Supporting a Successful Merger: The GASCO 21 Journey (part 1) (page 1 of 3)

In April 2001, the Abu Dhabi Gas Company was integrated with Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Ltd. (GASCO), a joint venture partnership made up of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, Shell, Total, and Partex. The merger resulted in one of the largest gas processing companies in the world. The merger provided GASCO with a chance to look into the future and discover ways of making two good companies into a great company!

Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Ltd. (GASCO), after the merger, consists of 5 major gas producing sites that are situated in remote desert locations throughout Abu Dhabi.

Getting Started

From the very beginning Mohammed Sahoo, the General Manager (GM) realized that for any lasting changes to take place it would require the support and involvement of the entire company as well as the help of external consultants. The benefit of bringing external consultants in during the strategic discussions was three-fold; 1) they provided professional expertise, 2) their presence "showed" everyone the management team was committed to making the merger a success, and finally, 3) they provided an air of neutrality. The GM and his management chose a team of external consultants to provide direction and help establish a solid foundation for the change process.

The Company's Team

From the start it was recognized that successful change initiatives would need to be driven by GASCO personnel if they were to become institutionalized. Mohammed Al Qubaisi, Assistant General Manager for Administration assembled a team of HR and operational experts with the aim of identifying company personnel that would be involved with the change process. These individuals would be trained by, work alongside and assume the responsibilities of leading the change efforts once the external consultant's short-term contract was completed. This manning strategy ensured in-house sponsors, part-time change agents and full-time change champions would be dedicated to ensuring the Journey remained successful.

Creating the Vision

To start, a strategic workshop was planned for senior managers from both companies to discuss the new organization's future. During October 2002, the consultants and the Gasco Change Team led a 2-day workshop, during which a Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats analysis was completed by the extended management team. This analysis led to the development of a new vision and the initial change strategy for the organization.

During the workshop ideas were discussed on how to get people interested and involved. The first suggestion implemented was to hold a contest for designing the new company's logo. Although this may appear to be a trivial idea and be more a marketing gimmick than an effective change strategy, it actually resulted in immediate buy-in as people began working together to design a new logo. Thus it helped build a bridge between two different workforces as they came together to form the new Gasco.. This effort was one of the starting points of what would later become the GASCO 21 Journey.

What is the GASCO 21Journey?

The management team decided the transformation that would take place needed to be easily identified by everyone in the company. Since the changes underway would focus on preparing the company for the future, the name GASCO 21 was adopted - it stands for Gasco in the 21st Century. Because the organization was embracing the concept of continuous change with the ultimate goal of making the company vision a reality, the name should reflect that as well.