As I sat at my desk Friday, I came to the sad realization that NOV is heading in the wrong direction. At a time when we need great talent to develop the company and drum up business, we are seeing all the talent walk out the door. All hopes are pinned on those with MBAs as that degree could solve all oil and gas issues. Big egos who believe they know everything run the roost here and it is becoming more apparent. It is a system where you just act like a sheep and maintain the status quo. Don't question anything - do what you are told to do and you will remain employed. Do not have a mind of your own or new ideas - take them elsewhere. The company is business driven not customer driven and I have seen many good companies over the past 20 years disintegrate using this model. Shocking decisions, strange advancements of people, talent being let go.........the way I see it is NOV 0 Competition 5.
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Yes, I'd have to agree that NOV seemed to be on the right track with their record of company acquisition after company acquisition. Unfortunately, the way they operated was far from anything I'd define as a good team. More like a bunch of individual "business owners" building their own businesses and operating under the same umbrella. Very little communication and not a lot of acceptance to any new ideas. I believe the adage is that sometimes outsiders can shed perspective on things no one else could see before because they were too ingrained in the way business was operating currently. One of these days bilion dollar companies will remember the visionary and entrepreneurial spirit of adapting to change. After all are we to believe that any big company did not go through exceptional change to get it's cashflow going. The companies that will be the most successful in the future are the ones most readily available to change. I believe NOV will fail where many have before. Very disappointing.
No Oilfiesl Vision
Talent is indeed irreplaceable. Luckily for those laid off by NOV, others see a good thing and are willing to jump to take what NOV so easily gave away. Watch out! The talent you lost may now garner your competitors some big bucks. No one will ever return to NOV - those bridges are burned and severed. Let's see the next gens try and do what the actual talent could do! A university textbook does not equate to real world learning. Everyone who remains will need to be a sheep, a follower. The true leaders and visionaries are gone. Maybe they are the lucky ones!! They escaped the downward spiral.
All that experience that went out the door not only via layoff, but early retirements is irreplaceable. You can't just plug a wet behind the ears next gen in there that has no clue what most of the components are and what they do.
Count the number of persons that are "engineers" and "designers" that have never seen the actual products, only a drawing on paper. They have no idea how the components all mate together with those designed by the other groups.
Interaction/communication between departments is lacking. Basically person a draws their part, person b draws theirs and it is person c's problem to figure out why yhey won't fit together.
Eloquently put! I couldn't agree more. Sad. . .