How hard can it be? I’m talking about BP’s apparent lack of ability to get out of its own way. Time and time again BP has been able to say or do exactly the wrong thing. Forget about what the oil company could or could not have done to avoid this whole tragic mess. Let’s just focus on how the people at the company have dealt with it since the spill occurred some 67 days ago, as I write this.
Just as a reminder, what started all of this was an April 20 explosion and fire on a BP drilling rig that resulted in the death of 11 workers. The rig sank two days later about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. Since then, BP has made one misstep after another, and it starts at the top.
I’ve been amazed and appalled by BP CEO Tony Hayward’s inability to handle the crisis with savvy. It raises the question in my mind, “If this guy is smart enough to run a company with more than $200 billion in revenue and 80,000 employees, why isn’t he smart enough to do or say the right thing about the disaster his company caused?” Just for the record, Mr. Hayward has a Ph.D. and has worked at BP for 28 years.
The boneheaded moves started less than two weeks after the spill occurred when Hayward, speaking to a group of fellow executives in London on May 2, said, “What the hell did we do to deserve this?” Really? You think it’s the right move to play the victim? Instead of taking responsibility for the spill, he’s looking for sympathy. What about the 11 people who died on the rig and the families they left behind? What did they do to deserve this? Playing the victim is the wrong thing to do, but that wasn’t apparent to Mr. Hayward.
Mr. Hayward’s next move was to downplay the impact the spill would have on the environment. “I think the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to have been very, very modest,” he said in a May 18 interview with Sky News television. We’re nearly a month into the spill with no apparent end in sight, yet BP’s CEO is downplaying the impact it will have on the environment. First, how about getting the thing stopped before you begin to predict the effect it’s going to have? Second, describing it as “very, very modest” when fisherman have lost their livelihoods and wildlife is being decimated is stupid and insensitive.
But why stop there? Mr. Hayward is on a roll! So 13 days later, he apologizes. Good move? You might think so, except he didn’t stop with the apology. Read what he said for yourself: “We’re sorry for the massive disruption it’s caused their lives. There’s no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back.” If he would have stopped after the first sentence he would have been on the right track, but he couldn’t help himself. He makes it about himself. Poor Tony wants this over more than everyone because it’s become a huge inconvenience and disrupted his life.
And it’s not just what Mr. Hayward is saying that defies logic. Two days after testifying before Congress in Washington, D.C., on June 17, he left to participate in a weekend yacht race. Now I’d be the first to argue that he doesn’t need to spend every minute at the Gulf, and I’d even argue that he deserves a weekend off. I’m sure he’s working long hours, and this situation has had to have been very stressful for him. But to choose to participate in a yacht race comes across as incredibly arrogant. No wonder he’s been dubbed “Tone-Deaf Tony.” Sometimes appearances do matter.
So why does Mr. Hayward still have a job? Well, it might be that his bosses on BP’s board are cut from the same cloth. Here’s what Mr. Hayward’s boss, BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, said to reporters in Washington on June 16: “I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don’t care, but that is not the case with BP. We care about the small people.” “The small people.” Are you kidding me? I’m so glad that the “big” people at BP are good enough to care about the “small people.” How insensitive can you be? Obviously as insensitive as your CEO!
Most of us will never be involved in a disaster as large or public as this one, but there are plenty of lessons from Mr. Hayward and his colleagues at BP of what not to do the next time we find ourselves in the middle of a tough situation. Mr. Hayward would be much better off if he would choose his words more carefully, consider how his actions will be perceived, and, most important, act with compassion. It just isn’t that hard. Too bad Mr. Hayward doesn’t seem capable of any of them.
My honest feeling is that someone had to ‘fall on their sword’ on this one – so it will be this guy – Hayward. He will leave ‘to spend more time with his family’ – get a big fat severance package and in a few years no one will remember him. And I think this is what BP intended all along.