1. Stolt Offshore (Stolt) strengths were based on its reputation/conglomerate synergies, first-mover advantage (location) and market position; all these were built due to the entrepreneurship, experience and business acumen of founder Jacob Stolt-Nielsen and the umbrella of conglomerate company Stolt-Nielsen SA. Jacob Stolt-Nielsen in mid-1950s had successfully created a new type of ship vessel which contributed for the global transport and logistics services, and in 1973 the group expanded horizontally with Stolt Offshore to specialising in the Oil & Gas delivery of surface and subsea infrastructure. * Reputation/conglomerate synergies: Jacob Stolt-Nielsen, a Norwegian from a family of ship-owners, built a strong reputation as an innovator and entrepreneur in tank containers and offshore oilfield services. He built a successful conglomerate group through his concept of parcel tanker that enabled a better use of capacity and cargo protection; and through its global expansion it provided a wide transportation point-to-point network at reduced costs. Stakeholders trusted the Stolt-Nielsen brand, built partnerships and signed long-term agreements. Therefore, Stolt Offshore benefited from a strong reputation of its conglomerate parent, specialization, balance sheet, clients and strong brand. * Market Position: Stolt improved its market position by riding the growth on the Oil & Gas services sector and by providing complementary services through acquisitive growth. Since 1970s that global GDP has been raising rapidly, appendix 2, and research has found that there is a casual relationship between GDP growth and energy consumption. Therefore, GDP growth contributed to the higher demand of oil & gas throughout the 70s/80s/90s. Not only the Oil & Gas sector was growing but it also faced structural changes: more fragmentation in exploration’s rights