Introduction
BHP Billiton has been ranked among the top multinational companies in Australia. BHP is renowned for its business in natural mineral resources such as iron ore, coal, manganese, silver, potash, uranium, aluminum, nickel, and copper. Additionally, the company also operates in exploration, development, and production of petroleum products such as crude oil and condensate, gas and natural gas liquids (Kirsch, 2010). Despite the competition in the market, BHP Billiton has adopted a unique market approach that has helped curb the stiff market competition. For instance, BHP offers competitive market prices for the vast array of quality products. Just like any other organization, BHP has been facing business problems and difficulties over the recent past (Our Business., n.d.). These business issues influence the company’s competitive position in the market while affecting the future suitability and viability of the corporation. For instance, over the recent past, the company has been facing challenges in human resource. The overall human resource aspect has existed under challenges in controlling the staff. This has decreased productivity due to the decline in the organizational driving mixture. Despite the business issues and the economic challenges globally, BHP still boasts strong market presence and excellent customer relationship. Based on the integration of research, this paper will provide a SWOT analysis of BHP Billiton. The analysis will highlight the key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that impact its future suitability.
Strengths
- BHP Billiton operates as global natural resource company providing a diverse array of assets. The company’s operations are based in Australia, the US, South America, Brazil and South Africa as the major producer of iron ore, manganese, and metallurgical coal. The company’s coal production is used for the generation of electric power and general industry purposes. BHP is the largest provider of minerals such as aluminum, uranium, lead, copper, and silver.
- The company has retained string credit rating, assisting in increasing the global market capital. This has been enabled by the return of capital to investors through t a share buyback program resulting in rising capital returns and delivering lucrative financial returns.
- BHP Billiton values the customer thus provides quality products meeting the customer needs at fair prices. The company maintains a dedicated customer service relationship.
Weaknesses
- The company is facing several human resource problems such as inadequacy of competent and qualified staff, especially in the mining sector.
- There is the need for improvement in the long-term financial returns on equity and measures of gross margin to match with those of the competitors.
- The employees are reluctant in corporate enquires responses using new media. Bhp's corporate communication is weak as proved by the reluctance in making effective group communication to stakeholders and investors.
Opportunities
- There are several pipeline projects for execution. Cost-effective execution of the projects will result in revenue growth.
- The company needs to focus on promotion and branding through utilization of modern media tools such as social media, for example, Twitter. Innovating marketing and promotion of the
- There are opportunities for expansion into transportation and supply cha operations. Since BHP is a provider of energy commodities, the company can further integrate into other operations to lower transportation and operational costs while increasing the profit margin.
Threats
- The global economic trend of rising cost affects BHP. Additionally, factors such as improved operation, shipping, and labor costs, recruitment and staffing issues and global inflation restrict the company’s development and growth.
- BHP is affected by the political threats in Australia. The Australian government has provided unfavorable ruling concerning infrastructure access and political dynamics of legal formalities.
- BHP is reliant on China for natural resource supply. The slowdown in global markets of natural resources would impact the company’s sales and profitability. To be successful in the evolving global market, BHP needs to provide a strategy to fulfill the growing demands while focusing on increased profitability and growth in shipments of natural resources products.
Conclusion
Based on the SWOT analysis for BHP Billiton’s internal and external environment, we can conclude that the company stands firm despite the threats and weaknesses. The company can utilize its strengths to execute the opportunities and defend against the threats.
References
Bhp Billiton. Retrieved from https://www.hoovers.com/company-information/cs/company-profile.BHP_Billiton_Plc.7649c747268ff225.html
Bhp Looking for Upturn in First Half of 2013. Retrieved from https://www.digitallook.com/dl/news/story/20311406?username=&ac=
Kirsch, S. (2010). Sustainable mining. Dialectical anthropology, 34(1), 87-93.
Our Business. Retrieved from https://www.bhpbilliton.com/our-businesses/minerals-australia
