The primary problem at Marathon Oil Company is that following the company split from Marathon Petroleum in 2012, most- -if not all- -of the open executive and management positions were filled by individuals devoid of integrity. This was the beginning of the end for what was once a respected, pro-employee company. In recent years, this company has been “managed” by the machiavellian Blue Jeans and her ferocious HR guard dog who have regularly provided guidance to the complicit, President and CEO on staffing related matters. This clown, the latter amongst those previously mentioned, has been and continues to be, more interested in collecting his check- -including salary, bonuses, stock options, etc.- -as well as playing with his race car(s) and strutting from one industry function to another as Marathon’s top gun. It sickens me to think of him as the “face” of MRO. Then again, the company’s corporate culture is vastly different, post-2012! Anyway, many of the management team members who are one or two rungs down from the top “go along with the program” because they are too weak to be true leaders and add real value to the company by demanding a return to a management style based on authentic best practices instead of continuing to engage in subterfuge at the request of the major decision makers. It’s a challenge to work with and/or to report to cowards. Sadly, this seems to be the name of the game for many of us these days. “Success will come and go, but integrity will last forever!” See related Forbes article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyanderson/2012/11/28/success-will-come-and-go-but-integrity-is-forever/#28e37d24470f
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Ethics and integrity do not exist at this Company anymore...it's all about the money for the C-suite and how much they can bleed MOC into their pockets....they do not give a tinker's @#$ about this company and those who sacrificed for its growth. They are s---ing on the gravy train for as long as it lasts...
Fascinating to watch this Kabuki theater. The truly talented leaders have gone on to better places and are free from this torture chamber. Anyone who has stood up for maintaining an ethical culture since Lee’s arrival have been treated as though they were the problem rather than the solution. Somehow Lee and his sidekick find a way to survive. That usually means there is a serious board of directors problem. Take a look at who is driving that clown car and you will spot the root of the problem.
Well said, Bold Enough for Ya! Thank you for being bold enough to contribute to this conversation!
The leadership at Marathon is more fake than Lee's botox. DBBJ should have been fired long ago on account of record turnover, wasting money on ex-pat softskills bs training, and the SAC. She seems to pride herself on "developing talent" yet the talent has all left the building and the company is sitting at the bottom of every technical and financial metric in the industry. Any slightly informed CEO would have sh---canned her long ago, at this point the morale boost across the company simply justifies it.
Marathon has slowly circled the drain since the split, but it hit the accelerator under Tillman, Sult, DBBJ and Robertson. At this point, they can only try to stem the bleeding. There are no assets left to sell without hurting their cherry-picked NA onshore production numbers. There is less and less acreage to drill that is only slightly uneconomic (since none of it is). There is no exploration upside. There is no breakthrough technology that will allow them to compete. They will always be the high cost producer that doesn't understand their assets. The clowns in BD will continue to get bonuses while they overpay for stranded acreage. They will still have to writedown reserves. This will all continue because no one in the upper management cares.
As JB Nimble wrote, they will be fine collecting their paychecks without any responsibility for the company performance. They will continue to eat each other until no one is left. The culture they have nurtured will eventually come back to bite them, but not before they collect a few million and jump to the next unsuspecting company peddling their fake achievements.