Signs of failure of the Royal Dutch Shell Empire?
The problem is when the corruption stems from the boardroom as witnessed by the lead up to the Shell reserves crisis and the protracted cover-up of the Shell Touch F*** All scandal, all is lost. You only have to look at recent history of how organisations fail due to internal corruption of essential controls by the men in suits in the Boardroom. Enron, the banking system on both sides of the pond, the current crisis in the NHS are just a few examples.
COMMENT BY BILL CAMPBELL, RETIRED HSE GROUP AUDITOR, SHELL INTERNATIONAL
The myth of governance
Many pages exist explaining the need for the Shell organisation to have effective governance over its worldwide operations if it hopes to meet its stated objectives across the business. The governance process is owned by the Board, executive and non executive. By having essential management controls in place is the fundamental safeguard to meeting objectives including compliance with the applicable laws in the regions in which Shell operate.
The problem is when the corruption stems from the boardroom as witnessed by the lead up to the Shell reserves crisis and the protracted cover-up of the Shell Touch F*** All scandal, all is lost. You only have to look at recent history of how organisations fail due to internal corruption of essential controls by the men insuits in the Boardroom. Enron, the banking system on both sides of the pond, the current crisis in the NHS are just a few examples.
Re the reserves fiasco, as the contributors to your website explain, hundreds of staff were aware of the reserves cooking of the books but this behaviour was tolerated because it was the Governors who were doing the cooking. The limited examples quoted show the consequence of lack of essential controls, simply put organisations and entities fail, and can fail catastrophically.
Are there signs of failure of the Royal Dutch Shell empire? – Well just maybe the debacle that is the current great Arctic adventure are the early signs.
