Thread regarding Schlumberger Ltd. layoffs

Transformation was a failure

One of the purposes of the transformation was supposedly to help employees focus on their actual job and avoid distractions caused by the various business processes. In that respect it has been an obvious failure, precisely because of the spotlights surrounding the "Transformation". Everybody is now focused on business processes and KPOs, and nobody cares much about the actual job anymore. The target was good but the realization was poor.

Another target was to make the organization "leaner", partly by reducing the management overhead. That has also been a failure: the management has been reshuffled, many lost their VP title, but very little have left the company and the "fat" is still there. Furthermore, all these managers tend to put heavier validation processes in place for justifying their existence. In the end, it makes us more expensive, less reactive, and slower.

Finally, if you consider Engage to Excel (or more generally, the initiatives launched to improve employee engagement) as part of the Transformation, you'll soon have the answer about the success of this one. Hopefully. Negative statistics have a tendency to get buried.

Excellent post by @Qh43udf-cvg.

by
| 2721 views | | 5 replies (last November 27, 2017) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+QoL5Cph

5 replies (most recent on top)

The "transformation" is just another buzz-word. Every big company uses the same. It was originally sold by SAP and business consulting companies (Andsersen & co.) as a way to get rid of the "paper" by exploiting digital/online business systems. Kudos to their marketing teams.

In SLB, we had very little paper already. The problem was different: as we grow by acquisition, we have many business systems and communication channels which are not talking to each other, in various segments/locations/.... This part of the "transformation" was supposed to be a rationalization. Not a revolution but a welcome evolution.

Alas, few years down the road this rationalization looks like it's coming from a Dilbert strip: we now have a new, more rigid set of business systems on top of the pre-existing ones, and much more people (in proportion) taking care of that machinery. No clear added value.

On top of this organizational transformation were many domain-oriented initiatives to "go digital". Including in domains (SIS) in which everything was already "digital". Here "transformation" = "digital" = "hype". Kudos to the marketing teams of Google, Microsoft and the like.

For the first time in its history, SLB is fully committed to satisfy its providers' desires, rather than its customers' needs. This, for sure, is a transformation.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @4lno+QoL5Cph

"nobody cares much about the actual job anymore"

sad, but very true

im starting to think lots of managers are on drugs as I just dont get it

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @4thy+QoL5Cph

The 'transformation' has been so bizarre.

No-one propoerly understands what it is. Absolutley crazy times in SLB.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @3xph+QoL5Cph

F*cking copycat

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @2tbn+QoL5Cph

Merely managers trying to justify their increasingly shakey positions

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @2mfl+QoL5Cph

Post a reply

: