Keynote: Sustainability in the Guyanese and Surinamese Oil & Gas Industry
Preparing Guyanese and Surinamese Oil & Gas Companies for the Next Stage of Sustainable Development in the 21st Century
Speaker: Renowned Hubert Rampersad, Ph.D. | Location: 133 Town Center Blvd, Clermont, Florida 34714, USA | Target audience: Oil & Gas executives only | Prior registration required via tpsi@live.com | Phone/WhatsApp: +13053992116 | Date/Time: To be determined
Topics to be discussed:
Topics to be discussed:
Sustainable Good Governance, the Best Strategy for the Guyanese and Surinamese Oil & Gas Industry
Hubert Rampersad, Ph.D.
“Today’s complex world requires sustainable corporate governance. Traditional corporate governance approaches taught at university and implemented in many organizations are not sustainable because they are cosmetical and not holistic. We should be aware that the foundation of sustainable corporate governance is personal integrity, and that sustainability begins with personal integrity”— Hubert Rampersad
Matt Kelly (Corruption Risk in Oil and Gas: Why We See So Much? Why do oil and gas companies seem to fall into anti-bribery trouble so often? According to Insight Consultants (2022), bribery and corruption are widespread and endemic in the oil & gas sector. These are becoming an increasing concern for businesses operating in this sector. A research study shows that one-third of oil and gas firms do not have an anti-bribery and corruption policy. Dr. Lorraine Sobers ( “In 2020, Guyana scored between five and 20 percentage points below the average for Latin American and the Caribbean in the six indicators for good governance, including voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence/terrorism, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, the rule of law, and control of corruption. As we approach the first half of the century with more than a 2°C projected rise in average global temperatures, fossil fuel demand is set to decline annually, beginning sometime in the next few decades. So, while Guyana celebrates large oil discoveries, the world is moving away from oil toward greener energy. Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030 plans to compensate for the global demand shift by creating a cleaner energy mix of natural gas, hydropower, and solar energy. However, the strategy will only be as good as the governance systems in place that ensure that these projects are delivered on time and on budget with fair transactions and safe and efficient operations. Government effectiveness is the crux for good governance, and, as such, Guyana needs to strengthen its institutions in every area of government administration. As oil revenues increase in years to come, the government will announce many more progressive development projects with thrilling promises of improved infrastructure and job creation. However, even as the government announces larger projects, ignoring the lack of commensurate, game-changing policies and initiatives to protect whistle-blowers who call foul is impossible. It is time for a full-court press on corruption. Guyana can be a prominent player in the Latin America and Caribbean region only if it relies on good governance, not just abundant cash and oil resources, to achieve progress and prosperity for all. The discipline of good governance and the insight of strategists and policymakers will seal Guyana’s “big win” of inclusive, sustainable development. Efficient, trustworthy institutions and state agencies—the nation’s center of gravity—must play a stabilizing role in the rapid rise of the country’s energy sector“. So Guyana’s success depends much more on the practice of sustainable good governance than its large hydrocarbon reserve volumes.
Sustainability
“Sustainability is a holistic and ethical system in which humans and nature can exist in harmony for a very long period of time”– Hubert Rampersad
I agree with Dr. Sober, however, she must understand that the emphasis should be on SUSTAINABLE good governance and not just good governance, with nice governance rules, policies, and guidelines only. Because nice good governance rules, policies, and beautiful code of ethics created a stable basis for more corruption in many oil & gas companies, read my related article. This is the main reason why so many oil & gas companies fall into anti-bribery trouble so often. Behind all the corruption scandals in the oil & gas industry are a number of common factors, including:
- Poor ethical leadership and management incompetence
- Lack of personal integrity & empathy
- Focus on rules, policies, and guidelines only, no ethical learning culture
- Fraud, corruption, and violation of corporate governance code of ethics
- Inefficiency of internal audit
Most large oil & gas companies have comprehensive corporate governance codes in place, implemented by some left-brain accountancy firms and large law firms and advised by top law school professors, who apparently are not working at all. They made things worse and created a stable basis for more corruption. The human element represented by the directors and employees is the major cause of these failures. The unethical behavior of leaders is the main cause of bankruptcy and financial failures. Remember what Alan Greenspan, Former Chairman of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System, said: “Our market system depends critically on trust—trust in the world of our colleagues and trust in the world of those with whom we do business…. I am saying that the state of corporate governance, to a very large extent, reflects the character of the CEO.”
Due to the above-mentioned shortcomings, most companies’ approaches to good governance are extremely formal, bureaucratic, cosmetic, woolly, non-holistic, and no-authentic, failing to address the shortcomings mentioned above. Their implementations of good governance provide no protection from potentially catastrophic ethical failures. We need a sustainable and innovative solution to this global epidemic, which I will present in this article. Read also my latest article, “How SDGs, ESG, and Purpose Fuel Design For Sustainability”.
Sustainable Good Governance
“Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws” – Plato
Good governance’s future entails eco-governance, a holistic approach that links to personal integrity, personal governance, and corporate governance, as indicated in this Figure. This entails sustainable good governance. 
In my related book “Authentic Governance; Aligning Personal Governance with Corporate Governance“, I have defined these three elements, as follows:
- Personal Integrity; Entails awareness about your behavior and actions toward human beings, animals, plants, and the environment, by aligning your personal ambition with your behavior and your way of acting.
- Personal Governance; Entails the systematic process of continuous, gradual, and routine personal improvement, steering, and learning, based on your personal innovation strategy.
- Corporate Governance; entails the systematic process of continuous, gradual, and routine corporate improvement, steering, and learning via formal corporate regulations, procedures, and guidelines.
Traditional Good Governance Programs Cause More Corruption
“The higher your personal integrity, the better your attentiveness, the better your empathic skills, the better person you are”- Hubert Rampersad
Having great corporate governance programs in place but not complying with them has become a normal practice globally. Traditional approaches to corporate governance are extremely formal, bureaucratic, cosmetic, non-holistic, and non-authentic and, therefore, provide no protection from potentially catastrophic ethical failures. Most corporate governance programs make things worse, create a stable basis for more corruption, and are doomed to fail.
We urgently need a sustainable and innovative solution to this global epidemic. I picked up where others left off by launching an innovative and sustainable methodology for creating a culture of good people, in which high ethical values are aligned with their corporate governance rules, regulations, and guidelines and embedded in their minds. It 
is based on my new book “Authentic Governance; Aligning Personal Governance with Corporate Governance“. Two main endorsements for this book:
1) “Authentic governance or Eco-governance is a systematic, integrated, pragmatic, and innovative approach to corporate governance. By expanding traditional corporate governance concepts and integrating personal integrity and ethical leadership into one overall authentic governance framework, Dr. Hubert Rampersad gives us a new blueprint for sustainable corporate governance in which formal corporate regulations and personal values mutually reinforce each other. By unifying corporate ethics with individual ethics, he has written an outstanding synthesis that addresses the corporate challenges of managing in the 21st century.”
2) “This book contributes most to the never-ending challenge of protection from potentially catastrophic ethical failures. It serves as a practical guide and a tool kit for executives who aspire to realize ethical corporate excellence”.
Eco-governance (sustainable good governance) starts with value-based leadership development, embedding personal values in the minds of the Chairmen, Presidents, CEOs, CFOs, managers, and employees, and guiding them to reflect on these values sincerely. This is about decency, empathy, 
and personal integrity. Eco-governance is one of the first tangible and measurable means to create a way of life within organizations characterized by trust, credibility, transparency, personal responsibility, personal integrity, and a high-performance, ethical business culture. This will have a positive impact on society. I refer to my related YouTube video.
The New Normal Requires Personal Integrity and Empathy
Personal integrity is the most critical component in today’s business. It’s the most fundamental character trait of leaders and professionals and crucial to creating empathy. I refer to my article “Nurturing Authenticity, Integrity, Empathy, and Critical Thinking: A 5-Step Guide”.
Eco-Governance
“It’s about time we understand that corporate governance cannot be controlled effectively only with formal rules, regulations, guidelines, and procedures. It’s about decency, empathy, and personal integrity, which must be a way of life, with no need of rules, and cultivated from within”–Hubert Rampersad Remember what Plato said in 340 BC: “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws”. Most corporate governance programs make things worse, create a stable basis for more corruption, and are doomed to fail. Why don’t we learn from Plato and focus on creating a culture of good people, in which personal values are aligned with the laws and embedded in the mind of the people, instead of focusing on laws (corporate governance) only? I picked up where others left off by launching an innovative methodology for creating a culture of good Chairmen, Presidents, CEOs, CFOs, managers, and employees, in which high ethical values are aligned with their corporate governance rules, regulations, and guidelines and embedded in their minds.As demonstrated by many oil & gas companies, traditional corporate governance codes (corporate laws) provide no protection from potentially catastrophic ethical failures. Company integrity must always start with personal integrity. It must be an informal learning process and a way of life, based on alignment with yourself and alignment with your company. This ethical process must be promoted and communicated consistently within the whole company to all stakeholders. In this way, ethical behavior will become routine in the whole organization, and leaders and employees will gain more understanding of their responsibility with regard to ethical behavior. They will understand that it is their responsibility to act ethically, on duty as well as off duty. This is a more sustainable, comprehensive, and holistic approach to ethics and social responsibility.
Against this background, I propose an organic and holistic approach to corporate governance called eco-governance. This approach integrates personal values and integrity into one overall authentic governance framework, in which formal corporate regulations and personal values mutually reinforce each other. This theory has been borne out through my global leadership experiences in the corporate world over the past thirty years.
Eco-Governance Model
I have defined eco-governance in holistic humanized terms, namely, the systematic process of continuous, gradual, and routine improvement, steering, and learning that leads to sustainable high performance and ethical excellence. I made a distinction between personal governance and corporate governance, which I will explain here in detail. So, eco-governance is a continuous voyage of discovery, involving continuous, gradual, and routine improvement, steering, and learning. It is about a journey towards a happier and more successful life for individuals and ethical corporate excellence.
By redefining and governing themselves effectively, leaders and employees will gain more understanding about their responsibility regarding ethical behavior, and they will understand that it is their responsibility to act ethically, on duty as well as off duty. The figure below shows the eco-governance model, which provides an excellent framework and roadmap to develop, implement, and cultivate personal governance and corporate governance in a systematic and sustainable way. This new governance blueprint is an inside-out approach and focuses mainly on the human side of good governance. It places more emphasis on understanding yourself and the needs of others, meeting those needs while staying true to your personal and corporate values, improving yourself and your personal integrity continuously, making ethics a way of life and a continuous learning process, and aligning these with formal corporate regulations, procedures, and guidelines, instead of focusing on exhaustive formal corporate regulations, procedures and guidelines only.
This eco-governance model consists of the following four phases, which are the building blocks of sustainable corporate governance:
1. Personal Governance:
a) Personal ambition; this phase involves a soul-searching process based on thought, introspection, and self-reflection, supported by a breathing and silence exercise. I refer to my article “Personal Disruptive Innovation”. Questions that you can ask yourself are: 
Who am I, What do I stand for? What makes me more ethical? What do I live for? Why do I want to lead? and what the purpose of my leadership is. If the honest answers to the last four questions are power, prestige, and money, you may be at risk for your company. The result of this phase is the formulation of your personal mission, vision, and values. On the basis of insights acquired through this process, you develop self-awareness and self-regulation, which are the foundation of trustworthiness, integrity, and openness to learn.
b) Personal Innovation Strategy; personal ambition has no value unless you take action to make it a reality. Therefore, this stage emphasizes developing an integrated and well-balanced action plan based on your personal ambition, which I call a Personal Innovation Strategy (PIS). It’s about translating your personal ambition into action, which I have described in detail in my article “Redesigning Your Life” .
c) Personal governance: The next step is to implement, maintain, and cultivate your ambition and PIS to govern yourself effectively and become a better human being. This entails personal governance, the systematic process of continuous, gradual, and routine personal improvement, steering, and learning. Your PIS needs constant updating to reflect the new challenges you take, the lessons you have learned, and your growth.
2. Personal Integrity (Alignment with yourself); corporate governance will be cosmetic if personal integrity is not a way of life in your organization and if you focus mainly on ethical procedures, formal regulations, and guidelines. Therefore, it’s necessary to align your personal ambition with your behavior and your way of acting. I refer to my article “The Future of Leadership“. So you need to commit yourself to living and acting according to your personal ambition and keep your promises to yourself. Personal governance built on the person’s true character is sustainable and strong. You should reflect your true self and adhere to a moral and behavioral code set down by your ambition. This means that who you really are, what you care about, and your passions should come out in your personal ambition, and you should act and behave accordingly (you should be yourself) to build trust. This inner alignment is an important step towards lasting personal growth and reinforcing integrity, honesty, trustworthiness, credibility, transparency, and personal charisma. People with this perspective on life value others’ lives and create a stable basis for others to feel they are credible, truthful, and trustworthy.
These first two stages in the authentic governance model focus on personal leadership development by cultivating your inner compass.
3. Corporate Governance:
a) Corporate ambition: This phase involves formulating shared corporate ambition. Corporate ambition is the organization’s soul, core intention, and guiding principles, and it encompasses the corporate mission, vision, and core values.
b) Corporate Innovation Strategy; corporate ambition has no value unless you don’t take action to make it a reality. Therefore, this stage emphasizes developing an integrated and well-balanced action plan based on the corporate ambition to realize the corporate objectives. This Corporate Innovation Strategy (CIS) is needed to continuously improve the business and governance processes based on corporate ambition.
c) Corporate governance; the next step is to implement, maintain, and cultivate the corporate ambition and CIS to govern your organization effectively and become an ethical company. This entails corporate governance: the systematic process of continuous, gradual, and routine corporate improvement, steering, and learning. This stage also focuses on implementing formal corporate regulations, procedures, and guidelines (corporate governance code).
4. Alignment with your organization; the emphasis here is aligning personal ambition with corporate ambition and creating uniformity of personal and organizational values. I refer to my article “The Future of HR“. By unifying corporate ethics with individual ethics, you will create a strong foundation of peace, integrity, engagement, and learning upon which creativity and growth can flourish, and life within the organization will become a more harmonious and ethical experience. It’s about aligning personal governance with corporate governance and getting the optimal fit and balance between these two activities in order to enhance labor productivity, create a climate of trust, and stimulate engagement, commitment, integrity, and passion in the organization. This alignment process is needed because staff members don’t work with devotion or expend energy on something they do not believe in or agree with. If there is an effective match between their interests and those of the company, and if their values and the company’s values align, they will be engaged and will work with greater commitment and dedication toward realizing the company’s objectives. When the personnel’s personal ambition is in harmony with their company’s (are compatible) and combined in the best interest of both parties, the results will be higher productivity and sustainable corporate governance. Employees are stimulated in this way to commit, act ethically, and focus on those activities that create value for clients. This will create a strong foundation of peace, personal integrity, and stability upon which creativity and growth can flourish, and life within the organization will become a more harmonious experience.
The effective combination of all these four phases creates a stable basis for a high-performance ethical organization. To illustrate the importance of this authentic governance model: Of the 140 businesses recognized by the Ethisphere Institute as the 2013 World’s Most Ethical Companies, Aflac and Starbucks have received this honor every year between 2007 and 2013. They have been judged to have exemplary ethical standards and policies and consistently high ethical practices. Their corporate governance codes are not empty words but represent active coordinates in maintaining an ethical business culture based on effective values‑based leadership and the alignment of personal governance with corporate governance.
This article is based on my new book “Eco-Design Thinking for Personal, Corporate and Social Innovation; How to Become a Disruptive Eco-Design Thinker Like Elon Musk“. Read the excerpt of this book, which is about reimagining design and innovation.
He also conducted this live webinar for Saudi Aramco:
Hubert Rampersad, Ph.D., is a Dutch-American visionary leader in innovative solutions for genuine sustainability, disruptive design innovation, critical thinking, authentic personal branding, and entrepreneurial leadership. He holds a Ph.D. in Innovation Sciences, an MSc in Technology Engineering & Robotics, and a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from leading accredited universities in the Netherlands/Europe (Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology). He is a well-known futurist, advocating for genuine sustainability on a global scale. With extensive knowledge and expertise, he has authored 25 books on the topics above in many languages and is highly regarded for his insights in these fields. One of his books, “Total Performance Scorecard,” has been published in 20 languages. Dorothy Leonard, an innovation professor at Harvard Business School, wrote the book’s foreword. Rampersad has also previously served as a guest lecturer at MIT Sloan and was featured in BusinessWeek. He was a design innovation coach at ASML, the most important tech company in the world and “Europe’s most valuable tech firm“.
Orlando, Florida | tpsi@live.com | Phone/WhatsApp: +13053992116 | skype: h.rampersad | About the author https://bit.ly/2CQLIfS
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