Trevor

"‘If there is one part of my corporate history that I could change, it would be that decision I made not to tell Trevor and Alan that I was selling my Sky shares,’ he says. ‘It was spur of the moment, based on my friendship with Rupert Murdoch and I did not think it through enough. I wasn’t trying to be clever, I wasn’t trying to do a deal behind the bike sheds and I wasn’t trying to do something that was not in their interests. My total concern was security of information, but that implies that I did not trust them and that is not true. I totally trusted them. So I don’t quite know, looking back, why I did it. It is a big personal regret and it caused some strain in our relationship for a while, but I consider both of those guys to be my close friends. Sometimes things like that happen in life—you get caught up in the moment, you don’t think something through and later you think, I should not have done that.’ Gibbs and Farmer later sold their Sky shares to Telecom."

"*What made them such an incredibly powerful business duo was that you had two highly competent individuals, not a Batman and Robin set-up where one was junior. Trevor was one of the very best chief executives I’ve seen in my life, while Alan was, without question, the best corporate finance exponent. And Alan wasn’t just a brilliant corporate financier; he could harness strategy alongside it. So to put the two together created an unbelievably good combination, particularly as they kept out of each other’s space. Alan would say, ‘How many people do we employ?’ ‘Aw, about 2500 to 3000,’ Trevor would reply. ‘Thank God you’re there, Trev, I can’t even manage Jacquie.’*[33](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477309-807254973-33)"

"*I never found Alan easy to chat to; his intelligence was so ferocious that if you got into a conversation with him, within two or three minutes you were conscious of this enormous challenge being hurled at you. But Trevor handled it easily. He could say, ‘Oh bullshit, Gibbs,’ when he was overstating his case and that would get things back on track. I never saw anyone else do it; I certainly didn’t.*[34](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477309-807254973-34)"

"*We knew that if we went to Mayne Nickless and told them that we wanted to buy their half, they’d try to screw a good price. So we said, ‘Look the joint venture’s not really working. We’re not sure if we’re buyers or sellers; we’re probably sellers, but let’s first sort out the price.’ We suggested they nominate a price at which they would be prepared to buy or sell and we would have the right to decide whether to buy or sell. Because they were scared we might decide to sell them our half share of a company that they didn’t really want, their figure was pretty modest for a group that comprised 15 excellent businesses. Trevor and I looked at each other, grinned and immediately agreed to buy them out at that price.*[35](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477309-807254973-35)"

"*I’d rate Freightways as the central and major business experience of my life. It lasted for 20 years and was based on a great partnership with Trevor. We never had an argument and we’re still great mates, which is hugely satisfying. It was a hell of a lot of fun; we made heaps of dough and learnt a lot about life. We both gained great value out of each other. I wouldn’t have changed a thing. My only mild regret is selling. The courier companies were brilliant businesses and still are. We both underestimated how well Trevor had trained the guys who stayed in charge. Dean Bracewell, who was a relatively young chief executive, has done an excellent job continuing Trevor’s very disciplined approach. It’s hard to have the discipline not to charge around buying into Australia and doing stupid things; Bracewell has that discipline.* *So we sold the courier businesses privately to some guys in Australia, who leveraged the hell out of it (we had no debt on it) and refloated it at a huge profit, like we should have done. They did a Gibbs on Gibbs. We sold them for much less than they were really worth. It was an end of an era and I didn’t give it the attention it deserved, although the truth is that Freightways has probably performed better since 1997 as a public company than it might have if we’d kept it private. A public company has the advantage of keeping people on their toes, since one’s pride is involved. If we’d kept it private and not given it sufficient attention — Trevor being retired and me being overseas — it may have run down and Bracewell might have wandered off. That’s the thing about capitalism; nothing keeps working forever. To stay on top a company needs constant reinvigoration and attention to detail.*"