Lecture: Innovation at Scale: The Blue Chalk Process at BP

By John Leggate, CIO and Group Vice President, BP

October 20, 2006
Location: MIT, Building E51-315, Tang Center, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142
Time: 11:30am – 1pm (lunch included)
Open to: Entire MIT Community
Contact: Saskia Michl, smichl@mit.edu

About the Lecture:

The challenge for a global enterprise – such as BP - is how to innovate at scale. The world is constantly changing, creating many business opportunities and innovations.  How does BP tap into that?  How does it translate innovation to business-as-usual on a global scale? 

John Leggate is not only the CIO of BP, but has recently been appointed Group Vice President, Procurement and Supply Chain Management, and has taken on responsibility for Group Security.  In this lecture, John will set out how he stitches these roles together and how new ideas and ways of working emerge at the points where differing domains and influences intersect.

John will map BP’s journey of innovation, from discovery to business-as-usual, including finding and testing new ideas, identifying which ones work, applying them at scale and then dismantling corporate legacies.  In particular, John will talk about Blue Chalk processes, the mythical meeting of minds that takes place each year on the West Coast of the US and which forms the nexus of the innovation process.

About the Speaker:

AS CIO of BP, John Leggate is responsible for the development of BP’s digital capability – its related systems, technology, business processes and opportunities – across the 150 business units that comprise the company’s global operations, upstream and downstream.

In addition to his role as CIO, John has recently been appointed Group Vice President, Procurement and Supply Chain Management.  He also has recently taken on responsibility for Group Security.

John was honored as Commander, The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) by the Queen in her 2004 New Year's Honour List.  This is in recognition of an outstanding contribution and leadership of the international digital technology agenda.

A chartered engineer, a graduate of Glasgow University and a Fellow of the IEE, began his career in marine consultancy and nuclear energy before joining BP Exploration in 1979. During the 1980-90s he held posts of increasing responsibility in the management and operating of BP’s North Sea oil and gas assets.

In 1998, he was appointed President of BP’s Azerbaijan International Operating Company, in which capacity he was tasked to manage BP’s interests in the unfolding geopolitical and economic debate that centers on crude oil export routes from the Caspian Sea.

John has a particular interest in executive leadership, the management of high-performance teams, organizational change, and knowledge management. He is a member of the BP Group Senior Leadership Team, and is closely involved in the development of corporate policy on technology foresight, global environmental performance, and sustainability.