At the time of the split, JJ said RL was more of a good old boy than a leader capable of growing and leading the company’s upstream plans. JJ thought RL incapable of identifying true leaders, was more likely to choose those he personally liked, and couldn’t make the tough decisions.
Ironically, RL did an “end run” around the Chairman during an Asia Pacific board of directors trip and won the job (exactly how JJ got the job).
Now look at the company ten years later: lower resources, production, reserves, and worldwide presence. The attention is on identification politics (good luck with a promotion if you’re a white man) and the global warming climate change agenda rather than value-added production.
Yes, the stock price has hit an all-time-high, but this is correlated 100% to product prices… none of our (long range) plans have come through, although we’ve tried to hide this with costly desperate A&D work. Hey: you know we allegedly adjust prices out of VCIP, right?
So what does RL do? Cry to the media that his friends in the Biden administration are ignoring his calls, then whining that stopping imports of Russian crude is stupid (and have PR come in and cover for him after his remarks).
He’s like Homer Simpson: put a hot dog in front of him and he’s a “1”, but put an unscripted microphone in front of him and he’s a “4”.
JJ was right after all.