Author: Mike Naylor

Welcome!

Welcome to the new website of MN Solutions (Cambridge) Ltd.  Our aim is to give you some insight into what we have to offer as a management consultant to the upstream oil and gas industry. Whether your interest is corporate strategy, the exploration business, project management, technology or leadership development, I hope you will find something of interest.  If you would like to know more, please get in touch. From time to time, I will post blogs relating to industry news and current trends. So please book mark the website, check back from time to time and feel free to join in the conversation. Best wishes. Mike Naylor

MN Solution Space – March 2017

MN SolutionSpace is an occasional newsletter to keep you updated on MN Solutions. As well as highlighting what we do, I hope it may in a small way entertain, inform and provoke new thoughts. What price low oil price? The current oil price slump has lasted more than 2 years. The optimists claim there are small signs of recovery, but not all companies agree. Brent oil price Predictable responses The response to persistent low oil prices is predictable. In companies, first come cost saving initiatives, then budget cuts, including putting major capital projects on hold and eventually staff cuts. Opec members, if they are willing to toe the line, will eventually announce production cuts to bolster prices. Cost saving initiatives… Read more »

MN SolutionSpace – December 2016

MN SolutionSpace is an occasional newsletter to keep you updated on MN Solutions. As well as highlighting what we do, I hope it may in a small way entertain, inform and provoke new thoughts. Return on technology investment It was a casual question posed at the end of a long client call about innovation. “Dr Naylor, you are the expert. What is a good return on technology investment?” I always feel simultaneously flattered and wary when I am described as the expert, especially in those cultures which revere experts and accept their opinions without question. I pondered for a few moments and answered “A factor of 5 to 10”. The number came back to haunt me in a later call.… Read more »

MN Solution Space – from the archive

Here is a second news-sheet from MN Solutions. It may in a small way entertain or inform you and perhaps provoke your thoughts in new directions. In the first issue in March, I wrote – prophetically – that it would appear only occasionally. Plans to produce a summer edition were thwarted by a couple of demanding projects. Perhaps the reader who suggested I should be Tweeting or Blogging was right….. Backyard news After an exceptionally hot, dry April and May, we had the coolest wettest August for 20 years, and then the warmest November on record. This amply fuelled our British obsession for discussing the weather but put paid to any attempts to become self-sufficient on the vegetable plot. The… Read more »

MN SolutionSpace – from 7 years ago

Backyard news I optimistically label this first edition Spring 2011. After a winter of deep snow, freezing fog and torrential rain, there were some signs that better weather is on the way and the snowdrops are flowering.  Why does the weather matter, besides being a peculiarly British obsession? Well firstly, it makes the ‘mini-commute’ across the garden from home to office more appealing, and secondly it determines how much time I spend consulting rather than flying aeroplanes. The adage ‘Treat the company’s money as you would your own’ is often paid lip-service in big companies. Its significance only becomes truly apparent when you start your own business and are personally responsible for everything, including marketing and the profit & loss… Read more »