History Repeating Itself?

For years now whenever there is conversation about crisis communication, invariably Exxon comes up as an example of a major entity doing a poor job of connecting with its publics at a time when effective communication was needed the most. It was in March, 1989, when one of the Exxon Corporation's oil tankers ran aground spilling an estimated eleven million gallons of crude oil into the waters of Alaska's Prince William Sound. Despite the fact nothing of this magnitude had ever happened before, executives at Exxon waited a full week before issuing any kind of public statement. And what did they say? Basically, the corporation's chief executive officer Lawrence Rawl blamed the United States Coast Guard and Alaskan government for holding up efforts to clean-up the oil spill; failed to take responsibility for the accident; and announced it was going to pass along spill-related expenses to its customers. As a result of this sorry performance, there are many that continue to hold-up Exxon today as the poster-child for corporate irresponsibility and arrogance.

I bring up the Exxon incident now because of what is going on at this very moment in the Gulf of Mexico. An oil spill that may surpass the one associated with Exxon has occurred. This time the corporation responsible for the safe maintenance of the oil is is another international giant, British Petroleum (BP). The jury is out in terms of how well BP is handling this environmental and economic crisis, yet signs are pointing toward the makings of another example of an entity that has dropped the ball when struck by disaster. Back in February, 2009, BP told federal regulators that any oil spill would have minimum impact to the Gulf coastline because of the distance of its oil rigs to the shore and because its own response capabilities. Sadly, we seem to be witnessing one more example of a company with little or no realistic contingency plan in place to contend with a major crisis.

I am trying hard not to jump the gun here and start pointing figures too quickly. The crisis remains very much underway and BP employers and representatives of the federal and various state governments are working so hard to stop the crisis and then begin the long process or recovery and restoration. At the same time, it is very troubling in these times of natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and ongoing human error that organizations, corporations and institutions continue to pay lip-service to readying themselves for times when crisis occurs. Are we really that short-sighted? Do we really place that much importance on money that we are not willing to assume the extra cost needed to adequately protect the lives of people? Rather than answer those questions, I will conclude by saying it is times like this when the importance of crisis communicators emerge that are able to help entities devise solid plans and then help keep those plans current and viable. It is not a matter of whether entities can afford to have such a professional on their payroll. Rather, how can they afford not to?