Page 195 - Adobe Photoshop PDF
P. 195
openly challenging what Britton told me.
My assessment of my early years in Chevron was:
1. I was mistaken to have stayed with the company because I had
come from a modern management group into a company that was a
generation out of date in its management. Between May 1949 and
January 1, 1952, Aramco management had been relatively poor; too
many people had been promoted beyond their level of their compe-
WHQFH 7KH UHRUJDQL]DWLRQ RI $UDPFR PDQDJHPHQW H൵HFWHG -DQXDU\
1, 1952 removed people of questionable competence and put more
competent people in their place. Having seen that occur in Aramco,
I expected Chevron management to change. In point of fact, that did
not occur for about 10 years until W.J. (Bill) Haynes became CEO
of Chevron.
2. My abilities had been recognized in Aramco rapidly and led to
speedy promotion. Both Wally Weber and Bill Squires, the Direc-
tor and Assistant Director of Industrial Relations in Aramco, had
a background of Chevron employment. They had assured me that
my abilities would be recognized and rewarded soon in Chevron. It
took me a long time to realize that they misled me. Chevron hired
its professional employees directly out of college. People came up
WKURXJK WKH UH¿QHU\ RUJDQL]DWLRQ SUHIHUDEO\ 5LFKPRQG UH¿QHU\
or their careers developed through producing operations in the San
Joaquin Valley. As a result, as a person newly entering the company
at the professional level, I had about as much opportunity as would
have been accorded at that time to a black man from Mississippi.
3. The Chevron people were extremely parochial in their attitudes. De-
spite the fact that Aramco was producing scores of millions of dol-
ODUV RI SUR¿W IRU &KHYURQ HYHU\ \HDU WKH W\SLFDO PHPEHU RI &KHYURQ
management knew almost nothing about Aramco and cared even
less.
During 1960 and 1961, I expected to launch a travel agency
business (on the side) specializing in international travel. Our plan had
been to bring Gus Gerber to the States and utilize his international travel
191