A global view from the top seat at Chevron
At first, Dave O'Reilly, Chevron's chief executive, cannot remember the last movie he saw. Then it comes to him - Syriana."I had to go and see that," he says of the Oscar-nominated, contintent-hopping drama about oil, politics and the war on terror.
But afterwards, he smiles, his wife said: "Well, the real thing is a lot more fun."
Mr O'Reilly runs the world's fifth largest integrated oil and gas company by market capitalisation, and fourth biggest by worldwide reserves. Now that oil companies must explore for new reserves in deeper water, under salt, or in dense rock and clotted sand, his business has become a lot more difficult.
It not only requires innovative technology; in a business that involves so much investment and in which projects run for a decade or more, the economics are always key.
The big finds are usually in politically sensitive areas that need high-level diplomacy, such as Venezuela. Add in protests from Washington about the recent record profits prompted by a public struggling with high energy prices, and it is clear why Mr O'Reilly has little time for movie-going.
How does he manage a difficult business at a difficult time? He sets aside time to think about the business while working out in the morning, but also during the many hours spent on aircraft. He says: "It's pretty hard to think when you are sitting here in the office because there is always somebody at the door.'' He also makes good use of technology for staying in touch. "I have a laptop. I confess to having a BlackBerry and cell phone," he says.
Speaking in his office in San Ramon, California, Mr O'Reilly is relaxed and affable, even joshing. He is known for the relationships he can establish in even the most politically challenging countries. He travels extensively, willingly hopping on an aircraft to sort out high-level issues. "The interesting thing for me is trying to understand what are the priorities in the places in which we do business and how can we help fulfil those priorities while conducting our business in a way that creates value for the company.'' He gains that understanding while doing the main negotiating himself, noting: "It's the way you get things done. I don't think you can delegate some things.''
That is how he won Unocal in last year's bidding war with CNOOC, the Chinese oil company, and how he reached the biggest decision he has made at Chevron - to undertake the $36bn merger with Texaco in 2000, the same year he became chairman and chief executive.
"If we wanted to compete on a global basis, my view - and our team all agreed with this - was that we needed to have the scale and the breadth and the geographic balance to do that," Mr O'Reilly says.
Since 1998 Chevron's capital employed has nearly tripled to $71.1bn (￡40bn) and expanded outside the US. In 1998, 62 per cent of those funds were spent in North America, compared with 33 per cent in 2005. Chevron's net production has grown from 1.6m barrels per day to 2.7m, with the North American share dwindling from 44 per cent to 29 per cent. Chevron has refocused its portfolio to be a top player in its core areas of the Gulf of Mexico, west Africa, Asia, Venezuela and the Caspian.
The internationalisation of Chevron was a logical step for the Dublin-born 59-year-old, who earned his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from University College, Dublin, and immediately signed on as a process engineer at Chevron. "I just love the oil industry and the idea that it's a business where you have this great combination of technology, economics and geopolitics.''
Mr O'Reilly has read "all the books about leaders", but in the end decided: "You have to be yourself." But managers can get ideasfrom others and he relieson his strategy committeeto discuss issues suchas big investments ornew directions for the business. The first stage is discussing whether something is consistent with Chevron's strategy, then comes assessing the economics and risks. "But, ultimately, somebody has to make a decision,and that's my role."
He credits his father, Jack, who was general manager of a large Dublin department store, for preparing him for a role as decision-maker. "He was the one who pushed me to ensure that I did the tough things in high school, such as mathematics and sciences, and things that are harder to do. And you have to work hard." Mr O'Reilly's brother, John, also became a chief executive - of Paddy Power, the Irish betting shop operator.
With memories of his father in mind, Mr O'Reilly considers it part of his job to push and encourage the younger employees at Chevron. He tries to dine with its "future leaders" weekly, when in town; the previous night's meal included 20 staffers from around the world, he says.
Meeting them enables him to learn about their perceptions while reinforcing Chevron's value system and priorities. "I consider one of my most important roles is keeper of the value system," he says, leafing through a brochure for employees. "If I were to sum this up in one sentence, it would be 'getting results the right way'."
Such values are, post-Enron, preached throughout corporate America, but Mr O'Reilly says Chevron's date back to the 1920s, which in itself proves the system's value: "It enables organisations to be successful for the long term."
It is his intention to continue that tradition.
奥莱利：“亲力亲为”的CEO
雪佛龙(Chevron)首席执行官戴夫?奥莱利(Dave O’Reilly)没能一下子记起自己所看过的最后一部电影。之后，他想起那部电影名叫《辛瑞纳》(Syriana)，是有关石油、政治和反恐战争的。谈及这部获得奥斯卡提名、风靡各大洲的电影时，他表示：“我不得不去看看到底是什么内容。”
但随后他莞尔一笑。他的妻子说道：“没错，真实情况要有趣得多。”
以市值衡量，奥莱利执掌的这家综合油气公司排名全球同行第五位，按储量排名则位列第四。但是，现在的石油公司必须在深海之内、盐岩之下，或是在致密岩石和粗沙之中勘探新的油田，他们这个行业开展业务的难度已今非昔比。
这里不仅需要创新技术；在这样一个涉及如此大量投资，且项目运作时间动辄10年或更久的行业里，经济性往往是关键所在。
新发现的大油田常常位于委内瑞拉等政治敏感地区，而在这些地方开展业务则需要高超的外交手段。此外，由于能源价格高企令公众不堪重负，导致美国政府对石油公司近来取得的创纪录利润相当不满，因此，奥莱利没有时间看电影也就不难理解了。
那么，他如何在困难时期管理一家业务难度颇高的企业呢？他不仅在晨练的时候抽时间考虑业务，坐飞机旅行期间也在思考。他表示：“坐在办公室里很难进行思考，因为总是有人来敲门。”此外，他还善于利用技术来保持联系。他表示：“我有一台笔记本电脑。坦白说，我还有一个黑莓（BlackBerry，一种电子邮件设备――译者注）和一部手机。”
在他位于加州圣拉蒙的办公室里接受采访的时候，奥莱利表现得随意而和蔼，甚至还开起了玩笑。他交游广泛，这一点众所皆知，即便是在政治上最具挑战性的国家，他也能建立良好关系。他到处出差，喜欢在飞机上办公解决重大问题。“我喜欢去研究一些问题，例如，在我们开展业务的地方何为首要任务，如何在创造公司价值的同时帮助完成这些首要任务。”他通过亲自参加重大谈判，得到这些问题的答案。他指出：“这是做事成功的方式。我认为，有些事情应该亲力亲为。”
这就是他为什么能在去年击败中海油(CNOOC)成功购得优尼科(Unocal)的原因。这也是他在2000年做出他掌管雪佛龙以来最为重大的决定――促成雪佛龙与德士古(Texaco)合并的原因。此次合并总金额高达360亿美元，同年他即成为雪佛龙的董事长兼首席执行官。
奥莱利表示：“如果我们想在全球范围内开展竞争，我认为我们不仅要有规模和广度，还要照顾到地域平衡。对此，我们的管理团队一致赞成。”
自1998年以来，雪佛龙动用的资本额已经增长近两倍，达到711亿美元，并已扩张到美国以外。1998年，这些资金中有62%用在北美，2005年则降至33%。雪佛龙的石油净产量从每日160万桶增至270万桶，北美产量所占份额则从44%降至29%。雪佛龙已重新调整其投资组合，在其核心区域墨西哥湾、西非、亚洲、委内瑞拉和里海等地成为重要参与者。
对于奥莱利来说，雪佛龙的国际化是理所当然的一步。现年59岁的奥莱利出生于都柏林，在都柏林大学(University College, Dublin)获得化学工程学士学位，随后即加盟雪佛龙，担任工艺工程师。他表示：“我就是喜欢石油行业。这是一个技术、经济和地缘政治完美结合的行业。”
奥莱利读过“所有有关领导者的书籍”，但最后他决定：“你必须做你自己。”不过，管理者可以借鉴他人的意见；在大笔投资或业务新方向等问题上，他会听取战略委员会的讨论意见。首先，讨论某件事情是否与雪佛龙战略一致，之后再评估经济意义和风险。“但最终必须有一个人做出决定，这就是我的职责。”
奥莱利的父亲杰克(Jack)曾是都柏林一家大型百货商店的总经理。奥莱利认为，是他的父亲培养了他作为决策者的能力。他表示：“是他敦促我，让我确保自己在中学时代去做一些困难的事情，例如数学和科学，还有那些难度更大的事情。做这些事需要付出很大努力才行。” 奥莱利的兄弟约翰(John)后来也成了一名首席执行官，掌管着爱尔兰博彩公司Paddy Power。
怀着对父亲的回忆，奥莱利把敦促和鼓励雪佛龙的年轻员工视为其工作的一部分。在不出差的时候，他尽量每周与公司“未来的领导者们”一起进餐；他表示，前一天晚上的聚餐就有来自全球各地的20名员工参加。
与这些人会面，能使他在强化雪佛龙的价值体系和优先战略的同时，了解员工的看法。“我认为，我最重要的职责之一就是维护公司的价值体系，”他翻开一本员工手册表示，“如果我用一句话来总结这本书，那就是：‘用合理的方式得到结果’。”
安然(Enron)破产之后，这种价值观被美国企业界大力宣扬，但奥莱利表示，雪佛龙的价值体系可以回溯到上世纪20年代，公司的发展本身就证明了这一价值体系的意义：“它能够确保公司长期取得成功。”
他决意继续坚持这一传统。
