The Legend of Rowan

Rating:
Summary: Gorillas on the Shelf, Bush Pilots, and Family Values
Review: This book is the authorized history of the Rowan Companies over its first 75 years. Started by two entrepreneurial brothers (Arch and Charlie Rowan) in the Texas oil fields, the firm quickly specialized in providing difficult contract drilling. The firm was an early pioneer in such specialties as underwater drilling, deep drilling, and cold weather drilling. Its strategic knowledge strengths were husbanded by developing and maintaining outstanding rig crews and specialized rigs, even when industry conditions made this expensive to keep the resources on the shelf. In the past two decades the company has added rig building and resupply capabilities through acquisitions to enhance its strengths in deep water drilling. The book is enlivened by a large number of dramatic and interesting photographs of drilling. You also get a good sense of the families of the founders and their successors from the text and photographs. There is a tremendous continuity in the company's leadership that makes this book as much about the leaders and their families as about the company.

Rowan is a classic entrepreneurial company, seeking out opportunity to the ends of the earth and beng prepared to manage the risks involved. Contract drillers were among the first smaller American companies to go truly global, as the search for hydrocarbons expanded soon after World War II. Contract drillers have special challenges, because they have to ship their rigs to the new drilling sites, whether those be in the North Sea, the Arabian peninsula, Indonesia, or the offshore in the north slope of Alaska. The company was successful with all of these challenges and has enjoyed an enviable safety record.

Today, in a high petroleum price market, Rowan prospers due to its specialization in deep water drilling with its jack-up Gorilla-class rigs, which can search out hydrocarbons in several hundred feet of water during severe storms. But that wasn't always the case. During low-price periods in the 1980s and 1990s, Rowan sustained large losses from low rental rates and idle rigs kept fully staffed. This was in keeping with the company's mission to be ready to provide outstanding service of the most difficult sorts whenever customers demanded it. No one can predict oil prices, so it's always a "wait and see" game. During the 1990s, air operations became critical to the company's survival. Yet with low prices for oil, Rowan took a strategic step forward by acquiring its preferred offshore rig maker, so that innovation in new rigs could continue. A new version of the largest jack-up offshore rigs soon emerged that are now plumbing further onto the continental shelves. Rowan has played this volatile price market well, going from a single rig to over a billion dollar a year company in 75 years. Internet entrepreneurs can learn important lessons from this example about the need to specialize, treat its customers and employees well, and to wait out hard times.

The main weakness of this book is that is does not do enough to place Rowan in context relative to other contract drillers. This could have been done through interviews with customers, or by profiling the accomplishments of competitors. Almost nothing was included from either perspective. I graded the book down one star for this glaring omission.

In addition to the interesting business history in the book, you will enjoy the stories about how business is conducted. I was especially interested in the air operations in Alaska (which were acquired from their founders) and the difficulties of drilling there. Technical details of how Gorilla-class rigs "walk" out of the shipyard were also of interest.

After you have finished enjoying the book, I suggest that you think about something that needs to be done in your family that is now difficult and undesirable. How can it be made easier and more pleasant? By taking this problem-solving approach, you can improve your family's life. If you involve everyone in the family in the quest, you can have fun together solving the problem as well as adding to everyone's skills in the process.

Enjoy a good challenge!

Rating:
Summary: Gorillas on the Shelf, Bush Pilots, and Family Values
Review: This book is the authorized history of the Rowan Companies over its first 75 years. Started by two entrepreneurial brothers (Arch and Charlie Rowan) in the Texas oil fields, the firm quickly specialized in providing difficult contract drilling. The firm was an early pioneer in such specialties as underwater drilling, deep drilling, and cold weather drilling. Its strategic knowledge strengths were husbanded by developing and maintaining outstanding rig crews and specialized rigs, even when industry conditions made this expensive to keep the resources on the shelf. In the past two decades the company has added rig building and resupply capabilities through acquisitions to enhance its strengths in deep water drilling. The book is enlivened by a large number of dramatic and interesting photographs of drilling. You also get a good sense of the families of the founders and their successors from the text and photographs. There is a tremendous continuity in the company's leadership that makes this book as much about the leaders and their families as about the company.

Rowan is a classic entrepreneurial company, seeking out opportunity to the ends of the earth and beng prepared to manage the risks involved. Contract drillers were among the first smaller American companies to go truly global, as the search for hydrocarbons expanded soon after World War II. Contract drillers have special challenges, because they have to ship their rigs to the new drilling sites, whether those be in the North Sea, the Arabian peninsula, Indonesia, or the offshore in the north slope of Alaska. The company was successful with all of these challenges and has enjoyed an enviable safety record.

Today, in a high petroleum price market, Rowan prospers due to its specialization in deep water drilling with its jack-up Gorilla-class rigs, which can search out hydrocarbons in several hundred feet of water during severe storms. But that wasn't always the case. During low-price periods in the 1980s and 1990s, Rowan sustained large losses from low rental rates and idle rigs kept fully staffed. This was in keeping with the company's mission to be ready to provide outstanding service of the most difficult sorts whenever customers demanded it. No one can predict oil prices, so it's always a "wait and see" game. During the 1990s, air operations became critical to the company's survival. Yet with low prices for oil, Rowan took a strategic step forward by acquiring its preferred offshore rig maker, so that innovation in new rigs could continue. A new version of the largest jack-up offshore rigs soon emerged that are now plumbing further onto the continental shelves. Rowan has played this volatile price market well, going from a single rig to over a billion dollar a year company in 75 years. Internet entrepreneurs can learn important lessons from this example about the need to specialize, treat its customers and employees well, and to wait out hard times.

The main weakness of this book is that is does not do enough to place Rowan in context relative to other contract drillers. This could have been done through interviews with customers, or by profiling the accomplishments of competitors. Almost nothing was included from either perspective. I graded the book down one star for this glaring omission.

In addition to the interesting business history in the book, you will enjoy the stories about how business is conducted. I was especially interested in the air operations in Alaska (which were acquired from their founders) and the difficulties of drilling there. Technical details of how Gorilla-class rigs "walk" out of the shipyard were also of interest.

After you have finished enjoying the book, I suggest that you think about something that needs to be done in your family that is now difficult and undesirable. How can it be made easier and more pleasant? By taking this problem-solving approach, you can improve your family's life. If you involve everyone in the family in the quest, you can have fun together solving the problem as well as adding to everyone's skills in the process.

Enjoy a good challenge!