Strategic Change and Competitive Advantage: British Petroleum Report

This report analyzes the need for strategic change within British Petroleum (BP), focusing on the aftermath of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It examines how BP must implement changes to improve its environmental policies, leadership strategies, and overall competitive advantage. The report highlights the legal, social, and economic challenges BP faces and emphasizes the importance of innovative environmental policies, improved leadership training, and enhanced risk management to regain stakeholder trust and market reputation. The analysis underscores the necessity of addressing past failures, such as inadequate employee safety measures and cover-ups, to prevent future disasters and maintain a sustainable business model. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for strategic changes to address the problems and to formulate a better environmental policy.

Introduction
Change is quite natural in the context of organizational management. It has been
proven again and again that change is the primary constant in the sphere of organizational
management. In this respect it should be noted that change can be of many types, including
strategic, operation, etc, but whatever might be the genre of change, it must be noted that it
should be managed strategically in a way in which it aligns with the goals and objectives of
the organization in a thorough manner. This report is going to discuss about the management
of strategic change that should be ushered in the realm of British Petroleum in order to obtain
competitive advantage. How the Company has been in need of introducing change should be
discussed along with the need for managing such strategic change in both the short- and long-
run.
Company Background
British Petroleum (BP), an energy company, is one of the world’s leading oil and gas
companies, having its headquarters at London, UK. The Company provide customers with
fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, lubricants for keeping engines moving, and
petrochemical products that are used for making everyday items including paints, clothes, and
packaging (BP Global, 2018). The Company operates in more than seventy countries
worldwide and it finds and produces oil and gas on land and offshore (BP Global, 2018). The
Company also manufactures and markets fuels and raw materials that are used in the making
thousands of everyday products ranging from mobile phones to food packaging (BP Global,
2018). About seventy five thousand BP people work day and night to serve millions of
customers who are in need of energy in different forms and due to the reach and incredible
human resources that BP has emerged as a Company among very few companies that are
equipped with innovation and technologies to deliver light, heat and mobility on a scale that

is global in nature. But despite of having such a reputation, BP is also known to the world for
its ill-repute in respect of its aversion in preventing mishaps like oil spillage while drilling.
British Petroleum oil spill in the Mexico Gulf is still considered to be the largest and worst oil
spill accident in the history of petroleum industry and it is the ill-reputation gained from such
event that has forced the Company to bring about strategic changes and manage the same to
keep its hold on the market. The oil spill of 2010 killed eleven people and injured seventeen
people and in addition it severely affected the marine life in the Gulf of Mexico causing
marine environmental damage and ecological imbalance, which, in turn, affected lives of
millions.
The Need of Implementation of Strategic Change to Impact Positively on the
Environmental and Leadership Policies
Since the incident of oil spillage, the management of BP is faced with several legal,
social, and economic challenges. Though the spillage disaster had been gradually tamed and
brought under control, the Company is still trying to revive from its drastic downfall that
occurred (as is still impacting) since 2010. To gain the competitive edge, BP must now
indulge in bringing some strategic changes that would help the Company’s management in
keeping its hold over the global market. On BP’s risk register the requirement of indulging in
the formulation of an innovative environmental policy should have been given a high priority
and that is one primary reason why the Company is eyeing at ushering and managing some
specific strategic changes. Though considered on a cost-benefit basis, the management
strategy of BP should now be changed in order to bring about sustainability and to regain the
lost market reputation. The costs to rectify the grim outcomes of the spillage did involve the
Company in the process of spending billions in trying to contain the spill and this did put the
Company in utter financial trouble. The Company did pledge millions for an open
investigation into the spill and for researching in better ways about the tracking of oil spills

with innovative technologies. The disaster did cost BP a reduction in market value and it
contributed to the rapid reduction in its share prices. Such events eventually have become the
reasons of stakeholders’ dissatisfaction and the degree of such dissatisfaction has made the
Company more vulnerable to organizational change. Moreover, the litigations brought against
the Company by different types of stakeholders have also forced the management of the
Company to think about bring strategic changes to address the problems and to formulate a
better environmental policy. It should be noted that being a public corporation, BP has the
responsibility and ethical obligation to fulfil some major duties to both internal and external
stakeholders and to the society as a whole. This is needed on the part of the Company to
regain its lost reputation and trust on the part of stakeholders. It must be noted that
investigation reports revealed that BP did not give much importance to employee safety and
to job safety related issues. This caused the disaster and triggered the related losses. It was
revealed through investigation reports that the Company tried to cover up the extent of
damage by refraining from providing relevant data and information to the government and to
the public. Furthermore, the Company’s wrong policies affected the marine environment in a
thorough manner and this further triggered the need of ushering strategic changes in BP’s
operational policies too.
It must be noted that in order to avoid future disasters the Company’s management
has to bring about strategic changes in leadership policies too. The management of the
Company has understood by now that though deep drilling is already ingrained with some
potential risks, a strong leadership is required to keep the risks at bay. Lack of proper
leadership also contributed greatly to the disaster that put the reputation and market position
of the Company at stake for both the short- and long-term. The need of good leadership in
terms of providing training on safety measures has also been felt by the Company’s
management. It should also be noted that the management has also understood that enhancing

leadership in deepwater drilling is the need of the hour and for bring such enhancements
more training and development programs should be introduced and implemented.
References
BP Global (2018). BP at a glance. Retrieved February 12, 2018, from
https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/what-we-do/bp-at-a-glance.html