The Preliminary Specification Part CLII (A&S Part XI)

How the innovative producer attains a higher factor of revenue per employee is through a constant search for more production, higher prices, lower costs and more effective management of their oil and gas assets. This search in many instances will begin with a query in either the Performance Evaluation module for the Joint Operating Committee or the Analytics & Statistics module for the producer firm itself. Having access to the data and information of the respective domain provides the user with the ability to formulate queries on the basis of different scenarios, what if’s, and other mathematical calculations. Big deal, something that most people can do with a day of training on a spreadsheet. And that would be part of the situation, however there is more.

If we go back to Part three of this module we find that performance is a key motivating principle behind the use of the module. People are using these modules to find the next increment in value. To determine where that value resides requires these specialized tools to find it. Recall that these are subject to the Security & Access Control module, therefore the data and information that they can access will be limited to the domain of the users authority. And the application modules will be collaborative, therefore they are able to interact with others.

Running a query is a fairly basic operation that is static in its output. The result just sits in the spreadsheet for the user to act upon. Within the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules we can evoke the messaging services which include the following processes: person to person, person to process, process to person and process to process, on any query output. Therefore if you had a query that was running, and at any time that query attained a value of 1 of which you wanted to know, then you could have the system text you, then that could be done in these modules. Or if the same query attained the value of 1, then you could have it invoke another process to initiate an invoice for x. Adding these messaging processes brings the power of the ERP system in to play from the point of view of using these calculations to carry out some action.

As Part Three of this module documented McKinsey’s “The 21st Century Organization” article Part 4 “Measuring Performance”. Professor Giovanni Dosi (1988) states that profit motivated agents must involve both “the perception of some sort of opportunity and an effective set of incentives.” (p. 1135) Professor Dosi introduces the theory of Schmookler (1966) and asked “are the observed inter-sectoral differences in innovative investment the outcome of different incentive structures, different opportunities or both”? (p. 1135) Schmookler believed in differing degrees of economic activity derived from the same innovate inputs. The incentive to find the innovation, and the opportunity to find it are both contained within the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. 

The Preliminary Specification Part CLI (A&S Part X)

With the opening up of the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules of the Preliminary Specification to collaboration between the firms participating in the Joint Operating Committee. The risk / reward of sharing of information comes into play once again and we have to ask if the harbouring of knowledge and information is more important and valuable then having the right information deployed at the right time in the right place. This is the criteria that the innovative producer will have to evaluate their innovation strategies on in the 21st century.

What we do know is that “things” happen fast. That is except in organizations. Providing the people with the appropriate knowledge and information for them to act in a fast changing environment is difficult. Some of the difficulty in getting the knowledge and information to the right people was to ensure the integrity of the information was not breached by those that were not part of the organization. Don’t get me wrong I’m not recommending an open information policy. The Security & Access Control module imposes high levels of integrity on all the communications and storage of data and information. The collaborations however between firms being open is where there may be some perceived leakage of proprietary losses of knowledge. And it is here that I am asking if those losses impose any risk to the innovative oil and gas producers competitive advantages of their land and asset base, or earth science and engineering capabilities. No they don’t. In fact the collaborations enhance the innovativeness and the capabilities of the firm.

The question therefore becomes how is this proprietary information and capability deployed on an as needed basis. Professor Giovanni Dosi notes that although the free movement of information has occurred in industries for many years, yet has never been easily transferable to other companies within those industries. The ability to replicate a competitive advantage from one company to another is not as easy, and may indeed be not worthwhile doing. Dosi (1988) goes one step further and states, “even with technology license agreements, they do not stand as an all or nothing substitute for in house search.” A firm needs to develop “substantial in-house capacity in order to recognize, evaluate, negotiate and finally adapt the technology potentially available from others.” Therefore why not focus on the need to increase the companies own unique and specific competitive sources and directions.

Collaborations in the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules of the Preliminary Specification will provide greater value in getting new and innovative ideas and information to the right place at the right time. These are the attributes the firm should be pursuing rather then any concern for any risks of losing any proprietary knowledge or information. Yesterday we noted that innovation involved the discovery of problems. It also includes change which Professor Dosi notes in the following.

Organizational routines and higher level procedures to alter them in response to environmental changes and / or to failures in performance embody a continuous tension between efforts to improve the capabilities of doing existing things, monitor existing contracts, allocate given resources, on the one hand, and the development of capabilities for doing new things or old things in new ways. This tension is complicated by the intrinsically uncertain nature of innovative activities, notwithstanding their increasing institutionalization within business firms. p. 1133

It would therefore seem prudent for an innovative producer to enable the collaborations in all of the modules of the Preliminary Specification as a key to their innovation strategy. And to focus on dealing with the change in the routines as a result of the discovery of solutions to problems and the changes in their capabilities. These are the areas where the innovative oil and gas producer is going to need to deal with the outcomes of the innovation, and the overall capability to continue to innovate.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification.

The Preliminary Specification Part CL (A&S Part IX)

We have learned many things from Professor Giovanni Dosi about innovation. To highlight the one most important individual point is impossible as all of the theories rely on each other. Today’s post takes the trajectories and technical trade-offs discussion and applies it to the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules of the Preliminary Specification. Maybe one of the most important things that we do with these two modules is to ensure that we make them collaborative.

Working in isolation we can achieve a lot of what we set out to do. When we collaborate with others then the possibilities grow exponentially. Setting about to review a mountain of data seems like a fun task, for a few people I’m sure that might ring true. However, for most people the possibility that they will find joy in the task is somewhat limited. As a team however, the task becomes something of an adventure with the findings being a multiple of what one individual could discover. A collaborative capability needs to be a necessary part of these two modules.

Professor Giovanni Dosi noted that a technological trajectory is the activity of technological process along the economic and technological trade offs defined by a paradigm. Dosi (1988) states “Trade-offs being defined as the compromise, and the technical capabilities that define horsepower, gross takeoff weight, cruise speed, wing load and cruise range in civilian and military aircraft.” People, Ideas & Objects assumes the technical trade-off in oil and gas is accurately reflected in the commodity pricing. Higher commodity prices finance enhanced innovation.

These trade-offs facilitate the ability for industries to innovate on the changing technical and scientific paradigms. Crucial to the facilitation of these trade-offs is a fundamental component that spurs the change and is usually abundant and available at low costs. For innovation to occur in oil and gas, People, Ideas & Objects asserts that the ability to seek and find knowledge, and to collaborate are two “commodities” that are abundant today. With their inherent low direct costs, knowledge and collaboration are the triggers for a number of technical paradigms which will provide companies with fundamental innovations.

Collaborating and sharing knowledge in the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules, as well as the other modules of the Preliminary Specification, will fuel innovation. Whether that collaboration is within a producer firm, a Joint Operating Committee or a working group that has recently been established through a work order. Access to these two modules should enable the participants to evaluate the data with the toolset provided in the modules. The only limitation that I would hope to impose on the use of these tools is a reasonable amount of free computer time.

Making these two modules collaborative will turn them into well used and handy applications that will be used by many. Not the obscure applications used by the data obsessed. Remember Professor Dosi says that “In very general terms, technological innovation involves or is the solution to problems.” Discovery of those problems can be collaboratively done here in the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. 

The Preliminary Specification Part CXLIX (A&S Part VIII)

In determining what and where people can begin the process of “innovating”, if that makes any sense. The search for problems is one of the things that people can do that computers can’t. Discovery of problems is also one of the critical skills in innovation. Therefore the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules should be part of the front lines of an innovative producers strategy. In today’s post we will discuss in general terms the innovation process and how these modules of the Preliminary Specification will help in the initiation of innovative thinking.

Professor Giovanni Dosi states “In very general terms, technological innovation involves or is the solution to problems.” Dosi goes on to further define this as “In other words, an innovative solution to a certain problem involves “discovery” (of the problem) and “creation” since no general algorithm can be derived from the information about the problems. Solutions to technological problems involve the use of information derived from experience and formal knowledge. It is the specific and un-codified capabilities, or tacit-ness” as Professor Dosi describes “on the part of the inventors who discover the creative solution.”

It is therefore asked specifically, how can the knowledge, information and capability of oil and gas firms solve the technical and scientific problems of the future? How can a firm more effectively employ its capability to solve problems and facilitate the discovery of new problems and creation of their solutions? These are the questions that this blog is determined to answer. From the perspective of the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules I think we can provide the user with a variety of tools that helps them to drill down into the data and ask the questions that haven’t been asked. People, Ideas & Objects is an ERP system, however, as we have shown with the modules in the Preliminary Specification there is a lot of data and information that is generated through collaborations and the documenting of items. It won’t be just accountants that will want to use these two modules, but anyone that is employed by a producer firm or Joint Operating Committee.

Here is a quick summary of some of the functionality and process management the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules provide the user.

• The ability to rise above the transactional work that is being managed by the other modules. We are moving from recording of transactions to designing transactions in many of the modules. Leaving the recording of transactions to the computers and the analysis to the users of these modules. 
• Use of the “R” statistical language as an embedded program within both of the modules. 
• Configured user tools that enable the user to demo, or build small applications that fit small niche needs. If these needs grew to where more people wanted similar programs they could be used as a prototype for the People, Ideas & Objects developers to build. 
• Querying and determining where the performance and direction of the firms or Joint Operating Committees value is found. Allowing people to focus on that value generation and avoid the potential destruction of value. 

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. 

The Preliminary Specification Part CXLVIII (A&S Part VII)

In today’s post we want to revisit the key factors of innovation and apply them to the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules of the Preliminary Specification. In yesterday’s post we noted that the division of the two modules was between the Joint Operating Committee and the producer firm respectively. That these modules would focus on the data within those domains and what has been described as “unstructured” data. Included in that unstructured data would be the data and information contained within the various marketplace modules of the Preliminary Specification.

Turning once again to Professor Giovanni Dosi for the determination of the three key factors of innovation. He notes that they are the result of the “search, development and adoption of new processes and products in market economies are the outcomes of the interaction between:”

• Capabilities and stimuli generated with each firm and within the industry of which they complete.

and

• Broader causes external to the individual industries, such as the state of science in different branches, the facilities for the communication of knowledge, the supply of technical capabilities, skills, engineers etc.

and

• Additional issues include the conditions controlling occupational and geographical mobility and or consumer promptness / resistance to change, market conditions, financial facilities and capabilities and the criteria used to allocate funds. Microeconomic trends in the effects on changes in relative prices of inputs and outputs, including public policy. (regulation, tax codes, patent and trademark laws and public procurement.)

While in the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules the user would be searching for information or some insight into the data. This is the beginning of the innovation process and the tools provided in these modules would be part of the capabilities necessary for innovation to be developed within the innovative oil and gas producer. This is clearly evident by Professor Dosi’s three key factors. With the growth in data expected to continue. Users of these tools would find a rich resource to develop a perspective of looking at the data from an innovative point of view.

Lately we have heard about a new field of data that is growing in importance. Unstructured data. Data that isn't managed by a database and has no implied meaning to its structure. The marketplace modules of the Preliminary Specification, the Resource, Petroleum Lease and Financial Marketplace modules and to a lesser extent the Research & Capabilities module all have “marketplaces” within them. These marketplaces would have substantial unstructured data that would be of use to those potential users of the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules.

Taking a step out further, these two modules should not be constrained to the internal systems of the producers. They should have the ability to access other sources of data and information, structured and unstructured, so that the user can use all three of Professor Dosi’s key factors of innovation to develop new and innovative ideas. It might be worthwhile to have within a “Help” section of the People, Ideas & Objects modules. A section that includes the research of Professor Giovanni Dosi’s work on innovation. Then people would have a quick reference as to items like the three key factors so that they could use them in their day to day tasks to help develop a more innovative mindset.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. 

The Preliminary Specification Part CXLVII (A&S Part VI)

We now begin our third, or innovation focused, pass through the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules of the Preliminary Specification. Recall that these two modules have similar interfaces, the Performance Evaluation is focused on the Joint Operating Committee and the Analytics & Statistics module is focused on the producer firm. Essentially these are user based tools that enable analytical and statistical calculations are run against the data and information that are contained within the People, Ideas & Objects ERP systems and other unstructured data. Providing users with the ability to analyze data in new and innovative ways in seeking value for the firm or JOC.

In many of the posts we have focused on the factor of revenue per employee and included that factor in other modules. Since that factor is a critical component in many of the modules it is calculated only in those modules where the information is most needed. It is not necessarily needed in the Performance Evaluation or Analytics & Statistics modules, however, if the user community wants to put them in then that is their choice. The types of data and information that is prepared and presented in these modules is more dependent on the individual users and will in most instances be unique, based on their needs and interests, their scope of authority and the type of work they do.

When it comes to who will come up with the next great innovation we should expect that it will come from anywhere. Part of the process of innovation is discovery of the problem and we all see the situation from different perspectives. Therefore the point of view and the innovation will depend to a large extent on that different perspective. Someone working in the trenches may find innovations that affect their work materially, which may not interest others and vice-versa. This process of discovery should be assisted by the types of tools that include the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules. Professor Giovanni Dosi notes.

Thus, I shall discuss the sources of innovation opportunities, the role of markets in allocating resources to the exploration of these opportunities and in determining the rates and directions of technological advances, the characteristics of the processes of innovative search, and the nature of the incentives driving private agents to commit themselves to innovation.

Irrespective of the source of the innovation the fact that it materially affects someones work should indicate that it should be followed through. These opportunities are hard to discover and we need to be able to evaluate them and assess them based on their impact and their ability to build value. What some times appears to be a good idea can also some times become an area where the firm could be exposed to unnecessary risk or loss. Having the historical data available is necessary, in the 21st century it is also necessary to have the advanced analytical tools to analyze that data.

In the Preliminary Research Report People Ideas & Objects determined two important findings. One was that the process of innovation can be reduced to quantifiable and replicable process. Analytical tools are part of that process. And two, that the Joint Operating Committee is the key organizational framework for innovation in the oil and gas industry. Therefore having analytical tools in the Joint Operating Committee is critical.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. 

The Preliminary Specification Part CXLVI (K&L Part XIV)

In both the Knowledge & Learning and Research & Capabilities modules producers are benefiting from something that may not be too obvious on the surface. That is the objective nature of the People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification and the fact that it is not affiliated with any one specific producer. That is to say it is not an application that grew out of Exxon Mobil, BP or Shell and was used there first. It will be an application that was independently supported through the Revenue Model and will remain unbiased as to which producers perspective it takes. The same can be said for the Community of Independent Service Providers. This may mean more to some producers then others, however, from an innovation point of view it will also mean a few things.

People, Ideas & Objects is focused on providing the innovative oil and gas producer with ERP systems based on using the Joint Operating Committee as the key organizational construct. By having a software development capability present while working within the Knowledge & Learning module, the innovative producer will be able to deal with the many new possibilities in their business. The software that an organization uses is a “technology paradigm” that the oil and gas industry has to consider. And software puts the industry on a new “trajectory” just as we have discussed here for the earth science and engineering disciplines. Professor Giovanni Dosi notes.

• First, new technological paradigms have continuously brought forward new opportunities for product development and productivity increases. p. 1138
• Secondly “A rather uniform, characteristic of the observed technological trajectories is their wide scope for mechanization, specialization and division of labor within and among plants and industries.” p. 1138

Which speaks to the attributes of software. However, would these technological paradigms and trajectories be available to the producer community if the software was owned and operated by Exxon Mobil or Shell. What motivation would they have in making the changes to the software to accommodate your business? The third party, objective nature of People, Ideas & Objects and the Community of Independent Service Providers is necessary for the software to become amenable to the needs of its user communities. If the producer is to rely on this third paradigm and trajectory as a key advancement in their business, then it must remain open to the needs of the community. Professor Dosi notes.

Similarly, new technological paradigms, directly and indirectly -- via their effects on “old” ones -- generally prevent the establishment of decreasing returns in the search process for innovations. p. 1138

Let me restate this for clarity, the indirect nature of ERP software via its effect on the earth science and engineering disciplines, will generally prevent the establishment of decreasing returns in the search process for innovations.

Review of the Preliminary Specification to this point shows how different it is from any other ERP system. It is designed around the Joint Operating Committee, the innovative oil and gas producer and will include the user community in determining its precise needs. This is the type of application that is needed for the 21st century oil and gas producer. A vision that focuses the people who work within the industry on the activities that people do best. Collaborating, researching, evaluating and deciding. And leaves the computers to do the things that they do the best. A software development capability designed to provide the innovative oil and gas producer with the means to all of their ERP software needs. Tomorrow we will begin our innovation review of the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. 

The Preliminary Specification Part CXLV (K&L Part XIII)

Yesterday’s post drew the analogy of a football coach who reviews his list of plays, selects one, and calls it for the team to execute, to the “Planning & Deployment Interface” of the Knowledge & Learning module. The ability for a Joint Operating Committee to have this style of communication and understanding of what needs to be conducted, may be necessary in the very near future. With the insatiable demands for energy, and the ever increasing demands of earth science and engineering work needed with each barrel of oil and gas produced, the amount of work required for the JOC will need to be conducted in a highly organized and controlled manner.

Adding to this level of increased work load the Joint Operating Committee is subjected to the real demands of the expanding earth science and engineering frontiers. In addition the field and service industries are going through their own innovative cycles. The problem is that if each Joint Operating Committee is left to deal with each of these issues on there own, then there will be significant time and energy wasted on pursuing “things” that may or may not bear fruit for the property. This is something that needs to be avoided. However, the JOC needs to be deploying the latest state of the art proven technology in the most capable manner.

If we look over the past many blog posts of the Research & Capabilities and Knowledge & Learning module we can see how these “things” are filtered out and dealt with. The Joint Operating Committee is being provided with the most up to date capabilities from the producer firms that have a financial interest in the property. It is those producers that are expending the research to expand their understanding of the earth science and engineering on behalf of all of their interests in all of their JOC’s. Taking the trips down the blind bunny trails once and only once on behalf of all the JOC’s. Not having each and every JOC discovery the blind bunny trail on their own. Then developing the capability to the level necessary for the inclusion in the “Capabilities Interface” where it will be used successfully by all of the JOC’s they have an interest in.

This process helps the Joint Operating Committee to focus on the property. To eliminate the noise of what is going on in the larger oil and gas arena for the moment and deploy the innovations that are known to add value. It is as when the coach calls the play the only concern is to ensure that you execute your part of the play in the manner that it is designed. There may be times back on the practice field to fiddle with some changes, but for now its time to run the play as it was designed. This is the business of the “Planning & Deployment Interface” in the Knowledge & Learning module.

Professor Giovanni Dosi asserts that much of the innovativeness of a firm is dependent on technology more than science, and is based on several implications. The first implication being the net benefactor of the cumulativeness, tacitness and technological knowledge implies that “innovation and the capabilities for pursuing them are to an extent local and firm specific.” Secondly, the “opportunity for technological advances in any one economic activity can also be expected to, and constrained by, the characteristics of each technological paradigm and its degree of maturity”. This is further defined by the technological and scientific capabilities, and “the advances made by suppliers and customers.” (p. 1137)

These implications that Professor Dosi notes are reflected in the processes managed in the Research & Capabilities and Knowledge & Learning modules. The Knowledge & Learning module enabling the Joint Operating Committee to implement the “innovation and the capabilities for pursuing them are to an extent local and firm specific.” With the Research & Capabilities module providing the future with the “opportunity for technological advances in any one economic activity can also be expected to, and constrained by, the characteristics of each technological paradigm and its degree of maturity”. Providing the producer with the best of both worlds.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. 

The Preliminary Specification Part CXLIV (K&L Part XII)

In our last two posts of the Knowledge & Learning module of the Preliminary Specification. We have discussed the factor of revenue per employee, and the “Capabilities Interface” that is populated with the capabilities of the producers who are part of the Joint Operating Committee. In today’s post we put these two points together. And provide a key point of how the Joint Operating Committee becomes the framework for innovation.

It is important to recall that innovation is not research. Research is being conducted in the Research & Capabilities module and when the research is proven, added to the “Capabilities Interface” which in turn is populated to the Knowledge & Learning module. We have also drawn the football analogy to how the development and execution of capabilities in the producer firm and Joint Operating Committees are similar to the way that football teams plays are developed and executed. Today we want to use the analogy of the coach who is motivated to win, selects the plays from a long list of plays of what the team can execute.

Professor Giovanni Dosi states that profit motivated agents must involve both “the perception of some sort of opportunity and an effective set of incentives.” (p. 1135) Professor Dosi introduces the theory of Schmookler (1966) and asked “are the observed inter-sectoral differences in innovative investment the outcome of different incentive structures, different opportunities or both”? (p. 1135) Schmookler believed in differing degrees of economic activity derived from the same innovate inputs. For the purposes of this post the perception of some sort of opportunity is realized through the members of the Joint Operating Committee reviewing the capabilities that are presented to them through the Knowledge & Learning module. The listing of capabilities presented from the various producers that are participants in the Joint Operating Committee would provide a depth of opportunity that was previously unqualified and unquantified. The incentives would be performance based and focused around the possibility of increasing the trajectory of revenue per employee.

We’ve all seen the coach on the sidelines with the list of hundreds of plays that can be called during the game. Selection of the appropriate play will help to move the team towards its goal of winning the game. To be presented with a list of hundreds of opportunities within a Joint Operating Committee has probably been the case for many in the industry. The ability to select and execute them in the manner that the coach is able to, and have them communicated to the team members for execution in the half second that it takes is the rarity. There is no reason for each and every Joint Operating Committee to not have this type of efficiency in the ability to select and execute the capabilities that are made available to them.

As in the Research & Capabilities module, the Knowledge & Learning module has a “Planning & Deployment Interface”. Within this interface the user is able to select the capabilities they want to deploy from the “Capabilities Interface” and resource it from the Military Command & Control Metaphor. Since the capabilities are listed from various firms in the Joint Operating Committees special considerations may need to be made in terms of the resource requirements. The “capabilities” that are selected are for company x, and available for company x, not necessarily for Joint Operating Committee xyz without the involvement of x. Therefore special arrangements to augment the Joint Operating Committee with resources from company x will most probably be required. From there the execution of the capabilities can take place.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. 

The Preliminary Specification Part CXLIII (K&L Part XI)

One of the advantages of writing the Preliminary Specification in the manner that we are is that you can aggregate the posts for one module by selecting its label. If you have an interest in working only on the Knowledge & Learning module then you can eliminate the other posts by just simply selecting the Knowledge-Learning label on this blog or from here. The disadvantage is that we are repeating ourselves in some cases so that the people who are focusing on one module are picking up all the pertinent information for that module. I would recommend that everyone read all the posts for all the modules as there is significant interactions between the modules, and we may not be able to catch all the pertinent detail that should be included in each module.

Today’s post discusses the risks of proprietary leakage of data or information as a result of the “Capabilities Interface” being populated with the capabilities information from each of the producers who are participants in the Joint Operating Committee.

We have all seen how information or secrets within the industry can travel from one firm to another at a rather rapid pace. No one should be surprised to learn that what they thought was confidential to the firm, was somehow leaked and became well known throughout the industry. It is some times more difficult to communicate information through the organization then it is to get information across the industry. The question therefore becomes how is proprietary information, and more importantly these proprietary capabilities that are available within the producer firms, deployed on an as needed basis within the various Joint Operating Committees.

Professor Dosi notes that although the free movement of information has occurred in industries for many years, yet has never been easily transferable to other companies within those industries. The ability to replicate a competitive advantage from one company to another is not as easy, and may indeed be not worthwhile doing. Dosi (1988) goes one step further and states, “even with technology license agreements, they do not stand as an all or nothing substitute for in house search.” A firm needs to develop “substantial in-house capacity in order to recognize, evaluate, negotiate and finally adapt the technology potentially available from others.”

Within the Knowledge & Learning module we are operating within the Joint Operating Committee. Populated with the capabilities from each of the participating producers through the “Capabilities Interface”. It may be a concern to some producers that the publication of these capabilities to other producers representatives in the Joint Operating Committee would lead to leakage of proprietary information or loss of knowledge or capabilities. That may be, however the nature of capabilities are such that they can’t be copied by a simple matter of recording the text. As we have discussed elsewhere, the development of capabilities is the results of research and application of the resources of the firm in a determined and purposeful manner to achieve an outcome. Copying the plans or instructions would not provide you with the means to achieve the objective.

If it is determined that the “Capabilities Interface” in the Knowledge & Learning module only provides a summary description of the capability, as opposed to publishing the entire capability in the Joint Operating Committee, then if selected it would be assumed that that producers staff would undertake to complete the task. That may be the ultimate solution to the concern for the loss of proprietary information, knowledge or capabilities. What we have to make sure that we don’t lose is the ability to deploy the right information, knowledge or capability at the right time and at the right place. Information’s shelf life expires faster each day. Knowledge, information and capabilities need to be employed and deployed when and where they are needed and required.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification.