British Petroleum: PESTEL and SWOT

British Petroleum: PESTEL and SWOT This Report will assess the altering business background of a one of the largest perpendicularly incorporated oil and gas companies British Petroleum, over the last five years. The Micro and Macro business environment of the company have influenced by some main factors and the motive of this report is to focus on them to recognize, analyze and understand. In order to do this, some important tools need to be considered. PESTEL analysis is one of the tools can support the organisations to estimate macro-environmental factors which can have an impact on them. SWOT analysis is another important tool, which assists organisations in additional developing their self consciousness. Introduction Business environment can be defined as a complex of policy, legal, institutional, and regulatory circumstances that administrate industry activities. It is a sub-set of the investment policy and includes the administration and enforcement mechanisms that implement government policy, as well as the institutional activities influence the way key factors operate (e.g., government agencies, regulatory authorities, and business membership organisations including businesswomen associations, civil society organisations, trade unions, etc.). Macro-environment Macro-environment is the uppermost level of the environment, which consists of broad external factors that can influence the business. In this case, PESTEL analysis is a useful tool to identify these factors and this can be based on the analyses of future trends such as political, economic, social, environment and legal etc. Using this tool, managers can categorize the key drivers of modifications and this can be used to build the potential trend to future scenario (Johnson et al, 2009). According to Worthington and Britton (2003), some manners may influence the business; renovate the inputs (resources such as labour force, technology, finance and materials) in outputs such as goods (products that can be touched such as foods, cars, and so on) or services (products that cannot be touched such as insure services). These performances can be used and prejudiced by companies in order to create their policy. Considering that this macro environment is very complex and companies cannot control it, its analysis is very important. Companies need to identify them and understand the negative impacts they can produce, therefore they can be prepared to reduce them (Palmer and Hartley 2009). Political Factors According to Palmer and Hartley (2009), politicians are usually responsible to create and exceed legislation to companies and occasionally they may create direct influence some types of businesses, such as: client defence law, workers protection laws, regulates of effluence and so on. In addition, according to Lancaster (2008) others political decisions as the workforce education, health and environment, and even the economy infrastructure can also influence businesses operations. Economic Factors Economic factors are very significant for an organization because it is directly associated to GDP (gross domestic product), economic development, redundancy rate, inflation rate and so on. Any modification in the economy can influence businesses. One good example is the oil spill at Gulf of Mexico has made BP a huge quantity of financial loss. The increase in the crude oil price affected all the chain such as power charge, oil-based raw material, plastic, synthetic fibres and so on (Lancaster 2008). This example indicates the significance of monitoring the economy, either nationally or internationally, in order to recognize possible opportunities and threats. Social and Cultural factors The socio-cultural environment is possibly one of the most difficult factors to evaluate, considering that is based on people manners changes, such as religion, ethics, priorities, attitudes, philosophy and social changes (Lancaster, 2008). On the other hand, Palmer and Hartley (2009) state that a crucial part for businesses is to understand the cultural value of a society; companies should be monitoring this frequently to better match to customers desires and requirements. Technological Factors According to Lancaster (2008), technology is an important macro-environmental feature which is presented in many products that we use on our daily breathes, as television, calculators, video records, computers and so on. Companies play an important responsibility on generating more technologies due to this some of them has their own research and development department or work in partnership with universities or research institutes, seeking to provide new products or with better excellence to clients. Environmental Factors This factor has been constantly increasing, especially for multinationals, due to the challenging of social responsibility activities and projects with focus on the centre of population and the environment. These corporations have an important function on contributing to the social development (Worthington and Britton 2009). BP, in the last five years, has worked proactively to reduce environmental risks and, as a result, it has improved its indices across the years. In its eco efficiency activities, they have focused on: reducing water consumption, energy, generation of effluents, production of residues solids and pastes. Moreover, it is also preoccupied with the society and develops projects in partnerships with the communities to improve factors such as people education, quality of life, social projects and so on (BP plc, 2010). Legal Factors Companies should work according to the law otherwise they can have important collision on their businesses. Some laws are changing to defend clients (municipal licences, anti-monopoly laws); workers (minimum wage, workers safety) and suppliers (copyright and patent laws which favour business investments). Some of them can manipulate market constitution and performance (Worthington and Britton 2009). Microenvironment Microenvironment, on the other hand, is the internal factors which generally business decisions are made. The internal environment is composed of various components such as employees, suppliers, customers and so on. Therefore, microenvironment can be divided in various small parts inside a company and each part is extremely important for the business. Lancaster (2008) argues that one of the main objectives of marketing is to concentrate the requirements of consumers. In order to achieve this, companies can make use of their internal property and capabilities, their microenvironment, over which they have control, and use this as a foundation of information to create the better policy to please costumers requirements. In addition, the microenvironment is easier to realize than the macro environment because it refers to everything that is part of a company such as suppliers, employee and so on. Everything that is direct or indirect interrelated to the company (Palmer and Hartley, 2009). Customers They are one of the most important parts of the microenvironment. Companies need to focus on monitoring possible changes on consumers trends and on creating an efficient relationship with them. In other words, companies need to be one step ahead, trying to calculate consumers requirements and needs and developing products to concentrate these demands. Moreover, companies must not focus just on this simple replica (creating a good products to customers), but think away from it (Palmer and Hartley, 2009). Intermediaries They correspond to associations between companies and customers. Some companies, mainly large ones, have some complications to attend all final costumers therefore they choose to sell their products through mediators to be present even in small supermarkets. Some companies can fail because they do not recognize this as an important policy (Palmer and Hartley, 2009). Shareholders At the end of 2010, there were 345,581 holders of BP ordinary shares and a further 163,397 holders of American depository shares. One American depository share (ADS) represents six ordinary shares. One of the holders of ADSs represents some 824,700 underlying holders. ADSs can be bought and sold on North American stock markets. The total number of actual shareholders in the US and UK is in excess of 1 million. About 80% of the ordinary shares and American depository shares are held by institutions such as pension funds and insurance companies. For more than 20 years, BP has encouraged its employees to purchase shares in the company on favourable terms, giving them an extra stake in the companys success. Competitors Companies need to keep their eyes on their competitors, monitoring them and trying to expect their next steps. Furthermore, there are two different types of competitors: direct competitor, which sells comparable products; and indirect competitor, which is more difficult to identify, because sometimes competitors can appear in different forms. For example, who is the indirect competitor for a cinema? Is it another cinema? A home rent movie? (Palmer and Hartley 2009) The following companies are some competitors of BP Plc: Chevron Corporation Exxon Mobil Corporation TOTAL S.A. Petrobras (Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.) (Datamonitor, 2010) SWOT SWOT is a tactical development tool, used in management and strategy formulation in order to identify strength, weakness, opportunities and threats of a particular company. It mainly focuses on analysis and understanding the organisations internal and external environment. Strengths are considered internal positive factors within an organization which can add value; Weaknesses, on the other hand, are negative aspects, which can disrupt the business from achieving its goals. Opportunities are external factors which help business and can represent one possibility of acquiring competitive advantage if the company has the ability of identifying them quicker than its competitors. Threats are also external factors but which can affect businesses operations negatively (Campbell and Craig, 2005). SWOT analysis is used as an analytical tool to achieve significant information about the company in order to take suitable actions. A company can do better decision makings when it understands the quarter points of a SWOT analysis. Strength factors can be used as a foundation for constructing advantages, enchanting the opportunities; weakness can be seen as a challenge and used to correct errors (NetMBA, 2010). Applying SWOT analysis on BP, we can see their strengths, weakness, threats and opportunities: (S)trengths Dominant market position Vertically integrated operations Wide geographical presence (W)eaknesses Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico Explosion in the Texas refinery Violation of tax laws in Turkey (O)pportunities Acquisition of Devon Energys assets in Brazil, Azerbaijan, and the US deepwater Gulf of Mexico Oil and gas exploration projects (T)hreats Saturation of resources in the North Sea Instability in some oil-producing regions Environmental regulations (Datamonitor, 2010) Company Overview BP is one of the biggest perpendicularly incorporated oil and gas companies in the world. The companys operations principally include the searching and production of gas and crude oil, as well as the marketing and trading of natural gas, power, and natural gas liquids. BP is headquartered in London, the UK and employs about 80,300 people. Case Study The Deepwater Horizon oil spill out (also referred as the BP oil spill, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the BP oil disaster or the Macon do blowout) is an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which flowed for three months in 2010. The impact of the spill continues since the well was capped. It is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. The spill stemmed from a sea-floor oil gusher that resulted from the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion. The explosion killed 11 platform workers and injured 17Â  others. On July 15, the leak was stopped by capping the gushing wellhead, after it had released about 4.9Â  million barrels (780ÃÆ'-103Â  m3), or 185 million gallons of crude oil. It was predictable that 53,000Â  barrels per day (8,400 m3/d) were evading from the well just before it was capped. It is supposed that the daily flow rate diminished over time, starting at about 62,000Â  barrels per day (9,900 m3/d) and decreasing as the reservoir of hydrocarbons feeding the gusher was gradually exhausted. On September 19, the relief well process was successfully finished and the federal government acknowledged the well successfully departed. Impact on BP and the UK economy BP at the time the United Kingdoms largest corporation and a major business in the UK investment world came under powerful popular, media, and political pressure to terminate its 2010 dividends in their entirety. Media reports state that BP is of such a size and significance in that country, that one pound in every seven of investment and pension fund income in the UK is derived from BP. Local media offered views on what this might mean for citizens. As BP was reported to be offloading billions of dollars in assets in preparation, some estimates suggested the total legal responsibility could amount to as much as US $100 billion (UK Â £67.5 bn) by the conclusion of the tragedy. Financial analysts commented that BP was able of addressing the probable liabilities that might effect, and BP stock rose to some extent on the news that the preliminary US $20 billion compensation fund had been arranged. Political and foreign relations impact The disaster was seen by some as placing stress on US-UK relationships, insofar as BP is a British company. Both US President Barack Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron were under considerable pressure to comment politically on the matter. Insurance Times reported an open letter from the Chairman of RSA Insurance Group, the head of one of the countrys leading companies, to President Obama (text of letter) that expressed a concern over double standards compared to the sub-prime based banking crisis of 2007-2010 and over prejudicial and personal comments in the media. Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, was also reported to have made a similar comment, and similar concerns related to the tenor of media releases were also expressed by Labour MP and ex-Parliamentary Secretary Tom Watson, Vince Cable the Business Secretary, and the UK Foreign Office. The Department of State stated that the issue will not affect US-UK relationships, calling the UK its closest ally. Cameron stated that sensible dialog was needed and BP would require certainty over its liability for compensation. Obama was later reported to have said that his frustration over the mammoth oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is not an attack on Britain and that he had no interest in undermining BPs value, as the two leaders tried to soothe trans-Atlantic tensions over the disaster. Impact on BP due to US tourism On May 25 BP gave Florida $25Â  million to promote the beaches where the oil had not reached, and the company planned $15Â  million each for Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. The Bay Area Tourist Development Council bought digital billboards showing recent photos from the gulf coast beaches as far north as Nashville, Tennessee and Atlanta. The U.S. Travel Association estimated that the economic impact of the oil spill on tourism across the Gulf Coast over a three-year period could exceed approximately $23 billion, in a region that supports over 400,000 travel industry jobs generating $34 billion in revenue annually. On November 1 BP announced plans to spend $78 million to help Louisiana tourism and test and advertise seafood. Other economic consequences On July 5 BP reported that its own expenditures on the oil spill had reached $3.12Â  billion, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs. The United States Oil Pollution Act of 1990 limits BPs liability for non-cleanup costs to $75Â  million unless gross negligence is proven. BP has said it would pay for all cleanup and remediation regardless of the statutory liability cap. Nevertheless, some Democratic lawmakers are seeking to pass legislation that would increase the liability limit to $10Â  billion. Analysts for Swiss Re have estimated that the total insured losses from the accident could reach $3.5Â  billion. According to UBS, final losses could be $12Â  billion. According to Willis Group Holdings, total losses could amount to $30Â  billion, of which estimated total claims to the market from the disaster, including control of well, re-drilling, third-party liability and seepage and po llution costs, could exceed $1.2Â  billion. On June 25 BPs market value reached a 1 year low. The companys total value lost since April 20 was $105Â  billion. Investors saw their holdings in BP shrink to $27.02, a nearly 54% loss of value in 2010. A month later, the companys loss in market value totaled $60 billion, a 35% decline since the explosion. At that time, BP reported a second-quarter loss of $17 billion, its first loss in 18 years. This includes a one-time $32.2 billion charge, including $20 billion for the fund created for reparations and $2.9 billion in actual costs. On October 1, BP pledged as collateral all royalties from the Thunder Horse, Atlantis, Mad Dog, Great White, Mars, Ursa and Na Kika fields in the Gulf of Mexico. At that time, BP also said it had spent $11.2 billion, while the companys London Stock Exchange price reached 439.75 pence, the highest point since May 28. By the end of September, BP reported that it had spent $11.2 billion. Third-quarter profit of $1.79 billion (compared to $5.3 billion in 2009) showed, however, that BP continues to do well and should be able to pay total costs estimated at $40 billion. Recommendations Companies should observe regularly for new challenges, by focusing on developing strategies which can allow them to develop them better than their competitors. On this case, BP should do the same and seek for a strategy to become the first company in the world of petroleum industries, selling products with quality and diversity, achieving customers first choice. If the company wants to be competitive, companies should evaluate its products with the ones from foremost competitors. They can also achieve competitive benefit by investing on its employees; looking for joint ventures with other companies in different countries so that they can achieve information from different markets; in search of operational efficiency and cost regulation; seeking for new partnerships, assessing where there are greater opportunities for export. Conclusion The micro and macro business environment of companies are influenced by various factors. They can change them when necessary (such as production, marketing strategy, etc) by taking immediate actions with respect to internal factors. Conversely, companies cannot take action directly on external factors. But in order to minimize their impact they can identify them with appropriate time. Managers decision making capability can be based on the use of these tools and analysis the company can obtain a general overview about the company and aspects what kinds of impacts can happen such as politics, laws and regulations, economy, environment, technology and so on. Due to high competition, with demanding requirement companies should use these tools such as PESTEL or SWOT to build up a successful policy and competitive with the market. BP has developed a variety of strategies by focus on customers, by producing quality products for domestic and international market and it is always doing a great job for the benefit of the society, employees, and environment.

Is It Better to Study in Arts or Science Stream?

Question: Is it better to study in Arts or Science stream? Discuss Nowadays, the level of education is very important in an individual because the world is rapidly developing and required people to have high intellectual capabilities in order to cope with the development. Art and science streams are two fields that offer jobs in many countries in this world. People question that art stream people are usually better in social skill and they help a lot in boosting the economy of a country. Others, however, believes that science stream have more stable pay and contribute a lot in humanity apart from financial benefits. Firstly, people in art streams tend to socialize more with people as their field usually need them to work with other people in order to ensure the success of their career. Communication skill also can be developing as they communicate with others a lot. For instance, in business field, businessmen or businesswomen need to meet their clients to discuss about their business progress. This required them to have good communication skill to make sure the clients can have a clear view about the business in which they are working. Business professions also make the entrepreneur to meet new people and make friends with them as business professions requires them to explore a lot and not to do the office works only. This will open their mind towards new things that happen around the world. Next, the arts and creative industry has the potential of generating high income and making the Malaysian economy more dynamic or boost industry economy, whereby in 2008 from Malaysian statistics, it contributed RM 9. billion, besides providing many jobs available. Realizing the importance of this industry, the government has allocated millions for the Creative Industry Fund to finance activities like arts, film and drama production, music, animation, advertising and developing local content. The funding in the form of loans is managed by financial banking. The development of countries such as Singapore and even the US has been helped greatly by arts and creative industry to boost their economy. An additional point is that the influx of foreign investors can put pressure on services such as marketing, and these costs can be used to increase the production in arts and creative industry. Besides that, with participation of private companies, government linked companies and involvement of investors from many countries; it can ensure that the Malaysian creative product brand names are accepted in the local market and able to compete at the regional and international levels through continuous promotions. All these factors can result in boosted of economic for the government. On the other hand, science stream have variety scopes of learning such as the biology, chemistry, physical and many more. With this different kind of learning, the opportunity of jobs becomes wider. In comparison with the art stream, one with the knowledge of biological studies can even work in engineering field even though they are in different fields. Furthermore, jobs in this stream have more stable pay instead of the art stream. The definite example is the work of a doctor. They receive same payment for every month either they work for the whole month or simply for sometimes. They can also live their life happily without even worried about having shortness of money in this develop country. In addition, this field of study contributes to humanity in many ways. In medical field, the new discovery of various drugs and treatment methods helps to increase the lifespan of humans. Justice can be served through forensics as samples collected from the scene of crime can be traced to any perpetrators. Biotechnology and genetic engineering have the potential to make stem cells transplant a success in the near future. Engineering provides humans with the latest and trendiest technology with the aim of making life more comfortable. Last but not least, research by scientists help to confirm any suspected hypothesis such as gravity and effectiveness of antibiotics. There are equal advantages in studying arts and science field. Hence, this solely depends on different individual’s interest and attitude. One may argue that science stream provides a stable pay but if one is not interested in that field, it brings no meaning at all in studying that particular field. Likewise, if one is motivated and inspired to succeed, it does not matter which field he is studying because regardless of science or arts stream, as long as he is has the motivation and interest, he is bound to succeed. In a nutshell, interest and attitude play an important role in determining which field is more suitable for one’s choice of study.

The Phenomenon of Late Marriage in China

The Phenomenon of Late Marriage in China It is a generally noted phenomenon that Chinese tend to get married later than they used to especially in big cities. Across the country, we observe virtually everywhere that the rate of marriage becoming lower year after year. Chinese used to marry before twenty- five years old. But now, some youngsters go study further; some devoted in their career; some who have dated one after other still refuse to step into the palace of marriage. Careful observation and elaborate thinking convinced me that the issue happens because of the objective and subject.According to a survey conducted by Chinese Academy of Social Science, the number of marriage continues to decline especially in big city. (The Chinese get married late increasingly)But why does this happen? And how will it affect the future? While thinking deeply, I came up with some ideas about this issue. Objectively thinking, the overload burden takes too much pressure to the youngsters. Pressur e like educations, works, transportations, houses, love comes form every where occupy youngsters’ whole lives.Firstly, the price of houses is too high for youngster to support. House slaves, also called Ant people, stands for people who usually work in big city have lots of housing debt to support. You definitely need to have a shelter before getting married. Secondly, transportation occupies too much time. Neither do they have time to date someone, nor do they get married. Thirdly, low employment rate nowadays, youths trend to study further than before in order to avoid the pressure. All of above will probably make youths get married late.Thinking logically at first, many people get married later just because they are not ready to get married. It can be divided into two aspects. One is material basis, the other is mental. Speaking of material basis, youths between twenty and thirty don’t have economy standard. And people still in school are fed by their parents. Appar ently their mental isn’t mature enough. In fact, getting married is the start of a new life. Setting up your own family means a lot of responsibility. As an old saying goes,† It’s easy to get the spark of love, but it’s difficult to keep it†.For instance, after getting married, wives need to get up early to prepare the breakfast for husbands; husbands have to work harder than before in order to support the family; couples suppose to remember the date of each other’s birthday; and they’d better to have a good relationship with lover’s relatives. No wander of saying goes,† Marriage is the tomb of love†. Secondly, owing to the pressure coming from all over the work, study, house debt and transportation, love may fade away. All these scared the youth who are in the right age of marriage. For example, pressure like transportation occupies too much time.Neither do they have time to date someone, nor do they get married. And the issue of house slaves coming to an essential topic these days has deeply been debated. House slaves, also called Ant people, stands for people who usually work in big city have lots of housing debt to support. In China, a shelter is definitely a necessity before getting married. But the price of the house is too high to be paid by poor youths. What’s more, youths who graduated from school just started work need to pay most of the time on their work. With the low employment rate nowadays, youths trend to study further than before in order to avoid the pressure.All of above will probably make youths get married late. Moreover, thoughts of Chinese are changing today! In the ancient time, Chinese got married mainly because they want to have babies to carry on the family lines. But nowadays, Chinese get married because they finally find their soul mates. Form person perspective, ‘One Child Policy ‘makes Chinese grown up in the 80’s be used to being alone. T hey grew up in the age of Internet. Variety kinds of entertainments scarify them and they spent less time with friends. So, many of them may probably have troubles in communicating with others.Finally, taking some individual cases into account, some environmentalists believe that the fewer newborns we have, the less polluted the planet will be. Because people have carbon emissions during their whole life and too much carbon emissions will intensified greenhouse effect and enlarge the hole in the ozone layer. This case may not hold an important role as the upper points. It still be mentioned considering of academic cautious. After considering of all these causes, let’s focus the attention on its effects. Thinking of the present only, single people will have more time hanging out late at night.And this will probably raise the rate of crime. While thinking further, some people believe that getting married later can slow down the population growth rate of China. As the large popu lation provides heavy burden for China, it benefits to the whole country because. While others advocate that this point of view is short-sighted. Assuming birth rate continues decreased in decades. Time flies fast and youths won’t be young anymore. Fewer youths working than before will slow down the speed of economic developing. An awareness of this issue, Chinese government has already put out series policy to change the status.Considering of the high price of house, government has taken some specific measures to restrain the high speed increase of price. They also built up some apartments in low price and provided for the poor. New policies are beginning to effect. But there still have lots of things to do. While observing all over the world, many countries especially the developed countries are disturbed by the low rate of birth. So this issue becomes a global issue that should be aware by all the people. Chinese Academy of Social Science. The Chinese get married late incr easingly. 2008. 17 Jan. < http://jnrb1. e23. cn/html/dsnb/20080117/dsnb43308. html>

The Watergate Scandal Of America - 1743 Words

Throughout the years there have been many political scandals in the U.S. These include affairs, not paying taxes, utilizing state resources for personal gain, invading privacy and many others. These scandals cause people to lose trust in their representatives and their country in general. For instance a major scandal in America that greatly weakened the public trust was the Watergate Scandal. Richard Nixon, the 37th president, had been discovered to have a hand in the burglary at the Watergate Complex in which the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters was set up. After the break-in the Republican president Nixon denied any involvement in this robbery and initially refused to provide the tapes recorded in the President’s office†¦show more content†¦In July of 1974 the Supreme Court demanded that Nixon turn over the tapes which revealed his involvement in the coverup and led to his resignation.1 This scandal committed by the leader of the great American nation caused changes politically and to the public’s trust of their government. The Watergate Scandal caused many changes. One major change that scholars believe is the increase of Congress attention on the activities of the President and an increase in its efforts in combating policy suggested by the President that they do not agree with.2 Another change caused by the Scandal is the decrease of trust in politicians by Americans at large. The reason for this is obvious, imagine you are voting and supporting a politician to get something done that will aid you in supporting yourself and your family. Now imagine that same politician that had such a vibrant personality who seemed to be helping, was found to have been taking all the money you and others had donated to aid his campaign, in order to put himself in a better socio economic situation. This is how the American public felt in response to this betrayal by their president. Polls taken in 1958 and 1964 showed the almost all of American citizens trusted their voted officials to perform their job in a way that was benefiting of someone representing in a democratic system however after the Vietnam war and the government’s inability to maintain control a seen with race riots and many protests, a poll taken in 1966