HALLIBURTON - CORPORATE SCANDAL

Halliburton - Corporate Scandal

Halliburton - Corporate Scandal

Introduction

Halliburton was founded in 1919 by Erle P. Halliburton and is currently “one of the world's largest provider of products and services to the oil and gas industry” (Halliburton, 2010). Halliburton's began with one man, borrowed supplies and a homemade mixing box is now an employer of over 50,000 people and has a presence in approximately 70 countries (Halliburton, 2010). Halliburton established its first research and testing laboratories and then set their sights on the international market. In 1926 Halliburton sold 5 cement mixing units in Burma and started their global arm of business. “Today, Halliburton offers the world's broadest array of products, service and integrated solutions for oil and gas exploration, development and production” (Halliburton, 2010).

In 2006 and 2007 Halliburton realigned its operations and divided them into two, Completion and Production, and Drilling and Evaluation, accounting for over 14 billion dollars in revenue for the company (Halliburton, 2010). The Drilling and Evaluation department is in charge of the drilling, evaluating, field and reservoir modeling and well-bore placement solutions for its customers. While the Completion and Production department managers the cementing, pressure control, pipeline and process services and completion services (Halliburton, 2010).

Planning is an important function of management that helped Halliburton identify and achieve many ground breaking goals. Once Halliburton set a goal to go global, they decided to open a second headquarters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates to strengthen their presence and partnership in the Eastern Hemisphere. With two headquarters in place, the planning function is now more complex. The skill of effective communication and teamwork are not crucial to the development of companywide goals. Ensuring that the leadership at both headquarters is on the same page and understanding of the goals at hand will help in the future success of the company.

In 2004, Halliburton was hit with multiple law suits and negative publicity related to “overcharging in Iraq and alleged kickbacks in Nigeria” (Pleming, 2004). Halliburton is a leading government contractor and provide many goods and services in war stricken countries. The overwhelming negative information on the website www.haliburtonwatch.org brought to light many events that I had never heard of in the news media. According to the website Halliburton was in charge of serving meals to the troops in Iraq, however, they billed the government for 42,000 meals when all paper work proved that only 14,000 meals should have been billed. Halliburton does not seem to be at a loss for negative and legal issues. The bad decisions and lack of business responsibility has forced the management of Halliburton to change directions and focus on damage control versus business growth. In 2004 Halliburton's chairman, David Lesar, launched television ad's to clear up the record on the growing legal concerns for the oil company. In these ad's he mentions that mistakes will be made, it is after all a war zone, but Halliburton will be focused on fixing them.

Halliburton prides itself on hiring the right people and having a strong ...