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He was sent back to Venezuela in 1938, made assistant manager in Caracas, then general manager for Venezuela (in 1944, when only 38). There he saw nationalistic feelings developing, changed company policy to make it more sympathetic. For his performance in Venezuela, he was picked for the managing directors' inner sanctum, returned to London in 1947. Put in charge of coordinating the Group's widespread production and exploration, he guided it through the postwar turmoil and rebuilding. In 1957 he took over leadership of the Group.
Cricket Blues. Today Loudon rules over 250,000 employees spread throughout an empire that includes wells in 17 countries, 47 refineries, the world's biggest tanker fleet (551 ships), and interests in oil companies in 76 lands. The Group is — due in large part to his efforts — perhaps the most international group in the business world. At the last budget meeting a Swiss reported on manufacturing, a Frenchman on marketing, an American on finance, a Dutchman on exploration and production. The coordinator (a favorite Shell title) was British. Before the war the Group hired only a few foreigners and nationals, picked them chiefly on the basis of "how closely they resembled Europeans." Most executive positions were held by Europeans on what was called the "old boy" basis. A classic Shell story tells of one frantic cable to London: "Lubrication oil sales dropped 5%. Send two more cricket blues." In the oil business, Shell had a reputation for hiring slightly snootier, less rough-and-tumble executives.
Loudon anticipated the nationalistic pressures of the postwar era, began pushing for more local nationals in executive spots, and has since turned company policy completely around. The company spends about $7,400,000 a year to develop promising talent in the countries where it operates. It has 60 young executives of 27 nationalities working around the world, frequently cross-posts them (a Filipino to Lebanon, a Moroccan to Indonesia). To help its Middle East salesmen describe their products, it hired Lebanese Poet George Silisty to devise a dictionary of new Arabic terms to suit the modern petroleum industry.
The Group also likes its employees to wear Shell emblems in their buttonholes as symbols of international togetherness. Discrimination is strictly prohibited (though the company, like Aramco, cannot get visas to Arab countries for its Jewish employees). When a British employee in Egypt protested that he did not want to share an office with a newly promoted Egyptian, the local manager snapped: "There's a tanker leaving tomorrow. You'll be on it."
Never was this policy more helpful than in the postwar days of nationalistic upheaval. When Indonesia took out after the Dutch, the Group replaced its Dutchmen on the scene with British and Indonesians. When the British were unpopular in Egypt after Suez. Shell replaced them with Dutch. The British were sent — together with other nationalities — into Tunis, Morocco and Algeria to replace unpopular French employees.