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UWA Business School
Kerry Harmanis, founding director of Jubilee Mines, has told business leaders and students at The University of Western Australia how values such as humility, respect and compassion were critical to his business success.

Harmanis was sharing his career and insights into leadership and management at a recent Up Close and Personal Lunch, presented in association with the Graduate Management Association.

‘I've never really thought of myself as an entrepreneur or an innovator... I just did what I did and evolved as I did,' Harmanis told audience members.

After studying law at The University of Western Australia, being admitted to the bar, backpacking through Asia and then failing to qualify for entry to Claremont Art School, Harmanis quit his career in law to begin prospecting in the goldfields.

To make ends meet, Harmanis spent weekends selling seafood from a caravan at Leighton Beach. ‘My parents used to come down and hang around and tell everyone, "He doesn't need to do this you know, he's a lawyer"... and I was having the time of my life,' said Harmanis.

In 1987 - eight years after leaving the bar - Harmanis floated Sir Samuel Mines and Jubilee Gold Mines on the Australian Stock Exchange. The latter floating took place just three days after Black Monday. Despite this, the floats were successful and in 1991 the two companies merged, later being renamed Jubilee Mines NL.

By 1995, raising capital had become difficult. ‘I think at one point our shares went down to four cents, we had $120,000 in the bank and I put $900,000 of my own money in which was pretty scary at the time because no-one knew where we were going,' recalled Harmanis.

A year later, the company switched its focus from gold to nickel, and in 1997 discovered the Cosmos Nickel Mine.

‘All of a sudden here I am, I've got this potential pot of gold in my hands and I have no professional training as a CEO or as a manager. Up to then it had been fights and disagreements and a real struggle and... I had to assemble and manage many different disciplines of hardened professionals and bring them all together really quickly to make this thing happen,' he said.

With the help of meditation, mandolin playing and tai chi, and a focus on employees and shareholders, Harmanis developed and began operating the mine. In April 2000, it produced its first concentrate.

In the process, Harmanis developed a unique leadership style. ‘The business - for me, anyway - was really all about people, sharing the experience and the benefits with them,' he said.

In addition to ensuring that shareholders received the highest possible returns, Harmanis ran workshops with staff and regularly spoke with employees at all levels of the company. ‘I had heard, and this turned out to be true - you ask your workers what they think because they'll help you. They know what's going on in your company. I also wanted to impart on them the opportunity to learn something different about relationships and life,' he said.

‘I introduced to them what I called the ten no's which I had learnt from my spiritual quest: things like no complaining, no hearsay, no interrupting, no issues (come and talk - don't hold on to them), no resentments, no judgements about anybody else...  in other words, care and respect for everyone. At the same time I learnt through all of this to manage people better.

‘Leadership was not about control. Leadership was about giving people responsibility and having them accept responsibility.'

In 2007-08, Jubilee Mines was bought by Xstrata for $3.1 billion, leaving Harmanis with a large profit. Apart from managing his affairs, he now engages in philanthropy, supporting a number of well-known national and international not-for-profit organisations and issue-related groups and causes such as youth suicide. He also has begun supporting Save the Kimberley, a not-for-profit organisation which aims to educate the community about the threat to the Kimberley Coast and its inland wilderness areas posed by gas and large-scale industrial development proposals.

‘If you look at our civilisation at a broader level, then the mining industry is just a small sector but it has a large impact, especially in Western Australia. In our culture nothing much is sacred anymore, and I think that is ultimately going to be our downfall unless we find a real balance to this quickly,' said Harmanis.

‘I feel to do this we need to change people from the inside out, starting with the leaders, or it will be forced on us.'

He encouraged corporate leaders, especially mining leaders, to look to the bigger picture as the world is changing rapidly and they will need to accept that the old way of doing things will not work, and they need to be more adaptable and willing to change - starting with themselves.

Kerry Harmanis was speaking at the Up Close and Personal Lunch on 23 February at The University Club of Western Australia. The event was presented in association with the Graduate Management Association (GMA) and hosted by Tom Murrell, President of the GMA.

Media references

Catherine Vogel (UWA Business School) +618 6488 7340
Verity Chia (UWA Business School) +618 6488 1346