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Primus Inter Pares. Today the Group's destinies are controlled by Loudon and six other managing directors, who seem for all the world like members of an exclusive club — and so consider themselves. Of a far different stripe than the rough and ready tycoons of the past, they are subdued, cautious, and vastly competent in the modern committee manner. All had to pass one prime admission test: they must have compatibility as well as ability. The man who raises his voice or loses his temper is frowned on, the lone wolf considered a troublemaker. This collective leadership, says one manager, "works like a dream. But to be brutally frank about it, if somebody ever came here who wouldn't fit in, we'd have our ways of taking care of him."
In this clubby atmosphere, John Loudon employs the same diplomatic skills to make things run smoothly as he does in the international world of oil. He is no desk pounder, has been known to lose his temper only once. Since the Group has an unwritten rule that decisions are never forced to a vote, Loudon, as the primus inter pares, tactfully arbitrates differences, suggests lines of agreement, sounds out his fellow directors. Four are Dutch: Lykle Schepers, 56, in charge of manufacturing, research, chemicals; Luitzen Brouwer. 49, exploration and production; Arnold Hofland, 59, marketing, personnel and Western Europe; and Loudon. Three are British: John Philip Berkin, 53, the oil coordinator; Harold ("Tim") Wilkinson. 57, in charge of North America. Far East, Australasia and United Kingdom-Eire; and Frederick Stephens, 56, legal matters and the Middle East, who takes over the chairmanship when Loudon is absent. Shellmen agree that their Britons incline more to flair and intuition, their Dutchmen to patience and stolidity. Loudon presides over the mix. If he favors a project, it is likely to go through; if he frowns on it, its chances are poor. Says he: "There is always plenty of give and take, but somebody always gives in. My job is to see to it that the system works."
In his elegant, wood-paneled office in the Shell building on London's St. Helen's Court (Shell is building an unspectacular-looking 26-story headquarters on the banks of the Thames), Loudon receives a steady flow of international visitors. "This seems to be my American season," said he last week, after conferring with a stream of U.S. bankers and executives. He logs well over 150 hours of air travel a year, on a recent visit to the Middle East dined with Qatar's Sheik Ahmed (he thoughtfully brought along a rocking horse for the sheik's son), conferred with Emperor Haile Selassie in Addis Ababa, was received by the Prime Minister of the Sudan. Says Managing Director Fred Stephens: "You always wonder what kind of visa John will pull out of his pocket."