Essay on British Petroleum

In the contemporary business environment, strategic management process is extremely important, especially for large, multinational corporations, such as British Petroleum (BP), because it contributes to the steady business development and makes the development of the company foreseeable. In actuality, BP maintains one of the leading positions in the market, in spite of the notorious oil spill in the Mexico Gulf region and business and corporate strategies of BP has contributed consistently to the maintenance of the leading position of the company in the market. BP attempts to create a positive public image and manifest its environmental concerns to attract customers and to take the lead in the competitive struggle in the market (Stewart, 159). Today, the company has proved to be quite successful focusing on such strategic directions in its development as exploration, energy production, and new energy and low-carbon energy business development, which open the way for BP to leading positions in the world energy market.

In actuality, strategic management process affects consistently the business development of any organizations because it set strategic goals and paces with which organizations can reach the set goals. At the same time, such large corporations as BP need to develop effective corporate strategies to enhance their position in the market (Schmitt, 194). In such a situation, strategic management process becomes particularly important because it allows the company to focus on specific, strategic goals and ways to reach them successfully.

On analyzing the current corporate strategy of BP, it is worth mentioning the fact that the company focuses on the energy production mainly as the major source of its revenues and the strategic field of operations. The company has been one of the leaders in the industry of energy production. Today, BP attempts to maintain its leading position, in spite of the growing competition and scarcity of fossil fuels, which are the major source of energy used by the company as well as by its major rivals.

In addition, the company focuses on the exploration of new oil fields, which is a strategic direction in the development of the company and one of the major sources of growth of the company. To put it more precisely, BP needs to explore new regions, where the company can find oil and start drilling or using other technologies for oil extraction because existing oil fields become scarce and exhausted (Schein, 177). In a long-run perspective, the exploration is strategically important because, if the company stops exploring, then it will be unable to produce energy, while existing sources of oil, i.e. existing oil fields, will be exhausted in the future and the company will just run out of oil.

At the same time, BP focuses on the investment in new energy technology and low-carbon energy business as one of the major priorities of the company in its future development. In fact, the new energy technology and low-carbon energy business imply the focus on alternative fuels, instead of oil or natural gas (Pine and Gilmore, 261). In such a way, the company shifts from conventional fuels to alternative ones. This strategic development of the company is reasonable, taking into consideration the scarcity of fossil fuels. Therefore, they will run out in the future and the company will have to look for alternative fuels to keep energy production at the present level.

In such a way, the corporate strategy is quite effective for BP attempts to focus on its traditional energy production, on the one hand, and exploration and introduction of new, alternative fuels and technology, on the other (Meyer & Shareen 310). As a result, the company can maintain its competitive position effectively. Moreover, BP can take the lead in the industry, if its exploration and innovations are successful.

In this regard, the business or competitive strategy of BP focuses on the introduction of innovations based on the use of alternative fuels and introduction of new technologies, which can save costs of energy production and maximize its effectiveness (Bamberg, 176). In actuality, the development of alternative fuels open large prospects for the company to take the lead in the energy production industry because, at the moment, fossil fuels remain the main source of energy (Bamberg, 138). Therefore, the company that can offer an effective alternative to fossil fuels is likely to take the lead in the industry in the future when the world economy starts suffering from the shortage of fossil fuels. The company taking the lead in the energy production using alternative fuels will take the lead in the energy production industry at large (Peters, 225). The introduction of new technologies will open larger opportunities for the company to outpace its major rivals and become the leader in the industry. Therefore, the current business strategy of BP is effective but the company should focus more on the development of alternative fuels and improvement of its public image.

Thus, BP is a successful company but it needs to maintain its competitive position. At the moment, the company focuses on energy production, exploration and new energy technology and low-carbon energy technology to maintain its position in the market. In the future, the company should carry on its current corporate and business strategies