Financial Times: Observer: Shell looks at its dashboard: ‘Observer thought the most notable thing about Shell's "dashboard" was that the fuel gauge was too low.’ (ShellNews.net)

Published: September 2 2004

Royal Dutch/Shell employees might have thought for a moment yesterday that they had been sent an e-mail in error by Martin Lukes, whose travails at "a-b glöbâl" are chronicled in the Financial Times each Thursday.

But no, the internal memo about remuneration policy came from their own chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer. You could see, however, how such a mistake might be made.

Van der Veer outlined an "Enterprise First approach where what we do, how we act, how we think and what we say should be aligned to the betterment of the group" and how "this change in our hearts, minds and deeds" would be reinforced by the remuneration programme for 2005.

The "group scorecard" will remain based 60 per cent on financial results and 20 per cent each on portfolio value growth measures and sustainable development.

"Each business is to measure performance against plan with the help of 'dashboards', but the dashboard will not translate into bonuses," van der Veer continued.

Every employee's assessment would "address 'Enterprise First' behaviours, with particular emphasis on our Core Values . . ."

Observer thought the most notable thing about Shell's "dashboard" was that the fuel gauge was too low.