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Transcript: Charles "Chip" Goodyear, CEO of BHP Billiton

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MELBOURNE, Australia (CNN) -- Bottom-up management. That's running a business by getting to the grass roots of your organization.

Easier said than done when your organization happens to be spread across 55 countries, many of them in remote parts of the world, and you have about 100 thousand people.

But that's how Chip Goodyear likes to manage. CNN's Andrew Stevens caught up with the globe-trotting American chief executive of the world's biggest mining house, BHP Billiton, at its Melbourne headquarters.

Goodyear: My management style is simple. Management by walking around. Walk around and talk to people who are on the front line of making things happen. It is tough in this organization. We are located in 25 countries and explore in another 30 countries and have something like 37,000 employees and 60,000 contractors so to be in touch with people everyday is a challenge. But I do try to get out to the operations. I go and see our customers certainly wander the floors and the buildings and activities where I am involved and to me that is what it is all about.

Stevens: So when you are out there in the field talking to these people is what you hear usual compliments or complaints?

Goodyear: You know it is interesting, I find that when I talk with them generally it is compliments or satisfaction.

Stevens: Is that because they are talking to the boss do you think?

Goodyear: I think it is because they are talking to the boss.

Stevens: So how you actually get around that and find out what is really going on in your company?

Goodyear: By going and talking to people on an individual basis that is the important thing or in very small groups. In small groups people are willing to tell you what they think. What they are a little bit reticent to do is to raise their hand in a large crowd. And it is the nature of people. Because something happens as people get older. They think that there is only one right answer. And they don't want to be embarrassed by asking a question. There are no bad questions in this organization because if you have the question, it is likely that others do also.

Stevens: So how did you develop this style of management, was it something you read in a book? Where you mentored on it?

Goodyear: It certainly wasn't something that I read in a book. I think it is something that I just like to do. I think about how would I like to be treated when I am in that position and if I am working on a project or on an opportunity, if I have to then send it through 5 layers to get the idea heard, that is not going to motivate anybody. But if the CFO or one of our operating presidents or myself goes down and talks to someone who is doing this analysis or doing this work, boy that is a real motivator. And if I were on the other side of that, that is what I would like to see.

Stevens: You have been quoted saying that it is much more challenging managing in the up cycle than in the down cycle, what do you mean by that?

Goodyear: Well in an up cycle we have a situation where our customers see the price of the commodities that they are buying going up, we find that governments are under pressure to get more revenue from the resources in their area. Employees are looking for more, communities are looking for more and the competition for resources is more intense. So all of those things are a challenge.

Stevens: Do you worry that you could become a victim of hubris? That basically you have a company which is in this fantastic sector at the moment and that, really, it is just a license to print money.

Goodyear: Uh it is not a license to print money. We are very fortunate to have great assets that have been developed over the years but every day we go out and compete very vigorously to satisfy our customers, to get new resources. Competition is intense in our business and we have some excellent competitors and new companies coming along all of the time. So to get over confident and I tell our people that to get over confident means a freight train is just about to hit you.


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Charles "Chip" Goodyear

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