Background

My first encounter with BP was during my tenure as Lecturer in Marketing and Strategic Management at Warwick University Business School. Recently privatised (1987), BP had identified a cadre of high potential executives who were selected to participate in a' Consortium MBA' at Warwick Business School. The course was run over fifteen months and, in its original cohort, had participants from BP, British Telecom, National Westminster Bank, The Metropolitan Police and Coopers & Lybrand. Subjects were delivered in five day Modules and, over and above individual assignments, 'live' consultancy projects were undertaken for the participating organisations.

I was marketing projects coordinator for the assignments associated with the Marketing Strategy Module. With BP, these included:

• an evaluation of the southern European lubricants market
  
  
• an assessment of the market potential for orimulsion, a unique bitumin-based oil from Venezuela
  
  
• a market analysis of Hungry, Czechoslovakia and Poland in the context of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the soviet COMECON economic trading system.

After its Joint Venture with Mobil had unravelled BP acquired Burmah Castrol plc, primarily for its ownership of the powerful global lubricants brand, Castrol. I had already been working extensively with Castrol in developing its marketing capability (as described in the Castrol section in the Major Projects tab). Since BP was interested in this capability as much as the Castrol brand itself, I was invited to make a presentation to BP Group Marketing regarding the capability-building process and also to share the experience I had with IBM in rolling out a worldwide professional competencies programme. The BP Sales and Marketing Academy resulted, described below along with my engagement with it.

The BP Sales and Marketing Academy

CEO Johhn Browne's performance contract in 2001 included within it a commitment to establish a marketing capability amongst all downstream segments, i.e., business to business, consumer and retail. Responsibility was given to Group Marketing to set this up and ensure its deployment.

As mentioned above, I made a presentation to Group Marketing and was given the go-ahead to develop the Marketing Excellence component of this project while advising on other components of the larger initiative. Details regarding content etc. are subject to non-disclosure but it is possible to present here the broad outline and my specific roles in the development and implemetation of the Marketing Excellence Programme.

A few bullet points will demonstrate the scope of the project:

• As a base line the nature of 'sales & marketing' in the downstream segments was determined in parallel with a profile of marketing competencies for a broad cross-section of functional roles and responsibilities.
  
  
• An organisation-wide capability framework was developed which covered all sales and marketing functions along with an evaluation of leadership competencies. General and specific marketing competencies formed the core of the Academy.
  
  
• The Marketing Excellence Programme was the starting point of the Academy process. A five point competencies categorisation scale was used to determine minimum requirements for generic marketing professionals, higher scale points indicating competence requirements for specific tasks such as brand management and trade marketing.
  
  
• An internet resource was developed by a third party which combined generic marketing principles with BP-specific processes and terminology. The intent of this was to act as an entry level introduction for people scheduled to attend taught courses in addition to any non sales and marketing professionals interested in the subject and BP's marketing philosophy.
  
  
• An executive development programme was developed in association with a leading US university for top management, the theme being 'Leading a Marketing Organisation'.

My role in the process is summarised in further bullet points below:

• Initial scoping of the project and consultation in a series of BP peer group sessions with the following executive 'communities': business unit leaders, marketing, human resource management. Some sessions were community-specific while others were mixed.
  
  
• Became principal consultant and academic director of the Marketing Excellence Programme. Consulted on the competencies framework and provided laison for accreditation with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (of which I am a Faculty Associate).
  
  
• In an additional role of Faculty Manager I recruited a team of leading Marketing Professors to form a core faculty for course delivery.
  
  
• Recruited Professor David Shipley, Trinity College Dublin, to co-author the core Marketing Excellence Programme to meet the curriculum of the Chartered Institute of Marketing's Professional Diploma.
  
  
• Consulted in a series of peer reviews and tele-conferences to study BP-specific marketing frameworks and processes, the goal being to integrate these within the academic components of the Marketing Excellence Programme.
  
  
• Consulted on the Internet resource to ensure: (i) accuracy with regard to established marketing theory; (ii) alignment with the BP Marketing Excellence Programme.
  
  
• Consulted on the Leadership Programme to ensure alignment with the Marketing Excellence Programme and other components of the Sales and Marketing Academy.
  
  
• Designed and delivered an Advanced Brand Management Programme in the ASPAC region in September 2003.
  
  
• Facilitated delivery of Part A of the first pilot Marketing Excellence programme on schedule in November 2003 and delivered Part B in February 2004.
  
  
• Rolled out the Marketing Excellence Programme worlwide thereafter.

Exploration and Production Digital Communications Technology (E&P DCT) Internal Strategic Marketing Workshop Programme

As a follow-up to an earlier project with the Exploration & Production Drilling Technology Unit, I was commissioned to design and deliver a series of Strategic Marketing Workshops for E&P DCT, the upstream technology group of BP. The ambitious target was to put the entire organisation's employees (in excess of 180 worldwide) through a series of intensive 5-day workshops. All E&P DCT's customers were internal and they had to manage complex relationships with oil-industry suppliers (eg., Haliburton) and general technology suppliers (eg. IBM).

The task was completed within fifteen months and the Programme was nominated for the BP Helios Award, an internal competition promoting and rewarding innovation in all arenas of organisational activity.

Additional E&P Projects

Over and above the engagements described above, I have participated in and/or facilited workshops associated with high level upstream initiatives.

The key ones have been:

• E&P Technology Group: Technology Review.

   

  • An assessment of current and future technology initiatives for the upstream organisation.

• E&P Technology Group: Field of the Future.

• Strategic Management Workshop focussing upon the paremeters of BP's long term Exploration & Production strategy.

• E&P DCT: Maximo Project Consultation

• Internal productivity communications workshop.

Additional Activities

• Supervision of Research Projects:

• An Evaluation of BP Asia-Pacific Lubricants Operating Unit's Communication and Engagement Programs

• Optimising BP Lubricants' Marketing Effectiveness in China

• Writing of a long term strategic marketing plan:

• BP Chemicals: A Strategy for Sustainable Polymers

• Integration of 'Alchemy' segmentation / multi-brand positioning project within Marketing Excellence Programme

• Writing of Glossary for Sales and Marketing Academy

• Input to 1st Level Leaders Programme

• Various Speaking Engagements