CEO Survey 2020: Jeanne Johns, Incitec Pivot

Covid has reminded us of the value and power of face-to-face connection when it comes to developing and deepening relationships, says Jeanne Johns of Incitec Pivot

Jeanne Johns of Incitec Pivot. Picture: Aaron Francis for The Australian

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

COVID has accelerated a number of pre-existing trends, most notably in technology and its adoption. Technology has shrunk the concept of distance and everyone is now grappling with how much travel – whether it’s our daily commute or international travel – is the right mix. Somewhat ironically, COVID has also reminded us of the value and power of face-to-face connection. It’s irreplaceable when it comes to developing and deepening relationships. I personally miss the richness of the conversation and the energy from being in the same room as my family, who are in the US, and my work colleagues - something being behind a screen all day fails to replicate.

Another enduring lesson for us has been the importance of delegated decision making and providing context to ensure those decisions are made in line with the company’s values and priorities. Way back in February, we did not know what COVID might mean for us during the year, but we started with our key value of Zero Harm and keeping our employees safe. We formed our Crisis Management Team and put in place travel restrictions, good hygiene practices, and re-designed our work to keep our people and customers safe during a pandemic. Our value of customer focus led us to ensure we had robust supply chains to deliver uninterrupted service and the devolved decision making allowed us to respond quickly to the State border closures in Australia.

Finally, I think we’ve all been reminded of the importance of empathy as our personal life was brought into the workplace. All of us were facing unprecedented times and grappling with the impact of a crisis sweeping our public health system as well as global economies. It has also lasted for a long period of time – challenging our ability to maintain our vigilance in looking after ourselves, families, colleagues and our customers. This pandemic was a unique clash between our personal lives and work lives and one we are still working through. We had people in Australia suddenly having to juggle home-schooling, people in our US business living with the daily threat of contracting the virus, and people across our essential operations out at sites adapting to new safety controls. It was a difficult year for all of us and we had to look out for each other. It made us have a greater appreciation and insight to the lives of our colleagues outside work and I think that’s helped us become a stronger team and work better together.

How would you rate the shape of the Australian economy as we head into the New Year?

We’re optimistic for Australia’s economy given its good shape heading into the pandemic and Australia’s quick and effective responses to the pandemic on both the health and economic fronts. This has positioned us to recover much quicker. We also had the benefit that the essential industries we operate in - resources, agriculture and manufacturing – continued to operate throughout COVID, keeping people in much needed jobs.

Australia is well positioned to recover more quickly than other countries as we head into 2021. We should seize on the opportunity for improving our productivity through reforms to use our advantage to make us more competitive in the future.

What three reforms are needed to sustainably grow the economy?

Critical to growing the economy is creating a properly functioning domestic gas market on the east coast which provides internationally competitive gas prices to consumers and industrial users. One of Australia’s comparative advantages is its abundant natural gas and we need to use this to grow and diversify our domestic economy. The federal government’s gas led recovery should be applauded and we’re optimistic it will lead to benefits for the economy overall and for manufacturers to secure and create high quality Australian jobs. Domestically producing key feedstocks like fertilisers and explosives to support our advantaged agriculture and resource sectors makes sense and will improve our sovereign capability.

Harmonisation of border controls across the states and territories as we transition to COVID normal will make it easier to do business across borders, as would more consistent regulations. Growing the size of the market across all of Australia’s states and territories will result in higher productivity and efficiency to allow stronger competition with other international markets.

Investment in R&D to drive innovation is also vital to grow the economy. The key will be the skill to commercialise R&D by effectively linking business and research.

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

We look to grow through helping our customers grow - by making superior products and solutions to improve productivity, safety, and sustainability.

In our explosives business, we will leverage our practical on the ground technology; for instance, our DeltaE technology reduces our customers’ carbon footprint while improving productivity and safety.

Our fertiliser business is also ideally placed to grow as we enter a new strategic partnership with Precision Agriculture. Through intensive soil testing and customised nutrient application solutions, farmers will be able to achieve better yields and more sustainable outcomes.

Using our core skills to address the largest challenge facing the world today – climate change - is also an exciting opportunity for us. We participated in a feasibility study of producing ammonia from green hydrogen at scale. There’s a lot more work to be done to make this a commercial reality, but we will continue to investigate potential partnerships and pathways towards its use.

What impact will digital transformation have on your company?

We successfully launched our next generation of our Nobel Fire digital platform for explosives blast modelling and shot reporting this past year. Our next generation will enable end to end blasting automation, driving improvements in safety and productivity on mine sites.

We’ve also been forced to adopt remote working broadly in the past year. We’re now adept at multiple digital platforms and have experimented with how to use them effectively for meetings, collaborations, and conferences. The use of technology has shrunk the world and made international collaboration no more difficult than collaborating across Melbourne, for example. We’ve been able to provide technical support to our Port Hedland facility through technical experts sitting in Queensland when state borders were closed. We also commissioned a new expansion in our Helidon initiating system plant with technical support that would normally have come from South Africa. I have held a virtual frontline leadership safety tour with our Moura plant in Queensland from my apartment in Melbourne, joining them via camera for a site tour and a celebratory afternoon tea for 20 years of operation with a great safety record.

How would you rate business, State and Federal Government performance this year?

Australian business responded responsible and collaboratively to COVID and really stepped up by quickly implementing COVID safe controls and precautions which allowed us to continue to operate safely during the pandemic. The prioritisation of safety by business is clear in the low and generally zero cases of workplace transmission across essential industries such as resources, agriculture and manufacturing that were able to continue to operate.

State and federal governments put public health and safety first which was consistent with the priorities and values of our business. We recognise the extremely difficult balancing act governments faced when trying to keep people safe and the economy operating. Australia has emerged from the virus in a much better position than many other countries due to the strong and sensible approach by government.