Comprehensive Profile of Shell, a Globally Renowned Company
(Note: Shell's Chinese name is pronounced 'qiào pái'.)
Its formation began with the 1907 merger of the Shell Transport and Trading Company Ltd. of Britain and the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company of the Netherlands. Thereafter the group gradually became a major international oil company, with operations in about 130 countries and very broad partnerships. In 2007 its total sales reached US$355.782 billion with a profit of US$31.331 billion, making it then the world's largest company. It puts health, safety and environmental standards and adherence to its business principles first everywhere, and emphasizes local-staff training and development.
The Anglo-Dutch Royal Shell Group has operated in China for over a century and is now developing integrated oil, gas and chemical businesses. Its actual and contractual investment in China (excluding Hong Kong) is nearly US$1 billion, with 1,500 employees. It is China's largest international equity oil producer and one of the largest traders of crude oil and its products.
Today Shell's businesses span over 130 countries with nearly 100,000 employees. Shell's goal in China is to be China's international partner, providing clean and sustainable energy solutions. Shell China's total investment in China has reached US$4 billion, with over 20 wholly-owned/joint-venture enterprises and nearly 1,000 employees.
Shell is committed to sustainable development, providing clean energy in a socially responsible manner. The group now has five core businesses: exploration and production, oil products, gas and power, chemicals, and renewables. Its subsidiaries operate independently but follow the same business principles, ensuring equally high economic, environmental and social performance.
Shell is the world's largest oil exploration and production enterprise, active in over 50 countries with the most advanced technology, producing over 2 million barrels of oil per day, holding equity in 55 refineries across 35 countries, with capacities ranging from 348,000 bbl/day (Pernis, Netherlands) to 10,000 bbl/day.
Shell entered the coal industry in the 1970s. It now sells about 50 million tonnes of coal per year. Shell signed a long-term agreement with China National Coal Import and Export Corporation to purchase coal from the Antaibao Mine in Shanxi Province, about 1 million tonnes per year.
By sales, Shell's chemicals business is among the world's top ten chemical companies. It is one of the world's largest producers of petrochemicals and detergent intermediates, and a major solvent supplier and producer of ethylene oxide and derivatives. The group produces hundreds of chemical products. Polymers — including thermoplastics, resins and synthetic rubber — account for about one third of the business. Over 50% of chemicals are sold in Europe and about one third in the United States.
This is a field Shell has newly developed in recent years, mainly forestry and solar-energy development, handled by the group's Non-Traditional Business (NTB) unit established in the 1970s to expand the group's scope. Its business covers biological activities (e.g., microbial propagation), alternative-energy technology and new materials.
The parent companies, Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and Shell Transport and Trading Company, are publicly listed and are not themselves members of the group and do not engage in operations. Royal Dutch held 60% of the group and Shell Transport and Trading 40%. The whole group comprises holding, service and operating companies. The Dutch and British Shell Petroleum Ltd. subsidiaries hold all equity in the service companies and directly or indirectly all equity in the operating companies. The group holding company receives dividends from these shares and pays them on to the parents.
In addition, this technology has wide application and practice in related fields.
There are mainly three steps. The first is that students fill out an application form and the company does preliminary screening. Shell's recruitment form is designed around CAR and also feeds the interview; through academic and other activities it preliminarily selects high-potential candidates — reportedly 80–90% are eliminated at this stage.
The second step is a 50-minute structured interview. Interviewers ask preset questions to assess the candidate's comprehensive problem-analysis and solving ability; the candidate decides whether to continue and the company whether to recommend to the assessment center; the typical pass rate here is 25%.
Those passing the structured interview enter the assessment center for a one-day test including: group discussion (6–8 candidates independently exploring a business topic), a proposal (presenting on a topic and taking questions), business simulation (handling batches of work) and an interview (mainly on analytical ability). Results go to the company's most senior managers for assessment; passing this stage essentially confirms the candidate.
Besides this, many factors must be considered in practical engineering applications.
In Shell's HR operations, performance appraisal and improvement occupy a very important place. Appraisal mainly covers work performance and competency growth. Managers listen to employees' personal wishes and development needs, then jointly agree on how the employee should perform next year, including competency goals and business-development trends.
Besides this, many factors must be considered in practical engineering applications.
Shell has developed business in China for over a century. In the early 1890s, the founders of Shell Transport and Trading, the brothers Marcus and Samuel Samuel, began importing kerosene into China and established oil depots in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xiamen.
In 1894 the Samuel brothers shipped kerosene to Shanghai by bulk tanker. That same year Royal Dutch Petroleum began importing 'Crown' brand kerosene to China (then called the 'Monk's Cap' brand inland and the 'Canopy' brand in Hong Kong).
Shell Transport and Trading and Royal Dutch were originally competitors. In 1903 they cooperated in Far East business, founding the Asiatic Petroleum Company in London.
Asiatic Petroleum established offices in Hong Kong (1906) and Shanghai (1908). In 1913 these became the headquarters of Asiatic Petroleum (South China) Ltd. and Asiatic Petroleum (North China) Ltd.
In 1907 Royal Dutch and Shell Transport merged operations, forming the Royal Dutch/Shell Group. But its China business was still run under the Asiatic Petroleum name.
In addition, from an industry-development perspective, market demand is also driving technological progress.
After 1950 Shell continued developing in China and became the only Western oil company then allowed to remain. Its Shanghai head office was permitted to stay until 1966, when it closed.
In 1970–71 Shell was invited to the Guangzhou Trade Fair. In 1980 it established a Beijing office and actively traded chemical products. In 1983 it cooperated with Exxon and Phillips Petroleum to begin petroleum exploration in the South China Sea.
With China's 'Open Door Policy', Shell set up two joint-venture oil depots in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in 1985 and 1987. Since then it has invested more actively in China and now has extensive business across many provinces and cities.
In addition, this technology has wide application and practice in related fields.
Shell's development in China was very rapid; by end-2006 its total investment in China was about US$4 billion, making it one of the largest international energy investors in China.
Shell's business goal in China is to help China address priority energy issues — energy security and supply, environmental protection and energy efficiency — and to build sound, mutually beneficial partnerships with Chinese enterprises and customers at home and abroad.
Shell has established over 30 wholly-owned or joint-venture companies in China with nearly 7,000 employees, over 97% of them Chinese nationals. Shell has partnerships with China's four major energy firms — CNPC, Sinopec, CNOOC and Yanchang Petroleum.
We explore, produce and refine oil; we also develop natural-gas resources; Shell Helix lubricants and the Ferrari team have scored glorious results in Formula 1; over 46,000 Shell service stations span the globe; our power business keeps growing; our chemical products keep diversifying; and we are an active pioneer in renewable energy…
In addition, this technology has wide application and practice in related fields.
Shell values R&D and production investment, driven by rising pollution risks and the higher costs of deep-sea and Arctic drilling. It adopts advanced technology and improved equipment to reduce personnel risk and drilling costs. Shell now has 16 research institutes worldwide with 6,900 researchers; safety and environmental protection are important parts of each institute's integrated research. Its exploration and production companies operate in over 45 countries, producing over 4 million barrels of crude and over 400 million m³ of natural gas daily, about half Shell's share. Shell's oil-products business covers global transport, trading, refining and marketing; it holds equity in 50 refineries and leads in jet fuel, lubricants and service stations, with about 50,000 stations worldwide. Shell's commitment is to provide customers the highest-quality products and services.
Recently the chemicals business was repositioned to focus on world-scale mega-projects, including the key chemical building blocks where Shell already leads or can lead globally. The group aims to develop its Asian chemicals position to match its US and European standing. Shell Gas sells over 80 billion m³ of natural gas annually and holds gas interests in over 20 countries (generally via joint ventures with local governments or other oil firms). Some major gas markets rely heavily on imports, supplied as LNG or by long-distance pipelines. Shell holds interests in three major LNG plants (Brunei, Malaysia, Australia) and some under construction (Nigeria, Oman), and in major gas-pipeline companies in Europe, the US and elsewhere. From 1996 Shell began expanding power-generation interests, mainly through equity in operating or under-construction plants totaling 3.32 million kW in the UK, Mexico, the Philippines, Colombia, China and Brazil, with plans for another 6.68 million kW. Renewables are Shell's fifth core business; it has about 20 years of forestry experience and has studied solar power since the 1970s. Over the next five years Shell will invest over US$500 million in renewables, initially solar, biomass and forestry, while also developing market-oriented wind-power projects.
In February 2011 Shell transferred its metalworking-oil and metal-rolling-lubricants business to Quaker Houghton (USA, headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania); since then Shell's metalworking-oil and rolling-lubricants business ceased.
To adapt to reforms aimed at improving performance, Shell also strengthened its commitment to the group's business principles and strict health, safety and environmental standards, and now extends this commitment to sustainable-energy development. Despite the wave of mergers among major oil companies, Shell's various measures will firmly maintain its leading position in the international petroleum industry.
The policy guidance matrix created by Royal Dutch Shell mainly uses a matrix to position each business unit by market prospect and competitive capability. Market prospect is divided into highly attractive, moderately attractive and unattractive, quantified by profitability, market-growth rate, market quality and regulatory situation. Competitive capability is divided into strong, medium and weak, determined by market position, production capacity, and product R&D.
On this basis, industry experts have also carried out extensive research and improvements.
(3) Accelerate development or withdraw. Products in this zone should become the company's future high-speed 'ships'. However, only the few most promising should be accelerated, and the rest abandoned.
(4) Development. Products in this zone generally meet 2–4 strong competitors, so no company leads. The feasible strategy is to allocate enough resources to grow with the market.
It is worth noting that the technologies and standards in this field are also continuously developing and improving.
(4) Review results, examine accidents or incidents, analyze trends from statistics, and dispatch a safety-management team for a full on-site inspection. Seismic-crew safety reviews may be done by Shell-appointed medical and environmental advisers. The procedure is on-site inspection / accident review / accident analysis / safety-committee meeting / business-administrator safety meeting / team-leader and member safety meeting / hazard identification.
Shell holds that responsibility for unsafe operations and the resulting casualties or occupational diseases lies with everyone from supervisors to managers at all levels and the business-management bodies. All employees should know their specific role and responsibility for HSE, which must be clearly written into their tasks and performance expectations, with due consideration of each manager's HSE attitude and performance.
Besides this, many factors must be considered in practical engineering applications.
(2) Professional managers. A professional manager fully exploits existing resources to maximize their effect. He may be a PhD who knows how to research and develop a technology and can achieve results within his means. That is his biggest difference from an entrepreneur.
At the same time, related supporting processes and equipment are continuously optimized and upgraded.
(1) Discover and cultivate entrepreneurial successors. Good domestic companies mostly grew through the pioneering of a new leader/entrepreneur. But to expand from core to related fields, from 100 million to 1 billion or 5 billion yuan, from China to the world, requires new entrepreneurs with an entrepreneurial spirit who can transcend current resources to create larger undertakings.
Besides this, many factors must be considered in practical engineering applications.
The Southeast Asian financial crisis made the world economy sluggish and greatly affected China. Foreign companies in particular were initially very optimistic about the China market, invested heavily and made large HR training plans. But given the current situation of possible short-term flat development, many talents did not get the positions promised. This is an opportunity for domestic enterprises, which should seize it to give them more chances to try and create.
In addition, from an industry-development perspective, market demand is also driving technological progress.
Third, mergers, restructuring, collaboration and cross-holdings among organizations occur from time to time. In 1997–1998 many large global pharmaceutical, chemical, electronics and financial firms merged and restructured. In such events, the most prominent issues are personnel changes and organizational adjustments.
It is worth noting that the technologies and standards in this field are also continuously developing and improving.
(3) HR must convey company goals to all levels and employees. For example, if you want to grow to 5 billion yuan, you must not only tell them the goal but also the strategy — how to achieve it through restructuring, acquisition or technological innovation — and the concrete operations, so they truly grasp your strategy and rally around your enterprise.
It is worth noting that the technologies and standards in this field are also continuously developing and improving.
On the 3rd, Anglo-Dutch Shell Oil Company for the first time admitted responsibility for two oil-spill incidents in Nigeria's Niger Delta in 2008. A company spokesperson said more than one pipeline may have leaked and a technical team had entered the area for repairs.
At the same time, related supporting processes and equipment are continuously optimized and upgraded.
The News Agency of Nigeria reported that Emmanuel Uduaghan, governor of Nigeria's Delta State, said Shell's admission of responsibility sent a signal to other multinationals that they can no longer profit by destroying the environment as in the past, and must not ignore the land's owners and their inherent rights. [2]
