PILOT / DTI Business to Business Mentoring Initiative

CASE STUDY

PHASE 1October 2000 – May 2002

MENTOR Andy Leadbetter, BP

MENTEE Alex Hayward, Pearson Harper

Background Information

Andy Leadbetter

Job History1985 – Joined BP as Petroleum Engineer in Norway1987 – Reservoir Engineer in EOR Group, London1989 – Reservoir Engineer, Forties1992 – Commercial Analyst, Wytch Farm1994 – Operations Engineer, Wytch Farm1997 – Safety Advisor, Aberdeen1999 – ARCO Integration Coordinator for SNS2000 – Business Information Manager, SNS2002 – SBU Transformation Team

Mentoring Objectives Improve understanding of issues facing SME’s Develop understanding of mentoring and practice the skills Use Pearson-Harper as a sounding board for internal BP projects.

Alex Hayward

Job History1989 – Joined HNL Instruments as Development Engineer1990 – Area Sales Engineer1995 – Sales & Marketing Manager1997 – Sales & Marketing Director1999 – Joined Pearson-Harper as Business Development Manager2000 – Business Development Director and Company Secretary

Mentoring Objectives Improve understanding of Oil & Gas sector business drivers Align company services with Oil & Gas sector drivers Identify decision makers and decision making process

Building Relationships

Relationship worked well from beginning – shared understanding of goals and boundaries.

No involvement from DTI/Urquhart Partnership in meetings

P-H entered this in the right spirit. They didn’t try to use it

as an opportunity to get BP business

P-H went to great lengths

to avoid potential

conflicts of interest

Process

Mainly 1-1. Occasional involvement of other P-H managers to discuss specific issues

Monthly all day meetings at P-H office in Billingham. Occasional meeting held at BP in Aberdeen. 1 or 2 meetings replaced with phone call.

Objectives developed individually, then discussed and agreed

Website used infrequently

M&M clubs attended occasionally

BP mentors met 3-4 times

to discuss progress and

share experiences

Mentor Objectives

D2D project delayed, but picked up useful tips from P-H on information management that we will use.

Use Pearson-Harper to sense-check SNS Data to Desktop (D2D) and Info Management projects as they progress.

Met Peter Davison (Pearson Harper mentor) to discuss approaches to mentoring. Got some good tips from Peter that will help me to improve my performance in this area.

Develop my understanding of mentoring and practice the skills required to do this effectively.

Now more aware of issues facing SME’s and the barriers that large organizations can sometimes unwittingly impose e.g. unclear who the decision makers are in organizations, clear communication to SME’s about what our priorities are to help them meet our demands, importance of cash flow

Get a better general understanding of issues that affect SME’s so that we might be able to make any appropriate improvements in our processes.

Performance IndicatorsObjective

SME Objectives

Now have better insight into the type of people P-H should be approaching. Also understand factors effecting the decision making process.

Identify decision makers and decision making process.

Have re-aligned company services to appeal to all phases of an assets lifecycle – from design through to de-commissioning

Align company services with Oil & Gas sector drivers

Now have better insight into wide range of drivers, including production, time to first oil, safety and environment. Also understand how drivers can change depending on economic climate

Improve understanding of Oil & Gas sector business drivers

Performance IndicatorsObjective

Lessons Learned Decision makers in large organisations are often unclear to SME’s – wasted effort trying to enrol the wrong people

Don’t expect SME’s to give something for nothing (endless free consultation)

Required more than 2 days/month to meet DTI expectations

Active BP support waned following change of senior management. Line management often unaware of initiative

DTI and Urquhart Partnership should be involved in initial meetings between mentor and SME to ensure ground rules are understood.

Great development opportunity – improved coaching skills and better understanding of SME issues

Appreciate the pressures individuals within the sector face. Understand why it is so difficult to track them down, set up meetings and obtain feedback. Also why it can take so long to reach a decision.

Sometimes, even when you offer a service the client wants to implement, they don’t have time to produce a business case/raise finance or manage the project.

P-H learned more about attaching tangible benefits to their service.

Due to logistics, it was not practical to attend many M&M sessions

Logistics did not prove too much of a problem in this case, but did add to the expense ( mainly on mentors part )