140

Oil and GasProduction dalam Nontechnical Language

Competencies bukan merupakan atribut eksklusif dari perusahaan besar. Kerangka kerja tiga kaki ini
membantu menjelaskan bagaimana perusahaan-perusahaan minyak dan gas dari semua ukuran dapat
bertahan dalam menghadapi migrasi besar-besaran proses dan kegiatan ke perusahaan jasa. The
companies probably do not have this model in mind or explicitly emblazoned on the cover of their annual
reports. But they have mobilized their human resources to hire, train, or otherwise acquire people with the
skillsthat support the three elements of the strategy,

Assessing Competencies
Not that it is any easy job to determine the competitiveness of all the competencies. Consultants offer
benchmarking services to help quantify cost-competitiveness, but it often takes a large company to afford
the service. For those who can, the analysis provides rankings in multiple categories or processes. For
each, the detail painfully ranks each competitor (usually anonymously). Each competitor who joins in the
benchmarking program recognizes its own standing.
The harsh reality is always that half the competitors lie below the average performance. In the example
in figure 12-5, Competitor A used to be the low-cost manager of platform maintenance. In more recent
years, Competitor C moved into the premier position, not necessarily because others' costs rose, but
perhaps because of its own attention to cost reduction. In any event, "X," the client who bought this
service, needs to shake up its maintenance organization-understand why its cost structure is perennially
subpar and how to improve it.
Alas, for smaller companies and for everyone's appraisal of the technological innovation and
relationship categories, the analysis is usually qualitative only. Still, the competencies have to be
identified. Examples could include
Technology:
understanding reservoir mechanics-in South Texas, for example
horizontal drilling
coal bed methane recovery-in Wyoming, for example
What Should We Do'Strategy
Relationships:
contacts with foreign governments
crafting license applications
analyzing competitors' position
Operational excellence:
commitment to cost reduction
work-process controls
short discovery-to-first-oil interval
automation/de-staffing
Identifying real, differentiated competencies is not easy work, but the effort to articulate them usually
provides evidence that they at least exist. It also provides a Historical qualitative -~-
feel cost for their competitiveness
competitive ranking, ]
Area: Activity: Northern Platform North maintenance
Sea
Companies: 'K, "B", "C", "0", and 'F _

TOp Quartile
2nd Ouartne
3rd Quartile
Bottom Quartile
A ,~,
------_.~-~;--_._~,-,.,,"---~---

B
H...... ....
('
~.....

...... - ..
,,"" '" ","'.... '" "'"
._ . _.-
·'X~

...... ....
..
.".... / .... .... .....
~ ~~
/" /"

.
Year 1 2 3 4 5
Fig. 12-5. Example of a cost-competitiveness benchmark chart

241
141
Oil and Gas Production in Nontechnical Language

Strategy Implementation
The three-legged framework begins to explain the shift from E&P companies to service companies.
E&P companies are retaining those skills essential to their strategies and shedding those that are not. At
the same time, service companies are assembling or redesigning their skill sets, with or without explicitly
thinking about the same three-attribute model.
Using this framework to identify or redirect strategy, manageme nt can focus resources on the
competencies that matter. Inaddition, it provides a guide to which processes or skills can be outsourced
without jeopardizing a competency important to the strategy. Finally, the framework provides a vehicle to
clearly communicate in the organization the strategy and the value of the people who provide the skills
that underpin it.