have the equipment to remain competitive.
Most people both outside of the company and within the organization correctly perceived the company's actions as a process of image rebuilding, as opposed to representing fundamental changes in corporate policies and priorities. A few voices in the wilderness of Vermillion's managerial structure Peter Ostenson (Director of Offshore Production) and Wendell Buyck (head of the company's Equitanian operations) supported environmentally sound production, and actually tried to steer the company in that direction. Others, such as Oliver
*A. J. Stern, "The Case of the Environmental Impasse," Harvard Business Review, May June 1991, 14 16, 18 19, 22. Hibbing (CEO) were willing to go along with environmentally sound production methods and other socially responsible actions, as long as the contributed positively to the corporate bottom line performance. Most of Vermillion's management, however, wanted to emphasize financial performance only.
Coincidental with the company image rebuilding campaign, it became apparent that a substantial proportion of Vermillion's growing raw material requirements would have to be met from foreign resources beginning in the mid 1990s. Equitania was selected by the company as the site within which to develop such resources. Buyck and Ostenson were given a more or less free hand in the development of the required resources in Equitania. Equitania had a powerful (for a developing country) environmental movement, and Vermillion's management recognized that some concessions would be required by the company to obtain the authorization and support required to develop the resources.
Buyck, with Ostenson's support, persevered for several years, and took the company along the road toward environmentally sound production practices and social responsibility farther than the company had ever dreamed of going, and mush farther than most of Vermillion's management wante...