As we've listened to the presentations from Ryan Lance and even Jim Mulva regarding the state of the company and the calculation of VCIP's, over the years one of the key items discussed (that's of special interest to investors) is ROC. (Return on capital employed). There was a recent article in the Chronicle about how the downturn is affecting Exxon Mobil less than it's competitors. One of the items pointed out was how their ROC through the years 2009 through 2013 compared to their peers. Exxon Mobil 22.7%, Chevron 15%, Shell 10%, CoP 9%.Even last year they had 10% which still outpaced all their competitors. Why is this? Do they have access to a resource or something the others didn't? No. The fact is they're better than the others. Vision, foresight, planning, know-how, acumen, management talent, just plain better in a lot of ways.
And why was Conoco Phillips last? For 5 straight years. Just replace the word better with worse in the previous sentence.
During the layoffs management's intent was to target the low performers first. Umm. I think there's a few you missed. I won't mention any names but they're on the ELT.