a book called Private Empire – ExxonMobil and American Power, Steve Coll, the Penguin Press, 2012, Mr. Coll takes a look at Exxon and how it operates. As the largest oil company and most profitable company, how the company operates is a very interesting story. The most famous Exxon oil tanker is called the Exxon Valdez – it ran into a reef and split oil, there was plenty of blame to go around for what happened, the least credible is the captain was drunk. However, the real issue is what did the company do after the spill? It turns out – the company and the state were in a stalemate about what should be done. Exxon is a company which prides itself in having procedures for everything as demonstrated by former President Lee Raymond when asked did Exxon do the right thing? His answer was I would be naïve to say we were always doing everything exactly right, however if you are asking me if there were any major decision points that we faced in how to respond that in hindsight we would go back and say we think we were wrong, I do not think there are any.

President  Raymond was asked about building more refineries in the US as a security protection, he answered, Exxon is not a US company, and I do not make decisions based on what’s good for the US. That was a strange response because just about everyone looking at Exxon does see US interests as does the the White House.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, President Raymond delivered great financial discipline and increasing cash flows, even though his public relations because of the Exxon culture was below par. When a company continues to deliver disciplined cash flows, maintains tight review of financial spending, whether the President has good public relations or not so good, as long as the dividend payments the public relations is a secondary concern.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.