Global Corporate Strategy on Global Oil, Gas, and Petrochemical Industry - Case Study Example

Global Corporate Strategy on Global Oil, Gas, and Petrochemical Industry Total Number of Words: 3,502 Introduction The British Petroleum and Shell are two of the most successful players within the oil, gas, and petrochemical industry. In relation to the success of British Petroleum and Shell, the first part of this report will focus on discussing and analyzing how the corporate governance and corporate social responsibility of each of these two companies have contributed to the increase in the company’s performance and operational efficiency including its ability to recruit and retain highly competitive individuals to join these two companies’ workforce. The second part of this report will focus on analyzing British Petroleum’s network level strategies as a way of creating competitive advantage as compared to its close competitors whereas the third part of this report will focus on discussing the importance of creating a high-performance organizational culture. 2. Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility: British Petroleum and Shell Corporate governance is all about having an effective system that aims to oversee the specific role and responsibility of the business owners, the board of directors, the chief executive officer and the rest of the shareholder (Colley et al., 2005). As a common knowledge, business-related decision-making is crucial behind the success of a company. Though corporate governance; oil and petroleum companies (in general) can have a useful management framework which can be use in controlling short- and long-term informed decision making process (Bassen and Kleinschmidt, 2006, p. 59). Because of the presence of a “good internal control and risk management” system (Tsamenyi and Uddin, 2008, p. 469), oil and petroleum companies can benefit from the increase in profit caused by having a better business performance. Specifically the business goal of British Petroleum is “to maximize the long-term shareholder value through the allocation of its resources to activities in the oil, natural gas, petrochemicals and energy business” (BP, 2014a, p. 2). On the other hand, Shell aims to “engage efficiently, responsibly, and profitably in oil, oil, products, gas, chemicals, and other selected businesses and to participate in the search for and development of other sources of energy to meet… demand for energy” (Shell, 2014c). In related to the business goals of these two oil companies, the board members of the British Petroleum and Shell are made responsible in making important decision-making on behalf of the company’s shareholders (BP, 2014a, p. 1; Shell Global, 2014). To protect the socio-economic welfare of the shareholders, the members of the board are made accountable for their decisions made on behalf of the shareholders (BP, 2014a, p. 3; Shell Global, 2014). It simply means that if one or more of the shareholders of British Petroleum and Shell has been caught of doing illegal business transactions, the accountable person can be held legally liable for his or her actions. Business and financial transparency can also be observed in the case of Shell. In line with this, the Royal Dutch Shell plc habitually publishes its annual report concerning not only the financial statement of Shell as the parent company but also its affiliated business partner such as the Royal Dutch Shell Dividend Access Trust (Shell, 2012). As part of Shell’s corporate governance, the company talks about the importance of effective leadership skills among its board of directors and executive committee as well as corporate values and business conduct (Shell, 2014a). The corporate governance of British Petroleum tackles issue related to the role of the board members and its relationship with the executive management (BP, 2014a). In relation to becoming accountable for their actions, the board members of large-scale oil companies like British Petroleum and Shell are expected to practice transparency in their business transactions (Tsamenyi and Uddin, 2008, p. 469). This further explains why large-scale oil and petroleum companies that sell public shares are required to publicly publish their annual report online. Based on the view of dynamic resource, Bassen and Kleinschmidt (2006, p. 59) mentioned that the top management of a company can make use of corporate governance as a way of creating competitive advantage out of the available strategic resources. Under the London Stock Exchange, the British government started giving up its ownership right over British Petroleum through the selling of public shares back in 1977, 1979, and 1983 (BP, 2014b; Morphet, 2013, p. 122). Similar to British Petroleum, Shell is also selling its public shares through the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) (Shell, 2014b). Having a corporate governance does not directly mean that the company would benefit from a higher profit margin (Tsamenyi and Uddin, 2008, p. 470). Since corporate governance can be use in enhancing the company’s reputation as a reliable oil and petroleum company, the British Petroleum and Shell are both able to win the trust of its public shareholders. This alone gives the company a better competitive advantage as compared to other oil and petroleum companies that are not listed in public share trading worldwide. Through NYSE, both British Petroleum and Shell were able to gather more funds for their long-term project plans. (See Figure I – BP Performance on NYSE below; Figure II – Royal Dutch Shell plc on NYSE on page 5) Figure I – BP Performance on NYSE Source: Google Finance, 2014a Figure II – Royal Dutch Shell plc on NYSE Source: Google Finance, 2014b Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is referring to the companies’ activities which aim to meet their obligations to both the stakeholders and the entire society as a whole (Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001). Similar to corporate governance, CSR can also positively affect the business performance of oil, gas, and petroleum companies. For instance, engaging in CSR activities will not only make the company benefit from having a more “favourable stakeholder attitude” but also win a “better support behaviours” from the rest of the stakeholders, build a better corporate image, improve the business relationship between the company and its stakeholders (Du, Bhattacharya and Sen, 2010). Similar to corporate governance, McWilliams and Siegel (2011) revealed that the top management of a business organization can also make use of CSR strategies as a way of creating better competitive advantages for the business. It is a common knowledge that oil and gas production play a significant role in environmental degradation. To minimize negative publication on oil, gas, and petroleum companies, most of these companies develop and implement their own set of CSR strategies. In line with this, a significant part of the British Petroleum’s CSR investment include the need to provide or deliver a diverse, reliable, secure, and sustainable energy solution to all end-consumers (BP, 2014c). As such, British Petroleum aims to create value by protecting the environment and communities in which the company is currently operating (BP, 2014c). To protect the environment, it was reported on British Petroleum’s Sustainability Review (2013, p. 7) that the company plans to investigate water management strategies used in their business operations and continuously develop new and effective modelling tools which can make the company able to predict future threats of oil skill. To promote the socio-economic welfare of the entire community, British Petroleum has spent US$78.8 million on community development projects (BP, 2013, p. 7). Shell has a fair share when it comes to protecting the society and the environment. In line with this, Shell was the first oil, gas, and petroleum company that acknowledges the importance of protecting the environment from global climate change (Shell, 2014d). Because of the need to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions, Shell has been actively producing “bio fuels” as an alternative source for transportation fuel (Shell, 2014e). Likewise, Shell exerts an effort to educate the people on how they can effectively use less fuel consumption (Shell, 2014f). Aside from respecting the human rights, Shell has been active in supporting the socio-economic welfare of people by creating more jobs and providing people with access to necessary training and skills development programmes (Shell, 2014j). Similar to British Petroleum, Shell has also spent millions worth of social investment (i.e. education, health, environmental projects, road safety, etc.) (Shell, 2014h). The research study made by Welford and Frost (2006) shows that effective use of CSR can benefit the company in terms of better staff recruitment and retention rates. With regards to recruitment and retaining of skilled workers, the top management of British Petroleum and Shell are using part of its corporate social responsibility which aims to provide its workers with a safe working environment (BP, 2013, p. 7; Shell, 2014g). However, there are differences in the way British Petroleum and Shell adopted the use of CSR in strengthening their talent recruitment process and employee retention rates. Aside from giving importance to workforce diversity, British Petroleum has already incorporated the importance of providing its workers with a safe working environment in its operating management system (BP, 2013, pp. 6 – 7). To encourage more competitive women to join the team, British Petroleum has been continuously training its female employees to become one of their corporate leaders (BP, 2014g). British Petroleum is one of the well-established oil, gas, and petroleum companies in the world. To increase the chances of hiring more competitive employees, the top management of Shell ensures that the company creates an organizational culture that promotes safety (Shell, 2014k). Aside from being transparent with regards to remuneration packages given to its board of directors and the rest of its stakeholders (Royal Dutch Shell Plc, 2014j), Shell also provides its people with a “universal language” designed to promote safety in workplace environment (Shell, 2014i). 3. British Petroleum’s Network Level Strategies In relation to business practices, strategic alliance is all about having a “formal agreement between two or more organizations” (Cummings and Worley, 2009, p. 568). Often times, strategic alliance is pertaining to business strategies wherein two or more business organizations would combine or share a portion of their business resources without the need to exchange their corporate shares, etc. (Lynch, 2006, p. 813). In general, there is quite a lot of business advantages associated with the practice of strategic alliance (Elmuti, Abou-Zaid and Jia, 2012; Shahanaghi and Yavarian, 2010; Czinkota, Ronkainen and Moffett, 2009, pp. 3 – 6; Wright and Dana, 2003). For instance, in response to the tight competition going on in the world market, strategic alliance which includes long-term contracts such as licensing agreements, franchises, merger and acquisition or joint-venture are commonly used as an effective business strategy that will allow large-scale companies to be able to maximize the use of their available resources, benefit from economies-of-scale, expand the target market, and subsequently improve the overall efficiency of the business operations (Elmuti, Abou-Zaid and Jia, 2012; Cummings and Worley, 2009, p. 568). Furthermore, Shahanaghi and Yavarian (2010) explained that strategic alliances can be use to enable large-scale companies develop a long-term business relationship with other similar or non-related companies to increase its overall competitiveness in the market (i.e. vertical or horizontal business integration, etc.). Through strategic alliance, a business organization can easily penetrate an entirely new market as well as improve the company’s competitive advantage within the national and international markets (Elmuti, Abou-Zaid and Jia, 2012). In the process of expanding the business operations in an emerging or developing country, the company can benefit from a significant reduction in their fixed monthly operating costs (Czinkota, Ronkainen and Moffett, 2009, pp. 3 – 6). Likewise, strategic alliance can also help the company create more future business opportunities and so on (Czinkota, Ronkainen and Moffett, 2009, pp. 3 – 6; Wright and Dana, 2003). Historical events show that British Petroleum has been continuously active in terms of implementing its domestic and international strategic alliance strategies (BP, 2014f; DePamphilis, 2012, p. 151; Chazan, 2011; Hoskisson et al., 2008, pp. 197 – 198; Adams and Brock, 1990). In history, the British Petroleum started as an Anglo-Persian oil company back in 1908 (BP, 2014d) and eventually acquired British Petroleum company from the European Petroleum Union back in 1917 (BP, 2014e). In line with this, Adams and Brock (1990) revealed that the first joint-venture agreement occurred between British Petroleum, Exxon, Mobil, and Shell back in 1928. Basically, the main purpose of going through the said joint-venture project is to enable these oil companies have the power to manage “70% of Iraq Petroleum Company” (Adams and Brock, 1990, p. 438). This step literally gives British Petroleum the right to make important business decision when managing the Iraq Petroleum Company. As a common knowledge, the capital requirement needed for oil search, oil production, and oil transportation is relatively high. Through the said joint-venture project, oil companies like Exxon, Chevron, Mobil, Shell, Texaco, and British Petroleum were able to practice and benefit from its “joint exploration, joint development, and joint production” agreement (Adams and Brock, 1990, pp. 438 – 439). With the purpose of making it easier for the company to transport fuel in the United States, British Petroleum signed a contract agreement with Standard Oil Company in Ohio back in 1969 (BP, 2014f). It was in 1987 when the company decided to acquire Standard and eventually merged with other oil companies in UK to create the BP America (BP, 2014f). In 2003, British Petroleum implemented its a cross-border strategic alliance strategy by entering into a joint-venture project worth US6 billion with the Russian-based Tyumen Oil (Hoskisson et al., 2008, pp. 197 – 198). In 2007, British Petroleum decided to exchange 50% of its stake in Toledo oil refinery for 50% of Husky Energy’s rights over the Sunrise oil sand field located in Alberta, Canada (DePamphilis, 2012, p. 151). Sometime in August 2011, the British Petroleum publicly announced its 30% acquisition of the “21 oil and gas production sharing contracts (PSCs)” in India including its 50-50 joint venture project with Reliance Industries Ltd. as a strategic way of marketing of gas and the development of necessary infrastructure in India (BP, 2011). Through the implementation of its strategic alliance strategies, evidences stated above clearly show that British Petroleum was able to effectively expand its business worldwide. This further explains why the company managed to expand and market its oil, gas, and petroleum products all over the United States, United Kingdom, India, Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East (BP, 2014g). In exchange of US$1 billion worth of British Petroleum shares, British Petroleum entered into a joint-venture agreement with Rosneft – a Russian state-owned oil company as a way of gaining the rights to perform business projects in Ukraine and Russia sometime in 2011 (RiaNovosti, 2011). Even though British Petroleum has been active in terms of implementing its strategic alliance, not all of its strategies have been effective in terms of meeting its goals. For instance, in 2011, the international joint venture between British Petroleum and Russian-based Rosneft was a failure (DePamphilis, 2012, p. 572; Chazan, 2011). Instead of becoming motivated in their oil project in Arctic Sea by exchanging shares, these two oil companies ended up having an unresolved or “pending lawsuits” (DePamphilis, 2012, p. 572; Neville, 2012; RiaNovosti, 2011; Washington, 2011). Sometime in December 2011, BP was legally sued for the amount of US$10 million (Washington, 2011). On behalf of the shareholders of TNK-BP, the Russian court required British Petroleum to pay the price of US$3 billion worth of damages for not being able to comply with its business deal with Rosneft last July 27 2012 (Busvine, 2012; Neville, 2012). 4. Importance of Creating a High-Performance Organizational Culture In general, creating a strong organizational culture and the use of effective leadership skill is necessary to ensure that the company will have a stronger and better business performance. This concept applies to the case of British Petroleum. Being appointed as the British Petroleum’s Group Chairman, Carl-Henric Syanberg has an important role to play when it comes to creating a more simplified and more efficient organizational culture that can effectively improve its people’s working attitude and behaviour. As the appointed British Petroleum’s Group Chairman, Syanberg has a responsibility to perform not only to the board of directors but also to the public investors and the corporate staff. In relation to corporate governance, Syanberg need to be honest as he practice transparency in all aspects of the business. Recently, Syanberg wrote a two-page personal message in the company’s Annual Report 2013. On page 6, Syanberg wrote that “some investors feel that international oil companies have spent too much for too little return”. Syanberg also mentioned that “we must… balance rewards for shareholders today with long-term capital investment required for tomorrow” (BP, 2013b, p. 6). Basically, the act of acknowledging the personal interests of its public shareholders is good since this form of communication strategy will enable the public shareholders feel that their personal concern is being considered in the corporate business plan. As a business leader, Syanberg did not mention anything about the most recent Deepwater Horizon oil spill which had caused British Petroleum US$34 billion worth of lawsuit last February 2013 (Amaro Law Firm, 2013). Instead, Syanberg has stayed focused on mentioning something about being able to solve the oil spill accident which happened in the Gulf of Mexico back in 2010 as well as being able to solve British Petroleum’s lawsuit with Rosneft (BP, 2013b, p. 7). Basically, it is possible that one of the main reasons why Syanberg did not mention anything about the US$34 billion worth of lawsuit for its involvement in the recent Deepwater Horizon oil spill is to prevent the public shareholders from panicking. In the process of not mentioning anything about the US$34 billion worth of lawsuit caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Chairman is somehow protecting the socio-economic interests of the company, the board of directors as well as the rest of its employees. Although biased to the interests of the public shareholders, the act of not mentioning anything about the most recent Deepwater Horizon oil spill scandal in the company’s Annual Report 2013 does not necessarily mean that the top management of the British Petroleum will not do anything to resolve the problem. Specifically the way the Chairman talks about valuing its people is important in terms of affecting employees’ attitude and behaviour at work. Also written on page 6 of the British Petroleum’s Annual Report 2013, Syanberg indirectly pointed out that one of the company’s most important assets is the “expertise of their people” as well as the availability of the “advanced technology”. Furthermore, right after discussing the company’s success in terms of being able to solve the legal problem with Rosneft and the oil spill that happened in the Gulf of Mexico as well as the attack that happened in one of British Petroleum’s facility in Algeria, the Chairman indirectly acknowledges the well-experienced non-executive people who are part of the British Petroleum team as a significant part of being able to overcome such crisis (BP, 2013b, p. 7). It is clear that the Chairman has been motivating the rest of the non-executive people to be leaders in their own little ways. Therefore, it is most likely that the Chairman of British Petroleum is using transformational leadership style. 5. Conclusion and Recommendations Both corporate governance and corporate social responsibility indirectly contributes to the business success of British Petroleum. In line with this, the use of effective corporate governance as well as attractive corporate social responsibility projects is important in terms of uplifting the reputation of the company. On the other hand, implementing strategic alliance is important in terms of being able to expand the market as well as the company’s business operation in a foreign land. Through the use of effective strategic alliance strategies, British Petroleum can have better access to good sources of gas, oil, and petroleum products worldwide. The joint-venture agreement between the British Petroleum and Rosneft clearly shows that not all strategic alliance strategies can work successful for the benefit of the company. For this reason, this report strongly suggest that the top management of British Petroleum should carefully study the situation before signing an agreement contract with another oil, gas, and petroleum company. By doing so, British Petroleum can easily avoid unnecessary lawsuits which could cause the company and its public shareholders to lose billions of US dollars. The use of effective leadership skills and communication skills are two most important assets that a corporate leadership should acquire. Using these two skills, the corporate leader can persuade the company’s stakeholders to continuously support the future business projects of British Petroleum. In relation to the case of British Petroleum, it makes a lot of sense that one of the best ways to increase the company’s business performance is to continuously uplift the self-confidence and work determination of its employees. In general, a large-scale public company such as in the case of British Petroleum is complex by nature in the sense that the Chair person should consider not only the personal interests of the members of the board but also the public investors and the rest of the employees. 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