Tomorrow (Tuesday the 27th) I’ll be recording an interview with Matthew Kidman, fund manager, former journalist and author of several useful books for Australian investors. The most recent of those books is Master CEOs, which he co-wrote with Alex Feher, a consultant in workplace culture and leadership.
Master CEOs is a compilation of detailed interviews conducted with some of the country’s finest CEOs. Over more than 300 pages, Kidman and Feher explore the histories and styles of the following CEOs:
• Dr Edmund Bateman (Primary Health Care)
• Andrew Reitzer (Metcash)
• John Rubino (Monadelphous)
• Paul Little (Toll Holdings)
• David Simmons (formerly of Hills Industries)
• Colin Goldschmidt (Sonic Healthcare)
• Wal King (Leighton Holdings)
• Ron Hancock (Wide Bay Australia)
• Graham Turner (Flight Centre)
• Brian McNamee (CSL)
• Pat Grier (Ramsay Health Care)
• Owen Hegarty (formerly of Oxiana)
• Gerry Harvey (Harvey Norman)
As both a fund manager and author, Kidman is well placed to have gleaned important insights into these business leaders.
I’m currently compiling questions to put to Kidman tomorrow and, if you’ve read the book and have any unanswered questions, I’d be happy to consider those as well. Even if you haven’t read the book, feel free to have your two bob’s worth.
With such a distinguished list, at least one of these businesses is likely to be lurking somewhere in your portfolio. Some questions I have on the drawing board at the moment are:
• Did your view of any of the stocks involved change after interviewing the CEO?
• Do you think getting closer to CEOs can be dangerous for investors? (along the lines of the previous discussions on this blog)
• Do you feel better equipped to identify future ‘winning CEOs’ after having been through this exercise?
• Do you have another book in mind?
Those are a few starters, but I’d be happy to fire others at him, and also delve into his impressions of specific CEOs if you have any requests.