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What “good” looks like: Creating an operational excellence management system

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

–Aristotle

Though he was probably speaking to artists, craftsmen and students, Aristotle could have been talking to today’s oil and gas industry executives when he wrote those words 2,300 years ago. We know from our conversations with industry executives that they aspire to the same ambitious goals as Aristotle’s listeners. They want their businesses to run safely and more efficiently: to demonstrate operational excellence. But aspirations are not enough; excellence is a habit that results from millions of small acts, performed every day by tens of thousands of employees.

Unlike Aristotle’s audience, however, a company cannot simply decide to get better. Because they are large, complex organizations, companies demand a systemic approach to improvement: an operational excellence management system (OEMS).

Two decades ago, Exxon deployed the first and best known OEMS in response to the Valdez oil spill. The company has since gone on to refine and improve the approach over the years, and it has become a model for others in the industry. Today, most international oil companies (IOCs), national oil companies (NOCs) and many other energy companies have management systems in place that reflect their aspirations for excellence. These systems describe the expectations for performance by all of the company’s operations

Our expertise is focused around creating a sustainable foundation for our clients to successfully continue their operational excellence journey independently. Our support typically involves:

• Designing and and implementing a model for operational excellence that aligns with and enables delivery of the organisation’s strategy
• Aligning and engaging senior executives and managers around the case for change and the journey required to ensure it is top-down led
• Building leadership effectiveness, managerial capability and behaviours to deliver the strategy as well as coach and train others in the organisation
• Creating the strong performance management systems required to underpin the changes and to measure, reward and celebrate accomplishments
• Aligning the organisation design around customers, both internally as well as externally
• Creating leaders who have the skills and capabilities to train and develop their teams in applying continuous improvement tools and techniques in their daily jobs. This will ensure continuous improvement is then bottom-up driven and sustainable.

We have a strong track record in helping our clients create a sustainable step changes in performance, as well as positioning them for future success.