One of the biggest tragedies that
happened in 2010 was the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But in addition to
that, another tragedy was the statements issued by the former CEO of BP, Tony
Hayward, following the largest oil spill in history. So today, using three of
the key elements of what it means to be authentic, we will go through and
hammer out why Hayward is NOT authentic.
Some companies put a lot of stock into showing
off their CEO. Generally, it is a good idea to put a human face to a logo; to reassure
people that some robot is not the one making the decisions for a nation-wide
company. Unfortunately for BP, Tony Hayward was not a shining example of this
like Steve Jobs was. Unleashing the CEO is a key element of authenticity
according to GolinHarris’ PR firm. CEO’s are supposed to let the public know
that, in fact, the public is incredibly important to them. Hayward, on the
other hand, was incredibly selfish, publicly stating, “There’s no one who wants
this over more than I do. I would like my life back.”1
Really, Tony?! You want this to be over
more than the wildlife who lost a huge chunk of their habitat? More than the
families that relied on the fish, and shrimp, and crustaceans to pay their
bills? Oh, okay… this is about you.
NEXT, a huge part of a well-constructed
image is using real words. Statements have the tendency to fall flat if they
are not genuine. So Tony Hayward’s apology reel that aired after the spill did
not ring as true with the American public. BECAUSE IT WAS WRITTEN FOR HIM! He
was forced to apologize to the public to save the face of the company. The lack
of authenticity was so great that the popular adult cartoon South Park made a
spoof of it.
The last thing we are going discuss is
the element of Walk the Talk. In a nut shell, it means to avoid “greenwashing”
the situation. To “greenwash” a situation is to make it seem that you are
making less of a harmful impact on the environment than you actually are. A
perfect example of “greenwashing” is when Hayward was quoted saying that the
oil spill was “very, very modest”, and “relatively tiny” in comparison to the
size of the ocean.
In the end, Hayward was asked to step
down and was replaced by Bob Dudley as CEO. All he really proved is he is not
good with crisis management and that large companies need someone who can look
at the big picture that also includes the nation it involves.
word count: 451
No comments:
Post a Comment