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How much longer will Shell CIO Alan Matula last?

POSTED BY

rwilliamson
on Nov 18th, 2009 at 8:41 pm

IN RESPONSE TO

“IT OFFSHORING: AFTER THE GOLDRUSH”

Matula’s past is littered with Big Ideas that have never materialized. GSAP is simply the latest. He was the mastermind behind SAP Megacentre which was an attempt to standardize the hardware platform used to run the various SAP systems within Shell. He could not even get Lubricants to use it (they continued to use the Pennzoil / Quaker State platform).

Matula, (shown right) like many other leaders within Shell, hasn’t stayed in the same position very long. He moves on and someone else has to come in and deal with the Big Ideas and Promises that he made. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he has spent longer in the CIO role than he has in any of his previous assignments. How much longer will he last?

And his Big Ideas extend beyond IT. While in Corporate Planning in the US, he was a leader to push governance and autonomy out to the various business units. This led to total chaos and was the beginning of the commercial model for IT with Shell (Shell Services International) which was a total disaster that took years and years and millions of dollars to correct.

Comment by IT4me: 2009/11/19 at 9:35am

Interesting. Similar stories abound from his Chemicals days. Endless revolutionary initiatives supported by aggressive suppression of bad news. The opposite of what many consider to be good IT, yet his seat at the top table is reconfirmed almost immediately in Peter Voser’s review. I guess we’ll have to wait till he gets bored and moves on – to Microsoft or wherever.

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One Comment

  1. IT4me says:

    Interesting. Similar stories abound from his Chemicals days. Endless revolutionary initiatives supported by aggressive suppression of bad news. The opposite of what many consider to be good IT, yet his seat at the top table is reconfirmed almost immediately in Peter Voser’s review. I guess we’ll have to wait till he gets bored and moves on – to Microsoft or wherever.