Last night, I was lucky enough to attend a screening of Deepwater Horizon, a terrific movie that tells the story of the catastrophic explosions and fire on BP's drilling platform on April 20, 2010. Eleven men died in the disaster; dozens more were injured. The fire burned for months (yes, months). The resulting oil spill was the largest in history. As you might expect, the movie is a nightmare vision of the crew of Deepwater Horizon struggling to survive.
And, as you might expect, the movie clearly assigns the blame to BP, the gigantic oil company that owned the oil below the drill.
Is it fair to cast BP as the villain? Yes.
BP did so many things wrong — both before and after the disaster — that the company provided a gigantic syllabus on learning how to deal with a business crisis. The movie covers some of the things BP did before the disaster. I'd like to talk about BP's failure to lead after the disaster.
George Merlis wrote that the Fifth Commandment of Communications is “Thou shalt not lie, evade, speculate nor cop an attitude.” Unfortunately for BP shareholders, the company’s executives broke every part of that commandment.
BP lied about the size of the spill, claiming it was much smaller than it was, and lied about the underwater plumes, claiming they were part of the original leak. BP evaded by denying the media access to cleanup sites. And BP famously copped an attitude when CEO Tony Hayward said he wanted his life back — eleven people died in the initial explosion and two more died during the clean up — and this guy has the gall to say he wants his life back? His chairman, Carl-Henric Svansberg, copped an impressive attitude himself when he referred to all the people of the Gulf as the “small people.” (You can’t make this stuff up.)
As Merlis wrote in a blog, “BP’s gaffes just keep coming. It seems no one in this huge, multinational corporation has the capacity to learn anything from previous media mistakes. If BP had a crisis communications plan it was either highly flawed or got thrown out the window as soon as the crisis hit.”
What should BP have done differently? They should have learned from what may be the most astoundingly adept piece of crisis communications in the 20th century: Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s note to the world in case the D-Day landings failed. Think the BP execs were under pressure due to the Gulf crisis? This is what Ike faced if the D-Day landings failed: thousands of lives would have been wasted on the Normandy beaches, thousands more would be wounded and millions of people would continue to suffer at the hands of the Nazis. Let me repeat that: thousands of deaths, thousands more injured, and millions lost to Nazi tyranny.
Ike's crisis communications plan was contained in one short, “just in case” note written as the troops were on their way to the beaches in Normandy, before combat began:
“Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”
How did Ike do in following Merlis’s Fifth Commandment? He was perfect. No lies: The invasion failed and the troops were withdrawn. No evasion: Ike admitted to making the decision and explained it was made with the best information possible. No attitude: He commended the soldiers, airmen and sailors for their effort and then, knowing full well the immensity of the disaster, Ike accepted all of the blame. Alone.
How do we know Ike would have followed this plan? Because in September 1944, when Operation Market Garden (made famous in the book and movie, A Bridge Too Far) failed disastrously, leaving thousands of casualties, Ike accepted the blame. Alone.
If only the folks at BP had paid attention to a real leader.
