Statoil CFO Happy With His Robots; Later, Humans

Posted on by Caleb Newquist
statoil robots finance

Last fall, we mentioned Roberta, the newest and most efficient member of Statoil’s treasury department. Today, The Wall Street Journal reports that she’s been joined recently by several new co-workers, including one named Rob, and the Norwegian company’s CFO, Hans Jakob Hegge, seems to be enjoying them on a personal level:

“I am not sure whether they are a couple. They are certainly related,” Mr. Hegge told CFO Journal in an interview on Friday.

Okay, he’s maybe not enjoying them, but he’s acknowledging the possibility that they have some connection and that’s far less than humans expect. In fact, he’s far exceeding the amount of personal interest that robots require. Regardless, there’s little doubt that the Rob-bots are proving useful and exceeding Hegge’s expectations:

Statoil has automated over 50 finance and treasury tasks and plans to grow the number of robots deployed in its finance unit, Mr. Hegge said. “This helps us to improve efficiency,” Mr. Hegge said.

Statoil has reduced its finance department from 1,400 in 2013 to 897 in 2017, and if you thought that was the end of doing more with robots and less with humans, you would be wrong:

“We will continue to shrink the finance function in terms of our full-time employees,” [Hegge] said.

Will the last human out of Statoil could turn out the lights? And maybe leave a bit of personality behind for the bots to tinker with? That’d be great.

[WSJ]

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Reno’s “Hot August Nights” Goes For-Profit and Skips Town?

Though the connection between the non-profit Hot August Nights organization that’s been putting on Reno’s biggest party for 24 years and the newly-registered for-profit Hot August Nights of Las Vegas is unclear, what is clear is that part of the event will be held in Long Beach this year due to “horrific” costs to put the event on in Reno.

Reno, if you don’t already know, is in pretty bad shape. I used to live there so I know that it always was but it’s in really bad shape right now. With the iconic Fitzgerald’s Hotel and Casino indefinitely boarded up directly under Reno’s “Biggest Little City in the World” sign as a direct result of the Corus Bank failure 1,500 miles away in Chicago back in late 2009, downtown looks more destitute than ever. I take full artistic license for use of the word “iconic.” This is Reno we’re talking about.


You’d think Reno city commissioners would want to encourage fun and leisure, mostly through the only event any of us with the big money to the West are familiar with (Hot August Nights) but all signs point to the city losing it.

On the same day paperwork was filed in Nevada to establish the for-profit, non-profit Hot August Nights officials announced part of the event would be held in Southern California in 2011.

There’s been a bunch of bitchfighting in Reno (and neighbor Sparks, who gets some of the tourism run-off for the event) and it continues.

We don’t expect you to be familiar with the Reno area (unless you happen to work for Deloitte or E&Y in town, though we don’t like those odds) so for a little background on Hot August Nights, it’s a yearly car show stamped as family fun for everyone. The event costs $700,000 to put on each year according to organizers who swear they aren’t looking to move the show to Long Beach in 2012.

The Reno Gazette-Journal breaks down the non-profit side:

In the 2004 tax year, Don Schmid, then listed as executive director, was paid $93,962 in salary.

On the nonprofit corporation’s 2008 income tax return, current executive director Bruce Walter is listed as collecting $256,890 in salary and $11,940 for a housing allowance, resulting in total compensation of $268,830.

Yes, I’m sure it’s the costs of putting on the event that are inspiring a move. Anyone been to a convention in Reno lately? It’s got to be the cheapest place in the country if you don’t count middle states. You’re telling me it’s cheaper to host the event in Long Beach?

For-profit Hot August Nights corporation created in Vegas [The Reno Gazette-Journal]