Page 33: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2018)

Bodénès

Bourbon Corporation CEO Gael Bodénès & his team plot a bold new course for this offshore industry stalwart, as he explains.

BY GREG TRAUTHWEIN My management style is participa- where shale oil and deep offshore begin

Your career with Bourbon has tra- With this historic swoon in energy pric- tory. I am very much attached to being to make sense. versed many industry ? uctuations. es, today we hear of “the new norm”: close to the teams and to operations. I

Looking back to when you joined the adjusting business practices to the new also believe in close relations with our • Oil companies have indeed begun to company, how is Bourbon today most per barrel level. What does “the new clients. It is paramount to always focus regain some leeway, and once again gen- the same, and most different? norm” mean to Bourbon?

on the essential: clients’ needs and op- erate positive cash ? ows.

BOURBON has transformed from erational excellence. We are in the worst crisis that we a conglomerate with a small regional I am convinced that management have ever seen on this market…. well As a result, the marine services market company footprint in offshore to a world should be aimed at supporting the teams beyond the Lehman Brothers crisis of is starting to be positively impacted. We recognized leader in offshore marine ser- who are themselves in a key position 2009. Even in the 1980s oil crisis was believe that we reached a low point in vices. It has seen its teams grow from a to support clients and provide the best not as violent as the situation we are fac- 2017, and that the activity is gradually 3000 to more than 8000 employees of 88 services at optimum costs. More gener- ing today! We therefore cannot wait and starting to recover. nationalities, the ? eet has grown to more ally, I have not changed my management shall be proactive and take exceptional In that environment, the new norm than 500 units, a new vessel being de- style over the years. I am still attached measures to adapt to this situation. for offshore marine services means we livered every 15 days over several years. to the same values: diversity of cultures Let’s recall that we are in an excep- must be able to deliver operational ex-

Bourbon today is very different from and backgrounds, multicultural spirit, tionally long low cycle but that things cellence at optimum costs. It means de- what it was 10 years ago and it will be multiplicity of points of views and con- will hopefully start to pick up in 2019. ploying low cost structure and inventing very different in the next 10 years. structive exchange. I believe in listening Some positive signals are worth men- new business models. to the others in order to best respond to tioning: We, at Bourbon, think we must in- their needs and even anticipate them. I novate and ? nd new ideas in terms of

Please describe your business man- am attached to working hard in order to • The ? rst is the price of the barrel. It services and technologies to answer agement style, and discuss how (or support Bourbon’s teams. I believe in has been stable for a year now at over this challenge. That is why we have an- if) it has changed over the last 5 to 7

Eisenhower’s motto: “Take your job se- $50. $50 is the threshold at which oil nounced our years. 5. #BOURBONINMOTION riously, never yourself” companies continue to reinvest, as this is strategic action plan mid-February. www.marinelink.com 33

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