenous communities.

Speaking at a recent Committee for Economic Development of Australia event, Mr Woronzow said the vast nature of the WA

road network provided a perfect platform to achieve those goals.

“Because of this geographical spread, Main Roads is uniquely placed to deliver sustainable economic outcomes for the community by providing access from A to B,” he said.

Mr Woronzow said MRWA was also leveraging its contracting framework in particular to engage Aboriginal people and indigenous businesses, including a clause in all of its road construction and maintenance contracts that the agency would use its best endeavours to provide employment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

“In the past year we have awarded 8 per cent of all contracts to Aboriginal businesses, and over that time we have creat-

ed jobs for hundreds of Aboriginal people right across the state,” Mr Woronzow told Business News.

One project making a major impact on indigenous populations is a $65.6 million upgrade of Broome Cape Leveque Road between Broome Highway and Beagle Bay. Construction is under way on upgrading and sealing a 90-kilometre section of the road, enabling better access for 1,425 people living across 71 Aboriginal communities, pastoral stations, pearling operations and tourist destinations in the state’s far north.

As well as enhancing access, contracting targets include achieving Aboriginal employment of 45 per cent and indigenous business engagement of 20 per cent.

Elsewhere in the state, MRWA is a founding partner of the Nudge Foundation, a not-forprofit organisation that helps to increase training and job opportunities for regional, disadvantaged and indigenous people.

Projects that have supported Aboriginal employment include the Tonkin Highway Extension Project, New Perth to Bunbury Highway and Geraldton Southern Transport Corridor Stage Two.

At the UWA Centre for Human and Cultural Values we know a lot about values. Here are three things you should know, based on our work on The Values Project. Firstly, a universal set of 10 basic values has been found, in hundreds of studies in more than 80 countries, to form a circle of motivations. Values located closer together share compatible motivations that can be satisfied in similar ways, like prioritising the welfare of close others (i.e., benevolence) or all others and nature (i.e., universalism).

In contrast, opposing values have conflicting motivations that cannot be easily satisfied at the same time.

Secondly, we all naturally think that the values important to us should be important to everyone. But this is not the case: people share a common set of values, but differ widely in what is most important to them.

Thirdly, humans are not the only ones to hold values.

People attribute values to organisations, brands and even countries. Perceptions

of value-congruence between employees and organisations have a positive influence on trust, communication, and retention. Value-congruence between consumers and brands and between brands’ values and advertising have a positive influence on purchase decisions.

Organisations should strive to have clear and coherent values statements that guide the daily routines of management and employees and help people understand their purpose.

Without this, organisations miss a fundamental opportunity to engage, motivate and mobilise people towards that greater purpose. Organisations which understand the values circle when they select values statements will be able to communicate a clear and coherent purpose.

Considering the values circle also helps organisations to reflect on a purpose that may go beyond their primary function. For instance, resource companies’ values statements often seek to promote a positive impact on society – such

as the promotion of sustainability, inclusion, and community engagement. Their espoused values, then, should be used to guide the way they do business, their employment practices, and how they contribute to society.

UWA prioritises excellence, integrity, innovation, collaboration and equity, which reflect the values of self-transcendence and openness to change. These values are what we expect from a world-class university that focuses on the creation of new knowledge and the advancement of the prosperity and welfare of our communities. At UWA, these values underpin the design of our education programs, the relationships we pursue, and our research.

ENABLER Main Roads WA is boosting indigenous engagement through its upgrade of the Broome Cape Leveque Road. Photo: Shutterstock.com

SPONSORED CONTENT

The values project

Professor Julie Lee Director at the Centre for Human and Cultural Values at UWA Dr Joanne Sneddon Deputy Director at the Centre for Human and Cultural Values at UWA

26 August 2019 | businessnews.com.au

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GREAT for the STATE

Miners embrace challenge of social licence Story by Dan Wilkie

W

estern Australia’s resources sector has evolved a long way from the perception, erroneous or otherwise, that its biggest and most profitable players are only interested in removing minerals from the ground and selling them to the highest bidder.

In 2019, companies are no longer just accountable to shareholders, according to WA Mining Club president Kirsty Danby, they now have an obligation to deliver significant benefits to the wider community.

And while there is no doubt around the economic impact of mining operations in Australia – which contributed 45 per cent of the country’s total exports in the 2018 financial year – communities are increasingly asking for more from the resources sector.

“There is no doubt that there is increasing pressure on resource companies to obtain a ‘social licence to operate’,” Ms Danby told Business News.

“No longer is it a ‘nice to have’ – it’s mission critical from the start of every project – big or small.”

The concept of a social licence to operate refers to how much support a project, company or industry has in the local environment in which it operates.

FAR REACH Mining operations such as Roy Hill Holdings’ Hope Downs have a big environmental impact, but its operator is making a significant contribution to community well-being across Western Australia.

Photo: Gabriel Oliveira

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26 August 2019 | businessnews.com.au

While not exclusive to resources, the wide-reaching impacts a mining operation has on a community – environmental and otherwise – has many major companies assessing exactly what their environmental, social and governance (ESG) impacts are.

In resources, part of a company’s social licence is the need to obtain proper approvals and community support, however, it was also identified by EY in 2018 as one of the top 10 risks facing the mining and metals industry.

Ms Danby said those companies that embraced the concept were more likely to achieve the backing of investors – a crucial element of a sector dominated by publicly listed companies.

“Businesses that value ethical practices are strategically creating a competitive advantage,” Ms Danby said.

“They stand out as attractive investment options, particularly to those ethical investors that are making decisions beyond traditional operational or financial performance alone.

“These investors assess businesses on social environmental values and credentials, and it is a trend that continues to gather momentum.”

At share market darling Northern Star Resources, ESG values are considered to be a key enabler of sustainable growth.

Northern Star views community trust as a key aspect of maintaining its social licence, with the gold miner having a large suite of initiatives to achieve this objective.

In 2014, Northern Star acquired two gold operations located in the eastern Goldfields, near Kalgoorlie-Boulder, with the miner swiftly moving to identify the concerns of the local community.

Kalgoorlie-Boulder mayor John Bowler has long been a critic of the impacts of fly-in, flyout workers on regional communities – a concern that has been recognised by Northern Star, which says 75 per cent of its Kalgoorlie operations’ employees are local residents.

Northern Star offers substantial incentives for workers to live in Kalgoorlie, while it has contributed more than $190,000 in sponsorships and donations to local sporting and community groups in the 2019 financial year.

Outside of Kalgoorlie, Northern Star employs indigenous rangers across all of its operations, who undertake the miner’s environmental compliance work.

Indigenous employment is also a key component of Fortescue Metals Group’s initiatives to maintain its social licence.

According to Fortescue’s latest Corporate Social Responsibility report, the iron ore giant employs 810 Aboriginal people, making up 14.1 per cent of its total workforce.

In the Pilbara, 16.7 per cent of Fortescue’s workers are indigenous.

Fortescue is also a key backer of indigenous business, with the company last year passing a $2 billion milestone of contract and subcontract awards to Aboriginal businesses and joint ventures since 2011.

Fellow iron ore major Roy Hill Holdings is similarly invested in its consideration of community and environmental outcomes in the north of the state.

GREAT for the STATE

Ms Danby said Roy Hill’s Community Foundation was a strong example of how a company can add value not only to its own business, but also society at large.

“It is a conglomerate of service providers (Downer, Samsung, NAB and others) that have joined with Roy Hill to create a community foundation,” Ms Danby said.

“It is a collaborative approach that delivers a united position on the value of community giving.

“Combining resources is providing a cumulative positive social impact across communities in the Pilbara.”

Outside of the majors, Ms Danby said a focus on environmental and social impacts was also becoming a big consideration.

Ms Danby said junior explorers were increasingly realising value from positive interactions and outcomes for local communities.

At MOD Resources, Ms Danby said, a sub-committee had been established to address sustainability by the company’s board of directors.

“It’s not hard to see why MOD is taking a leadership role here, given that Bronwyn Barnes is arguably our state’s most experienced ESG director, having negotiated native title, land access and community development for Western Mining Corporation, BHP, AMC Bauxite and a raft of junior resource companies across multiple jurisdictions,” she said.

“She has long argued the value of good ESG and the relationship to shareholder return.”

ENTICING Kirsty Danby says businesses that embrace ethical practices have become more attractive to investors.

Photo: Bohdan Warchomij

SPONSORED CONTENT

Can AI prevent heart attacks?

REDICTING if someone is at imminent risk of a heart attack has been for a long time the Holy Grail for heart researchers.

WA start-up Artrya Pty Ltd is now applying Artificial Intelligence to the challenge.

Despite decades of excellent research and the development of sophisticated imaging techniques, heart disease is still the world’s biggest killer.

The build-up of plaque and the subsequent narrowing of arteries has been the major focus.

However, narrowed arteries are only part of the story. Heart attacks also occur in people with less than 50% narrowing.

In fact, 50% of men and 64% of women who die of heart attack have never had a warning signal and two thirds of them have less than 50% narrowing in the artery.

The reason is due to a particular type of plaque which can erupt and suddenly block an artery. This plaque is different from the hard calcium detected in CT calcium scans, and is much more difficult to accurately identify.

Artrya’s all-Western Australian team is developing an Artificial Intelligence solution that if successful could disrupt current approaches and successfully identify at risk patients.

The start-up is leveraging Perth’s concentration of leading researchers and has brought together a team of

11 West Australians comprising cardiologists, Artificial Intelligence experts and engineers.

First, the plan is to deliver a system using non-invasive scans to help clinicians better evaluate cardiovascular risk.

The aim is to provide a patient report to the treating cardiologist within minutes, as any delay potentially leaves a patient at heightened risk.

In Australia current wait times can be up to a week. In the UK 230,000 people waited a month before their scan results were received.

Next the team aims to develop technology that not only identifies plaque but pinpoints plaque which is at heightened risk of rupturing and causing a fatal blockage.

To achieve this, machines which detect individual pixels will be used as they can work at higher levels of accuracy, consistency and sensitivity than the human eye.

Already $1million, over-subscribed, in angel funding from Western Australian investors has been put toward the project.

It will be a major breakthrough if a cost effective and safe technique of interpreting CTCA scan can be developed that identifies patients at risk of dying of heart attack.

John Barrington AM 26 August Chairman, 2019 | businessnews.com.au Executive Artrya Pty Ltd

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GREAT for the STATE

Values in action – snapshot of WA Story by Dan Wilkie

Woodside Petroleum Statement: Working sustainably is a core value embedded at every level of Woodside’s operations.

Action:

Fortescue Metals Group Statement:

Action:

Safety and family are at the core of Fortescue’s values – employees are encouraged to look out for their mates and embrace the challenge of achieving stretch goals.

Fortescue has committed to become a global leader in safety across all of its operations.

Goals include zero fatalities and a reduction in total recordable injury frequency rate to the lowest quartile of the resources

sector. Fortescue’s initiatives to achieve its goals include comprehensive education, coaching and training programs, which are complemented by rigorous monitoring and reporting to prevent high-risk events.

Woodside is committed to taking action on climate change and is orchestrating its operations to become a key player in a clean energy future. Woodside’s climate change strategies include a focus on reducing emissions and advocating for a lower carbon economy. The state’s biggest energy player has committed to improve its energy efficiency by 5 per cent from baseline performance by 2020, and create new opportunities for liquefied natural gas to replace higher-emission fuels. Woodside has also advocated for a global carbon price as the best method of transition to a lower carbon world.

Valuing people delivers social benefits As a mining contractor, Macmahon’s core value of safety is driven by our view that no job is worth doing unsafely, which is particularly prudent given the environment in which we operate.

Increasing incidents of mental health concerns, specifically related to a FIFO workforce, has seen Macmahon take a holistic approach to our team members health and well being. Macmahon has committed to confronting mental health head on and continues to engage with psychologists to develop a sustainable program to address the mental health of our employees.

The program is directly linked to our safety value and the results over the past 12 months speak for themselves as the stigma associated with mental health issues is broken down in our workforce.

Feedback on our program has confirmed that the message is getting through with formal feedback validating that our people are now openly speaking out without fear or shame.

Teamwork has always been an essential capability and value for Macmahon and now, more than ever, our people must collaborate together as we continue to grow our business in a tightening skills market.

Valuing people, their skill sets and identifying opportunities to develop key individuals through structured leadership, is proving vital to our business and delivers financial and social benefits to our workforce.

Importantly, as an ASX listed business, we must strive to deliver value for our shareholders and employees.

As our business and prosperity grows, so does our position to increase our philanthropic focus.

The Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research has been of particular interest to Macmahon and our employees over the past three years through active participation in the annual 200km ride for cancer. The event raises much needed funds for medical research and provides our people with the ability to give back through fundraising activities, opportunities to meet and train with people outside of their teams, and a real sense of community and accomplishment as they cross the finish line as a team – a win-win-win, for Macmahon, our people and the community.

Carl O’Hehir, Macmahon General Manager – Civil & Surface East

BE MORE.

macmahon.com.au (08) 9232 1000 10

26 August 2019 | businessnews.com.au

RAC Statement: RAC exists to protect and enhance the lifestyle of its members and of WA.

Action: RAC is a key supporter of the state government’s Towards Zero road safety strategy, while the insurer has also delivered road safety education to more than 500,000 children in WA. RAC’s iconic rescue helicopters are at the front line of WA’s emergency response services, getting critical care paramedics swiftly to the scene of accidents, providing inter-hospital transport between the regions and metropolitan Perth, and search and rescue missions over land and sea.

GREAT for the STATE

companies operating with purpose Cedar Woods Properties Statement: Cedar Woods looks for opportunities to reduce its footprint, save on energy and create safe and healthy lifestyles for its customers.

Action: Cedar Woods has 15 carefully identified sustainability objectives, ranging from design excellence, environmental initiatives, community building

and economic development.

The company’s Bushmead development in Hazelmere is set among 185 hectares of retained bushland, parks and recreational reserves, and has been granted the highest ‘6 Leaf’ environmental accreditation.

Cedar Woods is also committed to ensuring Indigenous and European heritage is retained across its developments.

Macmahon Holdings

Mineral Resources

Statement:

Statement:

Macmahon Holdings aims to create an open and inclusive workplace environment where diverse experiences, perspectives and backgrounds of its people are valued and utilised.

Mineral Resources’ oneMRL ethos underpins the company’s core purpose of providing innovative and low-cost solutions across mining infrastructure, operating with integrity and respect and working in partnership with clients, customers, its people and the community.

Action: Macmahon has a number of measurable diversity objectives, including annual targets, specifically in relation to gender diversity, benchmarking its position on gender diversity against its peers and regular gender pay equity audits to measure the effectiveness of its programs. Macmahon also commits to employ the best person for the job regardless of gender, race, nationality, religious or political conviction, disability, family circumstance or status, pregnancy, sexual orientation or age.

Navitas Statement:

Action: Mineral Resources’ commitment to the community is centered on building capacity in the notfor-profit and charity sectors.

The company has a number of multi-year partnerships, supporting charitable operations, including Shooting Stars, Starlight Children’s Foundation, Youth Focus, Perth Children’s Hospital Foundation, The Lucy Saw Centre, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research and Ronald McDonald House.

Navitas’ vision is to be one of the most trusted learning organisations in the world.

Action: Education provider Navitas has a long list of policies that relate to its Values in Action protocols, including initiatives around anti-bribery and corruption, anti-discrimination, harassment, vilification and bullying, and grievance management. Navitas is also bound by legislation and agreements that ensures its global operations are ethical, appropriate, effective and compliant. Navitas provides the opportunity for students and employees to report noncompliant or unethical behaviour through an anonymous online portal.

Continued on page 12 SPONSORED CONTENT

A strategic approach to social purpose From our road safety advocacy to our innovative trialling of new technology such as electric and driverless vehicles, RAC is driven by the need to improve the quality of life for our members, to help them feel more connected to one another and, through our mobility agenda, to ensure they can move about their State safely, easily, and in a more sustainable way.

With more than one million members in WA, the principles of social purpose and member value are at the centre of RAC. They drive not just our advocacy program but sit at the core of our overall strategy for the organisation. Our efforts to achieve genuine outcomes within our three mobility pillars — safety, accessibility and sustainability — are tracked via our Mobility Index to measure the effectiveness of our advocacy around these key social outcomes. This is how we ensure accountability within our advocacy and how we align it to our broader strategic purpose.

Of course, it’s essential we give meaning to our words, and some examples of how we achieve this include: • Last financial year, we provided road safety education to over

15,000 primary school students and almost 30,000 secondary school students.

• Our world leading automated vehicle trial in South Perth has travelled 20,000 kilometres on public roads since August 2016.

Earlier this year we also partnered with the City of Busselton to deliver the first driverless experience on public roads in regional WA. • The Australian-first RAC Electric Highway — a network of 11 fast charging stations between Perth and Augusta — has opened the road down south to electric vehicles.

Over the past 114 years RAC has built a famous reputation that is unique to Western Australia. Our focus on improving the lives of our members and delivering them value at every opportunity has remained fundamental throughout our journey. In focusing on this as both our social mandate and our competitive point of difference we hope to become not just WA’s most valued organisation, but one our members wouldn’t wish to live without.

RAC’s Elephant in the Wheatbelt campaign ran from 2014 to 2018 and highlighted the impact of road trauma in the Wheatbelt.

Rob Slocombe Group CEO, RAC 26 August 2019 | businessnews.com.au

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GREAT for the STATE

Values in action – snapshot of WA companies operating with purpose ABN Group

Perron Group

Statement:

Statement:

ABN Group is committed to making a difference in the community, with employees encouraged to actively participate and contribute to charity and environmental programs.

The Perron Way is a vision for excellence in business with integrity and compassion for others.

Action:

Action:

Multiplex Statement: Multiplex sees its business as an opportunity to deliver high performance facilities that create environmental, social and financial value for its clients and the communities in which it operates.

Action: Multiplex’s Perth Stadium Indigenous Engagement Program was designed to increase the employment of local Indigenous people on construction of Optus Stadium. Multiplex partnered with Wirrpanda Foundation and Skill Hire to provide traineeship and apprenticeship opportunities for Aboriginal Australians, with more

than 20 Indigenous workers engaged on the project through the program. Each subcontractor that worked on the stadium was also introduced to Wirrpanda and Skill Hire, while the construction giant made a significant investment in public art in the stadium precinct, celebrating the six seasons of the Nyoongar calendar.

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Over the past 13 years, ABN Group has donated more than $8.8 million to various causes through the Alcock Family Foundation. The Alcock Family Foundation identifies causes where it believes it can make the biggest positive impact to society, while overhead costs are covered by the ABN Group, maximising the effect of donations towards charitable causes. Beneficiaries include St John of God Comprehensive Cancer Care Centre, The Salvation Army, The Clontarf Foundation and The Esther Foundation, among a long list of charitable organisations.

Perron Group’s business portfolio is structured to provide substantial dividends to the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation in perpetuity. Recent contributions include a $10 million donation for research to find treatments and cures for diseases such as muscular dystrophy, motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis. The foundation also recently contributed $5 million to the Perth Children’s Hospital Centre of Excellence in Childhood Burns.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Finding purpose - When I grow-up “A Fireman! I want to be a Fireman!” was a declaration that I made one morning at the breakfast table to my Father at the age of seven. My Father, a chartered accountant, responded supportively saying, “My son, you can be anything you want to be.” I sat back in my chair, ate my Weetbix and smiled. I was going to be a Fireman!

Some 40 years later, I am able to draw upon two observations: • I never did grow up to be a Fireman - the challenge of matching supply with demand and the intricacies of fiscal and monetary policy was far too intriguing. I graduated as an Economist and become a Management Consultant.

• When seeking out employers, I actively looked for those whose values and culture took an active interest in their communities and promoted the well-being of others.

Every day, across Australia, the men and women of the fire service put themselves at risk to save

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26 August 2019 | businessnews.com.au

property, possession, memories and lives of other people. They are selfless in their actions, brave in the face of adversity and humble when recognised for their contribution.

Each day, at KPMG, I work with a team that strives to make a positive difference for our clients and communities. They look at how they can create value for stakeholders, safeguard shareholder investments, and operate in ways that are innovative and inclusive.

Shoulder-to-Shoulder When I first heard the KPMG phrase about working “shoulder-to-shoulder”, it immediately brought about images of collaboration and teamwork; a willingness to “work with” as opposed to “do to”; and a desire to commit to the long-term. In essence, it reflects the firm’s overall purpose “to inspire confidence and empower change” – for the benefit of our clients, people and communities.

When I ask people why they joined KPMG, I am constantly told that it is because of a culture and set of demonstrative actions associated with supporting the community, the environment and its employees. I am told that programs like our Jawun secondments, where various organisations come together with Indigenous people to affect lasting change, is seen as a real differentiator. That we provide an environment which enables everyone to succeed. Where it is a safe space for our people to bring their whole selves to work and contribute.

What is next?

As an organisation, competing for the best and brightest talent and wanting to maintain high levels of staff engagement, we need to respond to their demand for purpose.

In 2016, a number of Australian organisations like KPMG, committed to supporting the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These ambitious goals aim to help end extreme poverty, fight inequality, and protect the planet over a 15 year period.

While the SDG’s are now central to our firm’s corporate citizen strategy, nothing is more demonstrative than putting the full force of KPMG behind a purpose.

On 25 September, KPMG Australia will hold its inaugural firm-wide volunteering day to #Act4SDGs. 7000+ KPMG employees will be heading out into local communities, volunteering their time, skills and expertise in various projects aligned to the goals of the SDG. While I may not have grown up to be a Fireman, I too look forward to volunteering my time, engaging with our staff and the community, and helping to make the world a better place for my children.

James Arnott Partner, Management Consulting KPMG Australia