The Great Ocean Road: Forces at Work

I'm returned from spending 3 weeks in Australia including driving the Great Ocean Road, a highly recommended road trip. I've seen photos on calendars but when you are there, confronted with the energy of Southern Ocean waves battering the coast and the smell of sea spray in the air, the scenes are extraordinary. The natural forces at work on this part of the Australian coast remove 2cm of the coast each year.  There are no longer 12 Apostles.  In fact the BBC report when number 9 collapsed suggests there were never 12!

Catching up on business news on my return I'm persuaded that ocean forces crumbling the Australian coast symbolizes global forces at work changing industries and businesses.

. BP adopted the sunflower symbol and environmentally friendly "Beyond Petroleum" branding in 2000 but faces negative impacts from high oil prices and costs related to bad press from failing to maintain its Alaskan pipeline infrastructure.   

. U.S. car manufacturers woes continue with bloated inventories while Toyota continues to take market share

. BHP Billiton, a company with deep roots in the Australian soil mining zinc, lead and silver at Broken Hill, and "the world’s largest mining company, reported its third consecutive record full-year profit yesterday, as China’s booming economy and surging world prices for copper offset rising costs and pressure from workers for higher wages." ~New York Times

The challenges of managing existing businesses and innovating to reach new markets, or benefitting from Asian growth while being reliant on it are just some of the forces at work  in the complex, technology driven, networked, politically uncertain world Victoria, Suzanne and I watch, and strive to find management solutions for as C21org blog partners.