what is the competitive advantage of shell oil?
819332
Competitive advantage comes from being vertically integrated, having brand recognition, and sufficient size to fund future development.\n\nCost advantage also may come from being vertically integrated.  They also may have cost advantage if they refine in newer plants using newer technology.  Newer plants extract more high value products at a relatively lower cost.
1183413
Oil Industry\n\nOne of the best examples of vertically integrated companies is the oil industry. Oil companies, both multinational (such as ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, or BP) and national (e.g. Petronas) often adopt a vertically integrated structure. This means that they are active all the way along the supply chain from locating crude oil deposits, drilling and extracting crude, transporting it around the world, refining it into petrochemicals such as gasoline, to distributing the fuel to company-owned retail stations, where it is sold to consumers.\n\n\nApple Computer\n\nApple is one of the few vertically integrated businesses in the IT sector. The company makes the computer hardware, accessories, operating system and much of the software itself. Contrast this with Microsoft, whose approach is only to create software and to license the rights to hundreds of individual computer manufacturers.
222955
Shell has one Indian subsidiary:\n\nADDRESS:\nBharat Shell Limited \n1st Floor, Plot No. 84,Vardhaman Chambers\nSector - 17, Vashi\n\nWEB SITE:\nhttp://www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId=in-en&FC2=/in-en/html/iwgen/leftnavs/zzz_lhn1_0_0.html&FC3=/in-en/html/iwgen/welcome.html\n\nPHONE:\nPhone: +91 2227893888\n\nFINANCIAL:\nAnnual Sales (US Dollars)  $59,404,800 \n\nTotal Employees:  350 \n\nDirector: A Sinha \n\nNavi Mumbai, Maharashtra 400705, India
379324
Oil profits are part of the reason for the wars AND the limited capacity of refineries. I wonder what progress could have been made in the development of alternative energy supplies with the billions that have gone down the drain in those wars.
34827
Comparative advantage is not a general principle, but a specific type of advantage relating to international trade. The site below explains it rather well. As you can tell from that, it cannot have anything to do with production by firms.
1053195
Figuring you are wondering about multinational companies.  Here's the advantage, they can exploit the particular and unique efficiencies of each country they operate in. \n  If they operate in Switzerland, Vietnam and France like Sanofi Pharma, they can utilize the technology of pharm development in Switzerland, test and produce like they do in Vietnam, and utilize the French ability for international distribution.  Each of the nations have a comparative advantage over the others in these processes, where a company only utilizing what one of the countries would suffer the disadvantages of the nation's weakness in a particular area.\n  A darker side of multinationals is the negotiating power that they have that derives from their ability to threaten a nation with leaving if the government does not meet some beneficial demands.  As you can imagine, this is easier in some instance than others.  Easier to threaten a small country than a large.  Easier to make the threat believable if another country offers a viable advantage.\n   One more real advantage, that is under represented in the pop press, is the ability of multinational companies to synthesize and leverage knowledge of the world market to prevent mistaken assumptions or to extrapolate a better understanding of global or even national market trends.  Examples of this are Coca Cola, Nestle, Shell where they use the global mindset of the combined members of their firm to guide it.  Some lousy examples are Ford, John-Deere, where entering a market offers knowledge of a new perspective, but the companies still employ the same policies as before.  Look at their senior management.  John Deere is terrible (great history-ruined), getting eaten alive from Chinese firms, yet top management are are all current and ex-lawyers.  Walmart for example,(better managed) top management are all logisticians.
642020
OPEC is important because its member states account for enough crude oil production that they can influence prices.  They certainly do not control prices to the extent that they did back in the 1970s, but they are nonetheless very powerful.  I've provided a link for you
181905
Mostly by enabling organization to keep up with the competition. Rarely these days does a IT system give a organization a competitive advantage, but the lack of a decent IT system can be a severe disadvantage. Example: there was a time when a company having an inventory tracking system enabled them to make JIT (just in time) deliveries much more accurately than their competition. Now without the ability, they will be eliminated by the customer as a vendor.\nSo to clarify, IT systems don't bring in income, but enable a company to do so.
250165
Dell had an enormous competitive advantage. They had a working direct model which enabled them to get payment up-front, even before they purchased raw materials to make their equipment. Other vendors were tied into agreements with retailers and distributors which meant that they had to give these people commissions and it also reduced their flexibility. Dell also had strong alliances with suppliers which gave them an ability to quickly change to new products without taking a hit on existing inventories. In essence, Dell have cash, and lots of it, they are able to drop prices easily, out-competing the competition, and they have an ability to switch to new products quickly which enables them to take advantage of rapid changes in the market.
434376
Economic development doesnt preclude, infact it may very soon require, technological forrays into alternative energy production.  A current trend in the commercial sector is that consumers and investors are favoring environmentally friendly corporations.  Therefore, by the economic law of supply and demand, those corporations that avoid environmentally deleterious policies, such as relying on crude oil, will prosper, since they are 'supplying' environmental responsibility, for which demand is currently soaring.  It is shortsightedly immature of us to not move off crude oil quicker, infact.  We underestimate the damage oil does to the health of the worldwide human population, in terms of military repurcussions, adverse health effects, and of course, the environmental consequences.
480158
the shell protects them
475007
Probably Exxon Mobil and Chevron.  The major foreign ones are BP and Royal Dutch.
584974
All companies are out to make money.  In a nut shell, the less money spent to make a product and the more it sells the larger the margin/profit is.   If a specialist can undertake it more effectively it means that the company might not be as efficient as it could be.  Therefore it costs are higher for the product to be produced when they can be more efficient and be produced for less.  It can also mean that the company might be buying the raw materials at a higher price and this causes the product to sell higher but necessarily with a higher margin/profit for the company that manufactures it.  Any company that manufactures a product or renders a service is vulnerable when there's room for improvement (effiency); in the buying, in the manufacturing process, the marketing or selling.  This simply means that someone else can make and sell the product or service to your customer at a cheaper price.  A dollar is a dollar and pennies are millions that can make or brake a deal thus making any company vulnerable when not producing a product at the lowest possible cost to the customer with the highest margin for themselves.   \nGood Luck and God Bless
699890
Business has never been as competitive, fast and eveloving as it is today. Easy and boundry less communication and integrating global economy is a reason for it. In such a global economy only those businessess survive which are better placed and managed.\n\nHuman resource is the most important element of any organizaiton and it is also the most difficult to manage element within the business. So managerial knowledge is utmost important in steering a business in todays global economy.\n\nStategic management is totally different. It is the process of putting the strategy together and implementing it within an organizaiton. A strategy is broadly classified in 3 level: Corporate Level Strategy, Business Unit Strategy, and Functional Level Strategy. Corporate level strategy is the strategy for the whole business, ie where the business is going, how should it grow/expand, what business areas it should concentrate and areas it should leave. Strategic managment basically deals with this segment of corporate planning.\n\nIn todays business world it is the most important function of corporate planning and business management, without which a business might loose focus, run wayward and waste resources.
739642
Petronas is the monopoly energy production company of Malaysia. This means they have no direct competitors in the DOMESTIC (Malaysian) market.  \n\nOn the other hand, energy is a global commodity.  As such, they have numerous competitors on a global scale.  Competitors includes everyone who produces and distributes oil and gas.  This means every "oil major" company in the world is their competitor, from Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, BP, Lukoil, Shell, Total Fina, Pertamina, Saudi Aramco, Gazprom, et cetera, et cetera is their competitor.
1100733
How old will you be fifteen years from now? That's how long it'll take to build up a substantial, nuclear infrastructure if all the global developers start today. China currently expands its conventional oil industry at a breakneck pace and PTR sells at an attractive price. An interest in advancing nuclear technology benefits the world's future, but old fashioned, bubbling crude remains king for our lifetime.  A small investment in WGII might reasonably satisfy a need to buy into science fancy, but focusing on oil puts the stock holder in the same position as the oil companies who get accused of making money hand over fist--why not you?
534849
Probably alternative fuels.  It would be nice to spend some research and get some other sources to diversify risk.  Right now, if the Middle East embargoes oil, we would be sunk.  If we had other sources, it wouldn't be as big of a deal.