Fina Petroleum

Fina plc was at the time, a UK subsidiary of the international petroleum and petrochemical group, PetroFina. Towards the end of the course PetroFina was merged with Total. Fina sought IMCA’s help in developing courses to facilitate action learning. Courses would be undertaken by all levels of staff in the organization. It was decided that a range of courses be conducted, these being Diploma, Foundation and action learning MBA courses. The involvement of all staff sought to address the concern that management development courses were seen as the exclusive domain of top management and help to create other benefits.
Fina’s action learning MBA course with IMCA’s faculty was completed in 1999. One financial saving occurred when an Associate on one of the courses used marketing skills learnt on the course to promote payment by direct debit. This led to savings in the region of £12,000. Associates on the MBA course carried out a variety of projects in different functions of the organization. A particularly interesting project is one focused on human resource management, investigating the difficulties Fina plc might encounter when implementing 360° appraisal within the organization, and solutions to ensure successful implementation. The project had an estimated value of between £60,000 and £100,000 due to savings in consultancy fees. Another project focused on finance and is expected to save the organization £500,000 per year. Benefits to employees were also high, enhancing personal and social development. The action learning projects included:

• An investigation into and analysis of, the strategy product portfolio, market segmentation and structure of diesel marketing within Fina Plc.
  
• Rollout methodology for Project “Hermes”.
  
• The strategic opportunities for Fina in a declining oil and gas industry.
  
• How will the growth of database marketing influence the market research Industry? What are the resulting strategic options available to Taylor Nelson Sofres?
  
• An investigation of employee attitudes towards expatriation.
  
• Developing learning and knowledge management at Anadarko
  
• Research into the process, implementation and effectiveness of performance-related pay in Fina Plc.

• An investigation into and analysis of, the strategy product portfolio, market segmentation and structure of diesel marketing within Fina Plc.
  
• Rollout methodology for Project “Hermes”.
  
• The strategic opportunities for Fina in a declining oil and gas industry.
  
• How will the growth of database marketing influence the market research Industry? What are the resulting strategic options available to Taylor Nelson Sofres?
  
• An investigation of employee attitudes towards expatriation.
  
• Developing learning and knowledge management at Anadarko
  
• Research into the process, implementation and effectiveness of performance-related pay in Fina Plc.