Exxon Mobil, the company so many people love to hate, has come under fire from some vocal stockholders, who want the company to change, despite its making almost $11 billion in just the first quarter of 2008.
Who are those critical stockholders and what's their issue?
Greenpeace? The labor unions? Mutual fund managers angry because the company didn't make $11 trillion the first quarter?
Surprise, it's members of the Rockefeller family. You might recall the name. John Rockefeller founded Standard Oil back in 1870, part of which ultimately became Exxon Mobil. And his descendants have gotten quite wealthy in the many years since.
However, many of them have banded together to publicly support three resolutions up for vote at the company's upcoming shareholder annual meeting. The resolutions, which the company strongly opposes, would push the company in the direction of becoming "greener" and move it away from its almost total focus on gas and oil.
This is like descendants of Colonel Sanders wanting KFC to look beyond chicken and to consider a future built around deep fried tofu. It is heresy.
Rockefeller family members are concerned that Exxon Mobil's narrow focus on gas and oil is shortsighted and not in the long-term interests of either the company or the planet. One of their proposals, for example, calls for the company to boost spending on the development of renewable energy sources.
The company, on its Web sites, calls itself "the world's largest publicly traded international oil and gas company." Competitors like BP and Shell prefer to label themselves as "energy companies."
See the difference? So do the Rockefellers. I haven't been to one of the Rockefeller estates for dinner recently, so I haven't had the chance to ask them whether this is an effort at saving the earth or saving their portfolios. Perhaps it's both.
Many experts are predicting that there are only about 20 to 25 years of oil left that is easily extractable. The Rockefellers want Exxon Mobil to get working now to develop alterative forms of energy instead of waiting for the wells to run dry. They're not convinced the company has a Plan B.
In the last 16 months, Exxon Mobil has spent $39.8 billion to buy back its own shares from the market. That's a popular way companies spend their excess cash, and, surprise, Exxon Mobil has a boatload of it to spend. During the same period, the company invested $100 million in investigating alternative energy sources.
Almost $40 billion to increase share price and a quarter of 1 percent of that for alternative energy? Might those dollars be better invested for the company's future (and maybe our own future as well) by increasing the spending for new energy sources?
If the proposals don't pass, perhaps the Rockefellers should sell all of their Exxon Mobil stock and start their own alternative energy company.
Perhaps deep fried tofu could be one of those energy sources.
Opinions expressed solely are those of the writer. Mike Hoban, of Crown Point, is a senior consultant for an international leadership development and training firm. Send mail to him c/o The Times, or e-mail him at business-at-large@sbcglobal.net.
