Word: groups
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Dates: during 1960-1960
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...convinced that it has oil - and who can say otherwise? Once abundant in comparatively few areas of the world (e.g., the Middle East, Venezuela, Texas), oil has been discovered in so many places (e.g., Libya, the Sahara, Europe) that there are few the geologist will flatly mark "no." The Group, after 22 years of searching, has even turned up oil right in its own backyard - two miles from its offices in The Hague, and virtually in the garden of one of its directors...
...result of this is a hard-fought contest with its chief rival, massive Jersey Standard. John Loudon diplomatically insists that "this is not a horse race" - but every oilman knows that it is. The Group still lags behind Jersey Standard (1959 sales: $8.7 billion), but it is fast closing the gap. Its annual report, issued this week, shows that its sales climbed to $7.2 billion from last year's $6.5 billion and its net profits from $444 million to $491 million. While Jersey Standard's sales grew 5½%, the Group's sales grew...
During World War II, the Group was probably the hardest hit of any oil company. Bombers battered its European installations, U-boats sank its tankers. The Group got another blow when the U.S. Government forced Jersey Standard to drop all cartel agreements in 1942, thus dissolving the As-Is agreement at a time when the Group's market positions were left badly exposed. But at war's end, it rebuilt its damaged installations so fast that Jersey Standard had little chance to cut deeply into the Group's markets. At first it financed most of its expansion...
Primus Inter Pares. Today the Group's destinies are controlled by Loudon and six other managing directors, who seem for all the world like members of an exclusive club - and so consider themselves. Of a far different stripe than the rough and ready tycoons of the past, they are subdued, cautious, and vastly competent in the modern committee manner. All had to pass one prime admission test: they must have compatibility as well as ability. The man who raises his voice or loses his temper is frowned on, the lone wolf considered a troublemaker. This collective leadership, says...
...this clubby atmosphere, John Loudon employs the same diplomatic skills to make things run smoothly as he does in the international world of oil. He is no desk pounder, has been known to lose his temper only once. Since the Group has an unwritten rule that decisions are never forced to a vote, Loudon, as the primus inter pares, tactfully arbitrates differences, suggests lines of agreement, sounds out his fellow directors. Four are Dutch: Lykle Schepers, 56, in charge of manufacturing, research, chemicals; Luitzen Brouwer. 49, exploration and production; Arnold Hofland, 59, marketing, personnel and Western Europe; and Loudon. Three...