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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (39188)	10/5/2003 5:56:00 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

An odd thing happened. People perked up and started taking more pride in what they were doing. They weren't just bludgers anymore, they were making money for the company. And good for you.. But why exactly was BP providing fuel testing services in the first place? Why didn't they originally out source those services, including specific gravity testing and Aqua-Glo testing for water in the fuel? They likely did it as a "value added service" aimed at attracting customers to their "one-stop" services.. They ate the cost of setting up your lab because the petroleum industry was more competitive before the big oil mergers and they could encourage customer loyalty. And why are these services needed in the first place? Because customers want to ensure the quality of the product they're purchasing. They want to ensure BP isn't co-mingling #4 Fuel Oil into their #2 diesel. They want to know that the fuel has been processed through a filter-separator and the water removed. But none of these services would exist without the existence of the primary product, petroleum (in all forms). The TRUE profit center for the company and source of wealth. So it's great that you took a corporate "loss-leader" and creatively turned it into an additional profit center for the company. But understand why your department existed in the first place... as a tool for marketing BP's petroleum products. Each civilian killed would come straight off the bottom line and compensation paid. Each Al Qaeda convicted and executed gets a big bonus payment. How can one tell the difference? Hawk