He believes in people.

• Author: Dalby, Ron
• Position: Alyeska Pipeline Co. Pres. Bob Malone - Interview

As president of Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., Bob Malone holds ultimate responsibility for oil flowing from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. While he doesn't take his job lightly, he gives most of the credit to the people of APSC.

If there is one thing Bob Malone doesn't like, it's the tendency of everyone to refer to Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. and its employees in the third person as simply, Alyeska. He emphatically states that APSC is people; they have names and they have jobs.

And he's developed a nifty little technique to demonstrate that APSC is part of the community. At the end of most of his speeches, Malone calls for a show of hands from the audience by everyone who works for Alyeska or its contractors, now or in the past. Hands shoot up all over the room. It's a point clearly made. APSC is people - your friends and neighbors.

At the helm of one of Alaska's largest corporations, Malone provides a decidedly human touch. In most ways he is just like any of your neighbors with a regular job. And, like all of us, he has his moments like the time he addressed a large gathering of APSC workers and couldn't figure out why everyone kept staring at his feet. Only when he looked down did he realize he was wearing a different shoe on each foot.

He claims his biggest dose of reality, though, came pore one of his sons. When Mike, 14, told his classmates that his father was president of Alyeska, all his peers wanted to know was whether or not he could get free lift tickets at the ski resort of the same name.

ABM: What was your actual start date as president of Alyeska?

Malone: September 1, 1996.

ABM: How did the owners settle on you to head Alyeska?

Malone: There's two stories. One is that I was the only one who would take the job. Actually, I had been here since 1983. I had been an alternate on the owners committee when I was vice president of BP Pipelines. In 1994 I became president of BP Pipelines and became owner-representative for BP. Then in 1995 I took over as chairman of the owners committee. So I had been associated with the owner side of the business and as representative of BP since 1993. When David Pritchard (previous president of APSC) left, the owners were discussing continuity, the need to continue implementing the commitments that we made in 1993, and the importance of a smooth transition. That led to BP saying we'd like to suggest Bob Malone and the others saying, "Well, we'd love to have Bob Malone."

ABM: How does your style differ from your predecessor?

Malone: I have some core principles. One is the ethical standard that I hold us to. The accountability is a significant part of my management style - people must be accountable for their actions. Open communication is very important - first that there's an easy two-way communication within the company, and externally we're open to those discussions communicating what we're doing to outside groups - the Congress, special interest groups and the communities we do business in. Equally as important is their feedback, whether that be congratulations or whether that be a critical analysis of the way we do business. Openness of our business is another core principle.

I have a strong belief in diversity - on having a diverse work force. Diversity including Alaska Native hire, but also all the EEO categories, so we have a balance in all our ranks.

Also, I have a real like for people. My energy comes from people. The more exited they get the more excited I get and then the more excited they get. It just builds on itself. They fire me up every day. There's not a day when my feet hit the ground that I can't wait to get here.

ABM: You've just come through one series of personnel cuts and there's potentially another series of cuts on the horizon. How is morale these days?

Malone: Throughput is declining and one of the results is that we are going to have less people out there tomorrow than we have today. When I get feedback from our people, they tell me that this isn't a surprise. It's just that none of us wanted to face the fact that the day has...