Exxon Case Study

Exxon is one of the world's largest publicly traded oil and gas producers. Last year, its net income surged to $36.1 billion, the highest for any American corporation and a 43 percent jump from the previous year. That is a legacy Mr. Tillerson is proud to defend. Exxon has really been about discipline. What Exxon brings to the table is their balance sheet, the technical expertise, and their operational management and development. That is where they shine.

After taking over as chairman, Mr. Tillerson has already scored two major deals, gaining access to the world's fourth-largest oil field, in the United Arab Emirates, and prevailing in a five-year-old dispute over the development of Indonesia's largest untapped oil reserves. With Exxon's brand new fast drill process this will allow them to reduce the time it takes to drill wells by 35% saving hundreds of millions of dollars annually. This is just one of the many advance technology systems that puts the company ahead of the rest. These business adventures will make Exxon Mobile even more of a powerhouse company.

Many critics say "Exxon is locked in an increasingly frustrating race for additional oil supplies and is failing to help develop alternative fuels, curb consumption and act on the real threat of global warming". If Rex Tillerson has his own way Exxon Mobile will no longer be the company that environmentalist love to hate. Since taking over as Exxon's chairman three months ago from Lee R. Raymond, his abrasive predecessor who dismissed fears of global warming and branded environmental activists "extremists," Mr. Tillerson has gone out of his way to soften Exxon's public stance on climate change.

Exxon Mobile has no plans for any sharp departure in strategy. Exxon's business is about increasing oil and gas supplies to consumers, not chasing alternatives that offer little prospect of replacing