The 2013 Game Changer Award… with Shell’s sponsorship looming overhead… went to Tesla Motors, with Diarmuid O’Connell on stage. Coincidentally, we both joined the company in the same month — June 2006 — with DFJ as investor and Diarmuid as VP of Business Development and the first non-engineering hire.
But… the Shell logos overhead were surreal and ironic in this context, since Shell has run a “GameChanger” program for many years where they ostensibly empower managers to take on “Moonshots” for change. (links below)
As the main sponsor of this event, they brought a Formula Race car shell and clearly invested in their presence. They audibly groaned when they learned that we chose Tesla for the “Game Changer” award.
My first question on stage beckoned Diarmuid to share why he joined Tesla from serving the U.S. military — he saw the deaths from the U.S. engagement in the Middle East: “It’s all because of oil. Those people are dying because of oil and I wanted to do something about it.”
The hypocrisy of Shell’s sponsorship of technology events and “game changing” is too ripe not to mention. Of course big oil companies are not going to change the game. They never will. It’s as fundamental a law of business as you’ll find. And among big oil companies, Shell has proven to be the one of the worst when it comes to commitment to change.
When the fears of a carbon tax waned, they pulled back from renewable projects across the board. One example from the Guardian:
“When pushed to choose between profit and survival, the oil giant chooses profit – irrespective of collective consequence. Shell said it couldn’t ‘make the numbers work’ for wind power. There’s something so blithe – and enormously telling – about the excuse offered by the oil company Shell… And they have, of course, been able to “make the numbers work” for heavily polluting tar sands.”
A couple years ago, I was on a stage with a Shell executive at TED, at the lunch they sponsored, and I had the change to challenge her directly about Shell’s withdrawal from sustainable energy projects while sponsoring technology conferences. I compared it to cigarette companies sponsoring medical conventions.
And today, they seem to have a renewed focus on technology positioning, even on Facebook. Ever since my prior post about Benioff and the Churchill Club awards, the ads popping up on my wall are purchased by Shell.
Viewed with a cynical eye, the Shell approach to changing the game appears to be nothing more than a shell game.
They could be honest, like Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, Saudi oil minister for 24 years:
“The Stone Age came to an end not for a lack of stones and the oil age will end, but not for a lack of oil.
Technology is a real enemy for OPEC. Technology will reduce consumption and increase production from areas outside OPEC.
The real victims will be countries like Saudi Arabia with huge reserves which they can do nothing with. The oil will stay in the ground forever.”
GameChanger: http://www.shell.com/global/future-energy/innovation/game-changer.html
Moonshots: http://www.managementexchange.com/story/shell-game-changer
Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/may/01/shell-wind-power-capitalism
More Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/9960826246/
From the Churchill Club: http://www.churchillclub.org/Churchill%20Awards%20.aspx
Game Changer: For indispensable technology and business innovation
Spirit of the award: “You changed how things are done or viewed and there’s no going back”
The 2013 Game Changer Award is presented to: TESLA MOTORS.
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