Relevance: Hitting Your Goals by Knowing What Matters

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GROWING TO LEARN

As the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon staggered toward a U.N.-brokered cease-fire, the Iraq war spun into sectarian conflict, and oil prices floated over seventy-five dollars a barrel, BP (once British Petroleum) revealed it was shutting down operations in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska—about 8 percent of U.S. petroleum production capacity. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries eagerly announced it would make up any shortfall.

BP admitted it had not checked some of its North Slope transit pipelines since it ran a “smart pig” corrosion-sensing device through them in 1992. “With hindsight, that's clearly a gap in our program,” acknowledged BP corrosion management and chemicals program team leader Bill Hedges.¹ Ignoring ...