Orbite Technologies Inc EORBF

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[jeanlouisboreguard]

What to look for in a management team
 
 
Experience
 
What qualifications must the management team
(and Board) have for the challenges a company faces?
 
Executives in smaller companies often have to wear many
hats and their skills and experience have to be more
closely aligned with the company’s strategy. For instance,
if a company’s growth depends on a development asset
coming on-stream, the COO needs to have experience
in development, and should have a track record of successfully
bringing development projects into production. Assessing an
exploration manager’s track record can be trickier.
A record of discoveries isn’t the only standard, as a
good record, it can have the downside of being attributed
to luck, or even timidity in choice of prospects, versus an
actual skill.
 
If the company operates in a foreign country, it is also
important to know the country managers, and consider
if C-level management spends enough time “on the ground”
engaging in the day-to-day running of the operations.
Relationships and access to high-quality assets.
 
The success of the upstream of a company starts with
picking the right assets. Good opportunities are rare
and having the right relationships to put together a quality
portfolio of assets is key. Consider the previous companies
and organizations the managers worked for: Often executives
carry their relationships with them and it can shape the strategy
of the company. The company with foreign operations will
require a management team that has local relationships
necessary to ensure a safe and reliable environment.
 
 
Integrity
 
 
There is a good saying about integrity: “When looking
at people, look for three qualities:
integrity, intelligence, and energy. If a person is missing
the first, the other two will kill you.”
 
Though all publicly listed companies are required to
have corporate governance procedures in place,
that doesn’t the industry immune to periodic
corporate governance disasters. There is no fail-safe system
that prevents misplaced priorities of board members or the
manipulation and misappropriation of company
resources by management, which is why – besides the
experience and relationships – it is important to consider integrity
and reputation. Perhaps the best way to think about management
teams is in terms of how much money they have made for
shareholders in the past. A great management team can make
mediocre assets outperform, while a mediocre management
team can make a great set of assets perform mediocrely.
When looking at an oil and gas company to invest in it,
it’s also quite important to understand how much stock a
management team and board own of a company (the more
the better), how disciplined the team is with the company’s
capital, and how many boards each individual board member
sits on.