Schlumberger: A Look At Our Cultural Roots
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On February 21, Schlumberger
and Smith International
announced an agreement
to merge. Since then, the
proposal has been undergoing
normal regulatory review
externally, while internally the
Integration Management Office
has been hard at work building
a plan to be ready for action
once the deal is approved. In
this article, we look back at the
history of Schlumberger and
some of its cultural milestones.
Thinking Ahead:
A Culture on the Move
Born of deep-rooted values, propelled by an international population
and the changing demands of our industry, the Schlumberger corporate
culture is a window on our past and our future.
P
aul Schlumberger, an industrialist from approximately $900 million per year in R&D,
France’s Alsace region and father of our one of the largest commitments to new technology
founders, Marcel and Conrad Schlumberger, in the exploration and production industry today.
was a sage and quotable patriarch. For example, Dedication to innovation and to continuously
note the convenant he wrote on November 12, improving our technologies and services are
1919, in which he said: “I agree to disburse to my fundamental to our very identity.
sons Conrad and Marcel the funds necessary for
research study in view of determining the nature A New Way of Seeing
of the subsurface, in an amount not exceeding five In 1923 the brothers and a small team of intrepid
hundred thousand francs…. The field of activity engineers began conducting surface geophysical
is vast enough to satisfy their inventive genius surveys in faraway places such as Romania,
by its investigation: they must devote themselves Canada, Congo and the United States. In 1926 they
to it entirely. The scientific interest in research established the Société de Prospection Electrique
must take precedence over financial interest…” (Pros), precursor of Schlumberger, and the following
Fortified morally and financially by their father, year were invited by the Péchelbronn Oil Company
the two brothers proceeded to pursue an idea of France to apply their know-how to finding oil.
developed by Conrad, a professor of physics in Faced with that challenge, Conrad and a
Paris, regarding the use of electrical measurements brilliant young engineer named Henri Doll set
to map underground geological formations. They about developing an electromechanical tool that
aimed to develop methods and tools for locating could be used inside a well to survey for oil within
subsurface deposits of natural resources, notably
minerals and metal ores.
Obviously the brothers knew there was money
to be made if they could find a way to accurately
locate the earth’s riches before having to extract
them. But as another Paul Schlumberger quotation
suggests, the brothers had learned from their father
to be less concerned with financial gain and more
so with advancing the lot of mankind by way of
science and technology.
“If the convergence of the scientific and
commercial viewpoints is too difficult,” the elder
Schlumberger advised, “it is better to opt for the
viewpoint of science—which is a great force for
peace, for the individual as well as for humanity.”
It was an idea Conrad and Marcel lived by, and
which Schlumberger considers fundamentally The early days of well logging
important to this day: Schlumberger invests at Péchelbronn in France.
Schlumberger: History and Culture Page 2 of 4
the subsurface rock layers. One late summer day
in 1927, Doll and two other engineers applied the
device, called a “sonde,” on a Péchelbronn well,
and by the end of the day they had completed what
is acknowledged to be the world’s first well log.
Company founders Conrad The young company was on its way to a great future.
and Marcel Schlumberger.
Thriving on Challenge
We feel great affinity still for the Schlumberger
brothers, and perhaps one reason is because
we continue to hire people who are, in certain
ways, like them. We still choose our young field
engineers based on traits such as the ability to
think independently, the drive to excel, a sense
of adventure and the willingness to wrestle down
a challenge. And challenge them we do, early on,
beginning with an intense period of fixed-step
training and hands-on field experience, often
in a distant location—just like the old days.
Travelling far afield, thirsting for knowledge
and breaking new technological ground—these are
elements of our culture that continue to define us
today. Which is not to say that every Schlumberger
employee shifts constantly about the globe. Far
from it. The fact is, at any given moment only 10%
of our employee population is working on so-called
“international mobile” status. But that model—
having a globally deployed team of trained and
experienced field engineers—has pervaded our
corporate consciousness and shaped our culture
in myriad ways.
Diversity
One of the first things any new employee of
Schlumberger will notice is our diversity.
Schlumberger employees represent more than 80
nationalities. Survey the top 24 senior managers right
now and you’ll discover 11 different national origins.
Again… that started with the brothers.
When they went to the US, they hired Americans
who then went to Russia, and so forth. Finally,
in the 1980s, the company decided to make our
national diversity a matter of official policy by hiring
locally wherever we establish sufficient presence.
We know that it can only strengthen the company
as a whole to have a mix of the best qualities, talent
and local knowledge from every region we touch.
The same principle applies to gender.
Unwilling to miss out on half the world’s talent
pool, we started focusing on gender diversity two
decades ago, making slow and unsteady progress
for a while. In recent years, efforts have gained
momentum through targeted recruiting, a highly
successful women’s network and ongoing programs
addressing the needs of female field engineers
and dual career couples.
Schlumberger: History and Culture Page 3 of 4

Top: A wireline field
engineer completes log films
for printing and customer
deliver in the early 1970s.
Above: An iCenter * view
of the subsurface.
Safety Front and Center
In the mid-1980s, in determined effort to
strategically influence the cultural mindset,
Schlumberger implemented a widespread
campaign regarding safety. The message caught
on, in large measure thanks to the fact that our
mobile population interacts worldwide, as well as
through the strength of our training programs.
Today, every employee in Schlumberger learns
about safety, regardless of job title. And if you’re
hired to work in Operations, one of the first things
impressed upon you at the training center is how
to be safe yourself, and how to guard the safety of
your colleagues, your customers and your family.
Today, our safety culture is part of our reputation
in the industry.
Making it on Merit
Schlumberger was a pioneer in intranet connectivity
and one of the first companies in the world to have
an internet address, and that forward-looking
approach to information technology has become an
intrinsic part of our culture. It often surprises new
employees to realize the enormity of the network
they have joined.
At the start of our employment, each of us is
responsible for writing our own online resume
in which we describe our experience and career
aspirations. We can view everyone else’s resume in
an online directory, and we figure out pretty quickly
that being part of this network means we have a
gigantic pool of knowledge and expertise to support
us, whatever our task. That culture of people helping
people is reinforced by rigorous knowledge sharing
systems and communities of interest.
These systems help illuminate for new employees
that we work within a true meritocracy. Those
online resumes are well used, along with a system
of objective-setting and performance appraisals,
to ensure that we consistently promote from within.
These tools give managers the capacity to reach to
the farthest corners of our geographic footprint to
find people with the right mix of skills, experience
and interests to fill available posts.
Acquired Expertise
Though we grew out of a Wireline background,
over the last three decades Schlumberger has
expanded into a matrix of 15 technical segments
and a worldwide network of research and technology
centers, and we did that to a large degree through
hundreds of acquisitions—more than 50 in the last
six years alone.
Think of it as yet another initiative to increase
our diversity, though in this case we’re talking
about diversity in education and expertise. In
anticipation of the needs of our customers, we
gather from the outside whatever expertise we
have not cultivated inside. That’s a lot of diverse
ideas and backgrounds to learn from, build on
and integrate, and we’ve gotten better at doing
just that with every new opportunity.

New recruits train at

the Middle East and Asia
Learning Center, Abu Dhabi.
 Schlumberger: History and Culture Page 4 of 4

At the Newburn base

near Perth, Australia.

Artificial Lift product center in Tyumen, Russia.

Excellence in Execution The Excellence in Execution vision calls for

In January 2008, Chairman and CEO Andrew a massive cultural shift—asking every employee
Gould set down another milestone in announcing to embrace the “Do it right the first time”
a company-wide, multiyear initiative known as mindset with the same constancy we apply to our
Excellence in Execution. Schlumberger has a Safety culture. But that is what today’s business
well established culture of providing outstanding environment demands, and this is not the first time
performance when a problem occurs. The objective we’ve reshaped ourselves to meet new challenges.
of the Excellence in Execution program, he Already we’ve made tremendous strides in product
announced, is to transform that strength into a reliability and customer service quality. And we
proactive, company-wide commitment to preventing will continue to learn as we grow.
failure from happening in the first place. We remain, as always, open to the best ideas
A new Engineering, Manufacturing and from all newcomers. n
Sustaining (EMS) organization was created with
ultimate responsibility for providing technologies
of unprecedented reliability. A Quality function
was launched with a mandate to implement quality
tracking processes and Lean techniques, and
to allow us to be statistically accountable to our
customers for our service quality performance.
We are aiming for nothing less than flawless
service delivery.

* Mark of Schlumberger
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