Managing for the Future - Essay Example

Comparison of the competence that a company will need and the competence that the company is already endowed with 23 9. Conclusion from the comparison 24 Reference List 25 1.0 Introduction The competitive edge of an organization depends upon several contributing factors, and one of them is strategic plan for the future. The strategic plan for the future is a rough guide book that lets the organizations produce a rough sketch (Braithwaite and Hall, 2009). A sketch that may look very rough and unrecognizable but as time progresses the sketch begins to take a definitive shape.

In the present context the research reports sheds light on the track record of the management of BP (British Petroleum) oil for the past years. The management strategies and the decisions of the BP management is critiqued and analyzed to reflect its effectiveness (Das and Teng, 2004). The research report then develops a rough sketch of future environmental condition. The environmental condition is prepared based on the present state of condition, and also based on the way the future spans out.

The research report indicates what the management of BP oil needs to do in order to position itself in a better way in the future (Gilbert and Gips, 2000). Lastly the research report produces a comparative picture of the competencies that BP oil is already endowed with and the competencies that BP need to develop. The research report delves into 3 separate areas, one is sustainability, another one is distribution and the third one is corporate social responsibility. 2. Historic analysis of the organization’s performance The historical performance of BP is traced across 3 important areas, which are sustainability, CSR and distribution. 2.1 Sustainability The sustainability of BP is measured across 4 different areas, which are safety, environment, people and performance.

Over the last 8 years starting from 2007 to 2013, BP has developed its safety measures (Harland and Branchley, 2003). This led to the decrease in the number of fatalities, the number of days away from work for the employees. Improved safety measures in the past 7 years also ensured that the numbers of oil spills decrease. Apart from that the amount of greenhouse gas emission has also decreased. The sustainability encompasses other important factors also like the people and performance. The last 7 years data indicate that the numbers of employees have increased sufficiently (John, 2010).

Improved employee satisfaction led to the retention of more number of employees. Working in BP requires staying away from home for long durations. So the intake of women in this line of work was always few and in fact negligible. The inclusion of women in its work force indicated the bold stride of BP towards the expulsion of gender bias from the work culture (Kahnmann and Tversky, 2001). In case of performance, there has been tremendous increase in the amount of dividend paid to shareholders and the contribution towards the communities.

The sustainability reports indicate that the company invested significantly to ensure that both the environment and the employees are kept from harm’s way. Although the recent oil spill of the BP in the Gulf of Mexico is an indication of the fact that BP has major gaping holes in its safety procedure. 2.2 Distribution The