BHP Billiton Limited Annual Report 2003. (2003). Retrieved March 19, 2004, from http://www.bhpbilliton.com/bb/investorCentre/annualReports.jsp
Bergman, Coulter, Robbins and Stagg (2003) state that efficiency is a vital part of management. An efficient organisation is one that can achieve the same or better output from a minimized input. Management is interested in minimising resource costs while maximizing profit. The 2003 BHP Billiton annual report shows evidence of this. The report states that between December 2002 and June 2003 cost savings of US$310 million were achieved while profit before borrowing and tax was up 15.6% on the previous period. This is exactly what an efficient organisation aims for according to Bergman et al (2003), getting the most output from the least amount of inputs. It could be said that BHP Billiton is doing the right things. While BHP is being efficient they are also being quite effective as well. Bergman et al (2003) describes effectiveness as completing activities in order to attain organisational goals. BHP completed around 300 specific projects in this period. By completing these activities they were able to obtain their organisational goals. BHP predicts that the number of completed projects will grow to 1000 in the 2004 year while by 2005 they will have made efficiency gains of US$770 million. BHP is doing the right things and doing things right according to Bergman et al (2003). By achieving both effectiveness and efficiency they should be able to be successful in an increasingly competitive and global business world (Bergman et al, 2003).
Sumit, R. (1999). Those golden and red pastures of management: application of efficie ...