So many unqualified managers and supervisors it's mind numbing. Successful managers are SMEs of areas they control, not just appointed because they are good at something else. Great managers also listen to the workers in the field because they are the one's who see things in real time and have to make critical decisions or everything fails. If you want to know what is going on in the business and how to keep it steaming forward then listen to them. And for God's sake promote from within, stop hiring right out of college into management and supervisor roles when we have people who are so knowledgeable and capable right here in the company. Get rid of this current unfair promotion policies that limit how and where employees can progress within the company and go back to tried and true practices. Hire people into positions they are qualified for and not because they are a relative, good friend, lover, blackmailing you, supplying you with your fix, or you think they are easy on the eyes, and get rid of those who aren't qualified.
16 replies (most recent on top)
PLEASE RE POST THIS THREAD AND COMMENTS.
Great post as bad leadership has led to the failure of all projects except 1 and poor execution at base business. I am surprised no one talks about Angola LNG project, originally budgeted at $4-5BB, is now at 13BB. Design flaws and delays have been the output not LNG. The plant opened in 2013, but shipments have been limited to a trickle. They used wrong material of construction and they are going to need to rebuild close to half of the facility. We are talking billions and billions more as retrofitting is just not easy. There were two managers that pushed up these concerns to leadership. They were both forced out. They were right on the bullseye with the prediction. Once these guys were cut out, the culture was do not say anything, no matter how bad or wrong it is. It was to the point of If it can't kill me personally then do it. I have a great education and years of experience and I see my counterparts having zero experience and education in the field in a working leader role. You can't magically come from finance and be a civil engineer and then 2 years later be a Geophysicist, then two years later be a planning and performance manager. It's bonkers. If you are not a technical SME then you better have leadership skills. I would say less than 5 percent of the managers I have met would qualify for good leader.
That's what I was afraid of
however many it takes to pay for gorgon
Yeah. How many more write downs?
+1. This LNG dream is killing the company.
And when haven't even begun to talk about our problems in Molson and Moosehead land, aye?
So COP is not even 50% oil, and still laying people off. Yeah, seems like everyone is struggling. We'll see what Exxon does. And also agree with those write-downs. It's just Chevron trying to lump all the negatives together in one reporting period and hoping to quickly recover in the next period. (but the pundits say that CVX will have more write downs to come to get more cash to pump into Gorgon)
Every $1 change in Brent prices adds or subtracts $325 million to $350 million to Chevron’s cash flow. The company is more sensitive to crude fluctuations than its largest U.S. competitors because 67 percent of Chevron’s output is oil, compared to 54 percent at Exxon and 48 percent at ConocoPhillips. and Yes, PLUS GORGON. That is why Exxon "seems" okay for now.
+1. everyone is struggling. You don't see Exxon laying off people yet because they're not bleeding more for Gorgon. That project is one big clusterfuck
Anonymous128637, gimme a break... "Some of our peers appear to have anticipated oil price declines and moved more to gas several years back. They are still reporting quarterly profits in the billions." Seriously? Gas is a joke. see AMBU and all that dry gas up there. it's worth practically nothing. The entire BU's financials is also chump change compared to just 1 of the complex wells. it's still all about oil. Chevron is in this situation predominantly because of Gorgon and its failures. The small earnings number in Q2 is due to the combination of oil prices and write downs of assets that Chevron is preparing to sell. You take away those write downs, the earnings don't see so bad (It'd be as good as you can expect with these current prices.) It's just how the financials work out and caused a panic. Production numbers have actually increased compared to last year, but the oil prices are too low. Similarly, after the sales are completed, and our Q3 (probably Q4) numbers go back up to the billions, the same uninformed people will think "OH MY GOD, CHEVRON IS IMPROVING AND IS BACK IN THE GAME"... But no, that's just how the numbers are crunched. Chevron would NOT have needed to write down assets to prepare the sales if it were not for the low cashflow due to Gorgon and the delay of Big Foot, which would've helped out a little with the cashflow. (Again, dry gas is worth very little in this equation, and condensates/NGL from the gas regions don't account for enough volume to bring up the returns either, especially with the oil prices.)
Anonymous128596 you are in la la land. It has everything to do with management style. "Style" drives decisions like stating 100 is the new 20, giving huge insight into top management think. It's not just committing to MCPs in one economic world and not executing, it's also about making plans around worst case scenarios. Some of our peers appear to have anticipated oil price declines and moved more to gas several years back. They are still reporting quarterly profits in the billions. Chevron seemed to double down on oil, i.e. west Texas, and this revenue stream goes weak. When a company publicly announces a new building and then has to skulk off from it, doesn't read domestic shale gas global influence correctly causing issues with the additional Australia LNG contracts needed to make the promised future profits, and going all in on 2015/2016 with Bigfoot and not having plan b, c, d in place is nuts.
That's all well and good but the reason for the downsizing and layoffs is because oil is over half the price it was a year ago. It has nothing to do with management style.
To the original poster (Absolutely disgusted), let me say, "Truer words have not been spoken". The best supervisors and managers are "leaders", those who are the very best at what the team does.
I fully agree with the comment made by successful leadership values.
This Company is heading for disaster with the current LEADERSHIP!
Problem is that their direct reports were given the wrong metrics to achieve, such as how many of these PEEP cases can I push over the DPI hurdle rate, and they go and adjust the type curves for higher forecasts. The leadership aren't crunching the numbers. When you tell them a particular field has a high DPI, they go with the info they're given by their teams... and thus invest millions and millions based on bad data.
Valuing direct reports feedback too much can obviously be a bad thing.