壳牌大换帅

    荷兰皇家壳牌石油公司（Royal Dutch Shell）周二宣布，本•范博登将担任公司新任CEO。虽然公司的这一选择出人所料，但回过头来想想，也只有这个选择才不会让人们感到意外。

    英国沃里克大学商学院（Warwick Business School）副教授克里斯蒂安•斯塔迪勒认为：“谁是壳牌公司的CEO，这个问题的重要性比埃克森美孚（Exxon Mobil）CEO人选来得稍微弱一点。”斯塔迪勒曾经写过一本书《永续成功》（Enduring Success），其中收录了多家超过百年历史的欧洲公司。

    虽然在《财富》（Fortune）世界500强榜单（Global 500 ）中排名第一，但与规模略逊一筹的美国竞争对手相比，强势的中央领导一直都不是壳牌公司的传统。壳牌由常务董事组成的一个委员会负责运营，委员会的成员由荷兰皇家石油公司（Royal Dutch Petroleum）和壳牌运输贸易有限公司（Shell Transport and Trading）的代表组成。1907年，这两家公司以松散的方式合并成今天的壳牌。

    斯塔迪勒表示，上世纪50年代，麦肯锡（McKinsey）研究了壳牌非正统的安排，同时建议公司设立一名美国式的CEO。但壳牌公司拒绝了这一建议，虽然后来公司采取了措施，以实现更集中的领导方式，但旧的习惯很难根除。

    从某种意义上来说，这不失为一个加分因素。如今的石油巨头变得日益全球化，但各地的情况存在较大差异。壳牌下放决策权给行政管理层的意愿强化了公司与各地市场的联系。但从不利的一面来看，公司越来越难控制成本。2012年，这家公司的收入比埃克森美孚多出318亿美元，但利润却比对手少了183亿美元。究其根源，很大程度上或许正是因为这种管理方式。

    55岁的范博登对这种体制非常了解。范博登与即将退休的CEO彼得•沃瑟一样，也是壳牌的终身老兵，已在公司工作了三十年。不过，沃瑟是财务出身，而范博登的背景主要是运营与技术。今年1月份之前，他一直在负责壳牌的化学品业务，后来被任命为公司下游部门主管，负责炼油厂业务，并成为壳牌执行委员会委员。斯塔迪勒认为：“对他的任命将极大鼓舞公司的技术部门。”（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓。

    Ben van Beurden is a Shell lifer who will likely inspire the The only thing that shouldn't surprise us about the choice of Ben van Beurden as the new CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, announced Tuesday, is that his choice comes as a total surprise.

    "It matters slightly less who is the CEO of Shell than the CEO of Exxon Mobil," argues Christian Stadler, an assistant professor at Warwick Business School in the U.K., whose book, Enduring Success, is about European companies that have survived more than 100 years.

    Unlike its smaller American competitor, Shell, the No. 1 company on Fortune's Global 500 list, has never had a tradition of strong central leadership. Until the first decade of the 21st century it never even had a CEO. Instead it was run by a committee of managing directors comprised of representatives from the two companies that came together, loosely, in 1907, to form the company we know as Shell: Royal Dutch Petroleum and Shell Transport and Trading.

    During the 1950s, says Stadler, McKinsey took a look at Shell's unorthodox arrangement and recommended it install an American-style CEO. But Shell (RSDA) refused, and while lately it has taken steps toward more centralized leadership, old habits die hard.

    In some ways that's been a plus. Big Oil is as global as it gets, but local conditions vary widely. Shell's willingness to push decision-making down the chain of command has helped strengthen its ties to local markets. On the minus side, it's harder to control costs that way. That might have something to do with the fact that Shell earned $18.3 billion less in 2012 than Exxon Mobil (XOM) did, despite $31.8 billion more revenue.

    Van Beurden, 55, knows the system. Like outgoing CEO Peter Voser, who is retiring, van Beurden is a Shell lifer who's been with the company for three decades. But where Voser was a finance guy, van Beurden's background is in operations and technology. He ran Shell's chemicals business until January this year, when he became downstream director in charge of refineries and was promoted to Shell's executive committee. "His appointment will inspire the technology people in the company," says Stadler.