The Brief History and Background of Petronas

The Brief History and Background of Petronas Petronas is an acronym for Petroliam Nasional Berhad. It was established in 17 August 1974 as the national oil company for Malaysia. Petronas which is wholly owned by the government it is the corporation which is vested with the entire oil and gas resources in Malaysia and is entrusted with the responsibility of developing and adding value to these resources. Petronas has grown from just being the manager or the regulator of Malaysias upstream sector into a fully integrated oil and gas production. PETRONAS have been ranked among the FORTUNE Global 500 ® the largest corporations in the world. Since it was invested PETRONAS has grown to be an international oil and gas company with business interests in 31 countries. As of the end of March 2005, the Petronas Group comprised 103 wholly-owned subsidiaries, 19 partly-owned outfits and 57 associated companies. Together, these companies make the Petronas Group, which is involved in various oil and gas based activities. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading, gas processing and liquefaction, gas transmission pipeline network operations, marketing of liquefied natural gas, petrochemical manufacturing and marketing, shipping, automotive engineering and property investment. PETRONAS is doing its business with the major strategy of integration, adding value and globalization. Their major facets of business integration are Exploration and Production; Oil, Gas, Petrochemicals, Logistics and Maritime, Research and Technology and Corporate Sustainability. The market structure of PETRONAS in this context means how PETRONAS fit into the oligopoly market. I will be discussing the characteristics of an oligopoly market and see how PETRONAS match the characteristics. Just to recap oligopoly is the market structure thats has few producers that produce same type of goods and substitute with each other. Examples of oligopoly are Oil industry which I believe PETRONAS fall under this industry, car industry and cigarette industry. The market is dominated by a few large producers of a homogenous or differentiated product. CHARACTERISTICS OF OLIGOPOLY PETRONAS Type of the product is standardized or differentiated Control over price is limited by mutual interdependence, or it is considerable with collusion Conditions of entry has significant obstacles Non-price competition is typically a great deal with product differentiation. The table above clearly shows that indeed PETRONAS fit into the oligopoly market structure as it fulfils most of the oligopoly characteristics. THE MAJOR PLAYERS OF PETRONAS Petroliam Nasional Berhad  (PETRONAS) is 100% owned by Government of Malaysia via Minister of Finance (Inc.). THE CURRENT TRENDS OF PETRONAS Petronas have gained unique skill and proficiency in nation building and this, together with their technical and operational competencies have allowed it to be increasingly accepted as the preferred strategic partner by international companies and the congregation countries where Petronas operate. This really suggests that Petronas is realizing their vision of becoming a Leading Oil and Gas Multinational of Choice. Petronas has transformed from a domestic-based national oil company into a fully integrated oil and gas multinational corporation and as a corporation it has experienced significant milestones. Below are just some of the highlights of the different years. Year Achievements 2006 Signed a joint concession agreement for the North Sidi Kirir Deep offshore exploration block in the Nile Delta, Egypt. 2007 Increased its equity holding in the APA Group to become the single largest shareholder in one of Australias biggest energy transmission and Distribution Company. 2008 Signed the main principles towards a new PSC with ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc and PETRONAS Carigali Sdn Bhd that would allow the two PSC partners to continue their upstream participation in seven oil fields offshore Peninsular Malaysia. 2009 PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad marked its first biodiesel (B5) delivery to Ministry of Defense (MINDEF) and Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL), an initiative in support of the Malaysian Biofuel Industry Act 2007. PETRONAS Australia Pty Ltd increased its equity holding to 17.23% in the APA Group, making it the single largest shareholder in Australias leading gas transmission and Distribution Company. (Table 1: achievements of Petronas between 2006 and 2009, source: www.petronas.com ) What can be concluded from the above table is that PETRONAS is going places; its market is growing tremendously and there is no doubt that it is not shrinking. PETRONAS have expanded its market to over 30 countries around the world. It has been accepted as the strategic partners by those countries that they are developing their petroleum industry. HOW DOES TECHNOLOGY AFFECT PETRONAS Today we live in a world that is controlled by technology. Almost everything that is done there should be technology included in the process. Petronas as well is significantly being affected by the technological changes that are currently happening worldwide. Looking upon the globalization practices that PETRONAS are currently undertaking, technology is affecting this whole process of the organization. When Petronas is producing using technology, production will be more efficient and that will result in supply being increased. That means due to the advance in technology the supply curve for PETRONAS will increase. Price P 2 P 1 Q 2 Q1 Quantity supplied Diagram 1: how technological changes affect the supply of Petronas However, technology is not the only factor of production existing in the producers plant. There exist more complex interrelationships between these factors to be able to exploit the improved efficiency of one. The most crucial of all is governing human resources. Without proper guidance from the leaders of a firm, production efficiency will not hold because of resistance, de-motivation or just a plain technological ignorance. Technology is not 100% automated and human intervention as well as errors is inevitable. Moreover, technology may also be intended for a specific segment of the industry, say, large corporations. As such, aggregate supply may not necessarily increase because small entrepreneurs who cannot afford to buy the technology cannot contribute in increasing supply. PETRONAS ADVERTISING STRATERGIES PETRONAS just like any company it needs to draw its business to its potential customers so as such there are certain advertising ways that they use to reach out to its customers and the country as a whole. The advertising strategy that PETRONAS has used is a heart strings commercials, (which of course is advertising using the television as the type of media), this means that PETRONAS has used commercials that often create an emotional ambience that draws you to the advertisement and makes you feel great and or so sad. Normally people are more attracted by products that make them feel good or even sad in some cases. PETRONAS has used one of its commercial the PETRONAS Advertisement: Raya 2006 that has touched so many and the video was uploaded on you tube. Even people who watch a lot of PETRONAS advertisements have said that they enjoy watching them and they are always eager for the new advertisements. Petronas also make commercials for every festival that are always happening in Mala ysia example could be of the 49th  Merdeka  Day. The other way that PETRONAS use to advertise is through billboards and newspapers. For billboards as you drive along the road you will find huge boards advertising PETRONAS and by such somebody can come to know about PETRONAS through this way. COLLABORATIONS WITH OTHER MARKETS Petronas is collaborating with some markets and this makes PETRONAS more popular among other markets that they are interacting with. EDUCATION PETRONAS recognize the value of education and it believes that it can develop human capability through education. As such Petronas is collaborating with the education sector in the form of awarding sponsorship loans to local and international students. The Petronas unit that is responsible for handling education matters is called the Education Sponsorship Unit. The sponsorship is in the form of convertible loan. Based on the academic results, co-curricular activities, the family back ground and the assessment of the students personality PETRONAS just dont give out sponsorship but it has criteria that students should meet. PETRONAS has 6 human and capital development programs in Malaysia and abroad. These programs are Educational Training Institutions: In this program Petronas provide world-class educational and training services to people and the nation through the various institutions they have established such as University Technology PETRONAS (UTP), Academy Laut Malaysia, (ALAM )PETRONAS Management Sdn Bhd (PERMATA) and Institute Technology Petroleum PETRONAS (INSTEP). Education Sponsorship Unit: This is the unit that is responsible for handling education matters. PETRONAS e-learning: control the latest information and communication technology (ICT) to provide online training and development programs for Petronas employees. It also offers a wide range of online learning materials, online courses as well as services including eLearning courseware and portal development, designed for professionals. Petrosains: This interactive Science Discovery Centre that encourages the Malaysian public to learn more about science, and explore the infinite possibilities it offers. Schools Outreach: this is a program where PETRONAS outreach for certain schools and invests a considerable effort and resources into education-based outreach activities to inspire and develop the community. Industrial Training: this is the program in which PETRONAS grant students opportunities to partake structured Industrial training. Students that have awarded the sponsorship after they finish their tertiary studies have their convertible loans converted into full scholarship. These students have a binding contract with Petronas that after they finish school they work for the company for two years and for every year they are sponsored. MOTORSPORT Petronas was one of the main sponsors of the BMW Sauber formula one team and it provides fuel and lubricant to the team. Lately last year it was confirmed that it was moving from BMW to the newly-formed Mercedes Grand Prix. Also it is the main sponsor of the Malaysian Grand Prix and the co-sponsors of the Chinese Grand Prix. As part of its corporate social responsibility program, Petronas also brings underprivileged children to watch the race. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS CONCLUSION PETRONAS is a company which falls under the oligopoly type of market structures. Wholly owned by the government, PETRONAS is the countrys one of the company that provide petroleum and gas for the country. PETRONAS from its previous years it has been growing nationwide and worldwide as it has some of its products being used in other countries even outside Asia and as far as Egypt in Africa. It is making a whole lot of profits from its products and as such the country benefits a lot from it. PETRONAS does not only care for the production of petroleum and gas but also collaborate with other markets such as education and provide sponsorship loans to those students which need them. PETRONAS also have established various institutions as their main aim is to enrich the nation with quality education. PETRONAS also participate in somehow entertainment market as it is one of the main sponsors of the newly-formed Mercedes Grand Prix and also main sponsor of the Malaysian Grand Prix. RECOMMENDATIONS As PETRONAS is wholly owned by the government and it has been the company that the government has been focusing on, I recommend that it merge with other energy company which is Tenaga Nasional Berhad. If the government for the next decade focuses on Biomass, PETRONAS should merge with companies such as Sime Derby which was recognized as the biomass champion, as I believe this effort coupled with reengineering technology, will reap a sustainable company that will have a good impact for both energy and food sector in Malaysia.

Essay --

Harriet Beecher Stowe was born Harriet Beecher in Litchfield, Connecticut on June 14, 1911 to Lyman Beecher and Roxanna Foote. She was one of eleven children, to be precise the sixth child, though not all of her siblings were of the same mother. In 1915, at the age of four, Harriet lost her mother due to an illness, the trauma of the loss stayed with her and even influenced her later writings. After the loss she was taken by her Aunt Harriet Foote to her Grandmother's home in Nut Plains. She stayed there for a few months during the winter of that year where she already started to display a literary mind with developing the ability to read and memorize whole passages from the Bible. Her father, a reverend and conservative abolitionist, soon remarried to Harriet Porter when Harriet was six years old. She described her stepmother as a fair, delicate looking creature that was also as she described "of a type noble but severe, naturally hard, correct, exact and exacting, with intense nat ural and moral ideality" (Stowe, p. 13). Her stepmother although kind, was a little flustered by inheriting eight new children and maintained some distance from them, focusing more on her own children, Harriet's half-siblings. Once Harriet was of age to attend school she started going to Litchfield Academy and soon was one of the top students. Always trying to impress her father she would later tell others that the proudest moment in her life occurred when she was twelve and her father visited the school, it was there that he heard an essay which he found exemplary. He inquired about which student had written it and when told that it was his own daughter's he praised her highly. (Stowe, p. 14) Soon after Harriet's eldest sister Charlotte, her senior ... ... to the opposition and view of the book for being overly dramatic and exaggerated. (Weinstein, p. 17) Her name remained tarnished even into the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s when it was proclaimed by one writer, James Baldwin, that the story had helped ingrain racism into the white American culture. Not until the 1970s did the name Harriet Beecher Stowe regain positive recognition with the rise of the feminist movement. These second wave feminists worked to get the book into schools and to give recognition to positive female role models throughout American history. Her writings on slavery and their impact on the United States during its tumultuous time of deciding on its moral stance on slavery was great and has been immortalized in our history as Harriet Beecher Stowe's legacy has survived even into the 21st century, being taught in schools across the country.

Hofstede Cultural Difference Critiques Essay

Arguably, Hofstede’s work (1980, 1997) represents a pioneering approach of culture as a way of comparing international management frameworks. First of all, prior to offering any evaluations in regards to McSweeney’s criticism (2002a/b), it is crucial to identify the nature of Hostede’s work within the entire sphere of the culture approach itself. In contrast to the guarantors of the emic approach , whose main concepts tend to discard the equalization and standardization of dimensions in national cultures’ comparisons, the pillars of Hofstede’s work, which belong to the etic approach , are based on 5 dimensions whereby national differences are then measured. In other words, from the emic standpoint it is also arguable that the etic research methodology, as aiming to identify equalities among national differences, would risk throwing out the baby with the bath water . On the other hand, from the emic perspective, dividing the culture into a set of defined scopes stands as the only way to actually enable researchers to compare cultures . Having briefly introduced the shortcomings related to both approaches, McSweeney’s critiques can now be narrowed down to a specific scope, which is mainly encompassed with Hofstede’s research methodology. Research Validity  In light of the importance for any researches to provide clear definitions on the specific research concepts and key words, the first part of this essay will evolve on contextualizing the meaning of culture within Hofstede’s work, thus, giving ground to McSweeney’s relevant sources of criticism. Geert (1980) has defined culture as â€Å"the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from another†. McSweeney essentially critiques Hofstede’s adoption of nations as means of cultural comparisons, scorning the territoriality uniqueness of culture in primis. In regards to this issue, Hofstede in a second stage (2002: 1356) acknowledges that nations are not the ideal elements for studying cultures, yet this is the only way researchers could have access to comparable units. Predictably, thousands of other author’s contributions in regards to the definition of culture would make this argument even more complex. For the sake of this analysis, emphasis would be given to the arguments in regards to the research methodology. Research Reliability: Research Sample The first criticism which may arise is likely to involve the representativeness of Hofstede’s research sample. In more details, he argues that 117,000 questionnaires for two surveys, covering 66 countries would be enough to ensure the research reliability. From my point of view, McSweeney’s critiques result founded when analysing the sampling framework in more details. CountryNumber of Respondents for Each Country Belgium, France, Great Britain, Germany, Japan and Sweden (6 countries)More than 1000 Chile, Columbia, Greece, Hong Kong, Iran, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey (15 countries)Less than 200 [Tab. 1] As it can be seen by the table (Tab. ), in 15 countries the sample size is composed by less than 200 respondents, which results to be extremely small compared to other countries with over 1000 respondents. To couple this argument, McSweeney discusses about the narrowness of the population surveyed as respondents were all IBM employees, mainly involved with the marketing and sales departments. Hofstede’s reply ( 2002), stating that this sample’s framework had only been used in order to isolate the national culture differences from both the organizational and occupational culture, seems however to give rise to other arguments. As McSweeney’s (2002a: 95-99) argues, respondents’ cultural framework is made up by three non-interacting and durable levels of culture (Tab. 2). At the first level, the assumptions which would free this model from any shortcomings would be that there is only one IBM culture and that there is also a common worldwide occupational culture for each job (Hofstede 1980a: 181). What are these assumptions based on? According to McSweeney (2002a: 96), these assumptions are â€Å"too crude and implausible to underpin Hofstede’s emphatic empirical claims† . Following the thread of his argument we come across a situation where assuming that an IBM employee, whether in a developed USA head office or a new opened branch office in Pakistan, will possess the same identical organizational and occupational culture does become hard to encompass. In response to this argument, Hofstede acknowledges that considerable differences exist at the â€Å"organizational level† (1991: 93), yet it redefines the entire organizational culture as a mere set of â€Å"shared perceptions of daily practices† (1991: 182-3), therefore distancing from the early-stage value-based definition. According to McSweeney (2002b), this is only a failed attempt to deliver a straightforward concept and definition of organizational culture. Back to Culture Hofstede’s vision of culture is often linked to two different concepts, unique national tendency and central tendency, respectively. In the first case, as pointed out by McSweeney, the national uniformity which Hofstede claims to have found, results to have no valid grounds as it derives from a very specific micro-level (IBM). Secondly, in regards to the claimed average tendency, the heterogeneity of questionnaires’ responses completely contradicts this conceptualization at the first place. As cited from Jacob (2005), â€Å"if exceptions to the rule are as numerous as the rule itself† to what extent could predictions based on that rule be reliable? In many countries, McSweeney argues, the typical IBM employee would at a high extent diverge from the general population. That is to say that an IBM employee in Taiwan would not necessarily reflect Taiwan’s population average individual, especially when we are talking about someone who holds a managerial position in a multinational firm. This concept brings us to another aspect of McSweeney’s criticism (2002a:92), â€Å"culture treated as a mere epiphenomenon, completely casual†, as conceptualized by Hofstede, it would look like something which moves along the history â€Å"enduring†, yet it is not subject to radical changes due to fluctuating social, economic and institutional trends (Tab. 3). Questionnaire and Dimensions Arguably, the questionnaire itself also presents some limitations. Firstly aimed to investigate the employees’ morale at IBM, it also resulted to reflect some values that, for Hofstede, could have been used to unveil the national cultural differences’ myth. Citing one of his research questions, â€Å"How long do you think you will continue working for this company? †(1980 Appendix 1) , it is obviously clear there would be differences in whether this question is being asked in a country, say, the USA, with plentiful employment vacancies, or in a country, say Thailand where at the time of the research the unemployment rate was comparatively high. Under these circumstances, it is extremely hard to assume that the respondents were not influenced by other social, political and institutional factors (See Tab. 3). Therefore, his research’s entire reliability could be easily questioned on this basis. Despite ensuring the confidentiality of respondents’ answers, employees’ foreknowledge of the end objective of the survey might have easily encouraged them to assume a more positive attitude in order to support their divisions’ reputation. Arguably, the responses analysed by Hofstede were situationally restricted (McSweeney, 2002a: 107). In more details, the questions only reflected values related to the workplace, furthermore the surveys were exclusively directed within the workplace and were not tested in non-work place locations for both same respondents and others. In light of the first purpose of the questionnaire, it is spontaneous to raise a question in regards to the validity of the dimensions found by Hofstede. Could it be possible that a specialized study in cultural differences would have delineated different dimensions? In his response, Hofstede acknowledged that, although there may be some other dimensions equally important for the structuring of a comparative cultural analysis, relative questions were simply not asked. McSweeney with reference to Triadis (1994) argues that bi-polar dimensions of national cultures should not be comprised of opposite poles (for example: Individualism – Collectivism), but depending on the situations they could coexist. Under these principles, the work of Schwartz (1992) appears to give a comparatively dynamic dimensions’ disposition. History and Research Validations In the last section of his book, Hofstede (1980: 326- 331) includes some historical and contemporary events which he states would validate his research findings. However, McSweeney (2002b) argues that these stories reveal nothing but justifications, leaving out the basics for an accurate confirmation. According to his analysis, Hosfstede’s assertion, â€Å"the more masculine a culture the more antagonistic are industrial relations, is flawed as the trends for working days lost in industrial disputes , in both Spain and the UK, result to vary enormously over time. In other words, we could argue that these fluctuations are highly influenced by political, economic and institutional changes. In the case of industrial relations’ disputes in Spain, after the death of Spanish dictator Franco in 1975, the level of working days was subject to a huge increase. Hofstede’s findings have also been validated by other studies, reflecting the same national cultural differences . This is one of the reasons why Hofstede’s work has so far been used in many disciplines as pioneer of the cultural approach in the sphere of comparative international management. Under these circumstances, as Hofstede states (2002 p. 1358), it is just not all about faith in his research, but it is the willingness of the society to accept his work as something which could be taken to a step further. In some cases, institutional factors, history, politics and economy do provide better explanations in this field, yet as Hofstede would argue, the cultural perspective does have his validity as it offers a complete different view on values embedded by people which do have an influence on their daily lives. Conclusion Arguably, some of Hofstede research framework’s features, especially the ones related to his research methodology, do present various shortcomings. However, the overall importance of cultural approach for national differences should be seen as undeniable (Koen, 2005). Nevertheless, it is worth pointing out that after all, the main argument merely evolves on Hofstede’s claims to have â€Å"uncover[ed] the secrets of entire national cultures† (1980b: 44). Despite his book title narrowing the scope of its findings down to the work-place, â€Å"Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Place Values†, Hofstede, in many of his publications, seems to overestimate his findings. It is extremely important to acknowledge and appreciate the enormous contribution that Hofstede has made to the entire society’s understanding of international cultural differences. On the other hand, it is also crucial to stay away from the â€Å"taken for granted† approach when coming across such a complex topic. As mentioned in the preface, etic and emic approach despite having a different vision on how to measure and analyse culture, they could still be seen as two complementarities which could be extensively used for a more thorough research. In addition, although admitting that limitations in research methodology do hamper the objectivity of findings, the etic approach still stands as the unique way to allow researchers to obtain comparable quantitative data. I do also appreciate the contributions made by McSweeney, whose criticisms have enabled me to adopt a more critical line of thought in analysing this interesting topic. At some extent we could assume that Hofstede’s research is still a â€Å"work in progress†, eventually other advocates of the etic approach will take it to a more universal level, as some of other authors in this field have already done. I would like to conclude this essay with a quote from McSweeney (2002a: 90), when he states that Hofstede’s work could be dismissed as a misguided attempt to measure the unmeasurable .

PressureToday

Today in our modern society cheating in school is growing at a rapid rate, but who is to blame, is it the school system is it students or is it the teachers. I strongly believe that it is not only the student's fault but the school systems as well. To begin, cheating among students has rapidly increased. The numbers are crazy; statically 2 out of every 3 kids have cheated on a test, homework, ect. â€Å"Cheating in school is rampant and getting worse 64% of students cheated on a test in the past ear and 38% did so too or more times up from 60% to 35% in a 2006 survey'(David Crary).Which raises the question why are so many students cheating. Its not like they don't know everybody knows that cheating is wrong, you learned that as a kid and you constantly here it till you are out of school. I believe that students cheat because they want a good grade and that they don't trust themselves enough to write down what they think when they can Just look over there shoulder and get an answers they think s better than theirs so they can get a good grade, because in this day and age the difference of one A or B can mean a good collage or a great one.As the demand for higher educated people grows so does the pressure and that's why students cheat, because they can easily take a C, D, or even an F if they wanted to and not cheat, but their logic is why get a easy F when you can gets a easy A. Next is the school system and how it works, and how I believe it greatly impacts and influences the students of are modern generation to cheat.To explain, are school ystem is revolving around grades and scores and if you get a A then you are considered smart and you fully understand the topic and are more likely to get accepted into a good school, but since we are seeing so many students cheat because of this system that we are initially hurting are generation and really only making more of are generation not as smart as the previous generations. Part of the reason high school students cheat is to get into a good University, but as the universities get more competitive and raise their standards even higher it really nfluences and pressures us high school students to cheat.So we can do good and initially get into the universities we want. I believe we should change the school systems to a system were there are no grades and we should Just focus on trying to make are students understand the material as opposed to Just getting a good score not knowing if the student understand the material of Just cheated to get a good grade to pass on to the next grade and initially get into a good University later on in his or her future. pressure By sammy2314