Mobil Oil - Rapid Business Turnaround

A $750 million regional business unit of a multinational oil and gas company needed a rapid turnaround or risked being sold off. In response, a Real Time Strategic Change effort was launched, including more than 20 working sessions of 20 to 1,000 people. The sessions focused on strategy development, organization design, core process redesign, launch of a new business, and commitment to a unified team.

In August 1995, 1,000 people (85 percent of the organisation) met for three days. The group developed a strategy to integrate three separate organizations and reached consensus on action items needed for improving performance. These action items were designed to break a vicious cycle that had trapped the organization for the past five years.

Ten months later:

The business unit was reorganised around core processes.
Return on fixed assets increased 18 percent (12 percent adjusted for price).
Cycle time reductions saved $30 million.
Capital spending overage dropped from $70 million to zero, a new business is generating $12M and has led to a 30% reduction in a major recurring expenditure.
And five deep-water leases were secured - a first for the business.
A culture of mistrust and parochialism was transformed to one of collaboration.

The business unit was not sold off.

VISTA's part of in this turnaround commenced in September 1995. We arrived as part of a team to help with implementation of the recommendations raised at the 1,000-person event. By the end of the project we were in project leadership role and stayed with the organisation right through to August 1996.