Chapter 2

BP providing funding and data to companies developing new technologies for deepwater drilling

Strategic Partners

Increased regulation of banks and mortgage lenders regarding the loans they issue

General environment

Shifts in economic and political power between countries

General environment

The increasing number of elderly people in the United States, Japan, Italy, and Germany

General environment

Companies that generate energy from alternatives to oil—such as from solar, wind, and wave power—gaining customers and investor support

Competitors

BP's offering biofuels, such as ethanol-gasoline blends, at its service stations

Customers

Declining tourism along the entire Gulf of Mexico coastline

Economic

Impairing industries in the Gulf of Mexico region, including commercial fishing, seafood processing, and tourism

Economic

A worldwide recession

General environment

High job satisfaction ratings from current employees

General environment

A company adopting an open-plan design for the workstations in its new office

Internal environment

A manager's policy of letting employees have Friday afternoons off during the summer

Internal environment

President Barack Obama's placement of a 6-month moratorium on offshore drilling

Political/Legal

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) ensuring that cleanup workers are protected from heat, fatigue, and other hazards

Regulators

Auditors from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sent to review a company's tax records

Task environment

One employee telling another, "It's just the way we do things around here—it's our organizational culture."

Internal environment

Courts setting a precedent that 80% of civil penalties paid in connection with the oil spill be used for economic and environmental activities benefiting the Gulf Coast

Political/Legal

Conforming to BP's environmental and ethical standards to be included on BP's list of approved vendors and contractors

Suppliers

For a public university, the pool of new PhD graduates seeking jobs as professors

Task environment

Beginning to deploy deep-sea submersibles to view the oil leak and drilling infrastructure a mile beneath the ocean's surface

Technological

Using oil-absorbing polymers that bond with oil and form a spongelike material that is easily removed from the water

Technological