BHP Billiton: Mining Industry Leader - Essay.

Briefly trace the development and growth of the organisation from its beginnings to the present through the application of corporate strategies – what types of strategies have these been?

There have been many criticisms of the business practices that company has pursued over the years. Describe TWO of these practices and outline the outcomes.

Perform an environmental analysis for the involvement of the organisation in the context of the industry it operates in – what are the main opportunities & threats?

Describe the organisational culture or leadership style within the organisation.

BHP Billiton is known as one of the largest companies in the trading sector. This is also known as Anglo- Australian multinational company which focuses on the mining based industry.  Headquarter of the company is in Australia and the company was originated in 1885. The company has attained the largest rank of the largest mining company with respect to the overall market capitalization. BHP Billiton was originated in the year 2010 and in context to this the company also focused on the merger with the companies like Anglo Dutch Billiton Plc (BHP, 2018).  

                                                

The mission statement of the company is related with creating sustainable value for the shareholders, employees, contractors, suppliers and customers. The company focuses on Zero policy that do not harm the individuals and the environment so that goals can be achieved.  The vision of the company is related with the ways that can aim at generating the value in context to the activities of the company (Valle, 2016). The company emphasizes on future development and conversing the natural resources. By considering the long term based strategies it has been seen that company focuses on enhancing the customer’s satisfaction. The company also focuses on providing market sustainable solution to the customers so that growth can be attained (Demir, Wennberg and McKelvie, 2017).

There are various strategies which are considered by the company in the past. One of the strategies which are considered by the company in the past is related with offering highest level of value to the customers. The company has considered this strategy so that it can be simple to enhance growth and grab the attention of the customers towards the activities of the company.

BHP Billiton has considered the new growth strategy in the present era so that it can be simple to achieve profits in the competitive market. The latest strategy focuses on enhancing the overall return of the shareholders and also their value. The expectation of the company is to focus on implementing the growth strategy so that positive impact can be made on the overall productivity level of the company.

The emphasis is also given by the company on Shale and Copper based assets so that it can be easy to grow in top line and bottom line areas. The policy related to dividend is also developed by the company so that commitment level can be enhanced in the market. It will also help in maintaining the goodwill in the market. Also there are various strategies which are considered by the company.

This is one of the strategies which are considered by the company so that it can create broad differentiation in context to proper development in the market. This strategy will also help to attain growth in the competitive market.

The growth strategy is considered by the company in which the focus is given on enhancing the value. The creation of value is considered as the essential strategy that will be implemented by the company in a proper manner. The company also aims at various types of areas which helps the company to achieve growth in the market. BHP emphasizes on enhancing the productivity and also maintains their momentum. In context to different products the investment can take place that will help to unlock the latent capacity of the assets. The quality portfolio of the company is based on the assets which will help to provide growth related options. Also the company considered global technology function which is implemented so that resources can be unlocked in a proper manner (Hill, Jones and Schilling, 2014).

Mission and Vision

BHP Billiton has faced many problems in context to disasters. It has been analyzed that company faced the issue related with the disastrous dam disaster which took place in the year 2015. When this incident took place it has been seen that waste was spread in the nearby areas of the operations. So, the company considered various new strategies so that these types of issues do not take place in future. It has also been investigated that there are many cases or the problems which took place in BHP Billiton. Also the commitment which was made by the company to reduce the production waste in the garbage was not maintained. This has negatively affected the overall share price of the company and also affect can be seen on the image of BHP Billiton (Hyndman and Hyndman, 2016).

The second controversy which is related with the company is coal mines in Columbia. According to the investigation it has been seen that the coal mines of Cerrejon has led to violation of the human rights of La Guajira Community. By considering these impacts, the human activists and the land defenders involved in the BHP annual general meetings every year.  Also the company ensured of proper investigation of the situation so that it can be changed and also the commitment did not get reflected in the agreement with La Guajira community (Powell,  2015). 

So, in context to these issues it has been seen that the company restructured its overall priorities like emphasis is given on the employee capabilities and also the social license has been acquired for operation in volatile environment.

There are various factors related to the PESTLE ANALYSIS and these factors influence the strategic drivers in context to BHP Billiton. The factors which are related to Pestle analysis are political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental. This framework helps in analyzing the external environment which can influence the entire activities of the BHP Billiton.

BHP Billiton is considered as the company with global resources which is also vulnerable in context to political risk factors. It has been seen that company has been considering the activities in context to basic resources in 10 nations and also considers various political risks. The political risks also impact the entire prices of the products and services offered by the company (Grant et al., 2014).

 It is necessary for the company to evaluate the political constancy and the value of the basic resources in context to the Australian economy by considering the legal framework. Also the political environment of the company has a support from the government. As the company is considered as the largest company in context to market capitalization and also it has been seen that government supports the overall development of the company.

The economic factor will impact the overall activities of the company in Australia. The impact will also been seen on the overall profitability which can consist of saving rate, inflation rate and also foreign exchange rate.  BHP Billiton is vulnerable in context to the economic factors like energy costs, materials and also labor costs. The fluctuations which take place in this can give adverse impact on the overall growth of the company and also on the expansion projects.

Strategies

The company also emphasizes on the present strength in the commodity prices that are connected to health of the global economy. Also the company is vulnerable to currency assessments and common economic perils that can reduce the demand of the commodities which can lead to increase in the supply chain and low prices can also affect the overall profit of the company (Epstein, 2018).

The company is vulnerable in context to all the social issues in the relation of business owners. Also the features supported the neighboring communities related to financial and supply resources for infrastructure like housing, roads and schools. There are also new mining and projects related to infrastructure that requires proper approval so that overall development cost can be enhanced (Grifell-Tatjé and Lovell, 2018). The company has also considered creating its own status in the Chile by focusing on that changes related to workers conditions and also quality of life in neighboring city of Antofagasta.

BHP also focuses on the technical aspects of resourceful mining, exploration and also possession of energy. It has been analyzed that company rely on the use of technology inventions for discovery and exploration of the mineral and energy resources. Also the biggest investment for the company is related with technology. Also the investment in technology will impact the two strategic drivers related to company like project pipeline and excellent assets. The important part that is related with technology is earth moving machinery, trucks and cranes (Gunningham, 2017).  

The legal system of various countries can influence the policies which are created by the company. It is important for the company to analyze the factors that can improve the activities in the industry. The legal factors in context to the company are Anti-trust law, discrimination law and employment law (Rothaermel, 2015).

The environmental factors which can be developed of the countries plays an important role in creating the policies of the company. The company has already faced various disasters related to environment in the past which has also given impact on the activities of the company. So, it is important for the management to consider the overall standards related to environment so that activities can be completed smoothly (Adler et al., 2017).

By analyzing the overall external environment it has been seen that activities of the company can be affected due to the changes that are taking place in the external environment.

With the help of Porter five forces analysis it has been seen that competitive forces are easy to be evaluated.  It is important to analyze the competitive factors. There are five forces like

                                     

Bargaining power of the buyers

It is moderate to low and the rate of the products that are offered to them can be different according to the entire demand. The long term based customer relation can also help to enhance the entire prices (Meyer, Neck and Meeks, 2017).

Bargaining power of suppliers

The company has been affected by the large number of suppliers present in the market. The power is also based on materials, energy costs and shipping costs. When the activities are enhanced then direct impact can be seen on the supplier based power of the company (Hubbard, Rice and Galvin, 2014).

Controversies

Threat of new entrants

The threat which the company faces is related with the new entry into the market. The prices are reducing of the product and loss in the demand of iron has also affected the entry of the new competitors. If focus is given on infrastructure of the company it has been seen that it reduce the effect of new companies (Dobbs, 2014).

Threat of substitutes

The substitution rate in context to the company is low as it has been seen that it requires more finance.  Also the company is considered as the biggest company. The diverse portfolio of the company is also taken into consideration as an essential part of the entire activities (Kunz, 2016).  

                                                            

BHP Billiton is considered as a largest company so that main strength is related with the large market share. The company is known as one of the largest traders of uranium after Olympic Dam Mine. The company also has the largest source of copper which is Escondido Mine. The company is considered as the largest producer of nickel and also sixth largest aluminum manufacturer on the global platform (Shen et al., 2009).

The weakness possessed by the company is related to bring improvisation in the long term financial return and gross margin in context to competitors. The company focuses on dealing with many human resource issues that can consider the appointment of CEO and also to train the mining employee. The company is also understaffed this creates issues and it also means that the company is weak in the area of recruitment and selection.  The company is also weak in the overall communication process as there are no practical and innovative responses given to the investors.

The company is considering the innovative marketing answers by considering the techniques related to social marketing and innovative outdoor advertising. The campaign also focuses on enhancing the brand and creates customer awareness of the company activities. the company also committed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions.  

The company is also facing the rise in the cost related to the suppliers and it is mainly related with shipping costs and energy costs. Global inflation and human resource problems are also the problems that are faced by the company in the present era. In the Australian market, the company achieves negative outcome and decisions from the states related to access the public infrastructure. Also it has been seen that the activities of the global platform can be affected because of the environmental demand.

In the company it has been seen that talent management activities are also related with managing the employees and retaining them in the workplace. The company has a huge demand for the experienced employees and also the talent management programs are considered so that employees can be retained in a proper way. The proper analysis of the talent is important in the overall process of creating the global network with the employee. The company has focused on maintaining the talent of the employees so that positive outcome can be achieved. Also the company focuses on maintaining the forward looking approach so that talent can be developed in a proper manner (BHP, 2018).

PESTLE Analysis

The culture of the company is good as there are leaders who know how to manage the activities of the company. The company builds the culture of diversity and inclusion and has considered various types of talent on global platform. The company is able to give their best as it is based on the diversity of the workforce and also on the various perspectives related to diversity. The talent management and diversity based culture is developed by the company and it also considers the needs of the employees so that employees can give best towards the entire activities of the company. Through this it can be easy to accomplish goals and objectives in an effective manner. Also the company takes into consideration the transformational leadership style.

Conclusion 

Therefore by analyzing the paper it has been concluded that the company faced many problems in the Australian market. The factors which are externally related have given impact on the routine activities. Also the industry analysis of the company can help to create better position in the market. In context to internal analysis it has been seen that the company has a good position in the market. The organizational culture of BHP Billiton has boosted the effective leadership development and also enhanced the overall process of the activities. This has also offered the company with a proper talent of the employees who give best towards the overall activities of the company. It has been seen that if employees are efficient then it can be simple to accomplish the goals and objectives. The company can also achieve success in the competitive market which can help to grow and earn profits.

References 

Adler, R., Mansi, M., Pandey, R. and Stringer, C., 2017. United Nations Decade on Biodiversity: A study of the reporting practices of the Australian mining industry. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 30(8), pp.1711-1745.

BHP. 2018. BHP | Leadership Team. [online] Available at: https://www.bhp.com/our-approach/our-company/leadership-team [Accessed 7 September 2018].

BHP. 2018. BHP | Structure and strategy. [online] Available at: https://www.bhp.com/our-approach/our-company/strategy [Accessed 7 September 2018].

Demir, R., Wennberg, K. and McKelvie, A., 2017. The strategic management of high-growth firms: a review and theoretical conceptualization. Long Range Planning, 50(4), pp.431-456.

Dobbs, ME. 2014, 'Guidelines for applying Porter's five forces framework: a set of industry analysis templates', Competitiveness Review, 24 (1), pp. 32–45.

Epstein, M.J., 2018. Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. Routledge.

Grant, R., Butler, B., Orr, S. and Murray, P.A., 2014. Contemporary strategic management: An Australasian perspective. John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd..

Grifell-Tatjé, E. and Lovell, C.K., 2018. Productivity and Financial Performance. The Oxford Handbook of Productivity Analysis,  p.329.

Gunningham, N., 2017. Overcoming the disconnect: internal regulation and the mining industry. In Varieties of Legal Order(pp. 143-166). Routledge.

Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.

Hubbard, G., Rice, J. and Galvin, P., 2014. Strategic management. Pearson Australia.

Hyndman, D. and Hyndman, D., 2016. Natural hazards and disasters. Cengage Learning.

Kunz, N.C., 2016. Catchment-based water management in the mining industry: Challenges and solutions. The Extractive Industries and Society, 3(4), pp.972-977.

Meyer, G.D., Neck, H.M. and Meeks, M.D., 2017. The entrepreneurship?strategic management interface. Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating a new mindset, pp.17-44.

Powell, S.J., 2015. Coal and Gold, Hard and Cold: Using Trade Agreements to Resolve Human Rights Violations in the Caribbean Colombia Mineral Extraction Industry. Intercultural Hum. Rts. L. Rev., 10, p.55.

Rothaermel, F.T., 2015. Strategic management. McGraw-Hill Education.

Shen, J., Chanda, A., D'netto, B. and Monga, M., 2009. Managing diversity through human resource management: An international perspective and conceptual framework. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 20(2), pp.235-251.

Valle, D.D., 2016. Addressing the climate change challenge at BHP Billiton. AusIMM Bulletin, (Feb 2016), p.34.