Business Lounge
Corprorate responsibility Revealing The Facade
B
P is a pretty short name for a company but as the fourth largest company in the world, you don’t need to be extravagant when it comes to brand awareness. British Petroleum, as it became known in 1954 after a series of name changes and intriguing power plays involving even the CIA, became simply known as BP plc in 2001 adopting the tagline “Beyond Petroleum” attempting to become the poster child for corporate social responsibility (CSR). Unfortunately for the company, on April 20, 2010, BP took on a new persona, that being “Big Polluter”. The incident is a major hit to BP’s CSR mandate which saw the company completely changing its image to one that was more palatable in a world becoming increasingly aware of the environmental impacts of petroleum use. BP plc, through sizable investments in the area of solar energy, is now the largest maker of solar panels in the world shoring up its image as a celebrator of alternative energy while flying its new logo high above its head. Now it seems that a number of CSR setbacks may undermine BP’s efforts to shed its oil baron image and may expose its efforts as just a more elaborate public relations campaign. Immediately after the Transocean owned oil rig sank with the lives of 11 workers, BP’s initial estimates were that they were losing 1000 barrels of oil daily. After underwater footage showed that this estimate was laughably undervalued, a revised estimate of 5000 barrels daily was posited. Independent scientists have estimated the true value to be closer to 80,000 barrels a day using a particle flow simulator which has not helped BP’s image at all. 5000 seems to be an acceptable figure and BP is sticking to it and all those pesky scientists with their newfangled devices can go take a hike.
“
ing at this figure. Sarcasm aside, BP has lost $US30 billion dollars since the incident and it is almost laughable to think that going beyond petroleum didn’t involve a $500,000 failsafe. BP will be required to pay no more than $US75 million to clean up the Gulf of Mexico spill after which the US government will use the funds from a cess on all petroleum products to clean up the rest. Seems like a slap on the wrist but considering the bigger picture and the hit that BP has taken on a whole, maybe BP will realize that CSR goes beyond a spiffy new logo.
advertisment
In all honesty would a company such as BP who has touted company responsibility have shirked the option of installing a failsafe switch which automatically shuts down the rig in the event of a blowout?
”
In all honesty would a company such as BP who has touted company responsibility have shirked the option of installing a failsafe switch which automatically shuts down the rig in the event of a blowout? A device like that goes for about half a million US dollars and one could see a multibillion dollar company that has invested billions in image change, balkyourmoney ezine
insights
Thai Tourism
Once You Know, You Wont Go by Andre Burnett
T
he Jamaica Tourist Board’s slogan for the better part of a decade has been “Once you go, you know” and it occurred to this writer that this bit of genius that most likely had its inception in the right brain of an advertising executive, may have serious undertones about the dependence of Jamaica on its tourism product as a major contributor to the country’s foreign exchange input. The thing is that this very slogan sums up the nature of a sector that is so dependent on a number of prevailing factors that it has no control over. To be clearer, the visitors must come to know for sure but what if the image that is portrayed of our country makes it harder to get them to come, how will they ever know? For years, Thailand and its capital Bangkok, has grown steadily to become a premier tourism destination, a status which it has almost lost in a matter of weeks. A visit to the Thai Tourism website shows a banner that is almost sure to prompt a move to cancellation of any vacation plans. Tourism contributes roughly the same to the GDP of both Jamaica and Thailand, somewhere in the region of above 5%. But since the political unrest that has killed over 50 people and wounded over 1600, this 5% contribution is in danger of disappearing completely since images of protesters burning and creating replaced those beaches and sunsets on computer screens around the world. Even though the political situation in Jamaica is tense at this time it is premature to even think that we could face a public relations disaster of Thailand’s proportions but premature doesn’t mean impossible.
The cry has been loud and clear for years about getting Jamaica’s manufacturing and export sector back up to scratch but maybe we should attempt to match our efforts at wooing tourists in wooing investors. Considering the fact that we’ve had steady growth in our tourism sector with our crime problem then a serious campaign geared towards investors isn’t that daunting. Just tell them something like this, “Once you invest, we’ll do the rest”. Well, that’s why I’m not an advertising executive.
“
Even though the political situation in Jamaica is tense at this time it is premature to even think that we could face a public relations disaster of Thailand’s proportions but premature doesn’t mean impossible. advertisment
”
Right now, convincing any one that they have to go to Thailand to know would require the silver tongue of a veteran confidence scam artist. Much of the talk about Thailand’s economic outlook has been about the tourism fallout but it is more than evident that Thailand is in a far better position than Jamaica even if its tourism product disappears completely. Even with investor confidence slipping and general unease about the economy of Thailand it is easy to see where a country that exports from rice to cars and computer parts may have an easier time getting its foreign exchange earnings back to par a lot quicker than we would in Jamaica. Even within the turmoil, large Bangkok based companies such as SAP AG, Honda and LG have been finding ways to weather the storm and get ready for the eventual bounce back. After all, investors are a lot easier to convince than tourists in cases such as this.
yourmoney ezine
special
Graphic Courtesy of Vizworld http://www.vizworld.com
yourmoney ezine
$3&%*54 16#-*4)&3
F;JOFT -JNJUFE 4VJUF 5FDIOPMPHZ *OOPWBUJPO $FOUFS 6OJWFSTJUZ PG 5FDIOPMPHZ 0ME )PQF 3PBE ,JOHTUPO 5FMFQIPOF ."/"(*/( %*3&$503
5ZSPOF 8JMTPO
.0/&:
:063 .0/&: 3&1035&34
"OESF #VSOFUU %&4*(/ "/% -":065
8BSSFO #VDLMF
XXX ZPVSNPOFZF[JOF DPN
46#4$3*15*0/
TVCTDSJQUJPO!ZPVSNPOFZF[JOF DPN
4FOE VT ZPVS DPNNFOUT UP FEJUPS!ZPVSNPOFZF[JOF DPN
&%*503*"-
FEJUPS!ZPVSNPOFZF[JOF DPN :PVS .POFZ F;JOF JT B QSPEVDU PG F;JOFT -JNJUFE BOE JT EJTUSJCVUFE WJB F NBJM BOE PUIFS POMJOF TPVSDFT TVDI BT GBDFCPPL 5P TVCTDSJCF '3&& MPH PO UP XXX ZPVSNPOFZF[JOF DPN UPEBZ PS FNBJM UP TVCTDSJQUJPO! TVCTDSJQUJPO!ZPVSNPOFZF[JOF DPN
&BDI UJNF ZPV SFBE :PVS .POFZ F;JOF ZPV BSF TVQQPSUJOH UIF mHIU BHBJOTU HMPCBM XBSNJOH BOE BMTP B NPWF UPXBSET FDP GSJFOEMZ QSPEVDUT
Read Your Money today...