Speaker 1: The Australian Financial Review.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to fifteen Minutes with the Boss. We've
Speaker 2: had such a great response to the episodes with Matt
Speaker 2: Common and Janine Allis that we've decided to play the
Speaker 2: extended version of both these episodes. This week, we're going
Speaker 2: to hear from Matt Common, the chief executive of Conwealth Bank.
Speaker 2: There were so many great takeaways that just didn't make
Speaker 2: the cut, so we hope you really like hearing a
Speaker 2: lot more of what Matt Common had to say. Please enjoy.
Speaker 3: Sometimes when you don't feel like it, it's also a
Speaker 3: really good sort of challenge. Again, I find it quite
Speaker 3: interesting when you're having a bad day, things have come
Speaker 3: off track, you don't feel as well prepared and sort
Speaker 3: of trying to embrace that to see, well, let's see
Speaker 3: what I've got.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's fun.
Speaker 3: But when I started absolutely not like everyone and I
Speaker 3: was nervous, I was worried.
Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 2: I'm Sally Patton, Editor of Boss from the Australian Financial Review,
Speaker 2: and welcome to fifteen Minutes with the Boss, a podcast
Speaker 2: about success and failure and everything in between. And along
Speaker 2: the way we're aiming to get some great advice from
Speaker 2: our leaders. My guest today happily is Matt Common, the
Speaker 2: Chief Executive of the Comonwealth Bank of Australia. Hi, Matt,
Speaker 2: how's your day been so far?
Speaker 4: Very good? Great to be with you, excellent.
Speaker 2: Thank you for coming in now. Matt, as I said,
Speaker 2: you're the CEO of Commonwealth Bank, Australia's biggest bank, with
Speaker 2: the global staff of around fifty thousand people, which has
Speaker 2: quite a few to be in charge of. Last year
Speaker 2: you recorded a nine point eight billion dollar cash profit,
Speaker 2: of which you return some eight billion dollars to shareholders
Speaker 2: through dividends. You bank more than one in three Australians
Speaker 2: and my interesting slash fum fat is that you bank
Speaker 2: forty six percent of younger adults. That is a lot
Speaker 2: to be proud of. It Does it make you proud
Speaker 2: to hear those numbers?
Speaker 4: It does?
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm very lucky. I've been at CBA for
Speaker 3: more than two decades. It's been a wonderful life experience.
Speaker 3: I've you know, there's always ups and downs in any career,
Speaker 3: in job, but I've also worked with some amazing people
Speaker 3: over that time. And I'm you know, I'm proud of
Speaker 3: what the Commonwealth Bank does and the opportunity to lead
Speaker 3: it fantastic.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's get into it. The clock starts now. My
Speaker 2: first question is what does your morning routine look like?
Speaker 2: What time do you get up? What happens?
Speaker 3: So, no fixed routine, I don't have an alarm clock,
Speaker 3: but I'll generally wake up somewhere between around six early
Speaker 3: this morning, it was earlier.
Speaker 4: I basically will get up, exercise, go to work.
Speaker 2: And what does the exercise comprise of varies.
Speaker 3: This morning gym sometimes run, not so much cycling anymore,
Speaker 3: but probably exercise days. But if I don't have we've
Speaker 3: got something on, I will skip it. But I generally
Speaker 3: don't have a fixed schedule. I'm always in by a
Speaker 3: certain time, but I sort of when I wake up,
Speaker 3: I get up, and I don't seem to really ever
Speaker 3: sleep in.
Speaker 2: So what time do you get to the office by?
Speaker 4: Somewhere around sort of seven thirty ish?
Speaker 2: Okay, you're not particularly worried if you don't get your
Speaker 2: exercise in, and you sort of go with the flow
Speaker 2: a little bit.
Speaker 4: I mostly get it in.
Speaker 3: It'll only be if there's something I really feel like
Speaker 3: I can't, or I'm particularly tired, or I've had a
Speaker 3: late night. You know, sometimes it might be out two
Speaker 3: or three nights a week at different events or traveling.
Speaker 3: It's obviously harder when you're traveling, but I'm sort of
Speaker 3: managed across my schedule. I try to be probably exercising
Speaker 3: five days a week if I can.
Speaker 2: Okay. And are you a breakfast person?
Speaker 4: I am.
Speaker 3: I have a fairly regular routine, but not nothing particularly sophisticated.
Speaker 3: I have a protein shake and I have some fruit
Speaker 3: and a green juice.
Speaker 2: Okay. And are you a snacker? Does that last you
Speaker 2: to lunchtime?
Speaker 3: Most days occasion only, I'll have a snack, but not often.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, My next question is tell me about
Speaker 2: a pivocial moment in your career that changed the trajectory
Speaker 2: of what you were doing or somehow changed even the way,
Speaker 2: somehow changed even what you wanted to be later on.
Speaker 3: One of them would definitely be POSTGFC. So we've been
Speaker 3: two thousand and nine and CBA was involved in well,
Speaker 3: a financial advice group in North Queensland had failed and
Speaker 3: a number of customers who had products with the Komwalf
Speaker 3: Bank and I was I volunteered to lead the remediation
Speaker 3: of that. So it was three and a half thousand
Speaker 3: people basically lost their life savings.
Speaker 4: I learned a lot.
Speaker 3: I mean, I dealt for the first time with the
Speaker 3: then CEO Ralph Board. I worked with a number of
Speaker 3: legal firms because the bank was being sued. I appeared
Speaker 3: in Parliament for the first time. I went and met
Speaker 3: with customers directly. I think you learn the importance of
Speaker 3: doing the difficul things yourself. You see the impact of
Speaker 3: when things go bad and leverage, and those customers were
Speaker 3: highly leaved and invested, obviously in a speculative at the
Speaker 3: time strategy which had worked spectacularly badly in the GFC.
Speaker 3: So I did that for most of two thousand and
Speaker 3: nine and it was a really unique experience that I
Speaker 3: learned a lot from, very very challenging, and you know,
Speaker 3: a number of those lessons I think I've taken with
Speaker 3: me throughout then.
Speaker 2: So what are the core things that you've taken with
Speaker 2: you from that time, Well.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think it's important. There's no substitute for
Speaker 3: firsthand experience. I remember after one of the customer events
Speaker 3: and I'd finished and talking on obviously some of the
Speaker 3: customers were very upset and angry, and my taxi had
Speaker 3: long since left, and one of the people that were
Speaker 3: there offered to give me a lift. I was staying
Speaker 3: in Brisbane, CBD, just talking to them about their life story.
Speaker 3: They'd lost everything and they'd retired. They having to go
Speaker 3: back to work. Mom was working as a part time
Speaker 3: in a subway store. I mean you see it up close,
Speaker 3: working and understanding all of the implications and consequences of that,
Speaker 3: trying to come up with the remediation. Like when something's
Speaker 3: gone wrong, don't be pushed to a concession. Get to
Speaker 3: the bottom of what actually happened. Say what happened. If
Speaker 3: you've done something wrong, try and fix it as swiftly
Speaker 3: and as fairly as possible. Really take a forensic approach
Speaker 3: to things. Have a level of professional skepticism. Don't accept
Speaker 3: what people say happened, not because anyone's trying to mislead you.
Speaker 3: I think it's very hard when something's gone wrong to
Speaker 3: necessarily sort of investigate and get to the bottom of
Speaker 3: something yourself. I think it's just human nature. You try
Speaker 3: to see things through a better lens than perhaps they are,
Speaker 3: So there is importance around sort of you know, independence
Speaker 3: of process, getting to the bottom of things. Dealing with
Speaker 3: very difficult and emotional circumstances. You know, I dealt with
Speaker 3: a major class action law firm at the time, which
Speaker 3: you know, probably conventional wisdom might have been that's going
Speaker 3: to be really challenging. But we tried to deal with
Speaker 3: them very fairly, and I thought they dealt with us
Speaker 3: very fairly. We got to an outcome I never felt.
Speaker 3: I think there's a way to build a relationship that's
Speaker 3: based on transparency and integrity, even with someone that might
Speaker 3: otherwise be seen as you know, an adversary at that
Speaker 3: at that point in time, and so I took I
Speaker 3: think I probably took a lot of confidence from that,
Speaker 3: from being exposed to something really really challenging.
Speaker 2: So what were you doing immediately before that role and
Speaker 2: did you put your hand up for the role or
Speaker 2: did someone tap you on the shoulder.
Speaker 3: I was running comseck and I put my hand up
Speaker 3: for the role. A number of people asked, why would
Speaker 3: you want to do that.
Speaker 2: I'm sure they did.
Speaker 3: I certainly didn't have any of the foresight. I mean,
Speaker 3: looking back, it's clear that was a really important period
Speaker 3: and a great opportunity. But I guess at the time
Speaker 3: of putting my hand up it was less obvious, but
Speaker 3: obviously I'm really glad I did. And I think it's
Speaker 3: really important about embracing opportunity and trying to do difficult things.
Speaker 3: I think when lots of leaders differentiate themselves over time,
Speaker 3: it's generally those who move towards the hard issues. They
Speaker 3: don't leave it to others. And that's obviously easy to say,
Speaker 3: but it's actually incredibly important.
Speaker 2: And was there a point where you thought you had
Speaker 2: bitten off maybe more than you could chew you? Because
Speaker 2: I guess that's also part of the learning.
Speaker 3: Right, absolutely so, yes, I mean at various all of
Speaker 3: those things. I think when you do something for the
Speaker 3: first time, it feels it can feel daunting. I think
Speaker 3: with the right mindset, you can gain both a lot
Speaker 3: of experience and confidence, and a lot of things become
Speaker 3: easier in life, and also from a career perspective after
Speaker 3: you've done them before, and really doing things that are
Speaker 3: challenging is so rewarding because a lot of other things
Speaker 3: that maybe seemed hard for you before then actually seem
Speaker 3: pretty easy, And a lot of things just get easier
Speaker 3: with time and experience.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good to know. My next question is what
Speaker 2: is the best piece of career advice you've ever been given.
Speaker 3: I mean, really embrace the opportunities that you're given. And
Speaker 3: that for me would have been a few years before
Speaker 3: that as a particular point when I was being asked
Speaker 3: to go and lead a piece of work which was
Speaker 3: comm see big technology project at CBA, and I didn't
Speaker 3: necessarily want to do it, but the person that I
Speaker 3: was working for, so it gave me that piece of advice.
Speaker 3: And ultimately part of that was, you know, he asked
Speaker 3: me at the time, do you trust me? And I said,
Speaker 3: I absolutely do and I did, and he was, you know,
Speaker 3: this is going to be really you might not think
Speaker 3: it is, it's going to be really good and important
Speaker 3: for you to do it. And and it taught me
Speaker 3: a lot because I think, you know a lot of
Speaker 3: times you see people that can be a little bit tentative,
Speaker 3: and you know, life comes with sort of unexpected opportunities
Speaker 3: and challenges, and I think if you're the sort of
Speaker 3: person that's really looking for a way to, you know,
Speaker 3: embrace an opportunity, there's so many different ways that you
Speaker 3: can learn. You know, you tend to be then I
Speaker 3: think rewarded with other opportunities as well. And you know,
Speaker 3: I've just found that there are so many ways to
Speaker 3: learn in life and in business and from other people
Speaker 3: as well. And so I think the sort of embracing
Speaker 3: opportunities with curiosity and trying to just continue to improve
Speaker 3: every day, it makes a huge difference that you know
Speaker 3: both that's a mindset as well as you know a
Speaker 3: determination to do both of those things.
Speaker 2: So when you're looking at those new opportunities and you're thinking,
Speaker 2: maybe I don't want to do that because it's a
Speaker 2: bit scary, how do you stop second guessing yourself and
Speaker 2: just forcing yourself to say, yes.
Speaker 3: It's important to be able to do that, and I do.
Speaker 3: I think it's important to have constructive self reflection and
Speaker 3: looking for the things that you can improve every day.
Speaker 3: But I don't ruminate, I don't second guess. And I
Speaker 3: see this sometimes people will ask about public speaking. I'm
Speaker 3: never the sort of person that's worried about what if
Speaker 3: I forget this or what if I just never allow
Speaker 3: my mind to go down those sort of paths. And
Speaker 3: some of that just comes from repetition. And so I
Speaker 3: think there's a point you've always just got to be
Speaker 3: prepared to commit and not look back. Like looking backwards
Speaker 3: is you know, regret thinking about all the things you
Speaker 3: could have or would have should have.
Speaker 4: Forget it.
Speaker 3: Just think about how you can take that forward. And
Speaker 3: I think that's a really important life skill.
Speaker 2: That is fantastic advice. No greats, don't look back, look forward. Yeah, Okay, Matt.
Speaker 2: On that note, that is the end of our first section.
Speaker 2: Don't go away. We're going to take a short break
Speaker 2: and when we come back, we're going to open our
Speaker 2: embarrassingly loath fire load tech chatterbox. Very good, welcome back
Speaker 2: to fifteen Minutes with the Boss. I'm here with Matt Common,
Speaker 2: the chief executive of the Commonwealth Bank. Now, Matt, this
Speaker 2: is our section called the Chatterbox. As threatened. In front
Speaker 2: of you is a really lovely brown, shiny cardboard box
Speaker 2: inside which are today, I think probably about ten fifteen questions.
Speaker 2: I'm going to ask you to have a bit of
Speaker 2: a shuffle around, pickut some and let's start. I get
Speaker 2: to read it.
Speaker 3: Thanks very much.
Speaker 2: Do you have a coping mechanism for high stress situations?
Speaker 3: Well, I think a couple of things are really important. One,
Speaker 3: I think being able to perform as well as possible,
Speaker 3: which also includes dealing with high stress. There's a lot
Speaker 3: of very conscious about sort of state. You know, good sleep, exercise,
Speaker 3: I think, trying to always put yourself in the right position. Secondly,
Speaker 3: I think look, dealing with stress gets easier with time. Thirdly,
Speaker 3: as I've seen and learned, you know, often things are
Speaker 3: not as bad as they first seen. Often the worry
Speaker 3: can be debilitating. So I think it's a sense of
Speaker 3: proportionality and being able to just work calmly through individual problems.
Speaker 3: And obviously that's the most important thing about dealing with
Speaker 3: difficult issues or stress. Just having a great team and something.
Speaker 3: It's a big part of my job is getting the
Speaker 3: right people in the right roles, working to their potential,
Speaker 3: working well together. You know, once you've got that, things
Speaker 3: are a lot less stressful. When you feel like you've
Speaker 3: got a great team around you, you've got great support.
Speaker 3: In my case from the board. You know, there's clarity,
Speaker 3: there's alignment. I feel like, you know, you can work
Speaker 3: calmly through any problem, like any any job and a
Speaker 3: situation in life. It can be it can be stressful,
Speaker 3: but I think with the right mindset and approach, there's
Speaker 3: always a way forward.
Speaker 2: Always so in terms of how much you sleep, and
Speaker 2: how much you exercise in your recovery time, and even
Speaker 2: what you put in your body. Do you measure those
Speaker 2: things or do you have a device to measure those.
Speaker 3: I have a couple of devices that measure those. Yes,
Speaker 3: I do like metrics, but I also you know, I
Speaker 3: if I've had a bad sleep, I won't necessarily watch
Speaker 3: too closely. I don't, so I'm sort of like trying
Speaker 3: to look at the averages and how I'm going over time.
Speaker 3: I've sort of stepped back from looking at as closely
Speaker 3: every single day as I would have a few years ago,
Speaker 3: because I think it cann be a little bit self reinforcing,
Speaker 3: or as I think most things in life, if you're
Speaker 3: doing the right things consistently over a long period of time,
Speaker 3: the benefits really really compound. So like I would never
Speaker 3: worry about the one bad night or that I'll all
Speaker 3: mean the few but you just know, you know, like
Speaker 3: compound interest, if you just keep doing the right things
Speaker 3: month in month out, it makes a huge difference.
Speaker 2: Sleep is a really big thing at the moment. Do
Speaker 2: you have a sleep goal? Do you know how many
Speaker 2: hours you like to get I.
Speaker 3: Do I try to get seven. Yeah, I measure that
Speaker 3: in a couple of ways. I'll get less certain days
Speaker 3: of the week versus I'll try to e which you
Speaker 3: can't actually catch up on sleep, but you know, just
Speaker 3: it's easier to sleep on a weekend night. I tend
Speaker 3: to probably not sleep as well on a Sunday night.
Speaker 3: And I'm just sort of used to the pattern. And
Speaker 3: also I just try to manage my load physically mentally
Speaker 3: so that I'm kind of if I've got something that's
Speaker 3: really really hectic that's coming up, I'll try to ease
Speaker 3: back a little bit to give myself a bit of
Speaker 3: a rest beforehand. And likewise I try to Yeah, I
Speaker 3: guess I plan pretty carefully.
Speaker 2: And when it comes to exercising, are you real type A?
Speaker 2: Do you push yourself a lot?
Speaker 3: I like to push myself. I mean, as I've gotten older,
Speaker 3: I don't exercise for I mean I'll train for maybe
Speaker 3: an hour. I won't do four hours. You know, i'd
Speaker 3: do a ten k run. I'd never do a marathon now,
Speaker 3: you know. I just it's diminishing returns. It's I don't
Speaker 3: think it's super healthy and it's too fatiguing. So I
Speaker 3: just try to get there.
Speaker 2: Do I have a day job I.
Speaker 4: Do alongside my family.
Speaker 3: That's I'm optimizing for my work, and so I'm trying
Speaker 3: to do everything I can to be healthy and in
Speaker 3: the best condition possible so I can perform as best
Speaker 3: I can.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, that's really good advice. Okay, have another fish in
Speaker 2: the chatterbox. Let's see what turns up. Do you like
Speaker 2: public speaking and have you always liked it?
Speaker 4: I certainly haven't always liked it. I doubt many people have.
Speaker 4: I do now.
Speaker 3: Because I mean, realistically, I communicate for a living. Sometimes
Speaker 3: I feel like I answer questions for a living, And
Speaker 3: I mean a big part of when you're leading people
Speaker 3: is being able to communicate clearly hopefully inspire, but also
Speaker 3: you know, try and reach the audience, and you know,
Speaker 3: often think that it's not always most people can't remember
Speaker 3: what you say. Obviously that dissipates relatively quickly, but many
Speaker 3: people can remember what it felt like when you were talking.
Speaker 3: And I think, you know, I've just done a lot
Speaker 3: of it, and so the repetitions make it easier, means
Speaker 3: that you enjoy it more. I prefer I mean, I
Speaker 3: don't like I wouldn't like to be an MC at
Speaker 3: a wedding.
Speaker 4: But I like SPA.
Speaker 2: But I thought that's a lot easier than what you do.
Speaker 3: No, I just sort of I like structure. I don't
Speaker 3: mind doing a speech. I think, like anything, if you
Speaker 3: don't have a mindset that you enjoy it and you
Speaker 3: try to do a really good job and think about
Speaker 3: like what do I really I think intent is so
Speaker 3: important what I want to get out of this, you know,
Speaker 3: I don't sort of stumble into things.
Speaker 4: I'm sort of you've thought about it.
Speaker 2: Part.
Speaker 3: I want to think about Italy and then I just
Speaker 3: try to push everything else out of my mind. Right
Speaker 3: before I go on stage, I've got routine and then
Speaker 3: I just start and I don't second guess. I don't
Speaker 3: like over react if I don't know whatever an alarm
Speaker 3: goes off or something, because I've done it so many times.
Speaker 3: With that comes a degree of confidence that you know
Speaker 3: you can you can do it well, and sometimes when
Speaker 3: you don't feel like it. It's also a really good
Speaker 3: sort of challenge again, because sometimes I think it's less
Speaker 3: about how well you might do something when you're feeling
Speaker 3: great and everything's going you know, it's actually I find
Speaker 3: it quite interesting when you're you know, you're having a
Speaker 3: bad day, things have gone off track, you don't feel
Speaker 3: as well prepared, and sort of trying to again embrace that.
Speaker 4: To see, well, let's see how much I can do.
Speaker 4: Let's see what I've got.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think that's that's fun. And so you
Speaker 3: bet when I started, absolutely not. I mean, like everyone,
Speaker 3: I was nervous. I was, you know, I was worried
Speaker 3: about about that. But I don't know how many times
Speaker 3: I've spoken in public, but a lot, so it's something
Speaker 3: that I've certainly grown to enjoy.
Speaker 2: I have seen you a lot in the public on stages,
Speaker 2: and I think you're terrific. What's your routine beforehand? Do
Speaker 2: do you have a breathing exercise or do you stand
Speaker 2: up with your shoulders back or some people have you know,
Speaker 2: all sorts of different routines.
Speaker 3: I just want a little bit of quiet before I
Speaker 3: go on stage. So if I'm going to speak, you know,
Speaker 3: I would like like a minute or two and I
Speaker 3: will just consciously try to push everything. You know, I
Speaker 3: won't be trying to remember, oh, here's the thirteen different
Speaker 3: points I need to make in the next eight minutes.
Speaker 3: I'll just try and you know, just breathe and relax
Speaker 3: and then start. You know, I'm a big believer in routines.
Speaker 3: I think, you know, in professional sport and things as well. Actually,
Speaker 3: you know, if you talk to someone who, let's say,
Speaker 3: is an opening bats person, like the one of the
Speaker 3: ways that they teach people to not get nervous at
Speaker 3: the opening ball of the first test is you know,
Speaker 3: to have a routine. So I am and I have
Speaker 3: different routines. If on different days that are important, I'll
Speaker 3: do a certain set of things. And I think that
Speaker 3: just gives you a sense of comfort and consistency.
Speaker 2: Oh I love that. Okay, next question, should we have another? Go?
Speaker 4: Sure?
Speaker 2: Do you have a favorite productivity hack to help you
Speaker 2: get more out of your day?
Speaker 3: Probably two related one. I generally think email is as
Speaker 3: certainly as a sending device, a grotesque waste of time.
Speaker 3: I'd hope I send probably the fewest number of emails
Speaker 3: as any CEO. I mean, i'd do less than.
Speaker 4: Five per day.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think emails are great in terms of like
Speaker 3: communication to read and send, They're terrible for understanding context
Speaker 3: for problem solving. So I spend, as I said, as
Speaker 3: a little time.
Speaker 2: So what happens to all the emails that you get
Speaker 2: in that are sort of probably asking for response. Do
Speaker 2: you ignore them? Can you pass them off to somebody else?
Speaker 3: Well, for a lot of people who work closely with me, know,
Speaker 3: if you want to talk to me, talk to me,
Speaker 3: come and talk to you. Yeah, I'm not going to
Speaker 3: go back and forth on email. And then the second thing,
Speaker 3: I'm a big believer in some of the work that
Speaker 3: can Newport's done, which is it's all about sort of
Speaker 3: deep work. So a lot of my job obviously I'm
Speaker 3: in and out of different things meetings, but I also
Speaker 3: if I really want to work on something that's important,
Speaker 3: I'll have a big block of time, and I'll just
Speaker 3: like to work in a certain way where I can
Speaker 3: spend enough time to really get into it, because I mean, obviously,
Speaker 3: sometimes I might have whatever ten or twelve different meetings
Speaker 3: or topics that I'm context switching between, which is fine,
Speaker 3: but if you actually really want to understand something and
Speaker 3: take it forward, then you need to spend enough time
Speaker 3: on you know, really understanding the material. And you know,
Speaker 3: obviously I like just talking to the people who are
Speaker 3: experts in that area. So I try to have blocks
Speaker 3: of time where I can and work on something that
Speaker 3: is important and it's sort of unstructured time, but I
Speaker 3: use it in a certain way. Then obviously I've got
Speaker 3: a lot of other meetings around that, and I like,
Speaker 3: as I said, I try to avoid things that I
Speaker 3: think are a waste of time, and i'd put email
Speaker 3: substantially at the top of that list.
Speaker 2: And how much time would you say, block out a
Speaker 2: week for those deep thinking exercises.
Speaker 3: Well, that's a great question, and my EA assists me
Speaker 3: with that, but it really varies. I mean, when it's
Speaker 3: coming up to something that I you know, obviously, if
Speaker 3: it's results or you know, we've got a big strategy
Speaker 3: session with the board and it's not just about reading
Speaker 3: the papers, or if there's a particular topic, maybe in
Speaker 3: a more complex topic I want to spend some time on,
Speaker 3: then I'll try and block sort of two three hours
Speaker 3: out on a certain day, but generally would have at
Speaker 3: least an hour on a day. Sometimes I might get
Speaker 3: lucky and have several hours, but I and I'll look
Speaker 3: at that in terms of weeks in advance about what
Speaker 3: it's the thing I really want to go and spend time.
Speaker 2: On that, So you can plan that ahead, well, exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And sometimes that might be I might go to
Speaker 3: the work go and see the team, meet with someone there.
Speaker 3: I might ask for something that I can read in advance,
Speaker 3: and then I want to ask a lot of questions
Speaker 3: in and around it. And then obviously that compliments. As
Speaker 3: I said, a lot of the time I'm in meetings
Speaker 3: with my team or other members of the organization and
Speaker 3: we're making decisions. So I mean, I guess you have
Speaker 3: to be able to do both. But you know, there's
Speaker 3: never enough time in any day, so trying to allocate
Speaker 3: it as effectively and again with real intent is very important.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's have one more question. Sure, ah, what's your
Speaker 2: favorite podcast or streaming show? And why?
Speaker 4: Podcasts?
Speaker 3: I vary depending a little bit on the topic that
Speaker 3: I'm interested in. I mean, I do like Adam Brandt,
Speaker 3: as I said, I've listened to a lot of his
Speaker 3: stuff sometimes, I've you know, from a health wellbeing It's
Speaker 3: become very popular in Australia, Andrew Human and I quite
Speaker 3: like Lex Friedman. He's got some interesting guests, some of
Speaker 3: the tech ones. I listened to the New York Times.
Speaker 3: I spent a lot of time on you know, on AI.
Speaker 3: There's so much material. Obviously the AFR podcasts, thank you
Speaker 3: nice to hear, yeah, And I mean they're very good,
Speaker 3: sort of good summaries, you know. I've listened to a
Speaker 3: bit of The Economist, so I don't other than the
Speaker 3: thin I don't listen to that. It's the same thing
Speaker 3: every week. I'm typically moving a little bit between domains streaming.
Speaker 4: I don't watch a lot of TV.
Speaker 3: I do what I look forward to in uh because
Speaker 3: usually we'll do a offshore trip to see investors in
Speaker 3: March or so I'll download the whole sort of Drive
Speaker 3: to Survive series on Netflix. My son and I he
Speaker 3: loves Formula one and it's a sport. I've basically zero
Speaker 3: interesting before that series, you know, so something like that
Speaker 3: I just find like really engaging and interesting to watch
Speaker 3: on a long haul flight, because I wouldn't I wouldn't
Speaker 3: do that if I was at home. I would feel
Speaker 3: it was a bit of a waste of time. Whereas
Speaker 3: there I find that sort of relaxing because you know,
Speaker 3: it's a long flight and you can sort of binge watch.
Speaker 3: But otherwise I don't probably watch that much TV. A
Speaker 3: bit of sport because I find that easy to sort
Speaker 3: of switch off. I've watched quite a bit of rugby league,
Speaker 3: but not a lot of other sort of series during
Speaker 3: the year.
Speaker 2: Okay, on that note, you have passed. Thank you very
Speaker 2: much the chedderbox section. We will move on to our
Speaker 2: last question, which is if we were the holiday gods
Speaker 2: and we granted you twelve months holiday, you could come
Speaker 2: back to the same job, you were unencumbered, you could
Speaker 2: do anything you liked. What would you do.
Speaker 3: I would definitely travel. Look, i'd move between both, you know,
Speaker 3: summer and winter. I enjoy both skiing and so i'd
Speaker 3: probably you know, spend some time certainly off. Sure, I
Speaker 3: suspect I will get bored well inside twelve months, so
Speaker 3: I'd have to find something stimulating to do it at
Speaker 3: the same time. And I guess, like everyone, i'd like
Speaker 3: to spend some time with family. I try to do
Speaker 3: the best I can with my kids, but I certainly
Speaker 3: feel the sacrifices at time, which you know, I'm very
Speaker 3: happy to make, so it would be nice. And I'd
Speaker 3: probably like to substantively spend that time without a phone.
Speaker 3: I think that would be quite a different feeling to
Speaker 3: not be you know, just not be thinking about work
Speaker 3: and not so I have to worry about that at all.
Speaker 3: I think that would be quite for the former CEOs
Speaker 3: that I've seen. I think that's the thing that they
Speaker 3: enjoy most, is that the levity that comes from just
Speaker 3: not having.
Speaker 2: To be on your phone all the time, be content.
Speaker 3: Exactly and you just never know, and that's just part
Speaker 3: of the It's also part of what I really enjoy
Speaker 3: in the role.
Speaker 4: But you just never know.
Speaker 3: I mean, something could happen very very quickly, and you
Speaker 3: just need to always that's always in the back of
Speaker 3: your mind. So at some point, not having to worry
Speaker 3: about that, and whether that's sort of walking on a
Speaker 3: beach or walking up a mountain, not having to worry
Speaker 3: about what am I missing would be I think a
Speaker 3: good feeling.
Speaker 2: So to prevent you from getting bored, would you learn
Speaker 2: a new skill?
Speaker 3: I'd like to I'd probably try and read a lot.
Speaker 3: I'd love to be able to learn a language. I'm
Speaker 3: terrible at art and music, so I think I could
Speaker 3: rule a number of different things out. Yes, would be
Speaker 3: the short answer, but we wouldn't necessarily be an unlimited
Speaker 3: set of choices of new skills that I'd.
Speaker 4: Like to learn.
Speaker 2: Italian or French or something like that.
Speaker 3: Spanish I would like to be able to speak more
Speaker 3: of My father was Spanish and he died when I
Speaker 3: was six, and I have a half brother who lives
Speaker 3: in Spain, and his Spanish obviously a hell of a
Speaker 3: lot better than mine. So I feel like I could
Speaker 3: have done a better job of learning that language.
Speaker 2: And that, Matt, means that our time is up. It's
Speaker 2: been a real pleasure talking to you about the way
Speaker 2: that you have gone and deliberately done the difficult things,
Speaker 2: because that is what is going to develop you as
Speaker 2: a leader. I really like the way that you don't
Speaker 2: ruminate on past mistakes. You get up and get on
Speaker 2: with things. And I think you're amazing the way you
Speaker 2: only send five emails a day. I also think the
Speaker 2: way that you optimize yourself, your family and your work
Speaker 2: is a really good lesson. You know exactly what your
Speaker 2: priorities are. And I will finish by saying best of
Speaker 2: luck in your year off connecting with your Spanish heritage.
Speaker 2: So Matt, thank you so much once again for coming
Speaker 2: in and allowing us to spend fifteen minutes with the boss.
Speaker 4: Likewise, thanks very much, and.
Speaker 2: Thank you to everyone for listening. If you like the
Speaker 2: podcast and would like to hear more, please consider sharing
Speaker 2: the podcast or writing a review, as it helps us
Speaker 2: to reach more people and follow us wherever you get
Speaker 2: your podcasts. At The Financial Review, we investigate the big
Speaker 2: stories about markets, business and power. For more, go to
Speaker 2: AFAR dot com and you can subscribe to The Financial
Speaker 2: Review the Daily Habit of successful People at AFR dot
Speaker 2: com slash subscribe. This podcast was hosted by me Sally Patton,
Speaker 2: producing edited by Mandy Colin. Our theme is by Alex
Speaker 2: garr And. Our executive producer is Fiona
Speaker 1: Bffini The Australian Financial Review