The task of establishing an enterprise such as a large-scale mining operation, particularly in a country which is relatively new to our industry, is a daunting one. It will be extraordinarily difficult to plan for every challenge to be confronted during such a process. However, the exercise will be facilitated if the planning of the controllable and known issues is performed at the outset. To ensure the job is done properly, the planning of people management issues must be considered an integral component of the whole project planning process. This is not a process uniquely applicable to foreign operations. The same principle applies to the establishment of a mining operation in Australia, as will many of the issues raised in the body of this paper. The successful mining enterprise will take the consideration of the people management issues further than the 'superficial' areas such as rosters and accommodation. While I do not diminish the critical importance of such matters, it is advisable for companies seeking to establish such a new operation to put considerable thought into the determination and planning of the overall workplace culture required, the strategy to achieve that culture and the means of implementation of that strategy, for as we regularly see in the Australian context, it is easier to design and implement a new workplace culture at the establishment of a new enterprise than to change an existing culture. I trust that this brief outline of the experience of Alumbrera demonstrates the critical importance of people management to the successful start-up of a project and to its on-going competitiveness. This is not to dilute in any way the contribution of our technical specialists in the industry; rather we, the current leaders of our industry, must recognise the need to build on these skills to ensure that the leaders of tomorrow are appropriately equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century. As I have tried to demonstrate using the Alumbrera experience as an example, we live in a very competitive environment and our industry will continue to thrive only as long as investors can see a worthwhile return on their investment. This, in turn, means that the performance of our leaders and the general stewardship of our mining enterprises must be equivalent to, or better than, management in other industries competing for the scarce investment dollar. Interestingly, it is my observation that this has also been recognised by the financial markets and increasingly shareholders, investors and analysts are recognising that, while the financial results remain the key performance measure of any business, they provide only part of the picture. Financial results represent a snapshot in time but there is a growing recognition that non-financial indicators are essential to identifying the long-term value and future success of a company. Included amongst these non-financial issues are those that are people related; issues such as quality of organisational vision, ability to attract and retain talented people, employee turnover, social responsibility and corporate governance. It is therefore incumbent upon us to recognise these critical imperatives for our industry and to ensure that, through both our mining schools (for those who enter our industry with core mining disciplines) and our on-going company training and development programs, we equip our leaders of tomorrow with the relevant people related skills to keep us at the leading edge. This will only be possible if we give them the wherewithal to lead and motivate our people, leverage their skills and experience and maintain the confidence of our shareholders and other stakeholders through skilled communication of our industry and company visions and strategies.
展开▼
