Research Articles Base: Internal And External Enviromental Factors

Shell Internal and External Enviromental Factors

This is an analysis of the Royal Dutch Shell Group (RDSG for brevity, or subject company, used interchangeably in this paper). The analysis will focus on the internal and external environmental factor that affect or has an impact to the subject company. This paper will utilize two kinds of analysis in order to provide readers comprehensive information regarding several environmental factors that have an impact on the business conduct of the company. The first one is the SWOT analysis. This analysis will focus on the internal and external strength of the company. This type of analysis will determine as to whether the company has been able to counter every weakness or opportunities present on the surroundings of the company. Many business analysts have used this analysis framework, as it is simple and powerful especially to strategy development. The information used in this analysis is powerful enough to determine the way the business will progress. The second analysis that will be used by the company is the PESTLE analysis. This framework analysis will establish a more detailed examination on the possible impacts of the factors that have been affecting the conduct of the business of the subject company. The difference of this analysis with the first is that the former is more in general but the latter is more specific as to the criteria of the factors that affect the subject company. In addition, this paper will first provide a brief background as to the RDSG in order to give the readers information as to the way the company has been conducting its business. A conclusion will end this paper, taking into consideration the key points discussed.   ROYAL DUTCH SHELL GROUP RDSG is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies, with 104, 000 employees in more than 110 countries. It is considered as the second largest private sector energy sector corporation in the world and one of six “super majors”. The company’s headquarters are in The Hague, Netherlands.  The subject company plays a key role in helping meet the world’s growing demand for energy in economically, environmentally and socially responsible ways. Forbes Global 2000 in 2007 ranked the subject company as one of the eight largest companies in the world. In 2007, Fortune magazine ranked the subject company as the third-largest corporation in the world. The subject company’s strategy and priorities for the future are “more upstream and profitable downstream”. The subject company gives focus on the delivery and growth, leveraging it a strong portfolio. Last March 2008 the subject said that in the investing in new heartlands for the company, it has been rejuvenating its portfolio for a world of higher and more volatile commodity prices, increased competition, and higher costs. According to Hovers (2008), Royal Dutch Shell (formerly known as Royal Dutch or Shell Group) is an oil and gas company. The company has worldwide proved of reserves of 11.9 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The company’s oil giant’s crude are produced in Nigeria, Oman, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The company also produces refined products, and chemicals; transports natural gas; trades gas and electricity; develops renewable energy resources. It operates 46,000 gas stations, which is considered as the world’s largest fuel retail network. The subject company did not just put matters on the hand of time, but it also make it a point that it plans ahead the future to provide a more comprehensive conduct for the business to flourish. The company will not suffer incase any inevitable circumstance will happen because the company has made some contingency plans in order to enable the company to progress and counter any downfall.   ANALYSIS SWOT According to Marketing Teacher (2008), SWOT analysis is a tool for auditing an organization and its environment. It is used in the first stage of planning and helps business people to focus on key issues. The term SWOT means strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The strengths and weaknesses are those found inside the company or the internal factors while opportunities are the external factors. Below is a table illustrating the SWOT that has been affecting the company. The table will provide for a more brief but comprehensive analysis of the environmental factors that has an impact to the company. The author will provide a detailed explanation after the table. INTERNAL EXTERNAL   STRENGTHS         Has a vertically integrated business model       Promotes the development of the talents of its workers       Considered as one of the progressive oil company in the world       Reported to have an increase in the 2008 earnings, which is 5% higher than in the same quarter a year ago.       The 2008-reported income is 33% higher than in the same quarter a year ago.       Successful on its major projects and other exploration discoveries       The use of technology is the key for its continuous existence.       Has created a new technology centre – Shell Technology India   OPPORTUNITIES         The increasing demand for energy products       The openings of other business exploration thru the creation of bio-fuel products       Further development of technology       Joint venture or partnership interests of other companies       WEAKNESSES         Needs enough government incentives in order to make its business meet the demands of the consumers       The business itself is a threat to the environment       Will continuously suffer downfall due to the insurgence of the demand for energy products       Employees has a greater risk to suffer injury and exposed to other heath hazards     THREATS         Doing business in a politically sensitive or unstable economy       Changes in any legislation, fiscal or regulatory policies in terms of energy products       The decreasing supply of energy products to meet the demand of the consumers       Laws regarding property and liability risks       International disputes that will determine the outcome of local and international laws   STRENGTHS             As stated above the need the strengths of the company in the SWOT analysis is taken in light of the strength of the company on its internal aspect. The strength abovementioned are all present in the business reports of the subject company in their website. These strengths are taken as part of the success of the subject.             First reason is the fact that the company is driven to make the upstream and profitable downstream. This means that every opportunity or any downfall the company may suffer will be treated by the company as a profitable area wherein the subject company will make a way to make every opportunity an advantage to the company.             The second is that the company has guided its employees to treat and perform their works in accordance to the objectives of the company. On this manner, the conduct of the employees will not deviate to what is needed by the company to progress.             The company has also been successful to any business venture or exploration that is has underwent, as stated on their annual reports. It was provided in their annual report that the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria is one of the products of a joint venture formed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Shell, Total, and Agip. The success of the joint venture is considered by the author as a strength because this means that the company is still effective as to its business dealings.   WEAKNESSES             The weaknesses provided in the table are part of the internal aspect of the organization. The primarily weakness of the company is the fatalities involving the employees. These fatalities are attributed to the fact that the nature of the company is treacherous and hazardous. These weaknesses rendered the company to have a less attraction as to the application of possible future employees. However, this type of weakness has been continuously part of the battle of the subject company. Although the occurrence of such incidents is inevitable, the company has been assuring that it has been exhausting all possible means to prevent the happening of such.             The second weakness is considered as important by the author is the fact that it needs adequate legal incentives in order to make the conduct of its business more developed. The government incentives is in a way an complimentary award for the companies situated within their jurisdiction because it will accelerate the economy of a state which will be in pursuance of a planned, economically feasible and practical dispersal of industries. OPPORTUNITIES             The opportunities are considered as part of the external factors that has been affecting the subject company. It is the perception of the author that the opportunities that may come and go throughout the existence of the subject company will be treated as additional happening that may contribute to the success of the business.             The mentioned opportunities provided in the table are realistic. The first one is the increase in demand for energy products. The very basic business of the subject company is the distribution of energy products. The success of the company or the progress of the subject will be based on how the target market still needs the products and services by the company. From this, as inferred by the author, the company will continue to exist because majority of all the industries depend on energy products. The author perceived that as technology progress the need for energy products is vital.              The next opportunity cited is the need to protect the environment. The need to protect the environment is necessary as exploitation of energy products is considered a threat to the environment. As there is a massive campaign to protect the environment by using bio-fuel, the author as an opportunity perceives this because the company can be a part of this campaign by creating such bio-fuel within the realms of their industry.             The third opportunity is the fact that the because the company will benefit to the development of technology. It has been provided in their annual report that the use of technology enables the company to explore other fuel resources that have not yet been exploited which could in turn help the company meet the demands of the consumers.             The last opportunity is not the fact that the company must be able is also vital to the conduct of the company. This opportunity will likely happen if the subject will project that, it is successful. This opportunity is dependent on how the subject company will be able to make its business as successful as possible. THREATS             The last part of the SWOT analysis is the threats. The threats factor is also part of the external factors that can affect the subject company. It can be seen that there are similarities with the factors that are provided under the threat column and with the other column. The threat will always rely on the how the local community will be able to protect the environment which it has jurisdiction and also to make it economy as effective as possible. On the other hand, the dictate of the international community as to the protection of the environment is also considers as part of the threat because the voice of the international company will be much taken into by the consumers as part of their contribution to the protection of the environment.   PESTLE This section will use the PESTLE Analysis. According to RapidBi (2008), pestle stands for political, economic, social, technology, and environmental factors. These factors are beyond the control and influence of a business, however, it is important to be ware of when doing product development, business, or strategy planning. The potential impact column in the table will provide for a certain grade in order to give the readers a good illustration. The column for the implication and importance will be evaluated as to its positive or negative impact; as to whether the impact will be increasing or not; and also to determine the importance of such impact to the subject company. After the presentation of the table, the writer will provide an explanation.   PESTLE Analysis Factors Notes Potential Impact Implication and Importance     H – High M – Medium L – Low U – Undetermined   Type: Positive + Negative - Impact: Increasing >  Unchanged = Decreasing <  Relative Importance: Critical Important (ci) Unimportant (ui) Unknown (u)   POLITICAL 1)     Wars and conflict 2)     Government Policies 3)     Terrorism 4)     Governmental leadership 5)     Government Structures 6)     Political Trends Any action of the government of any country or state will be considered as to have a high impact to the subject company. 1)     H 2)     H 3)     H 4)     H 5)     H 6)     H       1)     – 2)     + 3)     – 4)     + 5)     + 6)     –   1)     <  2)     >  3)     >  4)     >  5)     >  6)     >  1)     ci 2)     ci 3)     ci 4)     ci 5)     ci 6)     ci ECONOMIC 1)     Home economy trends 2)     General taxation issues 3)     Market and Trade Cycles 4)     International Trade and monetary issues 5)     Job growth/unemployment 6)     Interest and Exchange rate 7)     Internal Finance 8)     Internal cash flow The economic factor also has an overall high impact in the conduct of the business of the subject company because the stability of the economy of a state will determine how the consumers will be able to consume energy products. 1)     H 2)     H 3)     M 4)     H 5)     H 6)     H 7)     M 8)     H     1)     + 2)     – 3)     + 4)     + 5)     – 6)     – 7)     + 8)     +   1)     >  2)     <  3)     >  4)     >  5)     >  6)     >  7)     >  8)     >  1)     Ci 2)     Ci 3)     Ci 4)     Ci 5)     Ci 6)     Ci 7)     Ci 8)     Ci   SOCIAL 1)     Consumer buying patterns 2)     Ethnic/religious factors 3)     Advertising and Publicity 4)     Health 5)     Living Standards 6)     Occupations 7)     Fads 8)     Trends 9)     Consumer attitudes and opinions 10) Media views 11) Brand company and technology image 12) Earning Capacity 13) Staff Attitudes 14) Management Style 15) Organizational Culture   The social factor has medium impact because it is perceived by the author that the drive of the consumers to acquire the products of the subject company because emotions or social factors has nothing to do with this kind of need of the consumers. 1)     H 2)     H 3)     L 4)     M 5)     H 6)     H 7)     M 8)     M 9)     H 10) H 11) H 12) H 13) H 14) H 15) H     1)     + 2)     – 3)     + 4)     + 5)     + 6)     + 7)     + 8)     + 9)     – 10) + 11) + 12) + 13) + 14) + 15) + 1)     >  2)     <  3)     <  4)     <  5)     <  6)     <  7)     = 8)     = 9)     >  10) >  11) >  12) >  13) >  14) >  15) >  1)     ci 2)     ci 3)     ci 4)     ci 5)     ci 6)     ci 7)     ui 8)     ui 9)     ci 10) ci 11) ci 12) ci 13) ci 14) ci 15) ci TECHNOLOGICAL 1)     Research Funding 2)     Maturity of Technology 3)     Information and communications 4)     Intellectual property issues 5)     Internet 6)     Transportation 7)     Software Changes The technological aspect is important to the subject company because the changes of technology will determine on how the company will be able to progress its business conduct. 1)     H 2)     H 3)     H 4)     L 5)     H 6)     H 7)     H   1)     + 2)     + 3)     + 4)     + 5)     + 6)     + 7)     +   1)     >  2)     >  3)     >  4)     >  5)     >  6)     >  7)     >  1)     u 2)     ci 3)     ci 4)     ci 5)     ci 6)     ci 7)     ci LEGAL 1)     Current legislation market 2)     International Legislation 3)     Employment law 4)     Competitive Regulations 5)     Regulatory bodies and processes The legal factor has also a high impact with the subject company because any legislation of any country, which it has, an established branch will be subject to such legislation. 1)     H 2)     H 3)     H 4)     H 5)     H     1)     + 2)     + 3)     + 4)     + 5)     +   1)     = 2)     = 3)     = 4)     = 5)     = 1)     ci 2)     ci 3)     ci 4)     ci 5)     ci   ENVIRONMENTAL 1)     Ecological 2)     Environmental Issues 3)     Market Values 4)     Management style 5)     Staff morale The environmental factor has a high impact because the effect of the energy products has been damaging the environment. 1)     H 2)     H 3)     M 4)     H 5)     H   1)     + 2)     – 3)     + 4)     + 5)     + 1)     >  2)     >  3)     >  4)     >  5)     >  1)     ci 2)     ci 3)     ci 4)     ci 5)     ci               The foregoing table illustrated the detailed effect of several factors that has an impact to the subject company. As the readers may have seen the all of the factors stated, do have a relation and high impact to the conduct of the business of the subject company.             The political factor has a high impact to the subject company because the state to which one of the branches of it is situated will be the determination as to whether the company will be able to survive the feats of the politics within. The company must be able to conduct in the manner that it must also correspond to the laws of such state and must deviate to any norms.             The second factor is the economy. The economy of a state will determine the stability of the success of the company. The economy will be the factor that will matter as to whether the subject company will be able to attract investors or stockholders. In addition, the security of the economy will also determine as to whether the economy will be able to attract consumers.             The technology, legal and environmental factors must be collectively discussed in this paper. It is the perception of the author that the legal aspect of one’s state must be consistent to the rapid changes of technology and on the other hand the laws itself must enable to intensify the protection of the environment. Hence, as the technology will progress, the law must not in any way hinder its development however, the development must be related to the protection of the environment. Hence, the subject company will be able to succeed if the whole company will act in cooperation of the state to where it is situated.             The factor that has least impact to the company is the social factor. This is considered as to have the low impact because the use of energy products by the consumers is not determined on any influence coming from the society but from the way, it needs the energy products.     CONCLUSION             The writer therefore concluded that the internal and external factor that may have an impact to the subject company is determined by the way the company will be able to battle it all out in the process. The company however has been progressive in the way it conduct its business because it has a program of innovation to make its end meet the ends.   REFERENCE   Hovers Inc., viewed 14 August 2008, <www.hovers.org>.   RAPIDBI, (2007), PEST/PESTLE Analysis Tool and Template, retrieved at < http://www.rapidbi.com/created/the-PESTLE-analysis-tool.html> 22 May 2008. Royal Dutch Shell Group, viewed 14 August 2008, < http://www.shell.com/>.     Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Shell Internal and External Enviromental Factors

This is an analysis of the Royal Dutch Shell Group (RDSG for brevity, or subject company, used interchangeably in this paper). The analys...

Sample Essay Internal and External Students

Assignment 1 Internal and External students   Student may select their essay from the list provided.   The review of: ·        weight control ·        spinach and green leafy vegetables ·        antioxidants ·        healthy digestion and disease ·        robotics and robotics ·        meditation ·        gratitude ·        television ·        self esteem ·        humour   if you wish to do another topic contact the unit coordinator.   At least 30 peer reviewed scientific journals are expected to be used in Assignment 1 (per student). The suggested length of the assignment is around 2200 words (for an individual student assignment) and it should include recent references (from the last two years) as well as older references. Extra Guidelines for Assignments   Assignment Marking Guide Weights Component 10% 40% 10% 20% 20% Structure and organisation Content Comprehension Clarity in thinking & argument/balanced discussion References quality and use  (however, under the required no, will result in a fail)   Style and format of Assignments   The style and format of the assignment should follow the general principles presented in Student Guide to Report Writing (by JAG. Macomb, E.G. Paling and G.T. Kory) specifically prepared for Environmental Science students and available from Environmental Science Reception. The use of references is a critical part of this project and will be assessed accordingly.   Referencing Your Assignments   For an assignment to receive high marks it must be thoroughly and properly referenced. Chicago Style referencing required (see below for examples). Most of the references must also be from refereed scientific journals.   Peer Reviewed Scientific References These are published articles that have been reviewed by an independent team of scientists. This adds credibility to the article and improves the reliability of the information. Magazines are not peer reviewed scientific journals, nor is new scientist as it gives an interpretation of some peer reviewed journals. Assignments should not use information from the unit reader as a reference.  Instead the assignment should look at new information.   Websites are of limited value in that they can be created by anyone on any topic.  Government websites or Industry websites can be used for particular information relevant to that organization such as government policy or industry policy or sales figures.  But do not use these for specific information unless you state that “Industry” or “Government” sources state that ….”   Students attention is drawn to the following quite common mistakes:- -         It is not necessary to use formal quotes (quote marks) unless it is absolutely necessary; it means where the exact phraseology is important. For this reason, assignments in Environmental Science would use formal quotes (exact quotes – like legal texts) only in exceptional cases and any abuse of this system is not acceptable. -         Similarly, referencing to the same source more than once should be fully justified, and multiple referencing to the same author should be avoided unless justified. In particular, the not unusual case of referencing to the same author after virtually each sentence on the one page should be avoided.   Example of referencing   NOTE:  STUDENTS PLAGIARISING IN THEIR PROJECTS WILL BE GIVEN AN IMMEDIATE FAIL. This also includes projects written for other units. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Sample Essay Internal and External Students

Assignment 1 Internal and External students Student may select their essay from the list provided. The review of: · w...