Introduction to Management

Cycle in International Management

Introduction to Management

Why is BP shaking up its management team?

The BP’s Gulf of Mexico disastrous oil spill in April has been shown its impacts on the company’s balance sheet and reputation. The UK oil group accounts billions that are spread along the Gulf Coast, but as difficult as repairing environmental damages may be, the company has an even huger challenge of repairing its public image, especially in US. Thus, this major management shake-up was announced to achieve a goal, to improve the way in which it works.

The restructured management team has a task of learning some lessons from the disaster with focus on risk management. Mr. Dudley, the first American to guide the British company, arrives to work with a “new” senior management board, with greater control centralization and with a principal statement, to rebuild trust in BP.

What do you think is the difference between the roles of the president and the CEO of a large company like Orange/France Telecom?

According to the OXFORD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (sixth edition, 2000):

CEO : abbr. chief executive officer (the person with the highest rank in a business company)

Chairman : noun (pl. –men) 1 the person in charge of a meeting, who tells people when they can speak 2 the person in charge of a committee, a company

In a large company, a CEO will be someone in charge of managing the executive board, he or she will be responsible for the operational domain, responsible of taking day-to-day decisions. He will order things that should be done. A chairman is someone with strategic vision, worried about the directives of the corporation, responsible for ensuring that the company stays in the course previously defined by the shareholders, he has almost a diplomatic role. Finally, I think that a CEO is an operational manager and a chairman is a manager of orientation.

What is benchmarking? What are the pitfalls of benchmarking according to...