BP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

BP - Essay Example It should not concentrate solely on deep-water assets. The asset portfolio of the company should be diversified. It should have onshore assets, off-shore assets, natural gas assets, shale gas assets etc. The business level strategy of BP should combine its cost leadership with product or process leadership. The process leadership can be achieved by having the most sophisticated technological processes in place. The marketing strategy of the company should focus on improving the battered brand image of BP in the minds of the consumers and other stakeholders. The corporate and brand image of the company have become unfavorable after the Gulf of Mexico disaster. The network level strategy of BP at this juncture should be one of cooperation and not of competition. BP should also pursue inorganic growth through mergers with smaller firms in the industry. Recently it bought a stake in the reserves of Reliance industries of India. Such a cooperative network level strategy will be suitable for the company. The oil & petroleum industry includes all those firms and corporations that are involved in the exploration, drilling, movement & transportation, refinement and, marketing & distribution of oil & petroleum. The importance of the oil & petroleum industry lies in the fact that oil accounts for a large portion of the world’s energy consumption. This proportion amounts to as high as 53% for the oil rich Middle Eastern nations, 32% for the nations of Europe and Asia, 44% for south and Central America, 41% for Africa and 40% for North America (Matthew Yeomans,2004). The population of the globe consumes more than 30 billion barrels of oil per day. In terms of the dollar value of the turnover of all the companies involved in the various stages of the oil & petroleum supply chain, this industry is the largest in the world. The ongoing political unrest in the Middle East and Western Africa will have an adverse impact where a significant proportion of the