British Petroleum plc, (BP) is a company that was developed in 1908 an oil company in Anglo-Persia. It was started in Persia with only one well after almost eighty years thorough searching. The firm started from a humble beginning, and it became successful in less than a century. It became the largest company in the United Kingdom and one of the most successful firms in the globe with over one hundred thousand employees in over a hundred nations.
Analysis of Critical Success Factors in the company
A critical success factor (CSF) is a term in business management for an element that is essential for companies or organization to achieve its desired mission. It is necessary for ensuring the prosperity of business. To be beneficial, a critical success factor must be important to the success of the organization, directly linked to the strategy of the company, benefit the organization or a department as a whole and finally be synonymous with a goal that is at a high level. According to the case study, one of the major critical success factors of the company was attracting the best personnel where it had over one hundred thousand workers over the world who were committed to their work. Workers are vital to the success of a business, and without them, a company is likely to fail.
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The success of the petroleum company is also seen when it decided to diversify into new technologies of energy production (Trkman, 2010). The company was able to engage itself in a variety of business which enabled it to be successful in the world. By 2006, the company was a leader in the generation of power from wind, solar, and power plants that were gas-fired. It also had more plans of investing and researching into the production of the hydrogen power. Managerial experience and ability were among the critical success factors of British petroleum. John Browne was the CEO of the firm, and he was one of the richest CEO in the history of the business. He had excellent leadership skills that he utilized in taking the company to higher heights. He contributed to turning BP into one of the largest and most prosperous energy business in the universe. As a CEO, he was willing to take various risks that would help the business and chase after big deals. The company received much success under his leadership.
Another critical success factor for the company was the investment in growth markets (Trkman, 2010). It's acquisition of Amoco, an oil company in America in 1998. The deal cost more than sixty billion US dollars, and as a result, the reserves and sales of the company doubled thus contributing to the success of the enterprise. The decision to come up with a joint venture with Yukos, a Russian oil business supplied the company with fifty percent access to other oil reserves of over forty-four billion oil barrels. Also, the company had excess production of oil of about 1.2 million barrels at a price of roughly seven billion US dollars a day which enabled it to make more profits.
Sensitivity to changing marketing needs was also a critical success factor of the company where the company diversified to energy production in case the oil business was not a success hence it would still be able to operate despite the changing market. Also, making contributions to environmental groups contributed to the success of the company (Trkman, 2010). The firm put a lot of efforts in providing evidence of its attention on the environment and how it was concerned with protecting it. This showed that it was concerned with social responsibility hence achieving the goals of the society.
Project benefits, organizational readiness and risk culture of the company
The project benefits arising from the case study was an increase in sales and oil reserves for the enterprise. Due to dealings and relations with other oil companies, BP was able to boost their sales and profits through the acquisition of more barrels of oils. Moreover, the company was able to diversify to other projects other than petroleum. It ventured into the field of energy production. The organization is ready for changes in the way it does business now and in the future. (Anbari., 2009) With the impending resignation of the CEO and accidents in the company’s oil refineries, there is evidence that the company is experiencing problems hence change mandatory to help the business.
The risk culture in British Petroleum is that the corporation likes taking a lot of risks. There is an inherent risk culture at the company. It favored taking risks to gain success in the business. For example, it risked operating in the business environment of Russians by developing a joint venture with Yukos which is a Russian oil company (Pidgeon, 2010). Also, there had been a lot of accidents in their oil refineries in which people had died. According to a report by the Telos Group, BP did not maintain the safety at their refinery. There was a lack of protection since there was no practical completion of repairs and servicing in the refinery because the company wanted to save on costs. Workers also complained that they were pressured not to report injuries incurred in the job and safety violations (Kingsley., 109-118). The risk culture developed in the organization was that the management team of the refinery tried to maintain a working environment that was safe. However, due to cutting costs of repair and servicing, the safety of the factory was compromised. Also, a risk is seen where there is pressure to produce a lot of oil which led to decreasing safety standards in the refinery.
Project risk recommendations
Based on my analysis, I would recommend that the company allocates a lot of resources in repairing and servicing the refinery to provide a healthy environment for its workers. Improving and maintaining oil refineries is crucial as it protects the employees from unnecessary harm. The second recommendation is that there should be the enlightenment of employees about their work rights in the company. The employees should be aware that reporting injuries incurred on the job should be reported immediately to avoid the occurrence other injuries. Also, they should be mindful of the fact that they have a duty to report if they see that their working conditions and facilities are not safe. The third recommendation is that there should be a preventive maintenance and training and safety management training in the company so as to avoid unnecessary accidents. Lastly, the employees should be encouraged to form staff unions which will look after their interests and are also useful in exercising the rights.
Identifying initial categories of risk (RBS level 1 and 2)
In RBS level 1, there is the technical risk that is presented in the case study. In RBS level 2, we have safety where from the case study solutions to repairing and servicing the refinery may impose more cost. Also, another risk category that is present in RBS level 1 is managing risk. In level 2, there is organization risk where changes in the management of BP may affect the company negatively or positively since the resigning CEO had managed the business for many years. There is also the risk of reputation where the reputation of BP is damaged due to the accidents in the refineries and the many lawsuits.
Conclusion
In summary, analyzing critical success factors in a company is essential because it assists in determining the successful area, policies and marketing strategies of the enterprise. It is also essential to minimize risks that might be damaging to the company if it wants to succeed.
References
Anbari., Y. H. (2009). Analyzing project management research: Perspectives from top management journals. International Journal of Project Management 27.5 , 435-446.
Kingsley., B. B. (109-118). Risk culture in public and private organizations. ublic Administration Review , 2009.
Pidgeon, N. F. (2010). Safety culture and risk management in organizations. Journal of cross-cultural psychology 22.1 , 129-140.
Trkman, P. (2010). The critical success factors of business process management. International journal of information management 30.2 , 125-134.
