A British Response to an American Disaster
Tony Hayward, CEO of BP
We couldn’t help but recognize the impact culture had on the approach British BP took to an American disaster.
Tony Hayward, CEO of BP, said during an interview with the Guardian “The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.”
What Hayward didn’t consider when he said this is the environment, a bit of geography (gulf, not ocean) and the number of people affected by the spill in the Gulf region and the influence of the environmental movement in the US, which is smaller in the UK. Brits also don’t tend to have the more trusting, close relationship Americans have with the the press. Carrie Shearer, an intercultural consultant and former oil industry executive, opines Hayward should have apologized to the public, stated what BP was doing to correct the disaster and then recruit a crisis communication team to speak to the press, thus removing BP’s leadership from the spotlight.
Al Center, a Cornell University professor of chemical engineering, explains what he would have emphasized:
I would have had a technical spokesman go to all of the news networks to explain what BP was doing to contain the well and the spill. There are 19,000 people working on this problem and BP is spending about USD$20 million per day towards its resolution. I think if people saw the magnitude of the response the public perception of BP would be better.
Shearer explains that it’s not common in the UK to hire a PR firm or a crisis communicator to work with the press on disasters like these, as it is in the US. Regardless, Shearer emphasized that somebody should have trained Hayward on how to speak to the media, which would have saved him the loss of face caused by his reference to the relatively small amount of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico.
Public statements in the UK are less detailed than in the US, apologies are avoided and comments are understated, which conforms with British norms of communication. In response to some of the mistakes BP made when beginning to search for a resolution, Hayward said in the same Guardian interview that “it was a bit bumpy to get [the relief] going. We made a few little mistakes early on.” There was no initial apology to the public, which is what Americans look for when disasters like this happen. The British focus, as we’ve seen through Hayward’s statements, is the reparation and relief.
What do you make of this situation? How much could cultural awareness and knowledge of American media mitigate the US public’s frustration with BP’s management of this crisis? We’re eager to know your thoughts.
Sean
I think this article hides too much excuse behind cultural differences in this crisis.
While I agree that a PR firm could have been an asistance to Hayward (though I would be surprised if he already didn’t have one advising him), a leader should not hide behind a PR firm to try to remove him or her from the spotlight with the media.
The public would see right through that strategy. A leader in the crisis needs to be out front, visable and open in communications taking the crisis head-on. People would respect a visable, open approach.
From what I have seen in various interviews and writings on BP and Hayward is that the issue is not cultural, but rather arrogance.
Hayward said BP had solid contingency plans to mitigate drilling in ultra-deep, risky environments but in hindsight the contingencies did not work. The reality is that there are no contingencies for drilling in this deep, risky environment as few have done it and it is a completely new set of circumstances compared to previous drilling ventures. Therefore, Hayward was either misled by his team to believe they had things covered or BP and Hayward were just arrogant enough to believe nothing would happen. And if something did happen, arrogant enough to say, “well, it’s a big ocean out there.”
CEOs of companies are smart people but they also have a big ego. I believe in BP and Hayward’s case cultural differences had nothing to do with the missteps in managing the crisis but it was everything to do with arrogance and ego.
just my two cents.
dale
CEO’S should be held more accountable. I am appalled that he had the nerve to say. “The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.”
In a globalized world and with information so readily available and online, culture can no longer be an excuse. Besides, as Brittons themselves say “ignorance is not an excuse”. The response and attitude is low, while and abhorrent to say the least.