Maggie: Oftentimes people don't see the value of the change that you are leading and they feel threatened by it. They feel perhaps, personally threatened that it might impact their role or be left behind and have a missed opportunity and their career, or they frankly just don't understand it. Like, I'm doing fine just the way I am. I don't really need to change how I'm doing my business.

Matt: How does a geoscientist turned executive cut a billion dollars from a super-major's budget in six months, turn helicopter chaos on four continents into record margins, and convert the loudest anti-sponsors into frontline evangelists? Meet Maggie Montaigne, the strategist who treats resistance like rocket fuel. Strap in. This is your masterclass in profitable disruption.

Ward: Maggie, welcome. Thank you so much for joining us to talk about rethinking change.

Maggie: Thanks for having me.

Ward: This is gonna be a great, great, fun day 'cause you've got such an interesting background that we wanna learn all about.

Matt: Really appreciate you coming on board. Uh, for starters, why don't you just tell us about your career and, you know, the path that got you to where you are today?

Maggie: Yeah, thank you Matt. Um, I have over 38 years experience in the upstream oil and gas industry, as well as oil field services and technology and consulting. Uh, I started as a geoscientist with a small independent in Denver, Colorado.

Then moved down to Houston after about 10 years and joined a small startup called Landmark, which developed software to do seismic interpretation, which was very innovative at the time. This is the early nineties, and stayed with them for 21 years because Landmark got acquired by Halliburton, which is a large oil field services company.

And then my last stint, two stints were essentially at Bristow, which is a helicopter services company, and then was recruited from there to go back to operations to Conoco Phillips.

Matt: What were you doing really in those capacities to really drive change?

Maggie: I mean, besides the technical career as a geoscientist, when I moved more into management and more executive roles, for instance, at Landmark and Halliburton, um, it was often as a leader, a requirement to be successful.

So for instance, at Landmark in 2007, I was the manager of the US region, which was their largest region at the time, and we had expectations to grow. And so one of the things I did was to lead our team in an effort to create a strategy that would align our, our operations and our offerings, our sales offerings by play type.

So for instance, unconventional type gas, deep water. And then really important I think in, in change management is upskilling your workforce and getting them engaged. So we had marketing materials, we had a big training event in South Carolina, which I'll never forget. I have a neighbor nearby that I walk by and he still stops and says me and it says hello, because it was such a memorable time for him in his career.

Matt: Oh, wow.

Maggie: Yeah. So that's just one example. Um, I, I think it, you know, these days in particular, change is a requirement. It's just, it's a constant, like they say, change is a constant.

Matt: Awesome. Awesome. So how, how do you two meet?

Maggie: Uh, we met at Bristow, uh, ward I think was, and Pennebaker was engaged at Bristow prior to my joining the company. I was recruited into Bristow in 2012 to take over vice president business development and marketing. And that's how we met and we've been friends ever since.

Ward: It was, and it was, uh, a great time working together. When you came into Bristow, tell us about what were you challenged to do and kind of what was, what was the state of affairs at that time?

Maggie: Uh, Bristow, like a lot of organizations in the upstream energy sector, be it op operations or, uh, oil field services was very regionalized. So they had bases running their helicopters outta Louisiana. Um, they had a training business down in Florida. They had a business, a base in the UK, some in Africa, and they were faced locally with the customers, but they weren't very good at connecting the dots globally. And the fact of the matter is the, the upstream oil and gas in industry is extremely global. And the clients we were dealing with really required a global interface.

So my role was really to come in and assist, restructure the organization to be more global oriented, put global account managers in work with Pennebaker on, um, the, the guardrail session and find ways to be more value-based marketing as opposed to, uh, basically transactional marketing. You know, just walking in and saying, well, how many people do you need to take an offshore rig this month? We'll sign you up. That type of thing. So there was a lot more value to the offerings Bristow had than, than we were communicating, and it enabled us to get more senior in the respective organizations that we were dealing with.

Ward: I remember one of the stories you would tell us is that if I'm a, a customer in Houston and I get transferred to Aberdeen that there was no handoff within the company. So I would just show up in Aberdeen and nobody from Bristow would call me.

Maggie: That's correct. Yeah. And it's a real missed opportunity because these guys talk, right? I mean, it's just the nature of the beast and they get transferred around the world. It's a very mobile workforce. So, um, so working with Pennebaker, it was very helpful because you have to really connect the dots between what's your value base offering to, what's your sales approach, what's your marketing approach, and you need a strategy to hang all those things off.

Matt: Was there a specific moment that you realized, you know, the status quo just isn't working? We gotta do something to, to shake it up.

Maggie: Well, I was hired to shake it up, so that was a challenge.

Ward: What a great job.

Maggie: Honestly. You know, 'cause coming in, one of the challenges I'll say is, uh, resistance, right? So you often have in a change effort champions people who naturally will gravitate to your work because they really are attracted to it and they get it where you otherwise have anti-sponsors, people who will resist you every step of the way. And I had some good resistors there too. So.

Ward: I love the term anti-sponsors. I'm gonna remember that.

Maggie: You know? Yeah, no, it's, it's really an issue. Every change effort I've done, I've, that's been something you have to navigate.

Matt: How aligned was the leadership that there was really something that needed to change in the organization versus status quo was just fine?

Maggie: Oh, I think that, I think it was coming from the CEO in terms of driving this change, um, as well as the CFO, I would say, and the senior, wouldn't you agree Ward. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That, that I think they were aligned to it. Um, what's your perspective?

Ward: Well, they could see, they could see the opportunities that were being missed.

Maggie: Right.

Ward: And, uh, that lack of integration of the company across all the parts of the world was mm-hmm, really, really hurting them.

Maggie: Right. And after, what, a year and a half, I mean, we were able to drive increased revenue and margins, I mean, record results. So, you know, I didn't stay there very long 'cause then I got recruited to Conoco Phillips to do similar change work. But the point is, at Bristow it was, uh, successful. Yeah.

Ward: Well, what was interesting about what we were doing together at Bristow is we had come in and rebranded the company to put 'em under one brand 'cause they were working under all these multiple brands. So we got the brand fixed, but we didn't get the culture fixed or the operations fixed. And that's what you were brought in to do.

Maggie: Right. And that's a journey, that's not an overnight process. That can take years.

Ward: So then from Bristow, uh, and we'll come back to Bristow in a, in a minute, you then were recruited to, uh, Conoco Phillips. So how did you get recruited to Conoco Phillips, and what, what did they sign you up to do?

Maggie: Yeah, so I was recruited by an executive recruiter that had actually recruited me once before in my career, uh, way back when from, I took a stint from Landmark, went to IBM. But long story short, we stayed friends for years, and she, she called me up with this opportunity to be manager of subsurface excellence reporting to the Vice President of Subsurface.

And you know, I met with my supervisor Ken at the time, and we hit it off immediately. And after I got hired, I said, why did you hire me? And he said, well, because you understand the sales and marketing process from your background on, on the service side of the business. You have the technical side of the business. You know, you're a geoscientist by background.

I need someone to help me navigate our organization, to help us develop best practices, break down the barriers across regions, and essentially communicate to the organization the value that my technical function in the center in Houston brings. So there's a real common theme of, you know, you have to, you have to navigate, um, and lead by example, and drive trust and alignment internally, even if you're not in the service business, right? If you're an operator, you need to do that same kind of practice.

Ward: Let's talk about some of the obstacles that you'd run into. What was the term used? Anti...?

Maggie: Anti-sponsor.

Ward: Anti-sponsors. I love that. So, uh, what were examples at, uh, we can talk about first Halliburton and then Bristow, then kind of go Phillips, what were some of the challenges that you're, the roadblocks that you had run into? And how'd you get around them?

Maggie: Yeah. I think the, the themes with anti-sponsors are, uh, oftentimes people don't see the value of the change that you are leading and they feel threatened by it. They feel perhaps personally threatened that it might impact their role or be left behind and have a missed opportunity in their career, or they frankly just don't understand it. Like, I'm doing fine just the way I am. I don't really need to change how I'm doing my business.

Um, I do think, uh, within, let's say, landmark to Halliburton and it's, you know, honestly Landmark was a car by Halliburton and in the early days there was a little bit of a cultural misalignment. Yeah. And you had to get over, you're, you're not from the good old boy Halliburton business, you know, just leave us alone. We, we don't need your help, for instance, driving the deep water business to drive double digit growth. So I, I think it's a lot of not invented here, just mistrust, uh, and just not seeing the bigger picture. Not everybody can see the bigger picture.

Ward: So how'd you overcome it?

Maggie: That's where the strategy work comes in. Right? And in my last seven years of my career I did, I led five transformational efforts, one at Bristow and then four at Conoco Phillips. And in four of those five we brought in external consultants.

And it, it's critical, honestly, to bring in someone from the outside who can help validate what you're seeing as an internal person and also bring in skill sets that you may not have internally. The one downfall of bringing in external consultants can be, again, that not invented here syndrome, mistrust, so you have to really partner with a consultant to get trust and alignment and break those barriers down.

Matt: Can you talk about any experiences where specifically they really transformed an organization, these ex, external consultants that you worked with?

Maggie: Yeah. Probably the, one of the most fun ones I did was, um, with supply chain organization at Conoco Phillips, and we brought in an external consultant, a well-known consultant, and my task I was reporting to the chief procurement officer was to identify a hundred million dollars worth of business improvements.

We did a global workshop. We brainstormed several opportunities. And then we created a roadmap, a long-term roadmap to implement them. And two of the ones right out of the gate that we wanted to test, one was robotic process automation of wells invoice drilling, and then the second one was market analytics to improve the way we managed our lower 48 business.

The robotic process automation one I love because it was actually a wells engineer in the lower 48. A woman who was complaining 'cause she had to improve the invoices basically by hand on her days off. You know, the, the oil industry has nine eighties and on her day off, she was home approving invoices and she had a small child at home. She was not happy with this situation and she was our change champion. Right. I mean, she, she got it immediately when she saw what the robotic process automation could do, how it would streamline the process and take it off her plate so she could do her job, which was a drilling engineer for, for the business.

So that's really rewarding. I think, you know, essentially if you have the wherewithal to drive digital change and then upskill the workforce, it's a real differentiator. So if you see those opportunities, leap on them.

Ward: So with the, the woman that you just referenced, did she become kind of the face of the...

Maggie: Yes.

Ward: The change? How did you do that?

Maggie: Yeah, and that's where working with a company like yourselves at Pennebaker, that's where the marketing comes into play. Uh, even though in this case this is an operator and they don't necessarily market as much per se to the outside as a service company, there was a major communications element to the change effort work where she was our champion.

We would have her talk at town halls. We would have her talk to senior management, we would do little videos with her. So everything you can do to promote those early wins and promote the success really helps your effort.

Matt: Tell me, tell me a little bit more about the communication struggles that you encountered, any of the organizations that you drove change within.

Maggie: Yeah, I think, again, because as I've described, you have in all these global organizations sort of the natural regional versus global power play going on. The communication struggle is often bridging those parts of the organization and sort of navigating new pathways to communicate and building trust, right, and alignment. And I, I believe that communications, some of the learnings I had were communication, communication, communication. It is the number one thing our external consultants helped us with in our change efforts, you know, not just identifying the opportunities and developing the strategy, but then communicating what we decided to do and how we're gonna do it at our early wins.

Matt: Did, did you find the struggle to be more internal communications across departments? And within the organization or external communication to help articulate your value proposition to the marketplace?

Maggie: That's a great question. I think on the service side, um, it was often internal, right? Because the, the clients got it. They could see the value almost instantly of the change that we were trying to drive. And a lot of times we'd partner with clients to drive that change. But the, the, the anti-sponsors of the blockers offered were internal. And so I think there's a, you know, I'd say 60 40, maybe, 60% internal and 40% external, if I were to take a guess.

Ward: So oftentimes these change initiatives, there's all this energy at the beginning and it starts petering out. Management starts saying, I think we're far enough along. How did you address that?

Maggie: Yeah, I think, um, it's like a marathon. You, you know, you just essentially, you're in it for the long haul and you just have to keep engaging senior management.

And another key learning is you have to have senior executive sponsorship and. Several of the engagements I was involved in, the CEO was sponsoring. So if you lose that executive sponsorship, you need to find another senior executive, maybe a level down that will take the mantle and run with you in the rest of the race.

I think, you know, you also see other opportunities for change and improvement as you go down this path. So you just sort of, it's, you just keep building on top of your successes and lauding those successes internally.

Ward: Do you have an example, either in your career or looking at others in their careers, where they didn't have the executive sponsorship or the executive sponsorship kind of filtered away and taking it?

Maggie: Yeah, I, I think, um, I, one spec specific example, the executive sponsorship was not as committed as I had believed initially. And so I don't think that effort was as long lasting as it could have been. Yeah, I think you, you know, that's, you know, initiative fatigue is a real thing, especially in the energy industry because it's an industry that upsizes, downsizes, it's mostly been on a theme of downsizing in the last, you know, 15 years. And so there's been a lot of cost cutting initiatives and initiatives to improve operational excellence. And people just get tired of it and they just think it's the flavor of the month and somebody got promoted internally and they've been handed this initiative and that's gonna be great for their personal career. But what's in it for me? You know?

Ward: Or for the next two years, that's their big deal. Okay, I'm done.

Maggie: It's a real common problem. Yeah. In fact, the role I was hired, recruited in at Conoco Phillips, the subsurface excellence role went away within a year, maybe 14 months, because that initiative went away, and they had an overall global initiative in the organization to cut a billion dollars of cost in 2015. So I was taken outta that role and put into the global cost improvement in initiative. So it's real common.

Matt: Wow.

Maggie: Yeah.

Matt: Wow. What, what would you say is the biggest challenge or type of change that you had to deal with in all of your experiences? Is there, is there a particular type of change that's more disruptive or more difficult than others?

Maggie: Uh, that's a good question, Matt. I think I, uh, often the technology cha, you know, changes that involve technology. So this could be a service company who's selling the technology, right? It's a new technology and the, the buyers aren't really understanding what the benefits of the technology are 'cause they haven't really tested it. Uh, I, I'm talking technology solution. It doesn't have to be just something that you turn on and off. I think that can be very challenging for people. And then adopting a new technology internally in an organization is also challenging.

So back when I worked at Landmark, we would develop new software and getting people to understand the value of rolling that software out globally and implementing it in their workflows was not an easy task, especially the global rollout. Right.

Ward: How'd you do it?

Maggie: A regional do it, but the global. How did I do it? Yeah. What I, I don't know. I learned, I mean I played a lot of sports growing up and I think I learned that this is a team sport, both internally within my own organization and also externally with the organization I was working with.

And I can think of one example. I was working with Shell and I had actually all women working on my team and we nicknamed ourselves the Shell sisters and I had a group over in, um, in the UK and actually in the Netherlands, somebody here in Houston. And we communicated so fast that we were on top of every client interaction and we could understand what was working for us and what wasn't working for us and adapt really quickly. And I think they began to trust us very quickly that we had their best interest at heart and the clients. Yes. And that we were part of their team.

Uh, another example with ExxonMobil, we were doing, this is oil field services work. We won a big project in the Piceance Basin to deliver all their services for drilling and completions, which was a big job. And I put a project manager in the field who had a military background and he was very disciplined, had a great communication style. Uh, I had a project manager in the office here in Houston, and same thing. You zipper up the communication, right?

So with ExxonMobil, one of the big learnings is that something goes wrong you, you execute. You raise it up the flagpole very quickly to let them know that you're aware there's an issue. We're on top of it and we're managing it, and we'll get. Back to you as soon as possible with what we're doing to address it. So I think the, the communication is really critical too, in the way you sort of structure your organizations.

Matt: Mm-hmm. Very interesting. Mm-hmm. So initiating change like you have across the different organizations causes a lot of friction. Uh, and like you said earlier, certain people aren't very receptive to it all the time. Uh, what's the biggest learning that you had over all of these experiences?

Maggie: Try to make your anti-sponsors, uh, your friends, right? No, I mean, you know, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Seriously. So if you've identified somebody that's very resistant, just uh, just try to spend more time with them and understand. Sometimes you have to move on and just say, uh, well, they're just not gonna get it, and we're aware and, you know, try to find more champions.

So I think the anti-sponsor problem is a real problem. Uh, so it, it's, I don't know. I'm interested in your thoughts. What do you think there, you do this work as well?

Matt: No, it is, like you said, keep your friends closer and your enemies closer. Uh, it's really hard if people don't buy in. Um, you know, when you have people, especially the, if the, if the CEO's not driving an initiative, it'll die on the vine.

Ward: Mm-hmm. I agree. Do you have an example where there was a, a clog in the system, it just wasn't working, things were stuck and you did something to break free and all of a sudden it's like, ah, everybody gets it?

Maggie: Yeah. I think one example, back to that robotic process automation example, um, it was a region who was also working on a solution similar to what we were trying to implement, and there was a lot of friction.

And so once you start letting go of the control and the power and you say, all right, we're gonna let them do it the way they want to some degree and let them kind of lead it, the friction goes away because it's a lot about credit for people. People want credit for work they've done and they were heading down a great path.

And then if somebody comes in, let's say from the global center, that's seen as sort of, why are you looking over my shoulder trying to change the way I'm working? So you, you have to find a way to let the other people lead, embrace it, and run with it and, and sponsor them. And it turned out after I left, this person started leading the group, right, that I had been leading. So I think it's a common thing where you just have to sort of let go of your ego and let others have major success.

Matt: How'd you build up those people who are in the next next leadership position?

Maggie: Yeah, I think throughout my career I've always been a mentor and it is really critical to me to have next generation leaders come up through the organization and see a pathway for success.

So really giving them opportunities to stretch their abilities and lead. So some these change efforts are some of the best places for talented employees to get exposure in an organization.

Matt: What, what advice would you give to those kind of leaders in waiting the next generation that are on the cusp of being in the position to make the decision?

Maggie: Um, to make the decision what, to drive the change?

Matt: Yes.

Maggie: Yeah. Um, get a sponsor, you know, within your group. Right. And, you know, test the waters and, and take it from there.

Ward: In each role that you've entered a new company or a new like within Conoco, or you go to a new section, there would be instant, who is she? Why is she here? And how did you overcome that?

Maggie: Yeah, it's a good question. Um, especially in the latter part of my career after I left the 21 segment, year segment at, at Landmark Halliburton, culture's really important, uh, of the company that you join and. You know, some are more of a natural fit than others, and sometimes it's good to join a company, uh, where the culture's different than where you came from.

And Bristow was a big change for me going from, you know, essentially, uh, a software startup to an oil field services company, to a helicopter services company, was part of the business I knew nothing about frankly. So that was probably one of the most dramatic culture changes for me, not the oil field services side, but it was a sort of a subsegment of the big boy business that I had been in, for lack of a better word.

When I got recruited into Conoco Phillips, it was one of the first questions I asked when I was getting interviewed. I'm like, am I gonna fit in here culturally? Because I had just come from a place where it was a challenge, honestly. You know, a I am female, number one, and, uh, you know, uh, in an sort of executive level and executive level position, I'll take credit for it. And, you know, it's, it's a challenge being the only female in the room, uh, with all other men. And then frankly, in a business that I did not know as well as I should at the Bristow business, Conoco Phillips, it was like putting, uh, a glove on a hand that was custom made for me. It was a great fit and I, I think it's primarily because I had the technical experience. I also had the oil field services experience and I could marry the two and it was later in my career and it just was a great five years from my career perspective.

Ward: And what would be the deal breakers? In your career as you're going, if you interviewed somebody and it's like, this is a deal breaker, I'm not, I can't go here. What? What did you see?

Maggie: Well, I have to trust my leadership, right? And trust that they're gonna be straight with me and not sort of lead me down the garden path and say, okay, Maggie, go do this because I follow instructions and I will go do that, but, and then basically leave me out there to dry when things go south. Right? So I, it's really important to me to, to, to build that trust. And I think if you have a good sixth sense, you can pick up on that, although I've been surprised. So that can be challenging.

I, I think if there's not a long-term commitment, you know, I, uh, essentially that this is just a new role and we're gonna try it out and see how it goes, that's a red flag for me.

Ward: What questions can you ask to see if it is a long-term commitment versus I just have to do this for the board to show I'm doing something?

Maggie: Yeah, it's a tough one because if the board's saying do it, they're gonna be committed at the time and they're gonna wanna execute on it. I, I think it's just say, you know, let's fast forward five years. How do you see this role and how do you see it evolving? Yeah.

Matt: So do you have any success stories, any anecdotal stories where you're implementing this change across an organization and you're like, you know what? It's working. We're on the right track. I can really see, I can see success here.

Maggie: Yeah, well, certainly the, the large global reorg at Conoco Phillips was very successful. We reduced our operating expenses by 25% and cut a billion dollars out of the budget.

But that was a huge team effort, right. I mean, I'm talking probably 40 people working on that project around the globe, along with an external consultant and done in record time, like, six months. So that was one where we had the CEO sponsorship, the board sponsorship, and we were marching down a path. So it was successful, but it was painful. It was a painful time, right, because reducing your cost by 25% means people lose their jobs or get, you know, moved to a different role. So it was, it was a challenging time.

On the more upbeat side, I personally navigate to projects that, that integrate a lot of elements. So strategy, the marketing, the technology, the innovation, and then the engaging the workforce. So for me, projects that involve that are the most rewarding. Uh, and I think the, you know, transforming a BDM marketing organization like we were doing when we worked together at Bristow was rewarding. I, I believe the work at Conoco Phillips when I was working with the supply chain and the subsurface group was very rewarding.

Matt: Tell me a little bit more about the Bristow work that, that you did, um, and really driving that whole initiative. Any specific challenges that you faced?

Maggie: I'm gonna start with Ward on that one.

Ward: Well, I, at the time this was a company that, uh, when the CEO, uh, Bill Chiles came in, he inherited a company that was in significant turmoil. There had been a merger between the British company and an American company. The British company, the American company, was essentially based in Louisiana, and there was this huge cultural divide between the two where the Brits thought the Louisiana people were hicks and the, and the, the Louisiana people thought the Brits were, you know, uppity.

And so Bill entered that and had to figure out a way to, uh, get everybody on the same team. And then you ran into the, the same issues that, that Maggie talked about with the silos of, I know what I'm doing in the UK, don't tell me 'cause nobody from the US is gonna tell me how to do my job. Uh, and so that's the culture that you entered, that you were tasked to fix. Mm-hmm.

Maggie: Yeah. And the work we did, I mean, essentially we did the Guardrails work where, where Pennebaker came in and had a management, the senior management engagement to, to define a strategy, sort of refine what, what we're doing and how we're doing, and identify the value that we bring to our customers.

And then how do we reorg our organization, not totally reorg it, but just modify it somewhat to optimize on this opportunity, which was for me, putting global account managers in place. So I had to hire three or four new people to update our marketing materials to essentially create improved messaging and value offerings to the clients and how we engage with them.

And then lastly, we, I actually did some work with another organization on, um, competencies. So defining basically a roadmap for sort of a lower level. For lack of a better word, salesperson, to go all the way up to a global business development role, which was a pretty big leap, and there wasn't a pathway for people to do that in their career. So I had to work with an organization to help develop sort of what that pathway would look like, and then train the, the sales and marketing staff.

Matt: Can you, can you talk a little bit about what that experience was like working with Ward and going through it with the rest of the leadership team and, you know, it's, it's a really difficult process.

Maggie: It's difficult, but I find it really fun. I guess I'm a natural change agent because I just really enjoy seeing the opportunities and going toward the opportunities. I don't know if you, you know, Wayne Gretzky, the famous ice hockey skater always said, you know, don't skate to where the puck is, skate to where the puck isn't.

And so a lot of this is about going to that open space and seeing what the opportunity is and how you can optimize and improve and drive efficiency.

Ward: In your efforts with marketing and sales, how have you navigated? I know we did this in at Bristow, but in both Bristow and in other companies where you've faced a mindset of commodity. We're in the business of just selling tools. We're in the business of just selling software. We're in the business of selling helicopter rides to get to the rig.

Maggie: Yeah, that's a very common problem for all the oil field services companies, because that's what the EMP operators are trying to do.

The procurement organization is basically keep you at a commodity level so you're not paying higher prices and longer term contracts. So that, it's a game. It's a dance. And you know, if you think about the helicopter services while bringing people home safe to their family, there's, you can't replace the value of that.

And Bristow had the best safety record of the other helicopter services companies, and they in fact had the contract for the United Kingdom search and rescue efforts. So, you know, you have to spin it around and go, wait a minute. Yeah, we get you to the rig, but we get your folks there to the rig and back safely.

And you know, the value of that is just, you know, you can't replace it. Also, the efficiency and the cost and the operations, you know, how, how they ran the organization. Did they have the best pilots? Did they have the best way to optimize the timing of the flights? I mean, there's a lot that goes into it.

So it's finding those nuggets and then partnering with a company like yourselves to figure out the best way to communicate and position the work that you're doing. Technology, that the flip side on the my Landmark hat and Halliburton hat, oftentimes in the oil and gas industry back then, I'm talking, you know, the mid two thousands to 2015, a lot of the bigger companies had internal organizations developing their own solutions that you were competing with, and that was tough. Right. Now they've thinned down their, their ranks, and they're not, they're basically leveraging the outside companies more to do this work. But when you were fighting internal developers, for instance, at Shell, ExxonMobil, it was, it was hard because you were basically fighting people's jobs, right? And so it, you had to pick your battles and really be honest as an organization, the selling organization of where we really do add value, and, and what are the success stories. And I'm talking success stories in the terms of the way they think of operating their business. How much did it cost to drill and complete this? Well, how much savings did we have? What was our downtime, our non-productive time? How much should we save in that? So you have to think like the customer that you're selling to and speak the value in terms of their language.

Ward: That's something that every company has to struggle with procurement. They get rewarded for the lowest price, not the total cost of the well, not the cost of any failure that might come from a low priced piece of equipment.

Maggie: That's correct. That's correct. We have, I mean, some of the procurement people I dealt with, and I won't name this person, but he was in the, he was in the Netherlands and he was British. Oh, he was Scottish. So it was even worse because he was Scottish and it, this was back in my Shell sister team, and he just loved playing with us, right. Anything he could do, it was all the negotiations tactics to just beat us down. You know, we were friends, but it's, that is their game. It is definitely their game.

Now, often, you know, I think it's changed, uh, more recently where back when, when I was at supply chain at Conoco Phillips dealing with the large oil field services companies. I think they realize the operators have realized that partnering with these services companies, there's real value in it.

And even going so far as perhaps integrating your supply chain in some areas, if there's a particular solution or product that you need and you need to, to get it faster than somebody else, or developing technologies together. So I think those barriers are broken down and the traditional, you know, beating up the service companies has lightened up a little.

Ward: We hope.

Maggie: We hope. Well, I'm still standing, so. You're still standing. Yeah.

Matt: So, you know, given all your experience and what you mentioned earlier, you know, it's the race to the bottom with procurement. They want to keep you in the commodity space. How many organizations do you experience, do you see really effectively communicating in a differentiated way outside of this commodity space, into a category of one?

Maggie: Hmm. It's, it's pretty rare and it's not across the organization, right? So, so let's take Schlumberger and a competitor of Halliburton. Their marketing was ahead of, I say Halliburton. This is me speaking as a prior marketing person at Halliburton, and we were always trying to keep up with their messaging in particular segments, so wireline for instance. You know, their strength areas, they just, they ran circles around us. Deep water, same thing. I was brought in in 2011 at Halliburton to, to lead an effort to improve our market share in deep water because Schlumberger was beating us.

So I don't think it's across the organization. I, what my experience is, you know, these large global businesses, it's, it's, there's portions of the business where they've got a strong market lead. They're probably number one or number two in terms of market share. And they, they can, they can run circles around you, but they have opportunities elsewhere in their business. So, for instance, back then, it would've been for them, for Schlumberger completions, they weren't as good as, as Halliburton. So it, it, it just depends, I guess, is the answer to that question.

Ward: Mm-hmm. How would you strategize? So at the time, Schlumberger was the, the king of, uh, deep water, and Halliburton was trying to increase their market share. What would be the strategy that you would be pushing them to do, Halliburton to do to gain more market share?

Maggie: Yeah, so we basically, I, we had to identify the areas where we had technology solutions that were in fact better than our competitor. And then working to integrate those solutions to make them even more tough to compete against.

And then commun again, communication, communication, communication, internal communication, and external communication. So, you know, we developed this strategy and essentially my boss, the senior vice president at the time, he communicated it to the market, to the street. So once you do that, that gets the organization engaged because we know that our CEO and the board are, are tracking these meh, metrics.

So we were able to grow market share. So it's really about finding ways to drive alignment within the organization, behind the change.

Ward: What are some of the, you've given us lots of good nuggets, if you were to kind of summarize some of the takeaways from your career that you would pass on to people listening to this podcast, what, what would those be?

Maggie: Yeah, so I think I've touched on several, but the executive sponsorship is key. The higher the better. If the, the drive for the change is coming from the, the CEO or his direct reports, chances of success are probably higher. The communication is really key, and that's, in my experience, partnering with a consulting organization or to help you in that journey is, is probably required because that's just not a skillset that a lot of organizations have, both internal and external communication.

Then I mentioned, you know, the, you know, partner with your champions of change, those who see it immediately and wanna lead the change and make them your heroes and give them a lot of airtime in the organization. Let them present the solutions. Let them be the ones leading the change, not you who's actually been tasked with driving it. And then manage your anti-sponsors, make your friends close, your enemies closer, and try to find ways to get them to embrace the change would be another.

And I touched on the external consultants. Like I say, you know, four of the five efforts that I worked with in the last seven years, we had external consultants that we partnered with, and it was invaluable. We couldn't have done it without 'em, right? It's just a fact. Uh, sometimes you need, it's almost like a mirror. I found If you could bring an external consultant in, and then they will perhaps are leading a strategy session and you know you're participating, but you're not leading it, then you get together afterwards to debrief and they, the consultant says things to you and you think, oh, I'm not crazy, like they actually see what I'm seeing, right? I mean, it's really important to have people to bounce those things off and then also to get you off, off the rails If you're like, no, no, no, Maggie, you're going a little off in left field here. Let's keep it here. So it's really important to have that kind of partnership.

I don't know. The, the other learning is, it's just rewarding. It is the most rewarding work I think I did in my career without a doubt. It was just the best, the best theme that I find throughout the long career I had. That's great.

Ward: When you're going through these processes of change with your consultants, do you have recollection of specific aha moments? Like, oh wow, I never thought of that.

Maggie: Ooh. That's a tough question. Ward. I think a lot of it is getting out from under, like from in the weeds. To higher level and thinking more strategically and longer term. You know, a lot of people, you come to work and you have tasks and things you have to do and deadlines you have to meet and, and so it's very challenging.

And so the consultants, the benefit for me with working with these consultants was being able to see the forest through the trees, right? Immediately. They come in. If they're not working every day dealing with whatever noise that's going on or whatever the latest rumor is, they, they're coming in fresh and they can help bring you out from under all of that and begin to navigate and create a strategy.

So to me, the strategy's critical in, in all these engagements, which I think is a differentiator that, that Pennebaker has, frankly, um, I mean, you compete with some of the other larger, uh, consultancies that I've worked with and even I'm working currently with one as an advisor. I mean, it's just really important to get to that strategic level.

I think the other aha is get the quick, the early wins, right? Find the spot where you're gonna get an early win, then just laed that success.

Matt: When you're looking, you know, there, there are lots of consultants in the world, lots of different organizations. When you're evaluating whether this consultant's gonna be a good fit or not, like what are you looking for?

Maggie: It's a good question. So when I came to Bristow, you know, Pennebaker was already engaged, which was a blessing for me, right? So that they had been selected and it was a great fit. So that was an easy one for me. Um, but I would say personally looking for the ability to do the strategy work. To create some kind of plan and roadmap outta that strategy work.

And then if, you know, if marketing's required, if you're on the service side, that the marketing communications and branding elements really important. And then last but not least, the technology and development and implementation portion, which some consultancies have and some don't.

Ward: Maggie, this has been a masterclass in change.

Maggie: You're too kind.

Ward: No, this has been wonderful. I know our listeners will be probably listening a second time to get all the tips that you've given us. Thank you so much for coming in today.

Matt: Really appreciate it.

Maggie: Yep. Thank you. It's been really fun. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Matt: Thanks for listening to Rethink Change. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it. And be sure to follow the show so you don't miss a single episode. If you're a disruptor looking to challenge a status quo and don't know where to start or what to do next, Pennebaker can help find out more at pennebaker.com.