Mining and Sustainability: A Critical Analysis

This assignment delves into the complex relationship between mining and sustainability. Students are required to critically analyze various aspects of this intersection, including corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, environmental impacts, and the role of international investment in shaping sustainable practices within the mining sector. The analysis should draw upon provided case studies and academic literature to evaluate the effectiveness of current approaches and propose recommendations for enhancing sustainability in mining operations.

Running head: Managing innovation
Managing innovation

Managing innovation
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Threats and opportunities of the BHP Billiton.............................................................................................4
Strengths and weaknesses of the BHP Billiton............................................................................................5
The position of the company in next 10 years.............................................................................................7
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................9
References.................................................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
The report presents a brief overview of the direction and position of the company. The
BHP Billiton has been selected for the report. It also explains the various strategies of the
company. The report tells that how the company is maintaining the strong and effective position
across the world. It explains the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the
company. Therefore, it is assumed that the company plays a major and crucial role in metals and
mining sector. The background and position of the company are discussed below.
BHP Billiton is an Anglo Australian multinational metal, mining, and petroleum
company. Its head office is located in Melbourne, Victoria Australia, and the company is
founded in 1885 as a broken hill proprietary company limited (BHP). It was the biggest mining
company in the world by 2015 market values and fourth largest company by revenue in the
Australia’s (Sun, Zhang & Chen, 2013). It is the dual listed company and it is one of the biggest
companies in Australia by market capitalization. The company was formed in 2001 through the
merger and amalgamation of the Anglo Dutch Billiton plc and Australian broken hill proprietary
company limited. The company manages a wide range of processing, mining, oil and gas
production operation in 25 countries around the world. Therefore, revenue of the company is
increasing day by day. In 2016, the revenue of the company is approx $30.9 billion and the profit
of the company is around US$6.2 billion. Around 65,000 (2017) employees are working in the
company. It is also involved in the production and manufacture of steel, copper, iron, aluminum,
zinc, gold, uranium, gas and oil. The company is focused on the diversification and innovation to
achieve the organizational goals and objectives (Haalboom, 2012).
Threats and opportunities of the BHP Billiton
To identify and analyze the threats and opportunities, SWOT analysis is conducted by the
company. The main objective of the SWOT analysis is to identify the strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats of the company. Through SWOT analysis, the company achieves the
opportunities and protects the company from threats (Wilson, 2012). The threats and
opportunities of the company are discussed below.
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Opportunities
The company has taken various projects in the pipeline to implement and complete the
projects (Hurst, 2015). These projects are likely to become an important source of revenue and
the projects are executed at a reasonable cost.
The effective brand position is the strength of the company. The company uses
innovative marketing strategies and new media tools to attract the customers. Therefore, the
company is creating and maintaining brand awareness among its consumers through its effective
marketing strategies. The company committed to a reduction of 5 percent in green house gas
emission. It makes long term agreements for the success of the company. The company has
developed a strong potash resource position in Canada thus; it is the biggest opportunity of the
company. In future, the company can take various benefits through its effective opportunities.
Over the last few years, BHP Billiton has invested a large amount into the online platform. In
this way, the new sales channels have been opened for the company. Therefore, the company can
take benefits of this opportunity by identifying the consumers in a better way. The company
makes new environmental policies to gain competitive advantages (Sykes &Trench, 2016).
Threats
The company is facing threats continuously due to rising costs from suppliers and
contract labor cost and energy, shipping cost. Labor staffing issues and concerns, inflation also
can affect the organization success and development. The company is continuously facing
political threats in domestically as well as internationally (Boyd, 2017). The company is facing
environmental issues, weather interruption, and intense competition. Therefore, the several
challenges are faced by the company. The changing and varying consumer buying behaviors and
attitudes from online channels also affect the growth of the company. Innovative technologies
are developed by the market disruptor and competitors could be serious threats in future to the
company. China is a major consumer of commodities such as copper and iron. Therefore, a
slowdown in Chinese environment and economy also adversely affect the prices of products
(Vanclay et al, 2015).
The team of the BHP Billiton focused on implementing, analyzing and identifying the
new ways and methods to improve and increase productivity and raise the standards. The
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company is looking skilled, enthusiastic, and talented employees to join the team for a future
period. The company provides support to people for improving and developing their skills and
potential. The digital revolution and shareholder's values are the main future trends of the
company. In future, the company wants to operate and manage an effective ecosystem and it
wants to create a vision for the industry. If the company wants success and growth in future then
it should focus on the optimise portfolio and innovative technologies. Therefore, the company
should analyze and identify the threats and opportunities to gain competitive advantages in the
future (Epstein and Buhovac, 2014).
Strengths and weaknesses of the BHP Billiton
Through SWOT analysis the company can identify the strengths and weaknesses of the
organization. They are discussed below.
Strengths
BHP Billiton is a well known natural resource organization with fully diversified
portfolio assets. The company is one of the biggest suppliers of silver, lead, copper, aluminum,
and uranium. It is the biggest strength of the company. The company is a major manufacturer of
metallurgical coal, iron ore, and manganese (Seele & Lock, 2015). The company provides
dedicated customers services to its customers. It maintains a strong market position and it makes
effective marketing strategies. It increases the demand for petroleum, metals, coal, oil, and gas. It
maintains a successful and strong track record for product innovation and development of new
products. It focuses on the centralized marketing operations and processes to increase and
enhance the marketing activities. The company maintains a strong leadership position in the
market. In this way, the company increases cross selling opportunities and competitive
advantages. The company has built a strong dealer community to promote and endorse the
company products. The company executes and implements the new projects and technologies
and it generates good revenue and profit. Therefore, the company should maintain its strengths in
future also to gain the benefits of competitors. BHP Billiton is a very strong brand name in the
world and it maintains strong labor force. In this way, the company can take benefits in future
through its excellent and strong workforce. Further, the CSR activities also encourage and
enhance the brand image. The company is increasing its profit and revenue day by day. The
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future strategies of the company should be based on the operational excellence, high-
performance culture, and excellent capital allocation. Therefore, the company can overcome on
its competitors in future (Floris, 2013).
Weaknesses
There are many weaknesses exist in the company which affects the business activities of
the company. Unskilled, semi-skilled human resource and poor corporate communication among
employees are the major weaknesses of the company. It also affects the growth and success of
the company. It needs to improve the long term financial and economic return on equity and
gross margin. It is also weak in corporate communication and the employees of the company are
not proactive to respond and resolve the corporate and business inquiries of the stakeholders and
investors. Gradually, the company is also reducing the aluminum production therefore, it faces
many problems. If the company wants to grow in the future then it should maximize the
strengths and opportunities and minimizes and reduces the threats and weaknesses. The company
is also facing health and safety issues in iron ore operation in Western Australia. The production
of metals is very energy intensive procedure so the company needs to focus on the production of
metals (Ellis, 2012).
There are various competitors of BHP Billiton like Exxon Mobil, Bharat petroleum,
Anglo American, Nippon Steel and Chevron Corporation. All the competitors influence the
business activities and operation of the company. Competitors are one of the biggest weaknesses
of the company so it should evaluate and measure the business activities of competitors. In this
way, it can overcome on competitors. Sometimes government intervention and interferences also
affect the operation efficiency of the company. Now it can be said that if the company wants to
overcome on competitors then it should make some innovative strategies for the future time
period. The company can hit and beat the competitors, it the company identifies the weaknesses
and strengths. Thus, the company should measure and analyze all these weakness and it should
make a good position in the market. Competitive advantage plays a major role in the strategy
discipline. The company should also analyze the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and
opportunities. The company is not focused on the quantitative goals and objectives (Connolly &
Orsmond, 2011).
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The position of the company in next 10 years
After the various researches, it has been found that BHP Billiton is doing excellent
business activities. The report has discussed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
of the company. The company is making excellent strategies to focus on the various business
activities of competitors (Fonseca, McAllister & Fitzpatrick, 2014). The company is using
innovative technologies to gain the advantages in future. The company is also making long term
as well as short term mining strategies. The company is focusing on mining cost to enhance the
production of the company. It also invests the huge amount of the innovative growth of the
company. In this way, the company can make a good identity in upcoming years. The company
has engaged in various forms of innovation in mining sectors. The company is making various
innovative strategies and plans to take the various opportunities in future. The company is also
focused on the portfolio management and pipeline. The company is appointing the right person
at the right time to do the work of innovation. The company is also using innovation metrics to
measure the progress and guide the innovation decisions (Brueckner et al, 2013).
To gain the efficiency in the next 10 years, the company will need to foster innovation
and modernization by using the right technology, culture, and system. If the company wants to
gain efficiency in next 10 years, then the company should define the innovation goals with their
employees. The company should acquire and adopt the suitable and appropriate resource and
skills to achieve the long term goals and objectives. The company should operate an ecosystem
to resolve the collective problems. If the company wants to know the strategies and ideas of the
competitors, then it should collaborate with competitors. The level of collaboration should be
based on the production efficiency and cost savings. The ecosystem should be designed in such
way that it will encourage and improve collaboration among all the stakeholders like original
equipment manufacturers and mining companies. The company should focus on the digital
revolution (Cisternas & Gálvez, 2014).
The company should also articulate the digital plans and strategies to succeed in the
digital future. Universal college London and the BHP Billiton announced an agreement to set up
an institute for sustainable and natural resource initiatives in London, UK. The two new institutes
will be launched by the company to resolve economic, cultural, legal environmental and
technological issues. The BHP Billiton is one of the biggest companies in diversified resources.
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Managing innovation
The company is creating a shared vision to gain the competitive advantage and make
sustainability. The company understands the business benefits and it also evaluates the social
outcomes (Raufflet, Cruz and Bres, 2014).
The company is focused on the change management and water management to gain
efficiency in the future. It is creating the inclusive and sustainable workforce to diversify the
work. In the next mining generation, the company will improve the work processes and
technologies. Therefore, the company will achieve the operational and capital efficiency. The
company is also reducing the green house gas emissions. Now it is assumed that the company
will take various enormous benefits in future. The main object of the company is to create long
term and sustainable share holder value through the marketing and development of natural
resources, acquisition, and collaboration (Schoenberger, 2016). The company is using the
effective business model to determine the success of the organization. The company is evaluating
and developing the resource projects creates the value of the organization. The company is
taking effective action to reduce the various emissions. In next 10 years, the company will
improve and build investments, operations, ecosystem, and communities. The company will also
evaluate and control the financial risk, operational risk, and sustainability risk. The company is
also focused on the corporate governance structure. In this way, the company can make a good
position in oil and mining industry in the future and it can achieve the organizational goals and
objectives (Kunz and Moran, 2016). The business model of BHP Billiton is showing discussed
below.
(Source: BHP Billiton strategic report, 2014)
After the SWOT analysis, it has been found that the company can take various
opportunities in the next 10 years to build a good position in the market and it can also expand its
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business in different countries. The company is also completing the project under the specific
budget and particular time so it takes various benefits. The company is maintaining the cordial
environment in the organization, therefore; employees perform their task with efficiently and
effectively. Hence, it will increase the productivity of the company as well as employees. The
company will maintain a good identity and position in the next 10 years with the use of SWOT
matrix (Lodhia and Martin, 2014). In short, the SWOT matrix of BHP Billiton is discussed
below.
Strengths Weaknesses
 Strong and effective financial
position.
 It is one of the biggest mining
and petroleum companies across
the world.
 CSR activities enhance and
encourage the brand image.
 Reducing aluminum production.
 Government interventions affect
the operation efficiency.
 Semi-skilled/ unskilled human
resources.
 Weak corporate
communication.
Opportunities Threats
 Strategic merger and acquisition
of Anglo potash.
 Expanding of operation in
copper and oil.
 Innovation and modernization
in marketing.
 Environmental issues and
weather interruption.
 Intense and strong competition.
 The decline in demand from
China.
Conclusion
Now it is concluded that BHP Billiton is the biggest mining company in the world. It
deals in various kinds of commodities like steel, copper, iron, aluminum, zinc, and gold. The
company uses good marketing mix effective marketing strategies to overcome on competitors. It
is the global resource company across the world. The petroleum sector is engaged in
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development, exploration, expansion, and production of oil and gas. The company manages and
operates its product distribution process through its universal logistic chain (Cortese & Irvine,
2010). There are various operational units of the company like copper, potash, petroleum and
iron ore.
Gradually, the company is expanding its business across the world. The operation and
financial management of the company are excellent. The team of BHP Billiton maintains
cooperation and coordination in the organization. The company uses the SWOT analysis to
identify its strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats. If the company wants growth and
success in the next 10 years then it should focus on its environment and it should analyze the
environment through SWOT analysis and PESTLE analysis. The company can also use porter
five forces model. The company should focus on the strategies and plans of its competitors and it
should maintain the cooperation with competitors to gain success and improve the sustainable
development in the future. In this way, the company can maintain goodwill in the market. The
company should provide training to employees for improving the performance of them.
Manpower plays a significant role in every organization, therefore, the company should focus on
the manpower.
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