TCII :: Management Consultants

Last week we looked at the importance of corporate responsibility in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon environmental disaster. This week, as BP chief executive Tony Hayward is ousted from the pariah oil giant, we ask, what lessons can others learn from his mishandling of the disaster and the media furore that followed?

Take responsibility - At the beginning of May, two weeks after the oil rig explosion that sparked the crisis, Hayward denied that BP is at fault, telling NBC News: “Well, it wasn’t our accident, but we are responsible for cleaning it up...the drilling rig was a Transocean Drilling rig. It was their rig and their equipment that failed, run by their people and their processes.” A week later BP, Transocean and Halliburton all denied responsibility and blamed each other.

Be honest and realistic - In mid-May Mr Hayward was quoted as saying: “I think the environmental impact is likely to be very, very, modest.”  Last month, the US Geological survey put the amount of oil escaping each day since the spill at approximately 40,000 barrels per day, in contrast to early estimates of 1,000 barrels a day.

Have an airtight disaster plan - The Deepwater Horizon rig was operating at depths of almost a mile, at the limit of underwater drilling technology. Firstly BP should have assessed the risks carefully and in great detail before reaching such depths, and secondly they should have had a definitive foolproof method for dealing with these risks.