Moving the Energy Business From Smart to Genius by Building Corporate IQ

Abstract

Moving the energy business from smart asset developers to genius organizations by building corporate intelligence quotient (IQ) is advocated in this study. A company's overall effectiveness in creating primary business value from the available knowledge resources (internally and externally) can be expressed as a corporate IQ score in the framework defined here, using a new questionnaire comprising 140 questions. This questionnaire has now been applied to seven energy companies: five oil operators, one service company, and one natural-gas transmission-service operator. The sample groups are still small, but an interesting pattern emerges that confirms the general notion that internationally operating companies are best at developing organizational intelligence. Their higher corporate IQ is essential to enable them to operate effectively in a highly competitive market. The new data reported here may provide useful insight for national oil companies (NOCs) that wish to improve their organizational intelligence if required by an ambition to internationalize their operations. Companies that excel at organizational learning are better prepared to outperform their competitors. International oil companies (IOCs) also can strive to further the enhancement of their corporate IQ by use of the periodic assessments and interventions outlined in this study.