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42nd Annual Howard Weil Energy Conference
Paal Kibsgaard
This transformation process which started in 2008 has had the following focus areas:
First, to increase the rate of innovation by taking a broader approach to fundamental research and
by complementing our internal innovation with more external collaboration and targeted M&A
activity, accepting that we do not have a monopoly on coming up with the best new ideas.
Second, to reduce the number of engineering iterations and shorten the time to market for new
products by more extensive use of software and modeling to do rapid prototyping, and by developing
a catalog of standardized technology building blocks that can be shared and re-used throughout the
entire R&E organization.
And third, to improve the technical ‘out-of-box’ performance of our new products as they are
introduced to the market by focusing on reducing design complexity and also by introducing more
elaborate test and qualification methodologies, both in the lab with our suppliers and through
investing in full-scale test facilities and rigs.
