A lot of things could be much better at EM, but those who claim that the company is doomed in the long run are exaggerating a bit in my opinion. What makes you think so? I don't agree.
6 replies (most recent on top)
As long as they are an oil and gas company they will make tons of money like the Mexican Cartel. I think they are a short sided greedy company. Exxonmobil should be the place everyone wants to work. They pay well, have good benefits and opportunities that most companies don't offer. Yet, because they are small minded and greedy, they treat employees like cr-p. I think in the end a major event will happen, Darren Woods will be gone and they will self correct. Interesting past week the spring campus IT system shutdown due to "weather". Amazing that most refineries run through worst weather. There is no excuse for a event like that due to weather. I bet if you look under the covers you will find that all the experienced people are gone and it was lack of ownership that caused the event. I think this will eventually bleed over to a operating unit.
I think the future of the company as a vehicle to generate shareholder value is very bright.
The future of US-based employees? Not so much.
Probably not doomed. But definitely stagnant with a shrunk footprint.
No growth will lead to earnings shrinking, with the reaction being more OPEX cuts and Benefit cuts. Which means even less skilled workers will be applying. It’s a downward spiral that is only stopped by the fact that Oil will remain profitable enough to support all the majors for another 15-20 years.
Heck, even South American O&G companies make enough to limp along.
On the contrary. EM only do relative equilibrium well. Right now we are in a transition and our management trained for glacial only changes cannot respond well.
The people saying the company is doomed are all making over $160k/year, have been with the company since time in memoriam, and do very, very little relative to what they’re paid.
For the record, I’m fine with getting paid to do nothing, but stop the constant whining.
It is more related to the fact that EM does not do equilibrium very well. We seem to only do extremes. Extreme growth or extreme opex reductions. We are on the pendulum of extreme opex reductions. And we are doing extreme opex reductions at a time where one needs to transform business models, i.e., protect your core to fund your future. We were always in a model of protect and grow your core.
I personally fear that we will break our core business (and therefore our earnings) via two mechanisms (1) reduce too much our opex which really leads to reduce existing competencies and not replacing them and (2) shift the little you have left to LCS which will probably not contribute to your bottom line for quite some time.
There could be a tipping point where your fragile castle of cards comes tumbling down …