"Talent borrows, genius steals", the saying goes,but the leaked motivational e-mail sent to staff atthe Sakhalin 2 gas and oil project is a salutarywarning of the perils of appropriation.

Trying to stir up his managers and engineers, some of whom he suspected of "running the risk of becoming a team that doesn't want to fight and lacks confidence in its own ability", David Greer, deputy chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell's Sakhalin Energy Investment Company, borrowed heavily from the words of General George Patton.