Why Appointing Reinhardsen Chairman of Statoil is a Disastrous Decision for O & G
The phrase “toxic work environment” is code for bad leadership, because a toxic culture simply cannot co-exist in the presence of great leadership.
Mike Myatt, Leadership & Toxic Work Environments
The speed of the leader is the speed of the gang.
Mary Kay Ash
Jon Erik Reinhardsen is currently the CEO and President of Norwegian marine seismic service company, Petroleum Geo-Services ASA (PGS). Reinhardsen recently (29 May 2017) announced that he will retire from PGS at the end of August 2017. Reinhardsen is not the only person who needs to retire from PGS. Reinhardsen never understood the cyclic seismic industry so much as financial instruments and legal loopholes. PGS desperately needs a solid and ethical leader and executive team who understand thoroughly the cyclic nature and technology demands of the marine seismic industry. The new CEO should also understand the importance of adhering to core values to serve all stakeholders. Ethics and values are the only stable thing in business, to which Reinhardsen pays only lip-service. It is a sad testament to the O & G industry that Reinhardsen has been picked to chair Norwegian oil company Statoil. This may be the worst decision that the Statoil board has ever made. Firstly, Reinhardsen is not a leader. In my view, Reinhardsen is a disingenuous coward who abandoned core ethical business values and practices which have harmed PGS and the greater marine seismic sector, quite possibly beyond repair. Since he assumed the helm of PGS, in spite of extraordinary capex spending, the market capitalization of PGS has declined from over $5 billion USD to a present value of less than $700 million USD. Reinhardsen does not possess the integrity or honor to assume such a role. He also does not appear to possess the commercial acumen either.
PGSVY Market Cap
Source: https://ycharts.com/companies/PGSVY/multichart
The current marine seismic market is tumultuous and requires a strong and steady leader and manager at the helm. It demands leadership with character and integrity. It demands responsible stewardship and owned responsibility. Reinhardsen has demonstrated none of these qualities while CEO at PGS and yet is rewarded? The latest addition to the PGS Executive Team is a lawyer and not a geophysicist. EVP Rune Olav Pedersen is a similarly ethically debased and corrupt compliance team member. This speaks volumes to how Reinhardsen sees the O & G business. Through his toxic management practices, corrupt executives are protected by lies and misappropriated and ill-managed money (embezzled) hidden under legal minutiae. PGS cannot continue their spendthrift corruption forever, and so, of course, Reinhardsen retires from the challenge of ethical leadership. PGS is a damaged company. It is my opinion that Reinhardsen, along with many in the upper hierarchy of PGS, should all have been fired and/or put into handcuffs. I have published extensively my reasons for this belief on www.nopgs.com [now offline since December 2018 due to what I contend was illegal litigation in Thailand.] I first called for Reinhardsen to resign 6 September 2015 in the article, Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) CEO Jon Erik Reinhardsen Should Resign. The latest article highlighting the CEO, The Society of Exploration Geophysicist (SEG) Should Investigate the Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) CEO Reinhardsen Cabal was posted on 17 October 2016. So, Reinhardsen’s announcement of retirement from PGS is both welcomed and overdue. On the other hand, his appointment to chair Statoil is mostly tragic. I fear Statoil’s company value and reputation will be diminished by such a choice.
Perverting the course of justice is an English common law crime. There are three key acts which define perverting the course of justice. Intimidating a witness, juror, or judge; disposing of or fabricating evidence; and falsely accusing someone of a crime. These are all forms of perverting the course of justice. (Perverting the course of justice is a serious criminal offense and carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.) I believe that toxic workplace behaviors often embody the elements of perverting the course of justice, and thus perverts the course of the industry which accepts and promotes such toxic and corrupt management practices. Also, accepting toxic workplaces to be the sole concerns of agents and stakeholders of the enterprise themselves generally works to empower corrupt management and therefore corruption in general throughout the greater landscape of the market sector even more. It is an oxymoron to expect internal governance and compliance to be functional within corrupt organizations. Human nature after all, is just that. Toxic management, by its nature, is non-compliant and often is antecedent or parallels enterprise corruption and even criminal behaviors. Directors apply the constraints. When rules and policies stop being fairly applied this leads to disorder and disorganization. Disorganized organizations are always less productive and less profitable to the honest stakeholders. Toxic management embodies these elements. Further, the belief that toxic management of an organization is a matter only for internal governance and legal compliance is predicated on the myth that abating corruption is a principal interest of those in authoritative power of the enterprise. This is seldom the case. Corrupt leadership alwaysfacilitates enterprise corruption through the culture of behaviors that they accept. Culture is defined by choices and by the decisions that those with authoritative power make. Culture is performance. With Reinhardsen as Chairman, Statoil is accepting a disastrous health-harming toxic culture to direct their business decisions in the future. Good luck.
Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny.
Kin Hubbard
The sentiment of justice is so natural, and so universally acquired by all mankind, that it seems to be independent of all law, all party, all religion.
Voltaire
All of the individual’s named within my articles have always been encouraged to tell their side of the story publicly. How did their decisions abide by core values, company policy, or common law? Well, they didn’t and so there is the irresponsible silence which accompanies the void in ethical leadership. Signing a contrived agreement proffered through misrepresentations, withheld information, and abusive – corrupt – management, and likely countersigned by Reinhardsen is apparently binding for targets of abusive workplaces. The distressed signature is even more binding than the breach in policy and common law which facilitated the PGS executive executed confidence fraud. The corrupt protect the corrupt and defile the business and industry in the process. Toxic management unbridles corrupt behavior and then normalizes it, protects it, and promotes it. Reinhardsen and his cabal are disgusting and evil human-beings who will destroy livelihoods before facing the truth and being held accountable. PGS executives run from responsibility. How is it that Reinhardsen does not feel obligated by his CEO agency status and responsibilities to stakeholders to live the words in his authored Responsibility Letter? Where are the core values and integrity that embody true leadership? Vacant. Those in control of the leadership and management of the enterprise define the culture, develop the processes, and determine how resources are best used. Organizational leadership, through culture, facilitates either intentionally or through neglect corruptible processes and systems. Workplace bullying has become epidemic along with corporate corruption. The two go together hand-in-hand. Workplace bullying is especially focused on whistle blowers who reveal corruption, and it is whistle blowers who most often pay the highest price in terms of damage to their careers and livelihood. USA Wells Fargo Bank agents, including compliance and human resource (HR) executives, engaged in relentless non-compliant behaviors and corrupt terminations and blacklisting of whistle blowing employees to hide the fraud and protect the enriched executives. This is a travesty of justice. It is far too easy for many enterprise executives to be corrupt under the guise that there exists some form of corporate governance and leadership accountability. Those with the authoritative power to abuse are out of reach of the rules and laws that are supposed to govern the workplace. Such is the case with PGS as well.
Allowing psychological workplace violence, such as workplace bullying, gang-bullying/mobbing, and harassment, to remain an issue of internal policy of the organization itself undermines markets and all professionals who work within them. Enterprises work hard to present reputations of ethical business practices grounded in core values. However, PGS top management have collectively conspired to pervert the course of justice through their misuse of power and resources. The policy handbook has no value but to the most toxic and corrupt who misuse it to purge grievers and whistle blowers. The bullies have no dignity or honor because they needn’t have within the corporate gangland. Narcissistic executives regard industrious and creative employees as threats and pariahs to expel. Threatening the empowered incompetent and corrupt within a toxic organization places the target of abuse in peril. The reason that I can publish such blistering critiques and admonishments is because I write the truth. And while a hefty legal claim is kept out of reach through such fraud and abuses, there is no renunciation of my words from those accused. The simple fact is that workplace psychological abusers and fraudsters are willing to be called anything. The abused targets require lots of money and evidence for actions against the corrupt. The corrupt need only a signature on a voidable contract to remain free from justice.
Reinhardsen simply does not possess integrity or the temperament to direct a company into the future. Reinhardsen’s management practices are obscene, cowardly and abusive. He has never had to answer for his terrible decisions. This sets a deafening tone from the top. He is responsible for destroying careers and lives by his active promotion and participation in illegal workplace practices. No one is demanding that Reinhardsen address such allegations directly and seriously study the evidence. Why not? The health and safety of all stakeholders is at stake. His business decisions are a product of his character and the culture it imbues. Reinhardsen is allowed to retire with praise while grievers and whistle blowers revealing his corruption and evil management are disposed of. Reinhardsen is not a leader. He is too unprofessional, dishonest, insecure, and divorced from what the business actually means to be called a leader. The industry needs to stop encouraging and promoting toxic management. Workplace bullying, gang-bullying/mobbing, and harassment are top rated health hazards. The Deepwater Horizon and Piper Alpha offshore disasters were products of toxic management thinking productivity and profit are achieved through cutting corners in safety. Those interviewed following the Deepwater Horizon understood that if they complained about abusive work practices of those in charge that their days were numbered. When will the days be numbered for toxic and corrupt managers? When will the profession demand their responsible redress? Executives such as Reinhardsen pervert the course to a safe and high morale workplace. Reinhardsen owes many an apology. He should be ashamed. He should have integrity. Without these, with his position he can only continue to damage the O & G industry.
Business, that’s easily defined – it’s other people’s money.
Peter Drucker
The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.
Martin Luther King, Jr.