ExxonMobil

ExxonMobil is currently the second largest company in the world – behind PetroChina, a Hong-Kong-based oil company – based on market capitalisation and revenue. Branded in the UK as the more familiar Esso, ExxonMobil has grown into a formidable company that even the likes of Royal Dutch Shell and BP struggle to contend with. The original ExxonMobil was founded as Standard Oil, a New York and Texas based company which started in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller, the first American billionaire. In 1999, Exxon and Mobil merged to form ExxonMobil. Both Exxon and Mobil are descendants of the original Rockefeller company.

ExxonMobil often tussle with Wal-Mart and PetroChina for the number one spot of the largest company in the world and, in 2005, ExxonMobil finally surpassed Wal-Mart for the first time. ExxonMobil’s net income for 2007 was an astounding USD$40.61 billion, a huge number and the largest by any company in the world. Interestingly, ExxonMobil have occupied all ten spots on the Top Ten Corporate Quarterly Earnings Of All Times. As of 2009, ExxonMobil employ nearly 80,000 people across the world. These employees are spread across a wide range of jobs, from truck driver to research and developer.

ExxonMobil have received some complaints and criticism in its recent history. ExxonMobil had recently been the target of human rights activists for actions taken by the corporation in the Indonesian territory of Aceh. In June 2001, a lawsuit against ExxonMobil was filed in the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia under the Alien Tort Claims Act. The suit alleges that ExxonMobil knowingly assisted human rights violations, including torture, murder and rape, by employing and providing material support to Indonesian military forces, who committed the alleged offences during civil unrest in Aceh. Human rights complaints involving ExxonMobil’s relationship with the Indonesian military first arose in 1992; the company denies these accusations and has filed a motion to dismiss the suit which, as of 2006, is still pending.

ExxonMobil’s environmental record is not as good as it should be. ExxonMobil has drawn criticism for its funding of organisations critical of the Kyoto Protocol and sceptical of the scientific opinion that global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels. The company also donates to pro-environmental causes such as Nature Conservancy. Based on year 2000 data, ExxonMobil was ranked sixth on the Toxic 100 list of US corporate air polluters by Political Economy Research Institute (PERI). In 2005, ExxonMobil had committed less than 1% of their profits towards researching alternative energy, less than other leading oil companies.

There have been numerous oil spills due to ignorance by ExxonMobil, Exxon or Mobil. The Valdez Oil Spill, caused by Exxon in 1989 in Alaska, affected the wildlife of the Prince William Sound. This caused outrage and is deemed one of the most harmful oil spills of the 20th century.

All in all, ExxonMobil continue to provide an excellent service of oil to manufacturers and consumers worldwide, and they will still remain one of the top dogs in the business world for years to come.

Microsoft

Microsoft is, today, a household name. Started in 1975 by William Horatio Gates III (better known to us as Bill Gates) and Paul Allen, Microsoft has grown from a small home computer company into one of the largest and wealthiest companies in the world. But how did they do it? They found a problem, and solved it. They produced a user-friendly operating system that even the most laymans of people could function.

Microsoft tried many different operating systems before, in 1995, creating Windows 95, an easy-to-use, fun, intuitive system. They updated the system many times, and we currently have Windows Vista, with Windows 7 on the horizon. However, Windows Vista has been severely unsuccessful due to the high number of user-complaints because of the operating system often crashing, and the system’s inability to run with older printers. However, Windows 7 is said to fix all these problems and be the “dawn of a new era for Microsoft”.

But more recently, Microsoft have delved into the further technological advancements that man has developed. Their Xbox and Xbox 360 have been gaming successes across the globe. They are currently the second best selling home console around, and have overtaken the feats of Sony’s Playstation 3. Then there’s the highly unsuccessful attempt at diving into the world of multimedia players, namely their “Zune”, which has failed miserably and is really no comparison to Apple’s iPod, or even Creative’s Zen.

But through it all, Microsoft are still rolling in the dough, so to speak. They have over 89,000 employees in over 100 different countries worldwide. Their revenue currently stands at a massive USD$60.42 billion.

Through the last 30-odd years, Microsoft have grown into a multi-national conglomerate and have (mainly) Bill Gates to thank for it, and because of Microsoft, Gates was at one point the richest man in the world.

Sony

The Sony Group started in 1946 by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita and is a huge, multination conglomerate that has a share in almost all forms of entertainment in the 21st century. Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of televisions, games consoles, video, communication (along with Ericsson) and information technology. Sony Group is further split up into  Sony Corporation (which is known as Sony Electronics in the USA), Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Ericsson and Sony Financial Holdings.

Sony Group generated an estimated USD$88.714 billion, a vast amount of revenue. Sony also have approximately 180,000 employees worldwide, whether that be in Sony’s factories or Sony’s commercial stores that are placed in countries worldwide.

Sony have always been at the forefront of modern technology. Their Sony Walkman in the late 1980s, and up until the introduction of media players, held top spot of the easiest, most accesible music player around. Nowadays, they have their highly expensive Playstation 3 which has sold reasonably well, but below the expected sales.

However, among Sony’s success, their have been many flaws. These have mostly been due to awful advertising. One advertising campaign in the Netherlands was viewed as racist. Another example is when Sony put up a false blog about their Playstation Portable (PSP) in which they invented a teenager that advertised the PSP. There have also been many problems with the batteries of their Sony Vaio laptops. A couple in Japan had their laptop battery burst into flames, with Sony eventually being sued for damages. Next, there’s the case of the Playstation 3′s controllers originally not having rumble features. This was due to a case in which a company by the name of Immersion Corporation, based in San Jose, California, sued Sony because they claimed that Sony stole their idea of the rumble features of the controller. Immersion Corp. were awarded with USD$82 million in compensation.

All in all, Sony have provided the world with high-quality, high-cost electronics. In the current economic climate, will we see their sales fall further? Only time will tell.

Nintendo

This post is actually a positive post. I wanted to talk about how Nintendo have gone from strength to strength in recent years, what with the releases of the DS, DS Lite, and Wii – which have all become major hits for Nintendo.

Firstly, the original DS. For those that don’t know, the DS is a handheld console that has two screens, one of which has a touch screen, which allows for some niche gameplay. The DS debuted in 2004, and has sold almost 7 million units in Japan, and over 20 million units in the USA. This has by far exceeded the expectations of Nintendo, and it’s continued success reigns supreme over Sony’s rival PSP. 

The DS Lite, the superceder of the DS, has sold just over 17 million units in Japan, and almost 20 million in the USA. These numbers are quite extraordinary for a console that just got a slight update from its predecessor. The DS Lite has better sound, brighter screens and a suave, sleek finish in a multitude of colours. To date, the DS and DS Lite have sold a combined 84.33 Million units worldwide. That’s about 2 and a half DS’s for every person in Canada.

The DSi is a brand new version of the DS/DS Lite, and has already been released in Japan, and is expected to come to Europe and America sometime in 2009. This time, the DSi boasts two cameras, bigger screen, better screen resolution, better sound and a chic matte finish. It also comes with built in Internet capabilities, MP3 playback, various camera software packages and a Wii-style interface. This has proven to be a step in the right direction for Nintendo, as the console is currently sold out in Japanese stores, and the public are craving more.

The Wii is so far the best-selling home console around. The console, for those who don’t know, is an interactive console which attempts to put gamers in the game. This has thus far proven very successful, as sales, as of 30th September 2008, have reached 34.55 Million units worldwide. This is a huge achievement, and has outsold the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360. Noteworthy, is that the Xbox 360 has actually been out around nine months longer than the Wii has. 

Nintendo continue to dominate the gaming demographic, and will continue to see the sales of their consoles rise, especially over the holiday period. I personally love Nintendo’s consoles, and I do hope that their domination of the market continues.

Presidential Election And The Future

Well, it’s not strictly business-related, but I’m going to be talking about the possible effects Mr. Obama will have on the political and business structure of life. For all those who didn’t know – and you really had to try to avoid it to not have heard this – America has it’s first African-American president. Many people are viewing this as a drastic change in American history and others are not so sure that he will do a great job.

Firstly, I’d like to say that I congratulate Mr. Obama on winning. I actually feel that this change will be a good thing for businesses of America. Hopefully, with the change, comes stability –  and with stability, comes a future on which we can build.

As many people now know, we are in the midst of an economic recession. For those who do not know the technicalities of it, a recession is two successive quarters of negative growth. This has caused the stock markets to plummet and all currencies have become weaker and will continue to do so. However, many people have blown this completely out of proportion. This is why I think so: the “market” can always continue to rise, but it cannot increase ad infinitum. There has to be a period in which the “market” comes down to a certain level, and hopefully rises again. This rise will hopefully be more than expected with Mr. Obama in the presidential seat, so to speak.

As for the politics side of things, we can only hope for the best. I too would wish that international relations will hopefully better themselves over time, and we can only wait and see over the next four years as to how Mr. Obama gets on.

Mr. Obama has also recently stated that “the country’s economy is my number one prospect.” Or something like that.

BBC

The BBC is one the largest broadcasting company in the world, surpassing Fox, CBS and all others. It’s broadcast in more than 200 countries across the world, and reaches around 274 million households which have it available, in contrast to CNN’s 200 million households. CNN is BBC’s biggest rival in terms of viewing audiences.  They employ over 28,500 people and have around £4billion available in budget per annum.

However, the BBC is often at the centre of major conflicting stories in the media. Recently, television and radio personalities Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, quit and fired respectively, due an incident involving the pair and a prank telephone call on a radio show. The two were immediately shunned for their “disgraceful behaviour”. Personally, I think that the media and the BBC have completely blown things out of proportion and exaggerated the matter. There are plenty of worse things that are shown on BBC’s shows, such as comedy sketch Little Britain, which, although some may find it funny, is often offensive and rude to particular nations or people. But the one thing that set apart the Brand and Ross incident is the fact that they targeted a specific person as their offense, rather than shows such as Little Britain which target whole people and ethnicities, which I still find wrong.

BBC’s financial plan and income is disheartening. They take in a massive £3,100.6 million in television licensing alone in the year of 2005-2006. They also take in £620.0 million from BBC Commercial Businesses and £260.2 million from the World Service, of which £239.1 million is from grants (primarily funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office), £15.8 m from subscriptions, and £5.3 m from other sources.

The BBC has also been at the centre of other controversies, such as BBC Wales complaining that Wales does not get enough Welsh coverage.

The BBC does not cost a lot of money. £10.54 per month is charged to each and every household in the United Kingdom that owns at least one television. The fees can sometimes be exasperating, and with the funding the BBC gets, and the money they spend, is it all really worth it? For a major corporation, the BBC has made some stupid errors over it’s lifetime, often ones that are unforgiven. I also strongly believe that Jonathan Ross should not have been fired because of his role in the prank calling incident because of the fact that it’s a comedy show. They should have been given various performing clauses and exemptions.  Thus it’s not to be and a great entertainer will never be returning to the BBC. I say that the BBC should turn around it fiscal model and fire whoever’s in charge. It’s been a disgrace.

WalMart

WalMart is a discount store that operates mainly in the US, which was found in 1962 by Sam Walton. It is the world’s largest public corporation by revenue, generating an estimated $387.68billion. It operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the UK as ASDA, and in Japan as Seiyu. It has wholly-owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and Puerto Rico. WalMart’s investments outside North America have had mixed results: its operations in South America and China are highly successful, while it was forced to pull out of Germany and South Korea when ventures there were unsuccessful.

WalMart has been criticized by some community groups, women’s rights groups, grassroots organizations, and labor unions, specifically for its extensive foreign product sourcing, low rates of employee health insurance enrollment, resistance to union representation, and alleged sexism.

WalMart’s business model is that they sell a wide variety of general products at competitively low prices. This has had various blips in its years of running, as their discounted products are generally frowned upon and are thought of as a cheap alternative. 

Full-time WalMart employees earn an average of $10.11 per hour. This isn’t a particularly princely sum, and the cruel reality is that many employees with children are frequently earning below the poverty line. WalMart have often been criticised for not giving their employees any financial backing, no healthcare cover for fulltime employees nor any sustanance. However, WalMart are often attacked because of the fact that they are the largest employer, and thereby the largest public company, in the USA. WalMart have also opposed having the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would make it easier for workers to form unions.

WalMart are currently in the midst of a gender discrimination lawsuit. The lawsuit suggests that female employees were discriminated against for issues regarding salaries and promotions. According to WalMart’s own files, female employees made up 65% of WalMart’s hourly-paid workforce, but only 33% of its management.

Many people who oppose WalMart’s ways have set up various organisations and groups that work together to “fight the system”, and hopefully “end WalMart’s tyranny”. I completely disagree with this, and I think it’s not a feasilbe idea. WalMart have awful standards of pay, and they may face discriminatory hearings, but, unfortunately, this will never cease to happen. WalMart’s reign as America’s top-dog won’t come to an end any time soon. Their corporate structurs and business models dictate this and the general public will continue to buy from WalMart because of their ridiculously low prices. Unfortunately, smaller businesses who offer items on the cheap are suffering because of WalMart. 

However, I cannot ponder these questions for too long as my local WalMart just received a new order of oven gloves, and I need to get my hands of them soon before they all go out of stock.

Until next week…

Primark

Primark. A budget clothing brand in the UK and Ireland. They are known for having one of the worst workers’ rights out of any company in the UK. Their headquarters are based in Ireland and, in Ireland, they trade under the name Penney’s. Primark have been lambasted because of employing children to do the labour and make their budget clothes. I personally think that this is a disgrace to the company, and people should boycott it immediately. 

They employ over 26,000 people in their stores and factories. In 2005, Primark scored the worst out of any clothing manufacturer for the way it treats its workers. They scored a lowly 3.5 out of 20.  Since then, however, Primark have been duly contesting such scores and they have still denied ever having bad ” work ethics”. 

All of Primark stores have their own brands. Thus, this enables them to sell these brands at cheap prices as they don’t have to pay licensing fees and fees to other companies. They have 13 brands that are in their stores, each brand having a segment of the marketshare. 

Recently, Primark have started open many more stores. So why haven’t they been shut down because of their ethics and the child labour? No-one really knows. There still hasn’t been enough evidence against them, and because of this, they continue to trade. 

Child labour is still a growing problem in many of today’s corporate structures. I previously revealed Nike’s child labour in China and Indonesia. I can safely say that Primark are no better, and for that, they should be shut down. 

It has also been revealed that in September 2007, Primark were fined £8,000 for breaching the safety regulations on their clothing. Surely their clothing would have gone through rigorous testing before being sold to the public? Sadly not. 

Primark just fall short for me in every possible way. Sure, their clothing is cheap, but that in itself comes at a price. Their clothing just doesn’t live up to the standard of quality I expect from a high-street clothing chain. Then there’s the much-repeated child labour and safety regulations breach. For these reasons, Primark should never be allowed to trade again, and I stand by that. I never have bought, nor will I ever buy, any item from Primark.

Hmmm, I’m going out tonight. I heard about this great shirt from Primark!

Nike

Aah Nike. When it first started up it was the shoe of choice for athletes. However, nowadays, it’s an everyman shoe, that just about anyone can wear. So what are the roots, the fiscal matters and the whole corporate structure of Nike? And what about the world-renowned famous Nike Swoosh logo that adorns these shoes.

Over the years, it seems as though getting famous athletes to wear Nike’s shoes have been an intricate role in getting these shoes mass-marketed. Most famously, Michael Jordan wore these shoes during his playing career, and now has a line of his own at Nike. The new Air Jordan XX3 is almost in stores, and is designed “with the environment in mind”. Yeah right, if you call making them in China environmentally friendly.

That brings me to another, controversial topic. Nike has been previously lambasted because it used to produce its shoes and sports apparel in sweatshops in China. There has also been speculation that Nike has been using child labour to produce its products in Vietnam and Mexico.

Furthermore, there’s also been some controversy with the adverts that Nike air. One may recall that they aired a somewhat violent advert about a lunatic and a runner and it all ended happily. Or something like that. 

Nike sponsors almost every sport, and has many sponsors of various football (soccer) clubs including Arsenal and Manchester United. Nike is a growing corporation that has over 30,000 employees and takes in, in revenue, around $16.325 billion, a phenomenally large sum.

Nike’s environmental record isn’t so good. They make their equipment and clothing in foreign lands, such as the far east, which incurs major import tax, which is then passed onto the consumer. This is one of the reasons why Nike’s shoes are so expensive.

However, Nike has another company that deal with cheaper clothing. This company is called Starter, and sells their products in stores such as Wal-Mart.

But has Nike taken over the world? I, for one, sincerely hope not. Thank goodness they still haven’t touched on one of my favourite sports,  (American) football. Reebok owns that one. When will Nike’s reign of expensive-yet-worthless shoes come to an end? 

I’ll go ponder these question while I go for a run in my new Nike Air Jordans.

Hypocrite

So today I went out for lunch with a good friend of mine, Leigh. We first went to McDonalds, then sat down for a nice coffee at Starbucks. And during this whole time I actually thought to myself how hypocritical this is of me if I’m damning them. Oh well, I do love McNuggets and Frappucinos.