08 Sep 2018
Weekend Australian, Australia
Author: John Durie • Section: Business News • Article Type: News Item
Audience : 219,242 • Page: 38 • Printed size: 629.00cm² • Market: National
Country: Australia • ASR: AUD 20,541 • words: 916 • Item ID: 1005667778
Licensed by Copyright Agency. You may only copy or communicate this work with a licence.
QUBE CHIEF A TEAM PLAYER
JOHN DURIE
A company is as
strong as its staff,
says Maurice James
If there is a word which describes
Maurice James’s leadership style
at Qube it’s “team”. The fact he is
working with the same people
who were on the dock 24 years ago
gives him the most enjoyment.
It was like Old Home Week as
he strolled through the prefab
building on site in the docks over-
looking the Melbourne Port,
which handles 100 trucks and 80
container movements every hour.
The way James sees it, business
is about “good strategy, under-
standing the industry, good cus-
tomer relations and team work”.
James grew up in the southern
Melbourne suburb of East Bent-
leigh. A constant visitor to his
house and his father’s best man,
Albert Johns, talked him into
being an engineer.
He studied at the Oakleigh
Tech, then the Caulfield Institute,
working in his holidays in the rail-
ways.
His father, also an engineer,
was from the old school and in-
stilled in Maurice the importance
of working hard.
Sport was always a big part of
his life: learning basketball with
the Melbourne Tigers, then under
the eyes of legendary Lindsay
Gaze, along with a local football
career and cricket.
He played basketball up to the
age of 45 in the local leagues but
now weekends revolve around his
four children and their families.
“An organisation is only as
strong as its people, so teams and
relationships,” he says.
Not surprisingly James and
long-time boss Chris Corrigan
have similar deals.
Asked recently about his deal-
making skills, Corrigan said: “I am
not sure I have ever made a ‘deal’
in the sense that most people
think about it. I just don’t think
about management as the making
of a deal but rather the identifi-
cation of an interesting corporate
direction, the building of a team to
give effect to that direction and the
effective execution of the agreed
strategic direction.”
At Patrick in the early days
that’s how it worked out between
the two. James says Corrigan told
him: “I will be happy buying things
and happy if you implement
them.”
Other roles included construc-
tion management, project man-
agement and port management.
This included planning work
on the Bolte Bridge and the infa-
mous East Swanson Dock, which
later became the centre of the
waterfront dispute 20 years ago.
Through his time at the port
James said he watched manage-
ment and tried to pick up good
habits from the best. “How they
engaged with others was the key.”
By the late 1980s he wasn’t sure
whether he wanted to be an engin-
eer for the rest of his life and Bob
Jones, one of his managers, rec-
ommended he do an MBA.
“Engineering is a great base:
well structured, analytical with a
mathematical bent,” he said. But
the MBA was “an important deci-
sion because it broadened my
knowledge base”.
In 1993 Corrigan started buy-
ing up smaller stevedoring opera-
Page 1 of 3
tions and the next year he rang
James out of the blue to see if he
wanted to work with him.
This was the start of a long rela-
tionship and James clearly ad-
mires his old boss. “He was a
brilliant strategist, had an amazing
capacity to think outside the
square and see the upsides from
productivity improvements.”
He describes their working re-
lationship as “excellent”.
The waterfront dispute was
“hard work”.
“We strongly believed in the
right of management to manage.
“We were frustrated because
we saw the benefits of enterprise
reform and were convinced by
doing so everyone would benefit.
“We were very focused on the
benefits, and one month after the
dispute ended one of the foremen
came up to me and said: ‘I just
want to tell you it’s never been bet-
ter’. That made it all worthwhile.”
The Patrick days came to an
abrupt halt in 2006 when Paul Lit-
tle at Toll launched a hostile take-
over. “All the management was
remunerated in such a way that
we would do well from the trans-
action but none of us wanted it.”
There was unfinished work to
do. Patrick had expanded up and
down the logistics chain, into Vir-
gin Airlines, Pacific National and
“we were moving into Toll’s busi-
ness”. History shows Toll won the
battle but a year later the old band
reunited with Corrigan teaming
up with Sam Kaplan in 2007 with
$200m under management and
backing from shareholders ran-
ging from shipping lines Wilhem-
sen and Japan’s K-Line, Peter
Scanlon and Patterson Cheney.
38 • Printed size: 629.00cm² • Market: National
UD 20,541 • words: 916 • Item ID: 1005667778

u may only copy or communicate this work with a licence.
08 Sep 2018
Weekend Australian, Australia
Page 2 of 3
Author: John Durie • Section: Business News • Article Type: News Item
Audience : 219,242 • Page: 38 • Printed size: 629.00cm² • Market: National
Country: Australia • ASR: AUD 20,541 • words: 916 • Item ID: 1005667778

Licensed by Copyright Agency. You may only copy or communicate this work with a licence. Page 3 of 3

That pool of cash has now

grown to $4bn and what James be-
lieves to be a revolutionary
Moorebank intermodal terminal.
“We think of rail differently to
other people. It’s not a service in its
own right — it’s part of the supply
chain solution — and while most
look just at the container and its
contents we’re focused on what
happens to the container when it’s
empty.
“Three years ago people told us
a rail shuttle wouldn’t work; now
we get 75 per cent of the volume
from the Botany Port by rail.” KUDELKA’S WEEK
James has spent his career
demonstrating value and now the
big test remains.
Government is a potential irri-
tant and “the key is to have pa-
tience — you have to continue to
push your beliefs and understand
government is not driven by the
same issues as the private sector.”
Qube is a wholesaler, not serv-
ing the public directly, but James
thrives on heavy industry. Not
surprisingly he is as keen as the
day he started: “This industry gets
in your blood.”

Maurice James