Bond

"What Weinstock, Lewis and Bond wanted most of all was accountability — for every manager to know exactly what he was responsible for. There were no more fat consultancy fees from GEC. Weinstock and Bond spread their message of control and accountability through the empire. Amorphous divisions were broken up into distinct units with specific products so that individuals could be given clear responsibility for smaller operations. ‘The first thing we did was to make sure that each business ran a product, with its own managing director totally responsible for everything,’ recalled Kenneth Bond. ‘He didn’t have to buy anything in. There were no alibis. If something wasn’t right it was clearly the responsibility of the person in charge. He couldn’t blame someone else.’’"

"In January 1987 Stokes was moored off Rottnest Island when the time came to call Kerry Packer and bid on Nine. He paddled a dinghy to shore and queued in his shorts and thongs to use a telephone box to ring Packer in Sydney. He didn’t have any change, so had to make a reverse-charge call. He knew what Alan Bond was offering. ‘I’ll offer 50 cents more than Alan Bond if I can get some support from you,’ he recalls telling Packer. By ‘support’ he meant a break on programming costs, which Packer could control because he had long-standing deals with American production houses. Stokes also suggested he would be a more stable owner for Nine than Bond. Packer grudgingly agreed, but it didn’t help. That night the news broke that Bond had offered another $1 a share, putting his total bid above the billion-dollar mark. It was an offer Packer could not refuse and Stokes would not match, especially the extra $50 million of borrowed money he says Bond grafted on top of the agreed price, like a cherry on a cake. The two Kerrys sat back to wait for Bond to implode. Watchers weren’t sure where the extra $50 million went but some speculated most of it would find its way back to Bond. He was clever like that."