Company culture remains key ingredient to successful innovation

Companies must have the right culture in order to successfully and efficiently adopt new and innovative drilling systems, said Eric Kolstad, Executive VP of Drilling at Caturus Energy. This means having complete alignment on the expectations for new technologies, set from senior leadership and disseminated to the entire organization. Without this, new technologies have no chance of success. In this video with DC taken from the 2026 IADC/SPE International Drilling Conference in Galveston, Texas, on 16 March, Mr Kolstad spoke about the elements of a successful innovation culture, as well as how companies can work to develop that culture.

In particular, he explained the importance of leadership in providing clarity and enforcing standards around new technologies. Mr Kolstad spoke at a workshop preceding the conference co-hosted by SPE’s Drilling Systems Advancement Technical Section and the IADC Advanced Rig Technology Committee.