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PILOT / DTI Business to Business Mentoring Initiative CASE STUDY PHASE 1 October 2000 – May 2002 MENTOR Andy Leadbetter, BP MENTEE Alex Hayward, Pearson Harper . Background Information. Alex Hayward Job History 1989 – Joined HNL Instruments as Development Engineer
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PILOT / DTI Business to Business Mentoring Initiative CASE STUDY PHASE 1 October 2000 – May 2002 MENTOR Andy Leadbetter, BP MENTEE Alex Hayward, Pearson Harper
Background Information • Alex Hayward • Job History • 1989 – Joined HNL Instruments as Development Engineer • 1990 – Area Sales Engineer • 1995 – Sales & Marketing Manager • 1997 – Sales & Marketing Director • 1999 – Joined Pearson-Harper as Business Development Manager • 2000 – Business Development Director and Company Secretary • Mentoring Objectives • Improve understanding of Oil & Gas sector business drivers • Align company services with Oil & Gas sector drivers • Identify decision makers and decision making process • Andy Leadbetter • Job History • 1985 – Joined BP as Petroleum Engineer in Norway • 1987 – Reservoir Engineer in EOR Group, London • 1989 – Reservoir Engineer, Forties • 1992 – Commercial Analyst, Wytch Farm • 1994 – Operations Engineer, Wytch Farm • 1997 – Safety Advisor, Aberdeen • 1999 – ARCO Integration Coordinator for SNS • 2000 – Business Information Manager, SNS • 2002 – SBU Transformation Team • Mentoring Objectives • Improve understanding of issues facing SME’s • Develop understanding of mentoring and practice the skills • Use Pearson-Harper as a sounding board for internal BP projects.
Building Relationships P-H entered this in the right spirit. They didn’t try to use it as an opportunity to get BP business • Relationship worked well from beginning – shared understanding of goals and boundaries. • No involvement from DTI/Urquhart Partnership in meetings P-H went to great lengths to avoid potential conflicts of interest
Process • Mainly 1-1. Occasional involvement of other P-H managers to discuss specific issues • Monthly all day meetings at P-H office in Billingham. Occasional meeting held at BP in Aberdeen. 1 or 2 meetings replaced with phone call. • Objectives developed individually, then discussed and agreed • Website used infrequently • M&M clubs attended occasionally BP mentors met 3-4 times to discuss progress and share experiences
Objective Performance Indicators Get a better general understanding of issues that affect SME’s so that we might be able to make any appropriate improvements in our processes. Now more aware of issues facing SME’s and the barriers that large organizations can sometimes unwittingly impose e.g. unclear who the decision makers are in organizations, clear communication to SME’s about what our priorities are to help them meet our demands, importance of cash flow Develop my understanding of mentoring and practice the skills required to do this effectively. Met Peter Davison (Pearson Harper mentor) to discuss approaches to mentoring. Got some good tips from Peter that will help me to improve my performance in this area. Use Pearson-Harper to sense-check SNS Data to Desktop (D2D) and Info Management projects as they progress. D2D project delayed, but picked up useful tips from P-H on information management that we will use. Mentor Objectives
Objective Performance Indicators Improve understanding of Oil & Gas sector business drivers Now have better insight into wide range of drivers, including production, time to first oil, safety and environment. Also understand how drivers can change depending on economic climate Align company services with Oil & Gas sector drivers Have re-aligned company services to appeal to all phases of an assets lifecycle – from design through to de-commissioning Identify decision makers and decision making process. Now have better insight into the type of people P-H should be approaching. Also understand factors effecting the decision making process. SME Objectives
Lessons Learned • Decision makers in large organisations are often unclear to SME’s – wasted effort trying to enrol the wrong people • Don’t expect SME’s to give something for nothing (endless free consultation) • Required more than 2 days/month to meet DTI expectations • Active BP support waned following change of senior management. Line management often unaware of initiative • DTI and Urquhart Partnership should be involved in initial meetings between mentor and SME to ensure ground rules are understood. • Great development opportunity – improved coaching skills and better understanding of SME issues • Appreciate the pressures individuals within the sector face. Understand why it is so difficult to track them down, set up meetings and obtain feedback. Also why it can take so long to reach a decision. • Sometimes, even when you offer a service the client wants to implement, they don’t have time to produce a business case/raise finance or manage the project. • P-H learned more about attaching tangible benefits to their service. • Due to logistics, it was not practical to attend many M&M sessions • Logistics did not prove too much of a problem in this case, but did add to the expense ( mainly on mentors part )