EMBA, Fall 2010

Case 2, 27/10/10
Title: British Petroleum (PLC) and John Browne: A Culture of risk beyond
Petroleum
For GP 4 & GP 1
Assignment Questions:
1. Pretend you are BP Board Chair P.D. Sutherland and you are introducing John
Browne at the ceremony, awarding Browne with his third consecutive “Most
Respected British CEO” award. What would you say to the audience?
2. Given BP’s reputation John Browne’s reputation for management excellence, how
has BP gotten into this situation.
3. Are the issues raised in the independent reports concerns for the BP board? Is
there any relationship between the issues raised and BP’s performance? As a
member of the BP board, what responsibility do you have to deal with the
“culture of risk” identified in the two independent reports?
4. Should the BP board have given Browne the $50 million severance? Should board
discipline Browne?
Title: Banking or Consulting: That is the Question
For GP 5 & GP 2
Assignment Questions:
1. Judging by their respective, training, staffing, evaluation, and compensation
systems, what do you think the competitive priorities of Morton & Associates and
BerkesJackson are? That is, how does each firm rank staff development,
profitability, client satisfaction and employee satisfaction?
2. What are your competitive priorities? Ignoring the industry, which of the two
firms would you prefer to work for? Why?
3. As Emily Holland-Power, would you have any questions for Eric Wong and Jeff
Borins that would help you to make a better decision about where to work?
Title: The 1996 Everest Tragedy
For GP 6 & GP 3
Assignment Questions:
1. Why do you think Rob Hall did not enforce or follow the 2 pm turnaround time
on the day of the summit push?
2. In your opinion, what might have caused Scott Fischer to pursue the summit even
though he was believed to be in poor health?
3. What role did the escalation of commitment play in the decisions of two leaders?
How could it have been avoided?
4. What decision biases are likely to have played a role in the decisions of the
expedition leaders and their team members?
5. Is it possible to practice rational decision-making under extremely stressful
conditions such as the ones explained in this case?

Pls mail your case analysis report by Dec 2 before 7 pm and get prepared for presentation
on Dec 4 in 2nd half of class.