My best... Jobs

It is fashionable on blogs to do lists - yes? Well, even if not, I'm running low on new inspiration, so lists is what you'll get in the next few posts. I'll try each time to give it some passing relevance by drawing some possible tips or conclusions

I'll start with my list of best ever jobs. I'm 25 years in Shell, one company man (just like we all were back then) and I think I've had about 12 jobs altogether.

Best ever was the last MD of Fina in Norway, based in Fina's offices outside Oslo, with the job of running the business just acquired by Shell and merging it over six months into Norske Shell. I spent six months negotiating the deal, then Shell realised they needed an integration manager and I happened to be idling around. Top, top job. Day -5 - appoint integration team of people, some from Shell and some from the business we were to acquire, who would all have project and operations positions in the company, like myself. Day 0 - assume the reins, long engagement session with staff, start whole HR process, find a desk situated for maximum gossip and approachability. Day 7 - fitst Monday weekly operational meeting...how are we going to hit our target this month (had hardly been the focus in the run up to being bought) Day 30 - finalise 1-1 deals with the leadership team about their futures Day 60 - plan activity by activity which ones could be swallowed by Shell on day 90 and which had to continue. Day 70 - deal with royal visit by Paul Skinner. Deal 90 - execute the merger, be left sitting with only a project responsibility Day 120 - have a mega party to close the place down, Day 150 - exit. This had everything - HR leadership, running an operating company, managing a high stakes project. Team were amazing. We muddled through with little help, and somehow did great.

Next best was retail advisor for central and east Europe from 1993-94, based in London, just as the markets were opening up and Shell was in a hurry to enter. Again, there was no rule book but high stakes. I seemed to have huge influence, about where we entered, who we hired, how we set up structures. I even ended up personally approving every station proposal, and being driven around half of Europe looking at plots and negotiating with some very odd types. The best bit was the people - we were first in, so could recruit the top top talent in the country, people who had been frustrated under the former regimes and were like coiled springs. A couple rose to country chair within 5 years, and fully deserved it. We laid the foundations for a leadership [position, which Istvan Kapitany later brilliantly turned into a fantastic running operation, a jewel in Shell's crown. One retirement dream is to visit the capital cities and point out all those prime locations I had to approve. Location is everything, and first come was definitely first served, and usually that was us.

Third best was retail regional sales manager in the UK Midlands, home based in Birmingham, with operational responsibility for about 150 stations and a staff of about 10. The great thing was that something weird happened every day, and you were doing active things all the time and able to see the impact. The job was lovely because it was about 50/50 at home and on the road, and it coincided with the first 3 years of my daughter's life. So I was able to hold her and sing to her and wipe her bum much more than most Dads get the chance. The other memorable thing was that this was my first line manager job. Again, no rule book or help really, and I was a baby, muddling through on sheer luck most of the time. Somehow we managed to get into a high performing team - luck and wide-eyed authentic enthusiasm I suspect - and I learned that this was something I really loved and maybe even could build some talent for.

The second division...

My current job, with almost unlimited opportunity and variety and the chance to develop top talent that needs development.

Retail rep in Belfast as a kid, crashing cars, getting physically chased off sites by irate farmers, learning about people, getting a chance to manage a site for 3 months, with all these minimum wage employees I didn't understand at all. How could they let a 25 year-old social disaster do that? They did, and got away with it somehow.

In a project team of 4 trying to buy up small independent fuel distributors in the UK We just called, said "would you like to sell your business to Shell" (while dropping dollar bills all over their offices). Talking about watching people's eyes light up - how to win friends in easy stages. Then we had to try to make money from these odd little businesses, when it was obvious that the only asset they really had was the Alan Sugar-esque entrepreneur to whom we had just given a million bucks and waved bye bye. Ha ha, Shell can be daft.



I think between them these jobs add up to 16 years out of 25. Of the rest, only about two years have been what you might call fourth quartile. So it has not been so bad, so far at least, this Shell thing.

Some lessons:

- you have most fun when you haven't got much clue what is going on. Well, I do anyway.

- look at the variety. Why do you need to hop companies to gain experience and CV value? Shell is broad enough, and seemingly willing enough to gamble, to offer more variety and challenge than most career paths. So, you youngsters, challenge your own dominant logic! And think of the pension advantages - one day they start to matter!

- for all the trend away from gifted amateurs and the like, Shell will still need someone to do these weird jobs, and why couldn't it be you? Don't get bogged down!

- follow your heart and shut your eyes. Anyone suspiciously checking the small print of most of my top six would probably never have accepted the challenges (while all the jobs I took which turned out wrong seemed pretty safe). Rewards come when no-one knows what can happen.

- find your passions, and never forget the balance of work and outside. Belfast was perfect for a footloose kid, Birmingham for a first time father, East Europe for a phase where travel would be a real benefit, GS when travel should be minimised. The successes came because the environment was in harmony, the disasters because it wasn't. Always be aware what harmony requires at that moment, and don't compromise it for ambition or anything else

More lists to follow...