Thread regarding BP PLC layoffs

What would you say to your EVP and SVP?

Share which segment you work in and what you would advise them to do. Be specific, don’t say generic nonsense “Set better strategy”, “hire better people” or “sack the whole lot of them”. What would you ask them to specifically address?

I’ll go first. I work in finance. To EVP I’d ask we don’t invest into projects which have poor ROIs and stop the large swings in hiring and firing. How have we more people now than pre-reinvent??

SVP - we need to fix process before putting a system in place or moving it to a low cost location. Moving a broken process isn’t efficient.

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| 1763 views | | 14 replies (last October 27, 2024) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1v816kVD

14 replies (most recent on top)

@3cxd+1v816kVD This is the publisher's summation of the book: '
An explosive exposé of a firm whose work has made your world more unequal, more corrupt and more dangerous.

McKinsey & Company have earned billions consulting for almost every major corporation in the world - and countless governments, including yours. Shielded by NDAs, their practices have remained hidden - until now.

In this propulsive investigation, prize-winning journalists Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe reveal the disturbing reality. McKinsey's work includes ruthless cuts to the NHS, troubleshooting for Big Oil, incentivising the prescription of opi--ds, executing Trump's immigration policies (the ones that put children in cages) as well as advising some of the world's most unsavoury despots.

'A story of secrecy, delusion and untold harm' OBSERVER

'Makes you so angry...the evidence the authors winkle out is astonishing' SUNDAY TIMES

'Panoramic, meticulously reported and ultimately devastating' PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE

'A harrowing account of decades of dishonourable exploits' ECONOMIST

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Post ID: @4ijh+1v816kVD

@3cxd+1v816kVD yes, she was a senior partner with them in New York. She was brought to BP by BL when he was appointed CEO, so he must have known her for some time beforehand. I have been told by others that it was considered that he was outsourcing too much of the company's strategy to McKinsey. Then he puts one of them on the LT?!? To me she is a classic example of style over substance. Another issue I have is with the number of very senior management with MBA's. To me and my friends, they've always been known as Master of Bu*ger All. It's a very expensive qualification to do, and many of them get it paid for them by the company. Would it not serve the company better to pay for employees to do Masters degrees in engineering or science based subjects. This Stanford MBA thing started with Lord Browne and was funded for Tony Hayward and BL. Look where it got us.

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Post ID: @4jyj+1v816kVD

Oh! GC is a former McKinsey person? That explains so much. She gets paid big money and doesn’t actually do anything.

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Post ID: @3cxd+1v816kVD

I was in a bookshop today and took a look at a paperback called 'When McKinsey Comes To Town' by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe, 'the hidden influence of the world's most powerful consulting firm'. I always say I'm not buying any more books, but I am sorely tempted with this one. The Sunday Times says it 'makes you so angry'; the Times says 'damning' and the Washington Post describes the book as 'masterful'. BP is mentioned along with all the other oil companies who hire them on pp163/164. From a cursory look through the book, BP would do well to lessen their reliance on them. What's worse is that our former CEO put a former McKinsey partner on the LT in the form of GC.

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Post ID: @3dry+1v816kVD

I’d say “Please sir, I want some more”

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Post ID: @1oop+1v816kVD

Put all of this in a Pulse survey. Leadership will certainly read this and make the necessary changes.

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Post ID: @1hxf+1v816kVD

As agile as a turtle

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Post ID: @1zak+1v816kVD
  1. ) Bring back an investment in exploration and start snapping up tier II and Tier III acreage as industry operators peal off lower grade acreage to pay off debt. We need to grown to keep from dying. Everyone else has leveled up but us. We are getting left behind relative to Exxon, Chevron. CONOCO, Diamondback, ect.
  1. ) Stop spending money on bs emissions a green energy optics. Looks like we are starting to fix this but keep going.
  1. ) Remove the Reserves and Subsurface Manager and their family members from prominent leadership positions and put them out to pasture or mute their influence.
  1. ) Look around at people who have been here a while and start promoting better people and elevate their voices.
  1. ) Give everyone a 10% pay increase to catch up with industry standards.
  1. ) Come clean about over estimated reserves estimates and over estimated running room. Bpx is lucky if they have five years left. That's the truth. The hammer is going to drop at some point and the truth will come out.
  1. ) Revamp the leadership on the Land Team in Permian and upgrade the manager there with a more qualified person who isn't a gossip. She caters to the Reserves Manager and they have a little mean girls clique going.
  1. ) The Engineering manager on the Subsurface Technology Team is garbage. Time for better leadership there. The recent move of the Permian Head over to that team was a mistake too. She needs to go. She has a bad attitude and she has a bias against the male gender. There is a large lawsuit waiting if people had the HR data I know about her.
  1. ) Start giving benefits back like bp balance and Fridays off. Our benefits su-k.
  1. ) Bring Bpx back to Houston so the larger bp arm can get a better pulse on the reality of bpx. I'd gladly move back to Houston. There is no reason to have this office in Denver. Move us back and stop wasting money.
  1. ) Put a clear career progression plan in place for people to follow and give people exposure who deserve it instead of your favorite buddies. Good people can't get ahead here. Why do you think turnover is so high? So many of our best have gone to greener pastures.
  1. ) Move away from ESPs and do gas lift.
  1. ) Change the AFE review process. Its redundant and very time consuming. Its inefficient and a waste of engineering time.
  1. ) If we want to attract top talent then you need to gut this place fast and bring in new blood. The people who have been here at least 10 years now are fairly decent but the crew that came in about 6 years ago need to be flushed down the toilet.
  1. ) We pay entirely too much on well cost. Revisit that. Complete a bidding process and bring in more vendors to drive cost down and increase returns.
  1. ) Bpx needs to engage the industry more and work on our reputation. We are not respected nor are we taken serious.
  1. ) Bpx and Bp needs to find itself and give a clear message to the industry about who we really are. We've lost our way and we've lost our identity and momentum. Morale is sooooo low.
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Post ID: @1utf+1v816kVD

Our training and documentation/information management is horrendous. I interviewed someone and asked them what they would do in a situation and they said he'd check the procedures. Won't work as they are so high-level they get interpreted in every way by people who don't understand the wider implications...that's the reason we are complex

  • it's not due to the work it's due to people interpreting things differently and processes being so high-level to cater to everyone's current ways of working. No point having them in the first place except ISO9001
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Post ID: @fij+1v816kVD

How is it possible for a reasonable person to downvote @ehu+1v816kVD?

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Post ID: @hnu+1v816kVD
  1. Change the culture to growth mindset - I can't belive some svps, vps and senior managers stay 6 years in role. What's the point? Develop people, make them grow outside the confort zone. Offer expats.
  2. Get rid of non performing EVP - HR EVP needs to go. Time for a change. GC too. I am not convinced by the new CFO - how come we don't have someone stronger in the pipeline. See point number 1.
  3. Stop the overhiring and use of Mck, Bcg and co.
  4. Regional models don't work for BD as you give power to peopke who have every PERSONAL incentives to deliver a project. I don't know how bp has not learned over the years. India model may face same hurdles.
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Post ID: @olb+1v816kVD
  1. Stop spending millions per year on expensive strategy consultants, especially when you are firing bp staff. There is some blantantly non approved spending going on there.
  1. Evaluate your middle management including VPs. get feedback from people on how they are actually managing business decisions and people. They are the ones if not taking the company to the grave!
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Post ID: @yuw+1v816kVD

Not terribly specific, but:
1 - Macondo put bP at a significant and permanent reputation and valuation disadvantage. The company ended up selling off assets like crazy after that and lighting the proceeds on fire.
2 - The magnitude and duration of bP's decline has been staggering. ~220B valuation to under 90B in 20 years...while competitors have actually, like, uh, grown.
3 - bP strategy changes with the wind. There is never a long term commitment to executing anything. The strategy either proves to be either stupid or poorly executed, or there is a change in lack-of-leadership, and direction changes.
4 - Company too focused on optics and woke bullsh-t rather than business performance.

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Post ID: @ehu+1v816kVD

Serious response, but I guess not what you are looking for: "Please, do find another job"

But to be concrete:

  • before assigning a ton of money on a particular project, please do firstly contact the Teams that are gonna be impacted (by, for example, using new tools).
  • lift ban on travels,
  • stop introducing new processes, "simplifying" and "streamlining". Focus on gradual improvement in existing ones - and DO listed to these low level people that are actually doing the job (so from bottom to the top, not the other way around
  • at least acknowledge that they pay increases have been s hit. Don't bulls hit us with "look at the benefits package etc.
  • be transparent.
  • oppose the exodus of roles to GBS and India as much as you can. Such a transition is a f ucking horror for those "lucky" ones that have not lost jobs in local entities. We get the "privilege" of supervising the entire process, training new people and watching over them constantly. And then ofc training the new people there, as the workforce rotation is crazy there and MOC does not really exist.
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Post ID: @afg+1v816kVD

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