In this assignment I will be comparing and contrasting the differences between BP and the North London Hospice. These are two extremely different businesses that have completely different aims and ambitions. The first major and obvious contrasts between these two companies are that BP is a limited company whereas the North London Hospice is a charity.
BP
The brief history of BP
BP's businesses are organized to deliver the energy products and services people around the world need right now. BP’s history is full of discoveries, starting in 1908 with oil found in a rugged part of Persia after a long and difficult search. Since then, discoveries large and small have fuelled their progress. Through BP’s two main operating segments, Upstream and Downstream, BP find, develop and produce essential sources of energy, turning them into products that people need.
The scale BP work on
BP is one of the largest companies worldwide and has total domination in oil and gas industry.
BP operate in almost 80 countries, have a staggering 84,600 employees, their economic value is up there with most valuable companies in the world with a worth of $359.8 billion, BP are also operating an outstanding cash flow of £32.8 billion. The endless amounts of statistics that are ‘out of this world’ continue as BP can boast about producing 3.2 million barrels of oil per day and have approximately 17,200 retail sites running worldwide, BP easily have the right to call themselves a world class company that has a huge impact on the economy.
Business sector
BP are a company that definitely operate in more than one business sector, they have this luxury as they clearly have established themselves as of the most successful companies in the world. The obviously work in the primary sector as they are involved in the production of natural product in their everyday dealings of oil and gas etc. The secondary sector applies to BP also as they do process/manufacture substances. They also come under the tertiary sector as they have branches that provide services, such as retail sales with the likes of Wild Bean Café, Castrol, Aral, ampm and also provide financial services. In fact the only business sector BP do not associate themselves with is the quaternary sector which is related to education.
Type of ownership
BP are a PLC meaning they are a company that can be sold in the stock exchange at any time, this also means they are strictly regulated and are must publish their true financial status in the economy which is understandable with the impact a company like BP has worldwide. Since BP is publicly listed this can also be an advantage for shareholders that have invested into the company as they will not lose any more money than they have invested which is highly unlikely as BP are a company that continue to grow even though they are nearly at the limit it being near on impossible to become any better!

Aim and purpose
BP’s objective is to create value for shareholders and supplies of energy for the world in a safe and responsible way. They strive to be a world-class operator, a responsible corporate citizen and a good employer.
Key stakeholders
Customers are a key stakeholder to ANY business as with no customers, there’s no business really. So BP know their customers are obviously key to their success meaning they must always be efficient in what they do to satisfy the customers at a bare minimum and considering BP have millions of customers to please they know the pressure they are working under to provide world class service to every single one of them. Employees are another key factor that play a part in the huge success story of BP, the majority of the nearly 85,000 employees currently employed at BP rarely let the company down which deserves big praise as a lot is demanded of them as they are the people helping the company satisfy the millions of customers that BP have. Finally another very important stakeholder that may be seen as important on the outside is the contractors and partners BP are in business with. They are the companies that provide stability so that BP know they can rely on these partners to be efficient and trustworthy without even the thought of doubt that they could potentially fail them, with stability will come longevity also which is a massive bonus to BP knowing they have partners that are in the complete same page as them meaning they can progress together for many years to come.
North London Hospice
The brief history of the North London Hospice
North London Hospice is a registered charity that has been caring for local people since 1984. They help those with a potentially life-limiting illness who have specialist needs. North London Hospice welcomes people from all faiths and communities within the boroughs of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey. They provide physical, emotional and spiritual care to patients and families, friends and carers.
The scale North London Hospice work on
If you are to compare the scale North London Hospice to BP, it’d be a prime example of complete polar opposite ends of the global scale. North London Hospice operate on very much more of a local scale to solely focus on treating and caring for the people near the area’s in North London where the Hospice’ are located. Some people may see this as poor ambition not expanding the charity but there are plenty of charities that operate worldwide and North London Hospice and many other charities are not in business to rival others, they just want to care for people that need extreme help. North London Hospice still has an impressive 18 shops across Enfield, Barnet and Haringey which provide basic rations such as clothes, basic technology and other necessities.
Business sector
The North London Hospice falls into the tertiary sector in terms of providing a service for people which being a charity is all about, the types of service they provide is health and general care. Quaternary sector also applies to the Hospice as they do offer forms of education such as staff training and basic temporary education to children that need this necessity in life.

Type of ownership The type of ownership the North London Hospice fit into is charitable trust; this is set up to raise funds and support people in need for good cause. Therefore not anyone from the chief executive to the employees gain any money from this as all money invested into this charity obviously goes towards funding projects and for the general care of people.
Aim and purpose
The North London Hospice is committed to providing the best care for people with a potentially life limiting illness, and aim to add quality and meaning to their life journey. They provide this care and support to people in their own homes, care homes or at our North London Hospice centres in Finchley and Enfield. Their vision is that everyone in our diverse community who is affected by a potentially life limiting illness will have equal access to the services and support they need to optimise their quality of life.
Key stakeholders
The employees will need to be happy to be working on a voluntary basis and also need to be caring for the people that are suffering. The employees are hugely important to the charity as they are the people actually putting in the hours to care for the people in need at the end of the day. The government wants the business to be successful; it wants to see prosperous businesses that take a full responsibility in looking after the welfare of society. Local and national communities, the actions of business can have a dramatic effect on communities. Community leaders therefore represent important interest groups.
Summary
Finding differences between these two companies will probably be one of the easiest things to identify. As stated at the start of this assignment one major difference is that one company is a PLC and the other is a charitable trust. One obvious difference is that BP employees work for under a set wage and North London Hospice volunteers are working for nothing which AGAIN shows the difference of these two ‘businesses’. Other differences are that both have opposite ambitions and are in two complete different worlds in the same economy, BP have a ridiculous amounts of pressure to supply the necessity of oil and gas across the world whereas the North London Hospice still have pressure as they have a duty of care but have it far easier than BP as they are focusing specifically to help those in need locally, so the point is that BP have worldwide expectations and North London Hospice have the local expectations upon them. The statistics of both companies speak for themselves in terms of finding a difference between them the amount of branches both have operating alone is a staggering difference with BP having 17,200 retail sites worldwide compared to the Hospice’ 18 spread across one area! Also the two structures of both businesses are different too as BP have many roles for people to fill from upstream jobs to downstream jobs, from oil digging to marketing research. Again the reason for this is because BP is a completely different ‘animal’ to a Hospice in terms of the people they provide for (which is everyone!)
Similarities on the other hand are by far harder to find between these two businesses, one similarity that stands out is that both are there to give people what they need. Again, BP are providing for a much larger scale but both do provide services/products that people need and that’s the point of why these businesses running, to provide for people. Another similarity is that both companies gain media exposure in similar ways. Both have undoubtedly used television as a way of advertising their businesses but also billboards, newspapers, websites etc. This is no surprise because both businesses need to promote themselves in as many ways as possible to get as many people’s attention as they can to benefit the both of them when it comes down to it.