Strategic Management: Internal Analysis of Exxon Mobil Corporation - Assignment Example

The paper “Exxon Mobil Corporation’s Internal Analysis" is a forceful example of an assignment on management. Firstly, the author discusses the main strengths the company has that allows it to make the company's vision come to fruition. The primary source of strength for Exxon Mobil is that it is an undisputed leader in the sector and has been ranked second by Fortune among its 500 top-list. The company is responsible for 3 percent of the world’s oil production and 2 percent of petroleum-associated product production worldwide shows its level of operations.

Further, its good reputation is another asset. These confer to the vision of Exxon. The products offered by the company are diverse. They produce oil and natural gas while holding the largest reserves. Exxon also produces chemicals, petrochemicals and is also involved in generating power. Under each of these product categories, Exxon maintains its brands, which are well-known in each of their particular sectors. This further strengthens its vision.Exxon, being a multi-national corporation, has refineries in 21 countries around the world, employing 87,000 employees.

These numbers signify substantial chunk and the gigantic nature of its operations. The other strengths of Exxon Mobil include joint ventures with some oil giants such as Shell to produce synergies. Developing nations and prospective markets like China, have also been explored by the company and secure its future. These features of Exxon show that the company is moving in the right direction towards its vision of becoming the largest premier energy provider (Exxon Mobil, n.d.).ii) What are its main competitive advantages?

Exxon Mobil is the energy giant from the USA, based in Texas. It boasts to be the largest refiner and trades under the brand names of Exxon, Mobil, and Esso. The high quality of the company’s refineries, its technology, and innovation-driven initiatives are certainly creating a competitive advantage for Exxon Mobil. The refineries are grouped on a regional basis and are closely placed to chemical production facilities, for ease in maintaining stocks, operation, distribution and fostering economies of scale.

The company has placed its retail outlets strategically in 118 nations, including those at airports, sea ports, fuels for jet planes, etc. Adding to this, it has customized and created new formats to serve the customer preferences, such as Esso Express for man-less filling, Speedpass for cash and card-free service, On the Run for filling stations with one-stop retail outlets (Exxon Mobil Fuel Marketing, n.d.). These depict the efficient use of marketing strategies by Exxon, which is yet another feather in their competitive advantage.

Exxon invests huge amounts in research and development, which has certainly delivered a competitive advantage in terms of technological advancement and becoming the market leader (LaMotta, 2008). Further, Exxon has established itself as the producer of petroleum products at a very low cost, as compared to its competitors in the industry. The work culture at Exxon stresses consistency in performance and being disciplined. This is seen as a competitive advantage by the top management, as these values helped the employees deliver the intended results. iii) What internal weaknesses can you find?

The in-depth research and swot analysis of Exxon Mobil brings up some of its internal weaknesses. Firstly, the company profile does not highlight any environmental protection activities it has involved in. Oil refining being a pollution-prone sector, the companies involved in these activities have to act cautiously to not acquire the negative image of tarnishing ecological balance. The oil spills caused due to the company in Valdez and Brooklyn irked the green groups and social activists. The inability of Exxon to handle these instances further worsened the trouble.

Secondly, the oil and natural gas prices saw a steep rise in recent times, which brought huge profits to the company. These high returns made it the focus of many loss-making companies of the present, which were hit hard due to a recession. Thus, the legal proceedings and negative publicity of Exxon gained momentum. The employees, mainly those working in the African refineries, are not satisfied with the way the company is compensating them. This may move along to their worldwide counterparts and brew in trouble for Exxon Mobil.