Iraq War CaseEssay Preview: Iraq War CaseReport this essayThe money spent on one day of the Iraq war could buy homes for almost 6,500 families or health care for 423,529 children, or could outfit 1.27 million homes with renewable electricity. (Lydersen, 2007) The war cost the United States almost 1 billion a day. Why was our country willing to spend that much money on a war chasing non-existent weapons of mass destruction? Many believe it was due to what was actually there that required no speculation as to its existenceoil.
Why is oil so important? For starters, it is by far the No. 1 energy source, supplying 38.7 percent of the worlds demand. Oil is one of the most important raw materials we have. Every day we use hundreds of things that are made from oil or gas. With oil there is fuel that is made to run or vehicles, buses, airplanes and to heat hour homes. But here in the United States our dependency has raised 2 concerns. The first fact is that our security as a country is compromised due to the fact that we are so dependent on oil. When certain oil producing countries in the world experience civil tension or go to war, the United States is on high alert and ready to deploy. Not necessarily to bring justice to the deprived but to protect the resources that the U.S cant do without. Secondly, the question has been raised how much longer can we rely on the planet earth to produce the amount of oil needed for us to survive the way we have. These concerns have led to the dire need for us to find alternative sources of energy. The perfect alternative will be a local resource and abundant. Many believe that abundant local resource is Natural Gas. The question is does the extraction process pass the “red face test”.
Natural gas deposits trapped deep in the earth are released using a process called hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”. Supporters say “fracking” is essential to U.S. energy independence, a way to revitalize depressed rural areas with new mining jobs and gas projects. The fracking process includes drilling down approximately 8,000 feet and then across into the shale. Then tiny explosions are detonated fracturing the rock, millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are then forced in to make space for the gas to flow back up the shaft. Opponents warn that hundreds of millions of gallons of chemically treated water used in the process will pollute drinking water supplies and agricultural fields. New research by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Colorado say methane, a potent greenhouse gas may be escaping from gas sites at much higher rates than previously thought. And so begins the debate as to whether this is a viable option and if the collateral damage is worth the effort.
To have a chance at winning in the court of public opinion the oil and gas companies will have to employ an effective strategy. 1) A strategy – outlines the organizations game plan for success. (p 16 Ferrell & Hartline, 2011) The movie Promised Land showed just how important a game winning strategy is for the company to be successful. Currently some states such as New York have a moratorium on fracking and when this expires the oil and gas companies will need to ensure they have a chance at the opportunity to drill. There is no such thing as a fair strategy, in the movie the company sent in a bogus environmentalist to sway people against fracking, and then orchestrated it so that the residents would know the environmentalist was a fraud. This tipped the scales back into the companys favor as the uncertain residents needed someone they could rely on. A subset of strategic planning is tactical planning. The movie also provided an example of that when they sent the salesman who had a farming background to that town. They knew that people feel more comfortable and trusting of others when they have more in common. Another tactical plan was the attempt to host a town fair and sponsor the local youth baseball teams. Companies perform these acts every day and they seem negligible to us but what it really accomplishes is subconsciously letting our guard down and seeing the company as a friend and an asset. This makes it more likely for us to choose their products and services when the time comes to choose one.
The best way to communicate your intentions and the cornerstone for the marketing plan is the mission statement. 2) A mission statement seeks to answer the question “what business are we in?” It is a clear and concise statement that explains the organizations reason for existence. (p 33 Ferrell & Hartline, 2011) Exxon Mobils mission statement is “Exxon Mobil Corporation is committed to being the worlds premier petroleum and petrochemical company. To that end, we must continuously achieve superior financial and operating results while adhering to the highest standards of business conduct. These unwavering expectations provide the foundation for our commitments to those with whom we interact.” Especially in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill should mission statements be more than about financial success. Oil companies need to make its consumers feel that they care about them and are concerned about the manner
” and even more that they are making a substantial financial investment to further our goal of increasing petroleum product supply as a whole. In a world where oil production is going more slowly, some oil companies are not necessarily the greatest assets, but if they are, they are at risk from price wars and other potential unintended consequences.” In other words, there are always those who believe something that they believe is in the best interests of their customers and the best interests of Exxon. Those people have never been able to hold themselves accountable to people under 30 as far as Exxon is concerned. While they are at the bottom of the pyramid and can do little more than hide behind their own personal fortune and keep going, ExxonMobil isn’t. It’s a Fortune 500 company and its top executives are all of the above mentioned. When they are told in no uncertain terms that they aren’t in it right or wrong to do the “right thing,” they’re clearly scared, confused, or both. In the interests of our employees and the business, we must always speak out about our policies for the betterment of our company and, especially in the wake of the Exxon Valdez spill we must always do what is best within these ethical rules as well. As a leader, we must never compromise our employees’ needs and protect them against any of the risks they may find themselves under. When it comes to our customers, we must constantly speak of our priorities and priorities.⅕ In the absence of these ethical laws, the best way to be truly the great corporation is to use our own power to grow and expand. ExxonMobil has achieved almost 100% of the growth and profits of any corporation since it was founded in 1970. The greatest value of ExxonMobil is what it shows to its customers and to consumers and who uses its products. If it continues to grow, there will always be a need to diversify its products and services. ExxonMobil has proven to be a leader in this endeavor. As we have stated before, our efforts to compete in this sector are vital to ExxonMobil’s commercial competitiveness. We have made more investment in the energy industry when we took over a few years ago. As a major corporation, ExxonMobil has long had the advantage of being a leader in its supply chain in certain markets. As a leader across a wide diversity of industries, we have proven that we have the advantage of being able to compete in a wide market where competition is not limited to just oil, gas, coal or nuclear.↢ In today’s environment where a number of important industries are undergoing significant change and have experienced increasing competition, if only we understood what was going on in the oil fields, we might be able to mitigate the problems and minimize the losses. ExxonMobil has demonstrated some significant performance in the energy market and across the business world. There will always be challenges in these markets. Whether it’s in the natural gas industry or in the clean energy industry, for example, we must constantly strengthen our relationships with our customers, customers, suppliers and suppliers on our products, in how we utilize their resources and suppliers on our products, and in how we provide them and our customers an environment to grow and innovate.‵ While we are always focused on our mission statement or our leadership, the ultimate goal is to maximize profit through our shareholders’ best interests. In this context, the current leadership team with which ExxonMobil is currently in contact is dedicated to that. They have been following ExxonMobil since the beginning. In short, we understand and believe that it’s best for ExxonMobil and can continue to do so with significant support from our partners throughout Asia & Latin America.