Leader To Laggard ExxonMobil's Financial Troubles Intensify
Download Full Report
Key Findings
For decades, ExxonMobil has defined itself as the oil industry’s global leader, which all others followed. It shaped corporate culture by bringing data and metrics to the oil industry. It was a highly stable, proudly “by the numbers” company that built its reputation for market dominance by emphasizing success indicators and “no excuses” performance.
ExxonMobil racked up deeper or more rapid declines based on three critical financial metrics it has long used to tell its story and to assess its leadership compared to its peer competitors.
Executive Summary
IEEFA finds that in the short span of three years (2017-2019), Woods has presided over a significant deterioration in the company’s finances. By both short- and long-term financial measures, ExxonMobil has shown significant signs of slippage against past performance. Faced with the same market challenges as its peer-competitors (Shell, Total, BP and Chevron), Woods's tenure has been marked by a faster rate of decline or deeper losses in profits, cash and shareholder value. Based on actual performance, IEEFA recommends that the board of directors move to replace Woods.
The board assesses CEO performance based on long-term, 10-year indicators as well as annual one-year measures of progress in meeting strategic goals and objectives. IEEFA’s analysis is based exclusively on pre-pandemic financial performance.
In IEEFA’s view, long-time board members appear to be ignoring the company’s own well-established performance measurements that show ExxonMobil falling behind, presenting a real risk to the company’s financial health. It is unclear why this board is accepting Woods’s troubling performance.
