ExxonMobil and International Experience

In the summer of 2018, my International Experience for International Business students of CSUSM’s MBA program was conducted in the United States. The program was almost two months, and I had the pleasure of working for ExxonMobil Corporation, located in Texas. The report is organized into two parts. The first part contains the evaluation the lubricant demand of the construction sector across California, Nevada and Arizona; and the recommendations for ExxonMobil Corp. to develop Sales and Marketing strategies for equipment lubricant, and to target specific potential lubricant customers. The report also reevaluates the US lubricant market and Exxon Mobil core competencies in recent years. My research begins with general information about the market environment in California, Arizona, and Nevada. Afterwards, I share statistics about the construction sector, the lubricant industry and analyses of ExxonMobil in the US market. I conclude this section with some recommendations for ExxonMobil. The report draws attention to the fact that there were sharp decreases in lubricant industry revenues in recent years due to the fluctuation of world crude oil price. However, this trend is predicted to rise slightly over the next few years as the demand for lubricant products in the automotive and industrial sector increase. There are also increasing patterns of environment-friendly lubricant products such as synthetic and recycled oil, and specialized products for different sectors. These trends should be exploited to create new business strategies for Exxon Mobil. We conclude that the construction lubricant demand will increase slightly at about 1.5% to 2% of annual growth rate. The company should emphasize Chemical R&D to create "green" products such as synthetic oil and recycled oil for the market. It not only catches up new trends of lubricant industry to develop competitive advantages but also improves company images in public. They should decrease the cost of production by combining refining and chemical production operations because cost leadership is an appropriate strategy in the industry due to the lack of product differentiation. Wholesalers and direct selling should be two focused channels in the distribution channel in the West US because they account for the most significant market segmentation in 2018. Furthermore, in a diversification strategy, ExxonMobil should create specialized products for different purposes in each sector. Lastly, the construction companies for State public construction projects are potential customers in these markets. The second section of this paper includes the cultural context of the United States and my real experience of how I feel throughout my American life and my internship. This part mostly based on Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions, and Hall’s High/Low Context, which I learned in my “Doing Business in Selected Country” class. In this part, the content is more subject, open and candid to present how I feel and how I view perspectives myself in cultural context. Moreover, this section contains my strengths and weaknesses, and how they influenced my experience in the United States and ExxonMobil.