Devonport Dockyard Loss of Power - Essay Example

? Devonport Dockyard Loss of Power INTRODUCTION The Devonport Dockyard loss of power was a very serious incidence due to its potential danger to the population and to the environment. The loss of power was caused by a fault in the local switch board. It was very clear that there were no clear communication channels among the relevant stakeholders. The incidence has a great negative impact on the part of the stakeholders who are represented by Babcock Marine. In this regard, there is a need for Babcock Marine to come up with a strategy to handle the issue in order to achieve two important things; to clear the air around the issue in order to clear the names of the stakeholders who in the current time are taking the blame. The second reason is to clear Babcock Marine’s name and improve its name and its business relations not only with the customer at hand, but also with all the other customers. As Graham (2006) says, in such critical situations, communication is always the important to tone done any tensions and the lack of communication in this case indicates how unprepared the council is. CONTEXT ANALYSIS Market Analysis The nuclear sector is a very sensitive area because of the safety issues associated with it. As a result, most of the customers who are likely to hire Babcock Marine services are most likely to be meticulous about Babcock Marine’s ability and competency in doing its job. The number of nuclear powered submarines is also increasing and this is a big opportunity for Babcock Marine. As a result, Babcock Marine needs to position itself as the firm of choice when it comes to nuclear submarine servicing. PESTEL for Babcock Marine Political The main issue in the case is the issue of nuclear power for the production of energy, and the risks it poses to the public as well as the environment. According to Burton (1990), there are increasing pressures from both the government and other interested parties foe safety measures for in the nuclear energy production and this requires firms such as Babcock Marine to be able to come up with better ways to guarantee this. As the number of nuclear production planar and submarines increase, the concerns for risks associated with nuclear energy production is increasing and to be able to stand out in the market, Babcock Marine will have to come up with ways to improve its services. As Hindmarsh (2013) argues, there are numerous regulatory authorities and antinuclear agencies which are either completely opposed to the use of nuclear as a source of power, or call for very stringent regulations. This can affect Babcock Marine in the long run because it may have to invest more in convincing the stake holders that it is doing its work properly with regard to servicing these submarines. Economic issues Nuclear energy production is geared towards cost reduction and this is a challenge for a firm like Babcock Marine because it has to make sure that its services to the customers are not prohibitive. There is an increasing need to come up with cheaper ways to produce energy and any overhead costs are regarded by organisations with suspicion (Teri, 2012).. To be competitive in this sector, Babcock Marine must look for way to always make its services better without increasing the costs. There is however other economic issues which must be looked at. For instance, securing a nuclear reactor and making sure that that is it completely secure is a very expensive affair and this may counter any economic benefits acquired from the use of nuclear energy (Angelo, 2004). Social Issues The main social issue here has to do with the health concerns. People are becoming more concerned of health and health issues. As a result, anything that is assumed to pose a risk on health is going to get critical scrutiny and this will affect Babcock Marine due to the fact that its services are directly related to how safe nuclear energy is. As Butterfield (1992), says, nuclear energy is seen as a very big risk for health due to the potential of radioactive material. For instance, in the Devonport Dockyard loss of power incidence, if the power rods were overheated due to lack of cooling, this would have been a disaster akin to the Chernobyl incidence as it would have exploded. As Kothari and Nagrath (2003) say, safety measure in nuclear reactors, whether small or big, is a must and should be looked at closely due to the potential of damage of a reactor accident happens. These are the issues which concern health issues and this will increase with time as the public becomes more are of the risk potential of nuclear energy. Technological factors Without a doubt, there are numerous technological factors which can be used to enhance safety in nuclear powered submarines. Safety in a submarine which uses nuclear power is all dependent on state-of-the-art technology (International Atomic Energy Agency, 2002). In fact, with regard to nuclear powered submarines, technology has two main dimensions. The first dimension is the availability of the right technology which would help to secure the submarine (Woo, 2012). Availability of this technology does not refer to a one-off issue but refers to the fact that this technology should be updated as often as possible. The second dimension of technology refers to the fact human labour and know-how to use this technology in order to ensure the safety of the nuclear plant (OECD, Nuclear Energy Agency, 2000). One such technology is the use of computing power to manage risk. Computer systems can be used as a way to model risk scenarios and capture them for solution development before these risk actually happens. Babcock Marine can use such technology in the modelling of its service and this will help in developing systems which are error proof. Computing power can also be used to develop systems which are able to detect errors and trigger safety mechanisms. Legal factors For such a project with such a potential for damage, there are numerous legal factors which come up. Legal issues can either affect the nuclear plant as whole or individual officials who are involved in the operation and management of the plant. These legal issues may come up in the form of legal suits against the Babcock Marine or the individual officers (Rolina, 2013). It is therefore necessary for the power plant to look for way to manage legal issues in order to make sure that there are no legal factors which will prevent the growth of the plant (Apikyan & Diamond, 2009). Environmental factors As a submarine nuclear plant, the Devonport Dockyard plant has very serious implication on the environment. Environment issues are those issues which affect the environment in terms of the atmosphere, the ecology or other aspects of the environment (Sarkisov & Gottemoeller, 2009). In this regard, it is necessary for the Devonport Dockyard plant to be able to deal with these issues in order to make sure that the way it interacts with the environment is allowable an will not cause any damage to the environment. SWOT analysis Strengths The main strength that the Babcock Marine has is expertise in this area of nuclear technology submarine servicing and safety. In this regard, they are able to develop an easy solution for the problem. As Arbuthnot (2006), expericne is the onoy way to guarnateee that an organsation is able to handle safety and servicing of nuclear powered submarines. Babcock Marine has experience in this area and this is a great advantage for the firm. Weaknesses The main weakness is that Babcock Marine does not have the right mechanisms to make sure that all the technologies available will be harnessed to make sure that such an incidence will not be repeated again. Although Babcock Marine has a range of resources on it hands, it fails to have a central plan which can be use to take advantage of these technologies. Babcock Marine also fails to be able to work closely with the relevant authorities and agencies and this is the man cause for misunderstanding and between Babcock Marine and the other stakeholders such as the city council. This lack of clear communication is a major issue which if not addressed properly will lead to issues as in the case of the power loss as the port (University of Michigan Graduate School of Business Administration, 1997). Opportunities Opportunities exist in many forms which may be explored in order to help Babcock Marine have a better service delivery. The number of nuclear powered submarines is increasing and this is an opportunity for Babcock Marine to expand its ability to deliver the services. With the increase of the number of nuclear powered submarines, Babcock Marine will be able to secure more contracts and this will not only increases its revenues but also its ability to deliver better services, due to economics of scales. Threats The main threat to the Babcock Marine is the fact that regulators and other concerned stakeholders are becoming wearier of the issues relating to the issue of safety in nuclear powered submarines. Both government authorities and other non-governmental agencies are tightening the rules and the requirements for nuclear power safety (Arbuthnot 2007). If Babcock Marine fails to deal with this pressure in the right way, there is a risk that public pressure will lead to a fail in the program. Implications The implication of the above analysis is that Babcock Marine needs to have a well developed marketing promotion and communication strategy in order to sustain its place in the market. Although Babcock Marine does not face a lot of competition issues in the market, the above analysis indicate that there is a need for the firm to carry out promotional campaigns in order to avoid becoming obsolete in the future. It has also indicated that there are numerous growth opportunities which need to be explored as more nuclear-powered submarines continue to increase. PROMOTIONAL OBJECTIVES Given the above analysis, it is very evident that the main issue is communication. Faulty communication between Babcock Marine and the various stakeholders is what has caused the misunderstandings. SMART Communication objectives Objective 1: Communication to the public Given the nature of the nature of Babcock Marine, it is necessary to communicate to the public as a way to educate the public on its services and how the affect the safety of nuclear powered submarines. The social and environmental issues discussed above have indicated that the main reason why nuclear powered submarines are regarded as a health issue is because the public doesn’t have the right information about the same. In this regard, Babcock Marine should start a campaign to educate the public on this issue so they do not have to feel unnecessarily unsafe due to the increasing number of nuclear powered submarines. Objective 2: Communication to the customers Unlike the typical firm, Babcock Marine customers are not the general public and this means that apart from its communication strategy to the public, it must also have a communication strategy to its customers. Babcock Marine should develop a communication system which will be able to create a free flow of information between itself and the customers so that the customers will felt that they are getting the right services from Babcock Marine. This will help the customers to be constantly updated of the issues which affect them such as the incident at the port. Objective 3: Communication to the stakeholders Babcock Marine will need to maintain a good communication between itself and the various stakeholders. These stakeholders include the various regulators and the government. This communication will be geared towards making sure that they understand the threshold for safety issues and how Babcock Marine services help in making nuclear powered submarines safer. This should be achieved in the next six months in order to deal with the situation at hand, that is, the Devonport Dockyard loss of power which is already causing issues. PROMOTIONAL MIX Public relations Babcock Marine will need to improve its public relations in order to make sure that the public gets the right information, either on deliberate press releases or on request. This will help in making sure that there are fewer misunderstandings with regard to the safety issues. As William (2011) says, it is necessary for any large organisation to have a specialised communication officer to handle its communication needs and public relations. In this regard Babcock Marine will have a communication officer who will be responsible of preparing and delivering press releases and addressing any issues which may be raised by the public or any stakeholder. Direct marketing Babcock Marine will try to reach to its customers directly by arranging meetings which will be helpful in deciding creating better relations with the customers. Advertising Adverting will also be used as a way to reach out to the public and create awareness. Advertising materials will be created with the aim of making sure that Babcock Marine will deliver the right information to the right people at the right time. This as Turner (2003) says is very important as a way to prevent any misunderstanding and to create a good relationship with the various stakeholders. Image development Image development is a process of delivering the right information to the right people in order to create a desirable image. Failing to do this would mean that Babcock Marine will have a negative image. This is why it is absolutely necessary for Babcock Marine to be able to have a system in place which will help Babcock Marine to create the right image for itself. As Plessis (2001) says, any organisation needs to have a plan which will help to create a positive public image. RESOURCES To implement the above, a budget of ?2.0 million will be used. 75% of this will be used for Television advertisements and campaigns while the remaining will go towards other promotional campaigns. Promotional Item Rationale Budget Advertising on TV TV is still the number one source of information for most people. Even though other forms of media are becoming the main sources of information for most people, most people still trust information they get from TV than any other public media. ?1.5M Public Relations Given the situation in which Babcock Marine is in, there will be a need for Public Relations to be carried out actively. ?200 Direct marketing There is limited number of customers for Babcock Marine and this will mean that direct marketing will be viable. ?200 Miscellaneous There will other promotional issues which will come up over time. ? 100 SCHEDULE EVALUATION AND CONTROL To be able to implement the strategies identified above, Babcock Marine will need an evaluation process which will be able to detect any deviation in the implementation. This will involve scheduled evaluation of the performance of the firm in the affected areas and identifying any deviations in order to develop solutions for them. For instance, the advertising campaign will be monitored in order to make sure that it is effective. If any changes become necessary in the course of the time, it will then need to be changed and the changes implemented accordingly. CONCLUSIONS The issue which emanate in a very clear manner is the issue of communication. It seems that Babcock Marine has no competitive communication channels and systems. This has caused various issues which the firm has to address. At the same time, Babcock Marine has not communicated properly to the public in order to make sure that the public understands the use of safety issues in regard to nuclear powered submarine. In this regard, there is a need to have a good communication plan which will create harmony between Babcock Marine and the public as well as the other stake holders. Reference list: Angelo, J. (2004). Nuclear Technology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Apikyan, A. & Diamond, A. (2009). Nuclear Power and Energy Security. 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