Introduction
Halliburton is one of the largest oilfield Service Corporations in the world. Halliburton is an American Company whose headquarters are in the North Belt office in Houston, Texas. Erle Halliburton started the company in 1919 under the name New Method Oil Well Cementing Company (NMOWCC). Since its inception, the company has experienced steady growth to achieve its prestigious status. The company has numerous subsidiaries that operate in over 70 countries. Due to its diversified nature, the corporation has employed over 500,000 employees globally.
Halliburton management has an integral role in running the organization by controlling and distributing physical assets, money, human resources, knowledge, and technology. The management aims to optimize the allocation of the resources at their disposal to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in operations. To enhance competitive advantage, the management combines these resources in their right proportions to maximize production capacity. To understand the role management better, this article considers how Halliburton utilizes two management functions: human resources and technology to gain competitive advantages.
Human resources
Human resources is an essential asset in the operations of any organization. Human resource management is a term used in business to mean getting things done towards the achievement of organizational objectives through people. Apart from offering direct services, human resources also provide entrepreneurial services, controls, and direct other resources to increase production. At Halliburton, the human resources department has the discreet role of unifying the diverse organization resources under single control. Moreover, the human resources supply the organization with skills, information, and work competencies that help to produce the best out of the existing resources.
The human resources department works tirelessly behind the scenes to carry our observations and analysis. At Halliburton, the human resources carry out market surveys, observe market trends, and analyze the viability of new market opportunities; the function is also known as the crunching of resources. In other words, the crunching of resources involves compiling composite data and metrics tracked from each employee, point out inherent inefficiency, and provide adequate remedial measures. Once the human resource department addresses individual employee’s weaknesses, the company is able to revive sagging profit margins on an incremental basis.
By being a globally operating company, Halliburton enjoys large scales operations and resources outlay. However, efficient controlling and assembling these resources requires the human resources to carry out an in-depth research operation to generate the right modernity to use. The human resources need to survey and compile market trends, political parameters, social and technological dynamics that affect business on a continuous basis. The prevalence of these forces not only presents some challenges to the business, but they also hold back the organization grow momentum.
According to Salvendy (2001), the ability of the human resource department to adapt to the external forces positions the business strategically to meet the long-term goals. However, since most of these forces are dynamic, the human resources department needs to adjust strategies to accommodate the current environmental situation. In addition, since Halliburton has gone global, external forces in each country are unique and highly differentiated. Therefore, there is a need to analyze each market separately to yield more returns.
The human resource department designs and implements the organization structure that suits its operations. In this case, Halliburton combines several organization structures within its huge organizational matrix structure to meet the need of each operating branch. Operation structure determines the flow of information, delegation, and chain command within the organization. At Halliburton, CEO David J. Lesar together with the board of directors, formulates organization strategies and disseminates them to the regional managers for implementation. The respective regional managers pass the strategies through the line managers who enforce them and report to their senior promptly.
Technology
Organizations adopt technology as a tool to make work easier as well as enhancing efficiency in their operations (Bateman and Snell, 2010). Technology helps Halliburton to track processes, administer data flow, preserve employee records, monitor cash flows, and track communication. With the adoption of the appropriate technology, Halliburton has managed to keep operation costs low by reducing the employees. In addition, technology integrates organization operations to enhance easier administration, control, and regulation of resources.
Similarly, technology connects business with customers, suppliers, shareholders, and other stakeholders. By adopting technology, Halliburton enjoys a wide pool of information that emanates from global linkage and connections. Thus, the firm is able to enjoy increased productions, to offer superior customer services, and to offer affordable pricing for their commodities without compromising on quality.
Halliburton operates e-commerce where clients are able to see products in offer, purchase, and pay them online. Once an online transaction is completed, the organization arranges for delivery of the products as per the customer’s specifications. The online market has been useful for Halliburton since it allows customers to see products compare prices, and purchase without traveling to the organization depots.
According to the economic survey done in the US, the value of e-commerce sales increased from 3.6% to 3.7% (Marketing Charts, 2009). Owing to this fact, the organization will reap many benefits from participating in e-commerce a great deal. Similarly, products that are produced in other regions are also made available, accessible, and with universal prices. Therefore, consumers are able to utilize products and services produced at distant places without incurring higher charges.
Apart from e-commerce, technology has effectively helped Halliburton to ease communication among its operation regions. The CEO uses telecommunication technology to relay information to specific regional offices immediately. Similarly, regional managers send their operation reports to the head office in a timely manner.
Despite its wide geographical outlay, the management information system (MIS) helps to integrate the composite operation to ease management. Thus, the Halliburton board of directors’ follows organizational operations, compares outputs against subsequent financial periods, and makes strategic amendments to keep the operations on track in case of any observable deviations.
Recently, Halliburton introduced CleanStim hydraulic technology that extracts material from food industries. This technology is the first-of-its-kind that ensures access, production, and utilization of unconventional resources. The technology uses UV light to deal with bacteria rather than using additives. The process recycles water and allows it for reused, thus, hence preserve water wastage and environmental degradation.
Halliburton engineers use the simulators-Geo Tap: IDS Sensor to collect vital information concerning the fluid elements available underground. The system helps the company to assess oil deposit and location. This technology has been useful compared to the traditional trial and error method that was cumbersome and very expensive. With the ever-increasing competition, Halliburton is determined to use the available resources to ensure that the organization remains ablest of competitors in acquiring and utilizing the latest technology.
Apart from increasing efficiency, technology has helped Halliburton to leverage its production system. The organization now uses mechanized production systems, which are more reliable, uniform, and devoid of human weaknesses, such as boredom, demoralization, and error-prone. Conversely, rapid dynamic in technology poses a threat to any organization; thus, continuous investment in the latest technology is mandatory of any organization to remain a competitive force.
Reference List
Bateman, T., S. and Snell, B. (2010). Management: Leading and Collaborating in the Competitive World, New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Salvendy, G. (2001). Handbook of Industrial Engineering: Technology and Operations Management. New Jersey: Wiley-IEEE.
Marketing charts. 20089. Retail ecommerce sales rise in Q309. [US census Bureau], Web.