Welcome to the party...

Read two articles in the Harvard Business Review and McKinsey Quarterly regarding collaboration, the future value of it, and most importantly the need for new business models and better performing organizational structures. Points that are of keen interest to me.

A little of my history of the past few years, I published my master's thesis entitled "Plurality should not be assumed without necessity" (the simpler way) in 2003, only to have it become the lightening rod of my misery. In not realizing what I was saying would be interpreted differently by the large oil and gas companies, I thought that they would see the value in what I was saying from the point of view of the positives of organizational performance and innovation in oil and gas. Instead they chose to see it as an attack on their bureaucracy, and as a threat to their station in life. Lesson learned, and one that I hope others can learn from my experience.

The key to my thesis was a revised use of the joint operating committee. This organizational structure is an international cultural basis for oil and gas investment, it's legal and financial framework, and the primary manner of operational decision making. These four well established frameworks are fundamentally ignored by the hierarchy who have justified their existence by managing the accountability of their actions.

If the poorly managed accountability was moved over to the joint operating committee, then all five of these frameworks could be aligned to work in a harmony that has predominately alluded the oil and gas industry. This method of organization is consistent with both the Harvard and McKinsey recommendations noted here, however, another key point in my thesis was that to institute the proposed "radical" changes would need the ERP style systems be built for the proposed organization first.

Nonetheless, the need to re-organize an oil and gas firm away from the hierarchical bureaucracy and move toward the collaborative and innovative joint operating committee is necessary and should be premised on the higher commodity prices reallocating the resources to fund the innovations created through the joint operating committee.

The key note in making this change happen is that the supporting organizational ERP style systems have to be built to support the new collaborative and innovative organizations. The desire to change does not exist in the bureaucracy, who have it quite comfortable and don't desire to work any harder or smarter. They have high prices, and the problem will fall to the next generation after their retirements. This I feel has been a complete capitulation of their responsibilities to the organizations and the oil and gas consumer.

The references to the two articles are located here McKinsey and Harvard's.

Now that these well regarded institutions have piped in with comments that are directed globally to all businesses and 100% consistent with the comments that I have made for oil and gas, maybe my misery will diminish, or Harvard's and McKinsey's misery is just about to start.