AMM spoke to Power in the wake of him receiving the Australian Institute of Management Western Australia Business Leader of the Year award.

Horsemanship helps

“I do take a lot of leadership theory out of training horses,” Power said.

“There are some very powerful techniques in natural horsemanship that apply to dealing with people. Make sure you recognise people’s efforts and contributions. With horses you have to adopt the psychology of the horse and the herd to understand how they work.”

Education

Beyond his mining degree Power has a master of business administration from the University of Queensland, has graduated from the Melbourne Business School and completed the Advanced Management Program at the European Institute for Business Administration – or INSEAD as it is known.

Look beyond the industry you are in

“I’ve had many and varied mentors and influencers,” Power said.

“I’ve had guidance from a number of people from both directly in the same field I’m in but also very diverse people outside of that.”

Do not be afraid to go beyond what has already been done.

A large part of FMG’s cost cutting success has been the use of beneficiation.

Power said the company had gone further with beneficiation than any other iron ore miner and considered itself to be a leader in the area.

This beneficiation has meant that FMG can add in material that would otherwise have been sent to waste, and through that improving its strip ratio.

The company is not stopping there either.

“Our plan is to shamelessly harvest ideas wherever we can find them,” Power said.

Bring in good people

This month former Rio Tinto executive Greg Lilleyman joins the FMG fold.

“He has a lot of experience in mining and iron ore, plus he’s been involved in technology and innovation for the past couple of years,” Power said.