DUBAI: The Middle East?s national oil companies (NOCs) today are no longer simply energy producers, they serve as geographically dispersed corporations with global interests, a recent study by Management consulting firm Booz & Company shows.
The stakes for these organizations are especially high given that new sources of energy are becoming significantly important and that success for the oil sector strongly impacts the overall economy. In recent years, NOCs have responded to these shifting circumstances by raising their level of professionalism in major competencies. However, they still tend to approach planning and performance management in a disaggregated fashion. With this lack of integration negatively affecting business, Management consulting firm Booz & Company has found that an integrated strategy to planning and performance management is imperative for NOCs to reap clear and tangible benefits. In this day and age, NOCs in the Middle East are navigating through a series of challenges. After all, the region?s governments ? the main beneficiaries of the NOCs? success ? are asking for greater fiscal contributions to fund vital social and educational programs and to diversify their economic base. As a result, NOCs have established intensive programs of capital investment, better plan?ning, and improved performance management. "During this decade we expect the main Arab oil producers to invest over US$800 billion in capital projects," explained Sean Wheeler, a Partner with Booz & Company. "So, most NOCs have installed Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to make a broad range of management information available to executives and senior managers. They have also introduced detailed, multiyear strategic plans as standard, along with balanced scorecards, KPIs, and other best-practice planning and perfor?mance management approaches."Although these advances are important, what is still missing is the capability to undertake integrated planning and performance management ? as the scale and complexity of NOCs? activities grow, the study says.Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2013.
