The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas
Based on public documents, the case revisits the recent history of the world's fourth largest company, BP p.l.c. The events described confront students with some of the challenging situations top managers face when corporate reputation and performance are at stake. Two issues in particular are addressed: first, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill caused by the Deepwater Horizon explosion in April 2010; and, second, BP's "beyond petroleum" corporate development and rebranding strategy. These two interwoven storylines contrast BP's efforts at building a "green" reputation with the inherent environmental and social risks of the oil industry. Each storyline offers a unique perspective on the British oil major, while focusing on the central topics of corporate responsibility and decision making in complex situations, whether short term (oil spill) or long term ("beyond petroleum"). The case is presented from the point of view of Steve, a fictional executive assistant of former BP CEO Tony Hayward.
Swot Analysis of "The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas" written by Florian Ludeke-Freund, Dimitar Zvezdov includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bp Oil facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Organizational culture and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption,
geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bp Oil, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bp Oil operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bp Oil
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Bp Oil
Strengths The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bp Oil in The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Bp Oil is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Bp Oil is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Bp Oil
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Bp Oil does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Bp Oil has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Bp Oil are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Bp Oil is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Florian Ludeke-Freund, Dimitar Zvezdov can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Strong track record of project management
– Bp Oil is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Bp Oil digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Bp Oil has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Innovation driven organization
– Bp Oil is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Bp Oil to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Bp Oil to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Bp Oil in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Bp Oil has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Bp Oil is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas HBR case study mentions - Bp Oil takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas, is just above the industry average. Bp Oil needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Bp Oil has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Bp Oil, firm in the HBR case study The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Bp Oil has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Bp Oil even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Bp Oil 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Bp Oil supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Bp Oil vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Bp Oil has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Bp Oil has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Bp Oil has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Opportunities The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Bp Oil can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Bp Oil to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Bp Oil to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Bp Oil can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Bp Oil can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Leadership & Managing People segment.
Manufacturing automation
– Bp Oil can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Bp Oil has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Bp Oil to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas case study. Bp Oil can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Bp Oil can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Bp Oil can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Bp Oil in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Bp Oil to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Bp Oil to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Bp Oil has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Bp Oil can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas are -
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Bp Oil will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Environmental challenges
– Bp Oil needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Bp Oil can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Bp Oil can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas .
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Bp Oil needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Bp Oil.
Increasing wage structure of Bp Oil
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Bp Oil.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Bp Oil can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Bp Oil has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Bp Oil needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Bp Oil business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Bp Oil needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Bp Oil demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Bp Oil can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of The Manager's Job at BP: Decision Making and Responsibilities on the High Seas is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Bp Oil needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
