Macquarie Group's Nicholas Moore sees cities as the focal point for future income

"The two businesses that were most impacted by the crisis were obviously the securities business and Macquarie Capital" said Moore in an interview in the company's new offices in Martin Place, Sydney. In securities trading, "the gross revenue that came through the door, just fell, just came down dramatically. But they went into very fundamental changes to their business to respond."

Leadership challenge

His challenge as the leader through the period he says "was making sure, notwithstanding the obvious turmoil in the world, [the businesses] continued to have the confidence and know that the organisation had the capital to support them as they needed to grow…You're now seeing how well they dealt with those difficult conditions."

The entrepreneurial drive at the coal face of Macquarie's business units saw it grow in areas of expertise such as leasing, commodities and energy trading. Profit is heading closer to pre-GFC records and the share price has climbed, to $78 from about $16 at the depths of the crisis.

"Moore had to liquidate all he'd created. That's why he's a great CEO – he was very dispassionate about unwinding the thing he'd spent years building up," says Brian Johnson, respected equity analyst at CLSA.

"He's been through the wringer," says Karl Siegling, chief executive of Cadence Capital, which owns Macquarie stock. "They're a great culture, but the brilliance of management is transforming Macquarie to a global and mostly annuities-style business. And what's nice about what they've done is how many Australian companies go offshore and succeed? Now it's about pushing the footprint out."

Infrastructure has always been at the core of Macquarie – Sydney's toll roads were pioneered by the formerly named Macquarie Bank in the 1980s; it's been instrumental in the revamp of airports around the world into retail centres.

"Cities are really important for us," Moore told BOSS. "The whole story of cities and how they work and the productivity dividend they produce is a really important one. Where you have that, people connected working in the right culture and the right environment, good things follow from it."

Population doubling

He cites as an example, Australia's rates of population growth and urbanisation doubling the populations of Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane over the next 40 years. Moore says we need infrastructure to achieve the greatest economic benefit from that growth. "If our cities function well and people can move around them with ease, it has implications for productivity, the talent pool from which service industries can draw, even housing affordability.

Macquarie has an unusually innovative culture which encourages business ideas constantly bubbling up from the group's expert teams across the globe. "The whole idea of being a bottom-up organisation – we have been talking about for 29 years," says Moore. "That's what we've always been. That's where the ideas come from. We've very rarely had any centrally directed idea coming down from head office."

Innovation is risky, but Moore says the group learnt from its mistakes – such as its first attempt to build an equities business in Hong Kong.

"If we want to encourage people to do new things, there's the ever-present possibility, indeed likelihood, that it's not going to go as you would expect. And the successful businesses have all had parts of them that weren't initially successful, but the key thing is it's the learning from those that ended up, often, in the success of the business."

Paul Xiradis, chief executive officer, head of equities. Ausbil Investment Management Limited, says Macquarie's pragmatic approach to trying new business ideas is extremely valuable. "They tried and failed at a couple of things. They had ambitions of being a leader globally in the equities business. That cost the group a fair bit of money, but they pulled back rather quickly. That was a good example of leadership – they weren't wedded to it. You can learn from it and that's what the group did."

Xiradis sees the business growing by doing "more of the same."

"Nicholas Moore has ambitions to broaden the fund management business globally wherever the opportunities lie," he says.

"I don't think there's any indication Moore will be looking to retire soon. He's leading the organisation well. He'd be enjoying himself."