theceomagazine.com The CEO Magazine - November 2014 45.

In The OfficeEXECUTIVE INTERVIEW

Working in a complex, global environment, Shell’s real estate function provides vital services and support to the Shell Group.

Images courtesy of Photographic Services, Shell International Limited

With around 92,000 employees in more than 70 countries around

the world, Shell is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies. Organising and managing the real estate, business operations and travel interests of this worldwide corporation is the vital mission of Shell Real Estate.

Liesbeth Tuininga-Muilwijk, Finance Manager for Real Estate, Business Operations and Corporate Travel, says that it’s a challenging and invigorating area to work in. “Shell Real Estate covers a diverse range of elements we need to consider, from strategic planning to construction projects, lease transactions, and facility management. We provide support for Shell’s major hydrocarbon projects, which entails the design of the infrastructure that supports the hydrocarbon activities as well as the accommodation of workers

in a number of remote locations around the globe.

“Besides those core real estate activities, we are also responsible for Shell’s business operations. Shell has a long tradition of concentrating some of its activities in focused centres around the world—a so-called in-house captive where we now have more than 11,000 people working from six different locations around the globe. Activities in business operations include finance, HR, contracting and procurement, IT, and customer services.

“Apart from real estate and business operations, I am also responsible for the financial management of our corporate travel department where we manage all our contracts with hotels, airlines and traveller safety.”

During her 14 years with Shell, Liesbeth says that the business has seen some significant

transformations. “Over these 14 years, I have not always been with Real Estate, as the expectation within Shell is that you change jobs from time to time. In Real Estate, I’ve seen it go through a tremendous development.

“I joined in 2008 and we were looking after the corporate offices and some of the downstream offices. It was really focusing on facility management, and in the six years that I’ve been in this role I’ve seen it develop and take on all the activities that I’ve just described. In particular, there’s been a move from a more reactive service-provider-oriented role to a very proactive and strategic role when it comes to Real Estate partnering with Shell’s core businesses.”

The evolution of Shell Real Estate has brought a range of challenges with it that Liesbeth and her team need to address. “When it comes to finance for Real Estate, our challenge is to ensure that

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whatever we do from a finance perspective we are able to provide transparency—whether it’s about the cost of running offices, thinking through our investments, or how we provide not just data but information that helps decision-making.

“For me, the challenge is that I am leading a global team. It’s really about ensuring we are a cohesive team and making sure everybody understands how we contribute and add value to Shell’s bottom line.”

With properties and facilities across the world, Liesbeth says the team is extremely diverse. “We’ve divided the Real Estate organisation into territories. Every territory has a leadership team that has different disciplines, from strategy to transactions, projects, facility management, and particularly HSE, which is health, safety, and environment.

“While these regional leadership teams are empowered to work within their regions, at the same time personal contact really works well—whether it’s face to face, over the phone, or through more modern communication tools. We work with our own version of Skype so we can do video conferencing and it really works well.

“Throughout this role, I’ve also had the chance to visit many of these locations. For me, that’s really the enriching part of this job. I feel that I’ve grown professionally but I’ve also grown into more of a global citizen. Across the globe, there are many different ways of looking at the same problem.”

According to Liesbeth, these differences in perspective and approach can breathe new life into an organisation and team. “Over the past couple of years, we have increasingly started working with

“We get different perspectives and different experiences and it helps us to develop new ways of working. If you combine our partners’ knowledge with the Shell experience then you get a really powerful mix. That is one of the cornerstones of what we’ve done in Real Estate. At the same time, we also continue to look around us and at the industry to discover what we can learn from the industry and from other parts of Shell.”

Liesbeth states that the strategic partnerships that Shell Real Estate has developed within its supply network have formed a firm foundation for Real Estate’s development and its contribution to Shell. “The most important part is being in a true partnership. It’s not about Shell telling the suppliers what to do because then you’ll never reach new innovation, so we have developed real partnerships”.

“From my perspective, this truly has helped to create an environment where we know what we are doing but we can also respond to changes quite quickly—two factors that are very important.”

Liesbeth’s colleague Paul Knowland, Vice-President of Real Facility Management in Shell Real Estate, says that these partnerships are simply crucial. “Like most large organisations these days, we’ve outsourced, so the relationships we have with some of our key service providers are almost the basis from which we get high performance. We try to provide great places to work, rest, and play to enable Shell staff and their contractor colleagues to meet Shell’s business objectives.

“The success comes from a number of things. One of them is deciding upfront what the contractual relationships should be so that when Shell achieves success the contractor gets rewarded for that. The style of our contracts is that they get profit through performance. That performance is tied to what Shell

is looking for. As an organisation, we stand for high safety performance, which is called Goal Zero, so the contractors are rewarded for the way they contribute to that.

“In regard to our idea of providing great places to work, rest, and play, the challenge for my team is to make people go home at the end of the working day with a smile on their face. Again, we try to reward the contractors for delivering the right services at the right price to enable Shell to achieve its objectives.”

Paul believes that these relationships are developed through strong communication and collaboration. “We need companies that really get it, in terms of high safety performance and that high expectation we have of managing the integrity of our assets. We then start to build the trusting partnership and that’s done through structured relationships. At the site, they’ll have daily, weekly, and monthly performance meetings. Quarterly, we’ll do a business performance review of the contractors and every six months I meet with them to discuss how well the relationship is going.

“It comes down a lot to individuals. They need to have credibility, competence, and the confidence to believe that the model will work for both sides, in that each can make a profit from working together. The highest-performing contracts tend to be the ones where the Shell teams and the contractor teams have that trust.”

As Shell Real Estate thrives, Liesbeth says that there are a number of areas that her team will focus on. “What I am pleased about is that increasingly we are really working with the businesses in Shell to ensure alignment and have a strategic outlook on where the business is going and making sure that Real Estate can actually provide credible, competitive, and affordable support.

finance people in business operations, so the majority of my finance team is now based in Chennai, India. What I find hugely impressive is the energy within the team and the talent of the team members.

“I was in India just a month ago, and the spirit, commitment, and energy is very infectious. For me, it really provides a new perspective. What I see with the people in the centres is that they have an incredible focus on continuous improvement. In finance, we have many processes so they’re looking at how we can do things better, quicker, and smarter. It’s really enriching.”

Balancing the variety of cultural differences and elements across its global operations with the strong core leadership base of Shell and Shell Real Estate is something that Liesbeth and her team collaborate on. “I think it goes back to one of the core leadership attributes in Shell, which is authenticity. It really comes down to respecting each other’s authenticity, so while the ways of working or the processes may be the same, the way you go about it may be different from culture to culture.

“For example, the Dutch are probably well-known for their directness, whereas in Asian cultures that is not commonly applied. For me, it’s helped me to

flex my style so that I can work in different ways. That isn’t just between different cultures. If you just look around in your local society, people have so many different styles and preferences. What I really appreciate in my development is that when we come straight out of university things are rather black and white, and then you develop a whole palette in between that black and white. That’s probably one of the most important skills for a leader to have in Shell.”

Looking beyond the everyday and exploring new ideas is something that Shell and its various arms are well versed in. “Shell has a long and proud tradition of innovation. One of the core fundamentals of our company is the technical innovation that helps us to work in very difficult circumstances. What I really like about Shell is that it has an incredibly smart workforce and I can personally state that they are great people to work with.

“That combination helps to really create a culture where people work on their performance and have an innate desire to improve their performance. That’s reflected within the entire Real Estate function but also within my Real Estate finance team. One of the things that we’ve done within Real Estate is that we’ve invited strategic partners in and encouraged innovation.

“For me, the challenge is that I am leading a global team. It’s really about ensuring we are a cohesive team and making sure everybody understands how we contribute and add value to Shell’s bottom line.” - Liesbeth Tuininga-Muilwijk

“The other element that is increasingly growing is our involvement with those large hydrocarbon projects. It’s a whole different dynamic from running or acquiring an office. These are operations in very remote locations so it’s about providing a safe and effective work environment for people in those locations.”

The Real Estate function will play a pivotal role in Shell’s development in coming years as Shell continues to evolve. Liesbeth states, “The Shell Group has a very strong focus on performance, and this is reflected within Real Estate.

“We ask ourselves what we can do to contribute directly to Shell’s bottom line. It’s really two-fold: it’s working with our business partners to focus on aligning our activities with Shell’s core hydrocarbon business, whilst continuously improving our own professionalism.”

Working together as one global team will be at the core of the Shell Group’s and Shell Real Estate’s success in the future as both businesses continue to grow and innovate.

“It’s a whole different dynamic from running or acquiring an office. These are operations in very remote locations so it’s about providing a safe and effective work environment.” - Liesbeth Tuininga-Muilwijk

“Working with Shell Real Estate in a high challenge and high support partnership environment, compelled Compass Group to improve the effectiveness of its international client program. Our open communications helped to overcome regional and local challenges, creating a platform for mutually beneficial growth.” - Jokke Willemse, Global Key Account Director International Clients, Compass Group PLC