Petroleum Business by Thomas

This case about petroleum business by Thomas is international project. An international case usually has many challenges when companies want to establish their business at global level. Typically, this case highlight the obstructive could be faced in the project initiation phase of international business. This article will discuss issues confronting Thomas, Thomas’ evaluation and some personal opinions below.

This case shows several issues that Thomas has faced and he wasn’t set up for the job. Firstly, operational issues, Thomas lacked the sufficient work force, and some of his employees lacks motivation. It caused the trouble that delay the establishing the initial facility and stations, and then delay whole project plan. Moreover, the language barrier cause the trouble of communication. Secondly, business risk issues, the high inflation rate in Hungary wasn’t considered in the strategies of Amex. As well as negotiations with local businesspeople are not an easy thing. Thirdly, overtime schedules, the unnecessary delay could cause uncertain business risks in the future.

Thomas was assigned to set up business operations in central Hungary but has a big mistake that trying to copy an U.S. style of management to an international country without knowledge of local condition. Therefore, he is not performing satisfactory job on his work. Thomas had not done his pre-survey of government regulations and restrictions, was not able to crack a deal for long term goal of expansion with local businesspeople. Furthermore, his leadership characteristic didn’t express to influence his project team, so his employee lost direction and lack the motivations. His work didn’t have risk assessment and detailed plan for future, he didn’t forecast obstruction may be encountered.

There are some suggestions to Thomas. First, he should make the investigation of fact finding before the project begin, such as government regulations, pending approval from city historians, permits from customs. Second, depend on his pre-survey, he can make the plan and forecast possible risks in the project. He can execute project in phases and measure performance to remedy for delay and avoid irreparable failure of whole schedule. Third, Thomas as a leader should set the clear goal and indicate the direction for his project team and employee, it should meet the local environment and situation. He also need to consider some buffer time to deal with unexpected emergency situation. Finally, he should hire some local people who familiar with local culture, language and consuetude to deal with some trouble which cannot be expected by people come from other countries. His project team also should assemble by energetic, enthusiastic and professional people.

In conclusion, Thomas's performance of the project in this case cannot be rated high. Because he lacked the fact finding of local situation and regulations, there were