Strategic Development within an Organization LNG

Question: Discuss about the Strategic Development within an Organization for LNG. Answer: Introduction: The term strategy can be described as the written document where the firm or company lays down a detailed structure, which they are going to follow in the year ahead in order to conduct their business in a well-organized way. The ways in which a firm or a company sets goals, determine the actions required to reach the goal, mobilizes the resources and thereby execute all the actions in to work in order to reach the targeted goals is known as the development strategy (Wheelen Hunger, 2011). This report tries to focus on the strategic development of the organization named Woodside Petroleum. It is a petroleum producing company located at Perth in Australia. Woodside ranks at top amongst all other Australian oil and gas producing companies. In addition, this company is the leading producer of liquefied natural gas in the world (Stevenson, n.d.). Through this report, the strategic development of this company has been tried to analyze. Initially a brief description about the company has been provided followed by highlighting the problems associated with the company (Ker, 2013). The next part tries to analyze the topic by using tools like SWOT, Environmental and PESTEL. The report ends with a concluding note on the findings of all these sections. Background of the Study: Energy consumption is a vital issue in todays world. Every nation tries to find a way through which they can reduce the consumption of energy within the economy so that the future generation does not face any crisis. Petroleum being a liquefied non-renewable resource is the most important source energy, which is being exploited overtime (Tissot Welte, 2012). Hence, the mission and the strategies of the leading Australian company have been discussed here. The company has been trading in LNG for the last 25 years. Mission Vision: The Woodside Petroleum has been in the industry for more than 60 years. It has been catering Australia and the global market with its efficient service (James et al., 2008). The company focuses on ensuring sustainability in their operation with special focus on the aspects of society, economy, environment, people and their safety. The company has the vision to excel in the field of non-renewable energy by maintaining strict discipline in their field of work (Sholarin Awange, 2015). The company targeted their goals and stayed focused in the achieving this goal. The company tries to maintain a healthy balance amongst its worker by creating a sense of respect and discipline within them. Along with the above-mentioned factors, the company has the vision to deliver a bulk return to its shareholders. They also have the motto of becoming the leader in oil and gas manufacturing companies in the global market. Past Strategies of Woodside Petroleum: The company during its early days operated only in the Gippsland Basin in the Victoria region of Australia. During those days, they were engaged only in extracting oil, refining them and selling it to the market. Along with these work they were trying hard to expand their business throughout the nation and in the global market (James et al., 2008). Their vision and mission both were constricted during those days to the limit of establishing and expanding the business. Current Strategies of Woodside Petroleum: Innovation and productive efficiency are the two terms that can help any industry to sustain in the market. Australia has 16 big oil and gas producing companies who caters almost 30% of the countrys total demand for energy. Woodside petroleum survived and excelled in this competition due to the unique strategies that they have taken up in their course of business conduct (SHAHROM, 2012). They have concentrated on the companys value-chain system, focused on improving the value of their assets and applied contemporary technologies in their course of operation. Problems Faced by Woodside: There has been a global turmoil in the oil industry during the recent years. This has affected the entire market by creating a distortion in the macro-economic factors within the country. There has been an oil price shock in the economy in recent past, which induced in the rise in the overall price level of the economy (Fickling, 2016). Under this circumstance, the biggest company in Australia selling oil and gas faced an economic downturn. It has faces several criticism because of this incident. Two of the major criticism that the company faced concerning the implementation of their marketing strategies are given below: Strategies that Faced Criticism: During the year 2006-07, the company faced a major restriction in establishing a new onshore plant as an extension of its already existing project named Pluto LNG (Robins, 2014). The company did a major mistake while targeting the region of Burrup Peninsula to set up their project. They paid more importance to their business but forgot the fact that the region has significant historical importance as an archaeological site. It has more petroglyphs, which dates back to more than 30,000 years. The renowned company catering to the global economy also faced the criticism of practicing the method of wage discrimination among its workers. According to an investigation held on 2011 it has been found that the company has been involved in paying less wages to its foreign workers(Spasic, 2015). This incident hurt the sentiment of the workers thereby causing a glitch amongst them. In addition, the company did not upgrade its wiring system and used equipments that were inadequately designed. This led to the failure of the companys oil mist detector at its Vincent plant (Macdonald-Smith, 2015). Detailed Analysis: The strategies of development that this famous petroleum and gas company took up in its course of operation took up can be analyzed properly with the help of several tools of marketing (Stevenson, 2014). In this report, the PESTEL analysis has been done to deduce the threats and opportunity of the company. These threats and opportunities have been properly studied using the SWOT analysis. PESTEL Analysis: This tool of analysis helps people to understand the different aspects of any organization, which can be used to build up a proper business strategy. PESTEL stands for political, economical, social, technological, ecological and legal factors. Political factors The company faced problems with its labor. The government intervened in this matter to sort out the issues. Along with this there has maintain a good relation with the government of Australia (Mearns Yule, 2009). Economical factors Being the leading producer of LNG, the company has performed well in its operation. Data collected over the past 5 years suggests that the company has seen growth in its business. Social factors The company gives great importance to the society in which they deal with. It lends its helping hand to people of the different communities dwelling in the area of its operation. It also spreads social messages and tries to generate awareness. Technological factors The company has been using the latest possible technology to maintain its production and keep the cost low. Upgrading the existing technology to match the global scenario is the new challenge faced by technological factors. Ecological factors Carbon emission is a great problem of any organization within the economy. According to the news channels, it has been stated that the Woodside company faced problems after they had breach the laws related to excess carbon emission (Sverud Skjrseth, 2007). Legal factors The company faced few minor and major legal allegations in the past few years. It faced the allegation brought against the company for biasness and practice of wage discrimination. The company has also faced legal notification relating to the environmental issues and misconduct of its operation. SWOT Analysis: The SWOT analysis consists of four parts namely the strength, weakness, opportunity and threat of a firm. The strength highlights the capability of the firm to reap the benefits of opportunities in future. The weakness on other hand can be studied to understand the impact of potential threats that the company may face. These four points have been discussed below in the tabular form. Strength Woodside is among the leading companies of Australia engaged in the oil and gas industry. The company had decades of experience in this industry. The most upgraded technologies are used in this company. It provides the best possible facilities to its customers, clients and the community. The financial position of this company is very strong with almost all the index showing an upward trend in the past 5 years. This is highlighted by the fact that the company is enlisted in the Australian Securities Exchange (Matos Hall, 2007). The superior quality of oil asset and extensive portfolio is one of the main strength. The company deals with liquefied natural gas, which is the most demanding sources of energy in todays world. A large customer base helps the company in its way to success. A large number workforce of more than 3000 people also acts as the companys strength. Weakness It has been seen in this report that the company faced criticism in their operation. This can be cited as one of their weakness. There has been a glitch amongst its employees. Relationship in between the workers was affected (Robins, 2014). Two important projects taken up by this organization faced issues in recent years. Since the company has been into the news with negative views pointed against them, hence it created a bad image. Opportunity There has been a growing demand for energy and new acquisition cropped up. New markets are available for the company to explore and expand. Innovative projects can help in strengthening the brand name and image. Threat There has been tough competition in the market as posed by the other leading oil producers. Changes in government regulation, and increase in taxes is another important threat of the company. The company after facing several problems also has the scope of getting legal notices from the government or from the regulators of this industry (Esty Winston, 2009). Natural disaster Organizational Culture Core Values: Woodside Petroleum has been proud of the culture of the organization. They have strived in bringing up their companys face value. They prioritize people from various groups as they believe that each people have some unique talent and potentiality which they can use in bringing benefit to the company(Humphreys et al., 2007). They emphasize on teamwork and believe in standing at each others side in case of any difficulties. The company also tries to provide the maximum possible benefit to its employees (Wheelen Hunger, 2011). Their happiness can help the company to retain them and increase its own productivity. Recently, the company joined hand with the IBM to improve their services. The company has been using the tools of artificial intelligence and data science to administer and propose future changes that are required for development. Woodside is also engaged in saving the environment and developing the nation through tourist attraction as it did in the Myanmar by collaborating and providing training in deep water exploration skills. Conclusion: This report tried to focus on the ways through which the company excelled in business since historical ages. There have been changes in the business culture, way of conduct, focus of the business and many knick-knacks within the organization. Change is in the root of the organization. The report can be wrapped up by re-stating the findings in business strategy of this organization. There has been a shift in the strategies related to the functioning of Woodside. In addition, the findings of the SWOT and PESTEL analysis states that importance has been given to the environmental factors and there is a high scope of growth of this organization with the continuous rise in demand for the LNG. 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