The takeover of Patrick Corp by Toll Holdings will bring to an end one of Australia's most remarkable and successful business ventures.
All Australian managers, particularly in the manufacturing sector, should study it carefully.
It not only provides guidance on how to effectively break out of the straitjacket of established thinking and norms, but also how to flourish in this competitive world.
Back in the late 1980s, Patrick operated in the traditional Australian way. Its business plan was built on a tripartite deal between the company, the government and the union.
The union ran human resources policy; the government took care of the politics and the competition; and Patrick got a 50 per cent share in a monopoly business to provide stevedoring services in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
The business was, however, under huge threat. The users, particularly the farmers, were demanding change: not only lower prices but fast throughput and more reliable services.
Governments were increasingly in a reformist state of mind and globalisation and technology were transforming the transport business.
The tripartite team responded with a series of "nip and tuck" reforms, funded by taxpayers.
However, in the end these achieved little except higher retirement packages for some wharfies.
Enter Chris Corrigan and Peter Scanlon.
They saw the latent potential in the business, and put their own money on the line by buying a sizeable share of Patrick.
For the first six or seven years they tried to work within the tripartite arrangement. Eventually, however, they came to realise the need and potential for change.
The Howard Government no longer wanted to be part of the deal. The new industrial relations Act allowed change. Customers wanted change and unions were not delivering.
Thus began the famous waterfront dispute of 1998. While it left all involved emotionally scarred, and the MUA retained the right to represent workers on the docks, Patrick got what it wanted -- the right to manage labour on its docks.
It made the necessary changes which quickly converted Australian docks into some of the most efficient in the world.
P&O, Patrick's main competitor in the stevedoring business, sided with the status quo during the dispute. However, once it saw the gains in productivity made by Patrick it followed suit.
Patrick's vision did not stop at the docks; it went after the holy grail of an integrated logistics system covering all modes of transport.
Others had tried, but government ownership and infrastructure bottlenecks had prevented them from achieving it.
The situation was changing. The ports -- the key node in the transport system -- were under its control.
Governments were privatising and/ or deregulating rail, air and road transport systems and encouraging private investment into new infrastructure.
Enabling technology, such as GPS, satellite communications and the internet, was advancing rapidly.
Accordingly Patrick bought into road, air, rail and logistics businesses while continuing to build its ports business. Toll Holdings pursued a similar vision, sometimes in joint venture with Patrick.
The process led to Patrick's share price increasing from $1.60 in 1997 to $8.71 at last night's close.
It has made Mr Corrigan and Mr Scanlon very wealthy. It spawned a huge economy-wide improvement in productivity and competitiveness.
And it paved the way for other businesses to break out of the old mode, to compete and hopefully to flourish.
Three cheers for the visionaries.
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