Stavanger is the ‘oil capital’ of Norway. This is where the offshore oil industry started more than 30 years ago, with discovery of the Ekofisk oil field on the Norwegian Continental shelf. Stavanger is still the centre of the Norwegian offshore cluster, and here are the headquarters of Norske Shell - at Risavika, close to supply ship bases, the airport and heliport, and the city centre. And here managing director David Loughman explains how Shell operates in the international environment, and about its management philosophy . . . and Tina.
To the people of Shell, Tina is about scenarios, values, people, and resources. Tina - There Is No Alternative to the forces of global development and growth. Shells visions and values, and the company culture and future scenarios, are at the forefront of David Loughmans thinking.
Scenarios assist in the understanding of complex situations, providing a useful tool for organisational learning. Some systems - the operation of refineries, for example - are well understood and can be represented by models. But others, especially those involving people, contain so many variables and so little hard data that they can be appreciated only through intuition and are best communicated through images and examples. Scenarios can be viewed as a linking tool, which integrate intuition and quantitative modelling to enhance our understanding of how a system works. All this, too, forms part of the companys Global Scenarios, 1998 - 2020. Two alternative models of the future help us think creatively about the future, says Loughman.
Tina Above concentrates on unifying forces such as Globalisation, Liberalisation, Technology - and their interactions. Here Shell introduces The New Game, as existing institutions and organisations successfully adapt to the new and evolving complexities of Tina Above. At all levels, from the local to the international, people come together to solve problems, and, in the process, new strong institutions emerge, and old institutions are reconstructed to deal with Tinas global revolution.
Transformation
Recent years have seen mergers between oil majors, while smaller companies such as Norways Statoil struggle to become large enough to survive on a global scale. These are examples of Tina Above trends. Companies like Shell need to get best advantage from their global position in Tina Above.
On the other hand Tina Below underscores Education, Wealth and Choice. Shell has labelled this People Power. Significant increases in wealth, choice and education, and, for the first time in history, large numbers of people across the globe free to express their own values and to do so in unpredictable, unstructured and spontaneous ways. This flowering of diversity of individual choice undercuts authoritarianism and conformity, and appears to weaken many long-standing social institutions.
Says Loughman, Shell group companies are finding new enthusiasm and new emphasis. The challenge of unleashing talent is engaging staff on levels, so as to respond to the customer emphasis inherent in a world of people power. It is about management getting closer to the business. Getting dirt beneath the fingernails. It is about understanding how business is run and how your particular business functions. Based upon that knowledge, you can unleash talents, motivate people and transform the business.
People are our most valued asset. This is the key. People are free to move across borders; we live in a highly competitive environment, where global companies are attracting employees from the same source. People know their value, where to be and how to move around. So Shell must be attractive and communicate that attractiveness. If our own employees do not have a clear view of this, how can we then attract others ?
Communicate to win is a slogan we have used successfully. All of our employees have had a training programme. The objective is the process of alignment - to get the message across so that Shell can move in the right direction.
Global business - all the way down
Loughman explains, Our Exploration and Production (E&P) business runs all the way down the organisation from the very top. Vertical business lines are strengthened, and we have regional managers who are responsible for their business in their area. Every country is fully responsible for results, operations and management. The Shell executive in charge of the E&P business sits in the Hague in Holland. The management team consists of nine persons, seven men and two women, from six countries and three continents.
Top of our priorities is the issue of safety, says Loughman. Getting offshore, talking about the safety issue. Stressing how management of the issue is crucial. There is a clear shift here from trust me, the idea that we used to trust the safety and environment management of a company, to show me, the systems, the competence and the efforts to manage risks. Accidents and mishaps are not acceptable.