It All Begins with People

DOWNEY, MARLAN W., ARCO International Oil and Gas Co., Plano, TX

Discussions about the business side of geology sometimes presume that exploration can be restricted to financial matters. Finding an oil field with a prudent allocation of risk capital is certainly the most important objective of a successful exploration manager. Techniques for efficiently finding oil fields require that risk capital be leveraged by use of human intelligence and innovation. Each exploration success is a triumph of originality and risk-taking--finding buried treasure where no one else has found it.

Able exploration teams are hot-house flowers: they require continuous encouragement and challenges and are often blighted by dogmatic and hierarchical supervisors. Proper management of exploration people requires attention to staff morale, the creation of mutually shared goals for achievement, prompt and public tributes to excellence, and private and thorough analysis of failures. When people in an organization are encouraged to do more work, better work, and work more useful to the company, then the people in the organization can be said to be well managed. Well-managed companies with first-class staff always outperform their competitors in the long run.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91004 © 1991 AAPG Annual Convention Dallas, Texas, April 7-10, 1991 (2009)