SCENARIO PLANNING

Scenario planning at Shell



Scenario planning at Shell

Question 1

SWOT ANALYSIS of the Royal Dutch Shell Company

Strengths

Royal Dutch Shell Company is the fourth largest company in the whole world. Its trademark is universally recognized around the globe. The company also has different branches, sub offices, oil refineries and subsidiary companies in areas such as Asia, Africa and North America. Since its inception in 1890, it has accumulated a large and wide customer base with an ideal image of integrity and honesty.

The company markets a whole range of products that ranges from oils, lubricants, diesel fuel, jet fuel, petroleum based products and oil refinery heavy equipments.

The company has a large network of organized and methodological supply base making the transportation and moving of its products from oil producing countries to the market faster and efficient.

Weaknesses

In looking at the company, the whole corporation is still particularly geared towards making and manufacturing products that are based on oil. This step is not only inefficient from an ecological point of view but is also ineffective since the world is not shifting to renewable sources of energy.

The company gets the majority of its oil from the Middle East and international disputes, difficulties and negatives activities in that region would tend to increase the prices of oil.

Opportunities

The company can commence or lead other oil companies in exploring other potential oil fields to ease its dependence on Middle East oil. A potential exploration area is the Siberian region in Northern Russia and the Russian island of Sakhalin in the Pacific. Another potential oil field that must be fully developed is in Nigeria.

The company must also venture on developing, researching and promoting renewable sources of energy. It must conduct studies and research with regards to techniques, materials and policies that would decrease the company's reliance on oil while increasing its need on nuclear, solar and hydroelectric sources of power.

Threats

The primary threat against Shell Company is the new oil players that are being established today in the oil industry. Because these companies are new, they can quickly adapt to market demands and needs. Since they incorporate new technologies and materials in their products, they are less likely to be affected with government legislations and regulations governing the use of oil and petroleum products.

Another threat is lobby groups and special interest groups that try to influence government legislations with regards to strict implementation of laws and statures that would protect the ecology and the environment. These groups are considered as threats because thru publicity and press releases, they can cast a bad light on the reputation of the company.

Question 2

Shell's thinking

Strategic managers today are exposed to numerous strategic analysis models and approaches. Although the breadth of models increased our understanding of the strategic management domain, most development of strategic analysis models has been based on period-specific managerial challenges and without integration of previously scholarly work leaving the field fragmented and provincial.

We find it surprising that only a few strategic management scholars have explored the possibility that hybrid models— integrating ...