Word: loudon
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Some top managers take a defeatist stance. Said John Loudon, chief of the Royal Dutch-Shell Group (TIME cover, May 9, 1960): "In the case of research, we may have already reached a state of diminishing returns for our investment...
...Lively Ones (NBC, 9:30-10 p.m.). Vic Damone and Guests Andre Previn, the Limeliters, Dorothy Loudon and others...
Cricket Blues. Today Loudon rules over 250,000 employees spread throughout an empire that includes wells in 17 countries, 47 refineries, the world's biggest tanker fleet (551 ships), and interests in oil companies in 76 lands. The Group is - due in large part to his efforts - perhaps the most international group in the business world. At the last budget meeting a Swiss reported on manufacturing, a Frenchman on marketing, an American on finance, a Dutchman on exploration and production. The coordinator (a favorite Shell title) was British. Before the war the Group hired only a few foreigners...
...Loudon anticipated the nationalistic pressures of the postwar era, began pushing for more local nationals in executive spots, and has since turned company policy completely around. The company spends about $7,400,000 a year to develop promising talent in the countries where it operates. It has 60 young executives of 27 nationalities working around the world, frequently cross-posts them (a Filipino to Lebanon, a Moroccan to Indonesia). To help its Middle East salesmen describe their products, it hired Lebanese Poet George Silisty to devise a dictionary of new Arabic terms to suit the modern petroleum industry...
...majors simply do not believe in price cutting - which directly slashes their profits - and make common cause in avoiding it whenever possible. Their philosophy is that if one company cuts prices broadly, all will have to follow - and no one will end up with a competitive advantage. Says Loudon: "You can't build your share of the market with price cutting. The way to grow is to build pipelines, service stations, more depots." The result is that, like the auto and the cigarette industries, oildom's giants rarely compete on the basis of price. But they insist that...