British Petroleum (Plc) and John Browne: a Culture of Risk Beyond Petroleum

Currently headquartered in London, BP is one of the largest producers of both oil and natural gas. BP provides its customers with fuel for transportation and energy for heat and light. BP’s core business is gas exploration and production division and their main sources of production include Angola, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Trinidad, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States (BP PLC (BP) Company Profile | Reuters.com. (n.d.). Retrieved October 27, 2015.). In 2013, BP produced 628,000 barrels of oil each day in the US and was the sixth largest producer of natural gas. Each day, BP sells 50 million gallons of fuel in the US consisting of 7,500 BP branded locations located in 13 states. BP is always seeking new opportunities for advancement in technology so that their operation is safer and more efficient. The company is leading the way in in the energy industry with the world’s largest supercomputer used for commercial research, located in Houston and also the first to use drones in the United States. To further place themselves ahead in the industry, BP has invested over $160 million in 2 dozen companies for advancements in technology. BP currently has 17,000 employees and on average, donates approximately $30 million each year to community

In general, a Risk Workshop is a brainstorming session used to identify initial risks and review existing risks (Accenture, 2005). The meeting participants include supervisors and team leads. Attendees discuss and identify potential and/or existing risks. At the workshop’s end, a compiled list of all agreed upon risks is available to manage (Accenture, 2005).

BP is the third largest multi-national company 's energy companies. It specializes in oil; natural gas and alternative fuels, such as electricity and renewable energy. BP also and Chemicals, Marketing and refining them in the industry very competitive player. BP has changed: from the development of the local oil company into a global energy group, employing over 96,000 people and operates in more than 100 countries worldwide. BP believes that sustainable growth and corporate social responsibility has been included but it is whether CSR has actually been realized yet been established, or if it ISA

The Senior Management of the Defense Logistics Information Services (DLIS) has decided to update the previous risk management plan with a developing, new risk management plan. This new risk management plan will not only minimize the amount of risk for future endeavors, but will also be in compliance with regulations such as the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Control Objects for Information and Technology (COBIT), and Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process

BP may be ranked 3rd largest energy company and is positioned as a multinational oil company. And their headquartered station in London, operates petrochemical network of its subsidiaries and retail brands ( ARCO; Amoco; Castrol) But this company has come through much tribulations since there accident in 2007 and they are still strong.

British Petroleum, BP, began as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in the beginning of the 1900’s. The founder, William D’Arcy, risked his entire fortune at the hopes that oil would be discovered in Persia. He was success on May 28, 1908. The business struggled in the early years, but ultimately found success. BP has become a global leader in the energy business. Beginning in 2000 and in the years to follow BP has focused not only on oil, but also on oil alternatives such as; solar, wind, natural gas, and biofuels (British Petroleum, 2015).

BP has a total of 315, 553 shareholders (http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9010453&contentId=7019612) BP is a large company with 79,700 employees (http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=3&contentId=2006926) and it is a global company because the BP Group operates across six continents, and BP’s products and services are sold in more than 80 countries (http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=6&contentId=7019358). BP is global because their products are extracted and produced in several locations all over the world such as Egypt, Iraq, Australia and United Kingdom

The company was on the right track, far as it trying to change the reputation of the company. The first step BP took to repair the image of the company was to repair the image. And by doing that, they their name from British Petroleum to simply BP. The next step was for BP to launch its Alternative Energy business in 2005. BP also seen fit for the company to continue “going green” efforts. This is in efforts for it to become more profitable. Their next step in restoring their reputation was to establish a code of conduct. The company code entitled “Our Commitment to Integrity”. BP seeks to unite its diverse employees. This code of conduct was the largest mass communications exercise ever attempted at BP.

There are very few aspects of how a company behaves as a corporate citizen that do not apply to a company of the size and nature of BP. The most significant of these are the sheer environmental impact - not simply of the extraction of oil and the energy use of BP's own operation, but more significantly of the impact on climate change of the actual use of all the oil by BP's customers. The state of current scientific evidence raises serious question marks over whether or not human society can actually afford to burn all the hydrocarbons whose existence we have already identified - never mind potential future discoveries. Twenty years ago, people worried that one day the oil would run out. Now, it is the case that the real issue has been identified as one of emissions.

BP (British Petroleum) is one of the leading companies that are delivering energy products and services to the people around the world. In this report, we studied BP’s risk management plan for preventing oil spill. The main reason for choosing BP and its oil spill preparedness plan is that the oil companies have become increasingly vulnerable to unwillingly cause disasters and BP is one of them. An event that highlighted this vulnerability and subsequently drew attention to the need to investigate, is the BP oil spill in 2010 was one of the worst oil disasters that affected environment adversely. Issues such as these have been a serious concern for the oil companies around the world.

Since BP is the world top three of gasoline industry with its great brand loyalty for oil, the company has its internal strengths. On the one hand, BP dominated a strong market position. Datamonitor (2010) pointed out that BP is one of the world’s largest manufacturer of oil and hydrocarbons in the UK and the second largest producer of gas. Meanwhile, in North America, BP is also the largest creator of oil and gas. Moreover, BP also occupies a large market share. BP Air, a supplier of aviation fuels, has become a world largest brand of the global aviation business .On the other hand, the company has a wide geographic presence. It is reported that BP has a presence in almost 80 countries through the whole world such as Middle China, Europe and the United States (datamonitor, 2010). Therefore, the company has a wide range of customers that can make the profits stay stable.

The oil spill undermines the reputation and market position of British Petroleum, thus its stock prices decline dramatically. Even though BP took measures for resolving these problems, its way was not beneficial enough and therefore, it still requires more advantageous resolutions.

British petroleum (BP) is one of the seven super major oil company in the world. BP are the fourth largest gas and oil company in the world. BP has a hand in every aspect of the oil business from exploring for new oil to marketing and distribution. BP originally started as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1908, established as a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Company. The Burmah Oil Company. Would capitalize on discoveries they made in Iran and the middle east. The company would take its current name as British a petroleum in 1954. The company slowly started to expand from their roots in the middle east. BP chose to expand to Alaska in 1965. BP would continue their expansion in America when the gain the majority control of Standard Oil of Ohio in 1978. Also during the time BP would continue their ongoing exploration for new sources of oil. They became the first company to strike oil in the North Sea. The British government gradually privatized Standard Oil of Ohio for 1978-1987. In the last half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century BP took two major steps to expand their company. BP first major expansion occurred when they partnered with Amoco during this time they also acquired and absorbed Burmah Castrol in 2000. Also for 2003 to 2013 BP had a joint partnership with the oil company TNK of Russia. BP tireless effort towards expansion have made them highly successful and one of the top four oil and gas companies in the world. BP turned a profit of 6.48 billon U.S.

The BP operations are spread across the world. It carries out its oil prospecting and extraction operations in 29 countries and retails its products in more than 70 countries. It currently employs a total of 79,700 employees over the globe and its international headquarter is located in London (BP p.l.c. 2012b). Detailed company particulars and operating information are attached at the Appendix A. For this report, we will be focusing on the current issues that BP faces, analysis of its financial performance and lastly, valuating its shares with the use of various valuation models.

A unique set of principles, vision, and discipline drives corporate behavior and culture. Robbins and Judge (2014) describe culture as, “shared meaning held by the members” (p.465). The culture guides the employee motivation and their behavior towards customers and the external world. One of the management skills is supporting individual and team by understanding and communicating with them. Ability to analyze and diagnose complex scenario is also a management skill. Various levels of diversity bring rich skills to organization such as creativity, interpersonal views. BP leaders constantly demonstrated poor leadership qualities by acting the way they wanted. Displaying of one’s emotions in the workplace has greater impact on collaboration and productivity. Let us examine how BP culture contributed to the oil disaster.