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- Herausgeber: Biteback Publishing
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
One of the world's top 40 manufacturing companies, one of the largest global petrochemicals producers and the biggest private company in the UK, INEOS has risen to prominence over the past twenty years led by three unassuming northern grammar school boys: majority owner Jim Ratcliffe and his business partners Andy Currie and John Reece. The company's prolific growth and unlikely success have reshaped the industry, though its first two decades have been punctuated by close calls and hard lessons, as well as unprecedented highs. As they celebrate the company's twentieth anniversary and continued evolution, Ratcliffe and his management team have opened up on the major junctions of the INEOS journey, and their insights into business and manufacturing today.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Frankly, I was not sympathetically inclined, a year or so ago, to the proposal to write a book about INEOS’s first twenty years. It had undertones of self-indulgence written all over it, it risked being a hostage to fortune, and, if one is at all superstitious, then telling the world publicly how wonderful we have been over two exciting decades has all the hallmarks of the kiss of death!
So, no, I wasn’t enthusiastic. Nor were John and Andy, my two colleagues and lifetime friends.
So how come the U-turn? Did vanity ultimately win the day?
Here I struggle a little. We – John, Andy and myself – have enjoyed a most extraordinary twenty years, which has seen INEOS grow from a small obscure chemical company in Antwerp to, quite frankly, a colossal enterprise today. Now we have chemical plants the size of the City of London. We have over 100 chemical sites worldwide. We have annual sales of $60 billion, comparable to the GDP of a medium-sized country. We produce 50 million tonnes of chemicals and 50 million tonnes of oil and oil products. We own 1 billion barrels of oil still in the ground. We have eight tankers shuttling shale gas from America to Europe. We have a car company, a clothes company and a football club, not to mention my hotel business. It’s difficult to keep up sometimes. Last year every single business in INEOS beat its budget. Our safety record is genuinely world-class. Profits hit $7 billion in 2017.
So, is the story worth telling? Who knows? But John, Andy and I were lobbied persistently and, ultimately, we weakly relented.
To accomplish what we have in such a short timeframe requires taking some risk. We have experienced some strong headwinds on our journey (some might say cyclonic is a better description!) and many moments are indelibly seared into memory. All of this will, hopefully, make interesting reading.
There has never been a dull moment. It has been an absorbing time and tremendous fun, in the main. We weathered the crisis in 2008, no thanks to Gordon Brown, but our ship was close to foundering. We stood our ground with the unions in Grangemouth four years ago and, ultimately, saved Grangemouth and many thousands of jobs. Today, Grangemouth is tremendously successful, but it teetered for weeks on the verge of closure. And we brought US shale to Europe, whose stubborn refusal to entertain such a cost-effective energy source threatened the whole European chemical industry when oil was over $100 per barrel. Exciting times. Although I admit it has been exciting in a ‘manufacturing’ sense. I was born in the heart of industrial revolution territory and I suppose it runs in my blood. I believe we benefit if we actually make some of the goods we buy rather than just sell services. And, just as importantly, much of the northern economy in Britain depends on manufacturing jobs which today are few and far between. Britain has its own rust belt, as America did before its shale revolution resolved a lot of that. I’m optimistic we could do the same here.
It’s traditional to offer thanks in such a book as this, and INEOS has cause to be grateful to many people who helped it along the way, but we certainly wouldn’t be where we are today without John Reece and Andy Currie. Both clever chaps from Cambridge, unlike like my humble red-brick, they share my northern values, hailing from Sunderland and Doncaster grammar schools respectively. We work closely together. We almost always reach a consensus when important decisions come our way and, likewise, they both enjoy good humour. Northern values include hard work, good manners, grit, rigour and an essential sense of humour, with wit as a bonus. Life is short!
My family, I am told, has endured the occasional bout of grumpiness from my direction – I am sure only on a microscopic level and exceedingly infrequently – but has given much support and helped keep my feet firmly planted on the ground. The family always come first, and we make this message clear throughout INEOS.
I am fortunate in that I can switch off, so family holidays offer a real rest. My father once said that there is little point worrying about things you can do nothing about. It was good advice.
So, for better or worse, here follows the tale of INEOS.
Jim Ratcliffe April 2018
FOREWORD BY PROFESSOR SIR ANDREW LIKIERMAN
Professor Sir Andrew Likierman was dean of London Business School between 2009 and 2017. Educated at the University of Vienna and Balliol College, Oxford, Andrew’s career has spanned the public and private sectors as well as many years in academic life. In the public sector he has been an official in the Cabinet Office and the Treasury, non-executive chairman of the National Audit Office, and a director of the Bank of England among other posts. Roles in the private sector include director of Barclays plc and non-executive director of Times Newspapers. Andrew taught Jim Ratcliffe during his MBA at London Business School in 1978.
There is something irresistible about the story of a plucky upstart making good. Even better, this story is real life. And in an entrepreneurial world dominated by services and high-tech, INEOS is a sighting of that rarest of birds, the highly successful UK manufacturing entrepreneur.
There’s always a danger of companies writing their own stories, as Jim frankly acknowledges. This is also a story still very much in the making, with major developments in recent years including building a fleet of tankers in China to bring US shale gas to the UK, buying North Sea oil fields and pipelines, and – planning and public opinion permitting – fracking. More are on the way.
But even if it’s mid-story, there are good reasons to tell it. INEOS is now a force in international petrochemical and energy supply, including the North Sea. Its operations in Scotland alone make it a significant national player. But as a private company it has to provide less information than those that are listed and this book gives a context for those who want the background to INEOS. The company is also proud of what it has achieved, and wants to share where it comes from and what it has done. Then there are some real insights for those wanting to learn from others, and understand what it takes in terms of risks and rewards, inspiration and perspiration, to turn dreams into reality.
The obvious question from a success story of this magnitude is: why INEOS, and why not so many of the hopefuls who started at the same time, full of enthusiasm, most of whom will have failed? While each start-up is different and each entrepreneur has his or her own strengths and weaknesses, there are certainly some lessons from INEOS for tomorrow’s aspiring entrepreneurs to think about, including those a world away from manufacturing.
First, there is the combination of technical and managerial professionalism. The management team are a group who understand their fields and can apply their knowledge and experience. The combination of detailed technical knowledge with professional management has been crucial in overcoming challenges to build the business. All too often a great idea fails because there are not the management skills to turn it into a viable enterprise and it isn’t an accident that, contrary to so many other cases, a high proportion of INEOS acquisitions have been successful. The logic of acquiring underperforming assets has been backed up by the skills and ability to make them perform. But while the basis of the company’s fortunes has been turning the oil majors’ unloved chemical plant into highly profitable operations, the lateral moves to other energy fields in recent years show that the professionalism is not confined to making the original concept work.
Another key factor is the advantage that has come from continued private ownership. This is most evident in two contradictory aspects of speed: the ability to take decisions quickly, combined with the opportunity to be patient without being pushed by the capital markets. It is also clear that these freedoms have come at the cost of increased risk that comes with reliance on debt in troubled times.
Then there is the management culture. Most important is a lack of complacency – the one characteristic I have found common to well-managed organisations throughout my own working life. At INEOS this is combined with openness, a lack of pomposity and a down-to-earth approach. In Lancashire parlance, spades are called bloody shovels. Management of risk has also been crucial. INEOS is a company which has taken huge risks in terms of the sheer scale of acquisitions, the moves to new spheres of operation and geographic spread. This is ‘Boys Own’ stuff, with bold moves followed by testing times. Anyone who wants to know how resilient you need to be in a crisis should read Chapter 5 on the rocky road through the financial crisis, and Chapter 8 on the Grangemouth showdown.
Finally, there is the leadership. The company has the character of the founders all over it – the managerial and technical professionalism, the lack of complacency and the management of risk are not accidents. ‘The tone from the top’ is often cited as a reason why companies fail. Here it is very much the basis of INEOS’s success, with all the above qualities allied to a clear strategy and values, and with a deep commitment to the business. It also reflects the founders’ northern grit and pragmatism, allied to experience on the ground in manufacturing and finance. Jim Ratcliffe has a combination of qualifications in chemical engineering, management accountancy and from business school, and it shows.
Leadership has also meant teamwork. While Jim is the leading shareholder, driving force and public face of the company, INEOS is not a one-man band. The founders remain the shareholders, and the fact that turnover among the senior team is so low is a sign of the strength of a group of colleagues working together to make things happen.
One factor not on the above list is luck. Every new enterprise needs some, and those who are lucky understandably want to take the credit for what follows. In the case of INEOS, it could be said that their ambitions coincided with the desire of the oil majors to divest their petrochemical operations, but without the skill to pull the operations round, the fortune of timing would have been irrelevant. They were definitely not lucky in the timing of the financial crisis so soon after acquiring such a huge slug of their assets. So overall, they can’t be said to have relied on luck, other than in Pasteur’s sense that ‘fortune favours the prepared mind’.
What next? As ever, the only thing that can be said with certainty about the next twenty years is that they won’t be like the last twenty. I’ve no doubt they will be full of excitement, but INEOS starts Year 21 as a world player in the publicly sensitive area of energy, not a hopeful start-up. There are positions to defend as well as new areas to conquer. New skills and qualities will be called on. The balance of interests of the founders may change, and in due course they will need to think about succession.
There will be a lot more scrutiny. This is where the culture of the company is so crucial. The flexibility, open-mindedness and lack of complacency will be essential in maintaining the ability of the company to thrive.
The remarkable achievements of INEOS can be seen as an outstanding example of the excitement and gloom, the fun and the angst of entrepreneurship. This book has plenty of food for thought for those wanting to follow this company’s example. Or those who just want a good story.
Professor Sir Andrew Likierman April 2018
To my mother and father, Alan and Marie
JIM RATCLIFFE ON INEOS
Before writing this opener, I circulated a note around the top thirty senior execs in INEOS, asking them for their uninhibited and personal reflections on why INEOS has been so successful in such a relatively short time span. Consequently, the insight that follows is a blend of my own views and those of the movers and shakers in INEOS who have experienced this remarkable growth first hand. There are many occasions in this chapter when I am unable to match the clarity of thought of these executives, in which case I use their exact words rather than mine, and these can be identified by passages in italics.
Let’s begin at the top, so to speak. I have known and respected and worked with John and Andy for twenty-five years. We are good friends. Twenty-five years is a long time never to have had an argument, but it’s a fact. We have had our differences and debates over the years but never a sour word. We have never had a 2:1 vote. We have never had a vote!
We all grew up in modest surroundings in the north of England: John in Sunderland, Andy in Doncaster and me in Manchester and Hull. All three of us were educated at grammar schools when education was sensible and grounded in common sense, subjects were evenly split between sciences and arts, you got your ear clipped if you misbehaved, you stood up and showed respect when the teacher entered the classroom and joyously you could play oodles of sport! John and Andy went off to Cambridge and I had a choice of Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Imperial College (London) to read chemical engineering. Birmingham was good for sport!
So, we shared similar upbringings – which came with similar values. A work ethic was required to rise from these modest beginnings. An appreciation of the value of money was naturally acquired. None of us had any! A grounding in common sense was quite normal where we came from. A sense of humour, or, more accurately, a need for humour, is present in us all. Les Dawson always said that humour was related to adversity – the Geordies, the Liverpudlians, the Mancunians, we collectively enjoy a good laugh. Seldom does a board meeting start without some banter, generally football-related. I simply cannot cope with a dry board meeting. I lose the will to live. We (I think) are approachable. We don’t have airs and graces. We are not particularly PC. In the USA, we would have been shut down years ago. We don’t enjoy politics, or bureaucracy, or bullshit. We do like honesty, good manners, directness and normal people. That said, we can equally tolerate quirkiness. We are not impressed by a suit and tie and we don’t expect people to stay late if there is no necessity, just to put on a show.
I believe that the three of us are highly complementary. John does the finance stuff with great professionalism. I have not met his equal. I fluff around at the top and think about strategy and deals, and some of my guiding principles of safety, rigour and ensuring the right people are in the right roles – that sort of thing! Last but not least, Andy is peerless in picking up the pieces (usually, in fact, almost always my pieces!) and making the organisation tick smoothly. Again, I have not met his equal.
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
