2020 CEO Survey: Alberto Calderon, Orica

We need to urgently increase productivity and stimulate private investment via fiscal policy, says Orica chief Alberto Calderon.

What are the three enduring lessons or changes to flow from COVID-19?

In a crisis, the best leaders are those who act decisively, but are willing to quickly adapt their approach as understanding of the issue evolves.

We cannot focus only on the pandemic at the detriment of the wellbeing and health of the society. We must learn to balance the acute impact of the problem at hand against the broader and more enduring risks and impacts.

How would you rate the shape of the Australian economy as we head into the new year?

Anaemic, and in urgent need of a kickstart. Monetary policy has done everything it can. Despite having an effectively zero interest rate, private investment is at a 60-year historical low.

We need to increase productivity and stimulate private investment via fiscal policy, with measures like tax incentives for new investment and infrastructure projects that improve the efficiency of the economy.

What three reforms are needed to sustainably grow the economy?

In the short and medium terms, government investment, particularly in big infrastructure projects, will help keep us out of recession.

But to get back to sustainable GDP growth rates of more than 2 per cent, only big business will shift the dial.

Tax incentives — both accelerating depreciation and expanding eligibility for deductions —- and stimulating manufacturing.

What are the three best growth opportunities for your company in 2021?

Our acquisition of Exsa, Peru’s leading manufacturer of industrial explosives, earlier in the year has established us as the number one player in Latin America’s highest growth market and created a step-change in our global manufacturing footprint, driving our competitive advantage.

The further adoption and commercialisation of our technology portfolio. It was the key driver in Glencore’s decision to awards us the five-year explosives technology and services contract for its Australian copper and zinc operations.

This year we completed the deployment of a world first, global scale cloud-based single enterprise resource planning system. It enables real-time data-driven insights, and is already delivering material operational insights and efficiencies.

What impact will digital transformation have on your company?

It is already fundamentally changing every aspect of how we, and our customers, do business.

For our customers, our digital products are completely reimagining the way they operate. With an increasingly digitised work flow, supported by the billions of data points we’ve collected, we’re enabling real-time decision making that delivers more precise, more predictable, and safer, blast outcomes.

GroundProbe, our slope stability monitoring business, is using proprietary radar and LiDAR technologies to detect the often minuscule movements that precede a slope collapse.

And for us, this year we completed the deployment of a world first, global scale cloud-based single enterprise resource planning system.

How would you rate business, state and federal government performance this year?

The recent announcements of the government related to gas policy and tax incentives for small to medium size companies is a very important first step toward economic recovery.

State governments like NSW, Western Australia and Queensland, did a very good job handling the coronavirus crisis.