Terra Incognita

Christopher E.H. Ross, Vice President of CRA International Inc., specializes in strategy and organization assignments in the worldwide energy industry, where he has 40 years of experience. He leads CRA's firm-wide natural gas initiative. Based successively in Europe, Africa, and the United States, he has extensive global experience helping international, national and independent oil company clients develop a shared sense of strategic direction, and execute the strategies. He has also led major transformation assignments resulting in massive reductions in costs. Ross has authored many articles providing insight into important changes in the energy business, including virtualization, social responsibility, and the 21st century shift in shareholder value creation from Return On Capital Employed to growth. Formerly, Ross was a Vice President of Arthur D. Little, and prior to that was with British Petroleum Company. He received a BS in Chemistry with Honors from London University and completed the Program for Management Development at the Harvard Business School.  Lane E. Sloan has 30 years of experience in the oil and petrochemical industries and held a number of senior leadership positions with Shell Oil, including Vice President Corporate Planning, Chief Financial Officer and President of Shell Chemical Company. He was also Regional Coordinator for all Royal Dutch Shell's operations in the Asia Pacific region and Director of the East Zone in Shell's Global Oil Products business. Today, he teaches corporate strategy and leadership to undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Houston's Bauer College of Business. He was formerly the Executive Director of the Global Energy Management Institute at the business school and is currently the Chair of the Greater Houston Energy Collaborative under the Greater Houston Partnership. Sloan has written articles for World Energy Magazine and World Energy Monthly Review. He received a BS in Business magna cum laude and an MS in Management Science from the University of Colorado. At the University of Houston, he received an MS in Accountancy and an MBA in Finance.

Acknowledgments; Prologue; Energy strategic leadership framework; Learning from the past; New global competitors - rise of national oil companies; The resource dilemma; Society's evolving expectation; Persuasive investor value proposition; Evaluating strategic choices; Setting the direction; Executing the strategy; Leading in turbulent times; Next generation energy leaders; Index.