Answer To: In the final submission, in week 7 , submit approximately 4,000 words in which you address the...
Robert answered on Dec 21 2021
British Petroleum 1
British Petroleum
British Petroleum 2
Introduction and Historical Background
BP is considered as one of the largest vertically integrated oil and gas companies which has a
strong focus on the exploration and production of gas and crude oil along with its marketing, the
company strongly focuses on enhancing its research and development with which it is able to
have a competitive edge from its competitors. (Annual Report, 2011)
Shell British Petroleum is one of the top ranking oil companies which are well known all over
the world of today’s modern times. It develops and ventured into international oil business as
from 1957, with some 55, 0000 numbers of employees that same year. BP has always really set
to remain ever focused to keep on expanding in its area of core oil business in international scale
as well as keep on increasing its operations and keep on maintaining its presence in about 60
countries to date. In the next four years or more, it embarked into aggressive mergers and
acquisitions, which enabled BP to more than double its human resources size figure up to
117,000 employees. Also, BP extended its expansion into new emergent markets. (Annual
Report, 2011)
A former British firm in partnership with a Dutch parent company merged together to formed
and re-branded it name to called themselves with the name Shell BP, and later grew in larger size
and at the same time because of its sheer huge sized, it is bond to faced with a myriad of
challenges and wider responsibilities; for example, having managed in building a unified global
organization for itself which was made possible through merging together further with additional
nine separate companies it acquired, thereby making BP to having a name in the oil explorations
history. (Annual Report, 2011)
BP’s businesses need to follow different rules and regulations as well as law which focus on the
protection of the environment, as oil harms the environment to a great extent. One of the biggest
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disasters of Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico had highly impacted the
environment as well as the lives of the animals. (Annual Report, 2011)
BP, with a focus to drive future performance continuously, invests in research and development
(R&D). Investment in R&D is also a measure of the company’s commitment to the future
organic growth of the business. In FY2011, BP’s expenditure on R&D was $636 million.
(Annual Report, 2011)
The distance separated simultaneous sources (DS3) and independent simultaneous sources (ISS)
methods were used to complete ultra-large, high density land seismic surveys in the Middle East
and North Africa. BP also has field trials under way to extend these acquisition methods to the
offshore. (Annual Report, 2011)
Further in FY2011, BP developed a new range of industrial metalworking fluids that are both
safer for workers and less harmful to the environment, a new gear lubricant for maximizing the
efficiency of wind turbines, and co-engineered passenger car lubricants for optimizing engine
fuel efficiency. (Annual Report, 2011)
It also opened a new industrial technology centre in Turin, Italy, which will serve customers
across Europe and analyze about 30,000 oil samples a year. In alternative energy, BP is aligning
technology capability with future growth platforms, particularly biofuels. It is also developing a
technology to commercialize cellulosic biofuels. BP has more than 29 separate investments
spanning three broad areas: bioenergy, electrification, and carbon solutions. (Annual Report,
2011)
Strong R&D capabilities provide BP to attain competitive advantage over its peers, maintain
technological edge over its competitors, and stay ahead of industry trends. In addition, it allows
the company to ensure safe and reliable operations by strengthening its portfolio, getting more
from its resource base and winning new access. (Annual Report, 2011)
Vertically integrated operations
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BP has strongly focused on vertical integration as it strongly focuses on upstream, midstream,
and downstream oil businesses and is operating in two diverse businesses which are: exploration
and production; and refining and marketing. (Annual Report, 2011)
Oil and natural gas exploration along with a strong focus on the field development and
production is considered as upstream operations, the management of the crude oil and natural gas
is considered as the middle stream operations and its sale and different processing facilities,
refining and marketing of the crude oil are considered under the downstream operations. (Annual
Report, 2011)
Vertically integrated operations helps the company to enhance its value chain as well as enable
the company to produce products across different stages in its value chain which helps the
company to attain competitive edge in the market. (Annual Report, 2011)
Organizational Values
BP organization successfully created a strong re-new branded corporate symbol and culture, and
set to identify itself cohesively in both internally and externally with all of its employees,
stockholders, its customers, partners, and was enabled to establish good corporate relations with
most national governments in countries where oil production is the main stay of the economy as
well as around the world, in its renew efforts to increase its core oil business. Also, with inputs
from its employees, and so also from all its international operations and alongside its other
functional companies, BP further established four strong values as part of the basic of there-new
brand logo. (Annual Report, 2011)
These four values serves as tool for motivation and as an engine of drive, which are (1)
performance-oriented, meeting financial and operational goals; (2) innovation, research &
development towards finding new ways of evaluation in trying at arriving with options and
solutions towards solving situational problems; (3) ensuring progressive paths and routes,
recognizing and building on its diversity structure and working with other related industries in
developing new fuels and increasing equipment usage; and (4) participating in green house effect
as an environmental issue, and acting responsibly on issues concerning environmental concerns.
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BP emphasized and drive through often its standardize corporate internal policy of its four values
as a strict method of practice, as these were effectively tested and considered very acceptable and
workable formula for a unified and motivational tools for its entire organizational structure, and
keep on applying these similar values no matter which country it is operating in or found itself
in, and despite that it continue to pursue it interest in oil business involvement. Also, still keep on
maintaining rigorously such practices always. (Annual Report, 2011)
BP has a better communication structure across its entire organizational internal structure at
different levels of its employees around the globe, definitely reflected with the corporate brand
symbol/logo which represents how it’s all values often relates BP in its everyday oil and energy
activities, and this has became as ongoing process in it entire daily core oil, gas and petroleum
business. It global enterprise drives also has strives and ensuring that its numerous customers and
the general public as well as other external entities got familiar with its corporate brand symbol
and name insignia which are all underlying and symbolizes the chosen set four values, and also
these values helps her to stem out the public's general negative perception about oil industry
during it struggling to maintain it posture when the oil spill disaster had occurred. (Annual
Report, 2011)
BP believes that its core values are universal, cutting across differences in culture within the
scope of its business environments, wherever they are in the world. Michel Van Eesbeeck, head
of Group Branding, said that if all of its entire employees come to clearly understand it central
established core values, the delivery across various cultures comes under it mode of all energy
operations naturally. Even though there were any form of specific images and messages
generally disseminated about the BP brand name negatively, there are occasions where things
may vary in minor difficult issues from country to country, either due to political or economy
changes, BP will still keep-on maintaining its corporate brand image and all of its underlying
core values the same time, no matter in what circumstances it find itself. (Annual Report, 2011)
The company is in the maturity phase of life cycle. BP is at the higher end of the Maturity stage
of the Product Life cycle from where it might approach to a decline stage. The company claims
to make a regular effort to understand the needs and wants of their customers, and learning to
respond onto these. Being the best in the business and one of the largest companies globally the
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company has been matured enough in its industry to make consistent income and regular profits.
(Annual Report, 2011)
„Shell BP‟s “Beyond Petroleum” improved outlook‟
The company focused itself in reorganizing its business activities under its core strategic aims at
in two forms, which it believes will help it in attaining its mission and vision statement. These
are defined by the company recent claim ―Our core and sustainable business is about oil wells
findings, exploration, processing, refining and marketing‖ (BP Annual Report, 2009; 2010).
The second part of the strategic is also to identified and evaluated many of other opportunities in
order to increase its sales and profits streams; BP acquired its rivals; Amoco, ARCO and Castrol
oil, costing it a massive sum of $120 billion dollars, this invariably enable it to increased more of
its equity based considerably.
In 2000, BP re-invented itself, this time included a re-define brand logo; ―Helios Logo‖ This
logo was replaced to match up with its entire down-stream established brand image; the green
color inside the logo did symbolize environmentally-friendly insignia. Which BP stay focus and
it brand image indeed contributed of the binding for its closeness with her entire customers; they
too felt satisfy with total confidence on the quality of BP good product. However, BP is not just
about gasoline and/or oil energy but it goes ―beyond petroleum Product‖.
There were additional other four main core values on which BP relay upon as it driven force and
it focus trend on; they were:
Progressive: Here the company focuses on adopting new ways of running its business which will
help in attracting more and more consumers.
Innovative: Innovation is one of the most essential aspect by which the company runs through
innovation in it differential products brand to all of it consumers. The company strongly also
focus on adopting new technology in a way in which prefer to see itself at the cutting edge
technology in order to fulfill the yarning needs of consumers demands.
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Green: Been as the symbol of the company environmental –friendly suggests that the company
strongly want to attain a high level of environmental leadership, and the reduction of carbon
emission participation drive.
Performance-driven: The Company always aiming to achieving a strong focus on its global
standard of performance, which will ensure that all its customers were look after towards
fulfilling satisfaction.
Deepwater oil leaks spill; Gulf of Mexico, USA.
The company was highly affected by the tragic event of 2010; this event severely affected the
trust and the competitive position of the company by all of it stakeholders. The deepwater oil...