BHP Billiton: Ethical Considerations, Strategies, and Impacts Analysis

This report provides an overview of BHP Billiton, formerly known as BHP Billiton, a leading mining company. It delves into the company's structure, culture, mission, and vision, highlighting its commitment to ethical business practices and stakeholder engagement. The report explores BHP's strategies for stakeholders, including communication and financial benefits, while also analyzing a defensive strategy implemented during a market downturn. It further examines cultural shifts within BHP, including changes in the head office and production initiatives, as well as the company's emphasis on transparency and accountability in its operations. The impact of social norms on BHP's business is discussed, along with recommendations for improvement. The conclusion summarizes BHP's adherence to transparency, its positive working environment, and the impact of cultural shifts on its revenue. References to relevant academic literature are included.

BHP Billiton
Ethics and SustainabilityBHP Billiton
Ethics and Sustainability

About BHP
• BHP is presently known as BHP Billiton.
• It was founded in 1885 in the town of Broken
Hill.
• It deals with mining metals and petroleum
(Meira et al., 2016).
• Its headquarters are in Melbourne, Australia.
• In 2017 it was ranked as the world’s largest
company in the field of mining.
• It is Australian third largest company.

Structure of BHP
• They operate under Dual Listed
Company structure (Stakvik et al., 2017).
• They have two parent companies(BHP
Billiton Limited and BHP Billiton plc).
• They are run by a particular unified
Board and Management.
• They own as well as operate low cost,
long-life upstream assets.
• They are diversified by geography,
commodity and market.

Culture of BHP
• As per the employees of BHP the
culture is very collaborative.
• Employees do not want to leave
the office because of the
positive environment.
• It does not provide any carrier
opportunities.
• The managers are said to be
very helpful as encouraging.

Mission and Vision
• Their objective is to be a company of
choice-creating productive value.
• They do not intend to harm people and
environment in order to achieve success.
• BHP tends to be more than only a law firm,
they approach things bit differently.
• In order to meet customers’ needs they
have introduced a multi-disciplinary
approach (Walck & Hidayati, 2016).
• Their services are not just limited to the
legal sectors.

Ethical Business Practices
• They believe that good behavior with
customers provides them the license to
operate and this helps in expansion of
business.
• Customers value the companies that
value them.
• Honesty and integrity of company is
always valued by customers.
• Shareholders value the companies that
set as well as follow high standards.

Business strategies for Stakeholders and its benefits.
• Stakeholders of BHP are a group
that represents Australia, South
Africa, North America and Europe.
• The engage their share holders in
meetings annually which helps to
keep the company updated.
• They maintain regular electronic
as well as printed communication.
• They share all the investment
company presentations via their
website.

• One way in which business
strategies help the company to
achieve its goals is financially.
• The maintenance of
communication between the
stake holders keep them
updated and introduce new
ideas if they want.
• Regular meetings help them to
discuss about the whereabouts
of the company.

Defensive strategy
• The best defense becomes a strong offence for
the company.
• In 2008 the fertilizer companies went out of
capital.
• The revenue dropped from $241 to $67 in 2008.
• BHP wanted to grow Potash Crop and it was a low
point in the market.
• Potash Crop demonstrated to the world that it
provided more value to the stakeholders than
BHP is providing.
• This created a negative impact on the company’s
reputation

Cultural shift within BHP
• BHP culture had changed in 23rd January, 2014.
• The head office was changed.
• The hot soup that was banned was legal for
consumption anywhere in the office premises.
• According to Carrington, Hogg and McIntosh,
(2015) due to the strategic changes the
production of iron ore increased from 16% to
48.9 million tones.
• They took some strong decisions in making
changes underground.
• The changes done were marketing initiative in
order to increase productivity.

Transparency and Accountability in BHP
• BHP believes that transparency in revenue
flow from the natural resources extraction is a
very important element for fighting
corruption.
• They have introduced principles of Fairness,
Openness and accessibility which helps in
revenue transparency.
• Their anti-corruption compliance programs
prohibit corruption and bribery in all the
business dealings.
• They publicly report their payments of
royalties and taxes to government.

Impact of Social Norms in Business
• Within their operations they also
contribute to realization of the
human rights.
• They provide better working
conditions, safety and good
labour conditions and they
ensure security activities.
• They provide commitment to the
voluntary principles on human
rights and security

Recommendations
• A better washing process.
• Use of recent technologies for
the process.
• Changing of mining sites if the
present ones are not productive.
• Paying well to the labors can
increase the sustainability of the
products because happy works
will provide better productivity

Conclusion
• BHP follows a transparency in its
business.
• It maintains a good working
environment as well as medical
facilities for its labors.
• BHP has been into an offensive issue
which had a bad impact on its
branding.
• BHP had undergone some cultural
shifts which has resulted in its

References
Carrington, K., Hogg, R., & McIntosh, A. (2015). The hidden injuries of
mining: Frontier cultural conflict. In Environmental Crime and Social
Conflict: Contemporary and Emerging Issues (pp. 241-264). Ashgate
Publishing Limited.
Meira, R. M., Peixoto, A. L., Coelho, M. A., Ponzo, A. P., Esteves, V. G.,
Silva, M. C., ... & Meira-Neto, J. A. (2016). Brazil’s mining code under
attack: giant mining companies impose unprecedented risk to
biodiversity. Biodiversity and Conservation, 25(2), 407-409.
Stakvik, J.Å., Berg, C., Kaasa, G.O. and Aamo, O.M., (2017), August.
Cascaded bottom hole pressure control in managed pressure drilling.
In Control Technology and Applications (CCTA), 2017 IEEE Conference
on (pp. 2001-2007). IEEE.
Walck, J. L., & Hidayati, S. N. (2016). Book Review: Pilbara Seed Atlas and
Field Guide: Plant Restoration in Australia's Arid Northwest. Seed Science
Research, 26(4), 362.