Fed: Running BHP full frontal

00-00-0000
Fed: Running BHP full frontal

By Steve Connolly

BRISBANE, Aug 27 AAP - Running the Big Australian was like working naked in a departmentstore, BHP Billiton's former chief executive Paul Anderson said today.

Mr Anderson, who stepped down on July 1, was credited with turning around the flaggingfortunes of the former BHP and masterminding last year's merger with UK-listed Billiton.

The 57-year-old American, who was recruited in 1998 from Duke Energy Corp, said hewas unprepared for the scrutiny involved with his role at BHP, which had been sufferingheavy losses, a falling share price and plummeting confidence.

This scrutiny "was akin to having your office, where you had to show up naked, in thecorner of a David Jones department store", he told the QUT business forum in Brisbane.

"Because everybody was looking at what was going on and everything was being reported on.

"I realised the intensity of it when in the first week I was there looking for a houseand I opened the property section of a newspaper and there was a picture of me lookingfor a house.

"And I said this is some sort of bizarre nightmare, but I guess I'm going to have toget used to it.

"People say what's the best thing about stepping down from your role and retiring andit's that nobody cares about you anymore, that's the nicest thing."

Mr Anderson said a key to reviving BHP was consulting managers about possible solutionsand addressing misdirected resources. An example of these misplacements had been 350 peoplein the San Francisco office when there were "very few mines in that area".

Since the merger with Billiton, there have been questions as to whether the companywould shift its headquarters away from Melbourne to London or New York.

Mr Anderson said under the approval requirements for the merger the head office andCEO were to be based in Australia.

But he said the head office location shouldn't be "too sensitive" as long as BHP-Billitonwas employing Australians, paying taxes and "thrusting Australia into world commerce".

"That level of that should be more important than where is the headquarters," he said.

"I guess I would rather have a globally competitive, very robust firm operating inAustralia ... than an anaemic, pitiful little firm that's headquartered in Australia."

AAP sc/was/de

KEYWORD: BHP NAKED