Goyder is the first to acknowledge he has made a few mistakes.
“There’s been circumstances, where I should have followed my own instincts, backed my own judgment and led more strongly,” he says.
“There’s a couple of transactions very early on in my tenure, where I didn’t have the self-assurance to back myself. I listened to too many people. In doing that, we became slow and cumbersome and we missed opportunities. We just didn’t move with the speed that we should have.”
He declined to mention the transactions, saying the “the opportunities may come back again one day”.
“You must disseminate the information in front of you and listen to others,” he says. “But from time-to-time, you also have to say, ‘I’m pretty confident that this is the right thing to do, so let’s do it’.
“I feel I’m a better leader now than ever before because I’ve learned a lot along the way. I actually think you learn more from your mistakes than your successes.”
The performance-driven Wesfarmers culture also incorporates respect for colleagues and competitors.
“At Wesfarmers, we say park your egos at the front door,” Goyder says of business meetings. “We all have egos and want to be successful – you must have a degree of self-confidence. But egos need to be kept under control.
“We can’t and won’t let inflated egos get in the way of considered decision-making.
“People who display high levels of ego don’t tend to get on that well in the senior echelons of Wesfarmers. People just don’t respect that.”
Goyder says the company’s strong financial position means it can repay net debt of $5 billion from annual operating cash flows. He says a strong balance sheet enables the company to grow organically or via acquisitions.
Wesfarmers is committed to a $2 billion capital expenditure program this financial year. “We will continue to invest heavily in our businesses,” he says. “It’s the best sort of investment you can make.”
Interestingly, Goyder says the company is examining options to “take property off the balance sheet”. The company has between $2 billion and $3 billion of property on its balance sheet – a “fair chunk”, Goyder says.
“Once we’ve developed our properties and put in place good long term leases, then we’re happy for someone else to own them,” he says “We think we can generate better returns elsewhere.”
And breaking up the Wesfarmers conglomerate is always a possibility.
“If someone comes along and offers us a price above what we think it’s worth, on an after tax basis to our shareholders, then we’ll sell it,” he says.
“And that’s any division. Very rarely do we actively put a business on the market. But investment banks know if they have a client interested in buying an asset, then they can come knocking on our door.”
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