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The top 10 Oil and Gas issues being faced by the market today was outlined by Deloitte’s online reality check series. They outlined an in depth document with the 10 most significant issues the the oil and gas sectors face in the 20th century.

These issues are outlined by the importance of these 10 issues to developing countries through the lack of renewable energy options. These 10 issues are:

1. Deep water drilling presses on with some real world caveats
2. Shale gas growth will deman new markets and growth in these new areas
3. The North Sea areas rise to importance will continue
4. Asian NOC are determined to acquire upstream assets in world markets
5. Established oil and gas companies stick to their knitting and leave the renewable energy options to the other players
6. Established companies look amongst themselves for potential business partners
7. Russia and China benefit from neighbours
8. China continues to grow its local gas supply capacity and do not look for imports to supply their market
9. Middle east experiences lack of domestic product supply
10. Asia exerts it pull on the global market

For these and other related topics, check out the Deloitte website.

A decade ago, Reckitt Benckiser was created and since then they’ve strived for innovation and quality, bringing millions of customers the latest product developments and leisure products for their homes and lives.

Force Majeure is a term often used in the business and insurance world, but people rarely knows what it means. The real Force Majeure meaning is:

“Force Majeure” means any act of God, strike, riot, war (whether declared or not) embargo, international restriction, shortage of transport facilities, any order of a regulatory authority and the downtime of a communications medium which is not under the control of the party concerned.

Due to slow uptake, South Africans will have another 6 months to RICA their cellphones and SIM cards, in terms of legislation, cellphone users had to register their SIM cards by the end of December this year. A combination of slow response times and now formal way for Mobile Operators to enforce this on their clients have been contributed to the delay.

While briefing the media, Themba Maseko said the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act (Rica) would therefore be amended shortly to extend the deadline by six months.

“All indications are that the number of people who have registered for Rica was still quite low … So this is an attempt to give the cellphone companies more time,” Maseko said.

“It is difficult to point fingers at them at this stage because the success of the system depends entirely on citizens coming forward to submit their details. So if cellphone users are not going to the companies it is difficult for the companies to actually chase them.”

Mobile operators would be required to report to the government on how they planned to comply with the new deadline. — Sapa

The South African Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act is set to receive an overhaul said officials Department of Mineral Resources, the amendments are set to be tabled in Parliament in the second quarter of 2011.

The department is also drawing up a major strategy for the sustainable growth of the mining industry, which it would like to see grow by 10% annually over future decades.

This would reverse the shrinkage in production over the past 20 years that has seen the industry shed hundreds of thousands of jobs since the late 1980s .

“The mining industry is not a dying industry but is a sunshine industry,” the department’s acting deputy director-general for mineral policy, Mosa Mabuza , told Parliament’s mining committee yesterday. He said the department was in the process of overhauling the act, which regulates the industry and the allocation of licences for mining and prospecting.
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Does your company face one of the following challenges in the coming months?

• Pressures on gross profit and margins due to multiple sales channels
• Business function compliance
• Decisions are made on gut feel and not fact
• Struggling to meet all business area requirements

If the answer to these is a resounding yes, Deloitte’s Data Analytics offering is a must for you organization.

Deloitte data analytics offering trump the competition through the use of innovative software called self organizing maps that cluster related information to retain the most relevant information for assessment.

The benefits of Deloitte Analytics is:

• The ability to offer an integration of services, across the firm’s service offerings.
• The unique, unbiased approach to predictive analytics – modelling future strategies and outcomes.
• Their“Customer Immersion” approach helps mitigate weaknesses experienced with traditional off-site approach.
• Their decentralised delivery model promotes an “on-site” approach.
• Deloitte’s innovation strength which will help clients very quickly make the most of their data discoveries.
• No sampling or hypothesis – They take existing client data and other data and analyse it in total.
• They can determine the veracity and trustworthiness of data due to their forensic and risk management background.
• They have been consistent in the use of granularity and it is core to the analytics position – a full population multi-dimensional analysis is provided.
• Self organising maps make it easier for clients to visualise the solution
• An integrated ERP Deloitte Analytics approach has been developed

ArcelorMittal, one of the world’s major steel producers have bought Imperial Crown Trading (ICT) for R800m that will yet again put another twist in the competition for Kumba’s Sishen iron ore mine.

ArcelorMittal CEO Nonkululeko Nyembezi-Heita said in a statement that, “whilst we continue to vigorously pursue our arbitration with Kumba Iron Ore Limited, we feel our acquisition of ICT is a prudent decision based on strong commercial grounds given that vertical integration is a crucial component of ArcelorMittal South Africa’s ability to remain competitive.”

The deal seems to be part of a greater BEE transaction which will put 26% of ArcelorMittal into the hands of the Ayigobi consortium as well as 8,500 ArcelorMittal employees.

Nyembezi-Heita said the shareholders of ICT have been included, “inter alia as participants in the Ayigobi consortium”.

That consortium is led by Sandile Zungu while its participants include Oakbay Investments – which is owned by the Gupta family – and Jagdish R Parekh who is a substantial shareholder in ICT.

Zungu, the Gupta family and Parekh are all believed to be very well connected politically to the present government.
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Construction and civil engineering group Sea Kay Holdings announced on Friday that it would be selling the entire issued share capitals of Silver Falcon and Seriso 474, trading as Sedibeng Bricks.

Sea Kay said it had entered into its disposal of Silver Falcon with the purchaser Mr C Kruger, and the Corne Kruger Family Trust (an associate of the purchaser) through its wholly owned subsidiary Sea Kay Engineering Services.

Sea Kay will sell Silver Falcon for R7.343m to be settled through a reduction in the loan account owed by Sea Kay Engineering to the trust, Sea Kay said.

The group said the entire issued share capital of Sedibeng would be sold to the purchaser (Sedibeng) for R10m, to be settled through a reduction in the loan account owed by Sea Kay Engineering to the trust.
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David Conradie, Director of Human Capital at Deloitte who is part of team that annually brings us the Best Company to Work For survey recently wrote and article about effective Talent Management during periods of growth and economic upturn.

David highlights 4 challenges to management in 2010 being:

1. Top talent is on the move
2. Employee satisfaction
3. Multi-generational workforce
4. Lack of structured leadership development

He concludes that Companies that achieve the best balance of offensive and defensive talent strategies will have the inside track on the recovery curve. Furthermore, a strong employer brand strategy that goes beyond recruitment campaigns and a desire to simply be seen as an employer of choice will be crucial if companies wish to engage and retain those employees who add the most value and organisational strength.

Developing high potential employees remains a priority, with more than 4 in ten executives expect to increase their programs aimed at training such employees and cultivating future corporate leaders. In light of these survey results, companies that have effective leadership programmes are more likely to establish developmental career paths, establish robust leadership pipelines and have higher workforce morale.

Clearly, the New Year brings a renewed imperative to grow and compete for both customers and talent while retaining and up-skilling critical talent. Now is the time to shift out of ‘survival mode’ and get proactive on your talent management strategy remembering that the upturn could be as rapid as the slide into recession, so organisations should not allow themselves to be caught off guard.

Visit Deloitte.com for more information – Best Company to Work For

Business Strategy is a topic that is becoming more and imperative for any business to survive in today’s day and age. Business strategies vary and so do the tools that are used for the creation of effective business strategies. One of the most important tools available to any manager is the SWOT Analysis which provides information that is helps align the firm’s resources and capabilities to the competitive environment in which it operates.

This is one of building blocks of an effective business strategy.

SWOT analysis serves as an internal and external environmental factors as an important strategic part of the business planning process. Internal factors can be classified as strengths (S) or weaknesses (W), and external factors as opportunities (O) or threats (T).

• Strengths refers to business resources and capabilities to establish a competitive advantage. These include: patents, strong reputation in the market and expert business knowledge.
• Weaknesses in the business can be seen as the lack of competitive advantage or the absence of significant strengths. These include: lack of patent protection, mad reputation in the market and the lack of expertise among the work force.
• Opportunities come in the form of the ability and scope for future profit and growth within the business and the market. Opportunities arise in the form of new or unfulfilled customer requirements, new technologies and new local or international trade possibilities.
• Threats come in the form of changes in the external business environment that may have an adverse effect on the business such sanctions, trade regulations and a shift in consumer behavior.

Now that you know what your business’s strengths ,weaknesses, opportunities and threats are we will be able to continue developing your competitive advantages through the SWOT Matrix that will be discussed in my next post.