Gulf Oil Spill Headache – Take a Tylenol or at Least a Lesson from History

Since the Deepwater Horizon, a semi-submersible drilling rig, sank on April 22 as a result of a lethal explosion (11 people were killed) on the rig two days earlier, more than a million gallons of oil has been gushing in to the Gulf of Mexico each day.  British Petroleum, which leased the Deepwater Horizon is on the hook for stopping the leak and for a clean-up of monumental proportions.

The Minerals Management Service, part of the Department of Interior, which is the government agency tasked with regulating off-shore oil drilling, has been found to be deeply corrupt.  Oil companies also play into this corruption.  Needless to say, neither the MMS nor the oil companies could have imagined that such a disaster could take place.  Both have been found to be woefully unprepared to act quickly to resolve the problem before severe ecological and economic damage could occur.

Juxtaposed, oil and government, both, have given the perception of incompetence in dealing with this crisis.  BP has appeared to act with its own self-interest at heart, rather than dealing with the oil spill as a driver of economic disaster for the states on the Gulf of Mexico.  The CEO of BP seems more concerned about “getting his own life back” than in assisting those whose lives and livelihoods are most affected.  In addition to the corruption at MMS, the government has seemed content to point fingers at BP rather than really helping to fix the problem.

Perhaps those serving in government and leading BP were too young to remember (or too young to care about) the Johnson & Johnson Tylenol Crisis in 1982.  During the fall of 1982, a malicious person or persons, replaced Tylenol Extra-Strength capsules with cyanide-laced capsules, resealed the packages, and replaced them on the shelves a number of pharmacies, and food stores in the Chicago area. The poisoned Tylenol was purchased, and seven people died after ingesting the cyanide-laced capsules.

The handling of that crisis by Johnson & Johnson has been a case study of successful crisis management for the past twenty-eight years.  Johnson & Johnson acted quickly to form a crisis management team immediately upon learning of the cyanide laced Tylenol deaths in Chicago.  The communication was meant, first and foremost, to protect the public.  Johnson & Johnson, itself a victim, chose to err on the side of communication.  Johnson & Johnson also worked, quickly, to find a packaging resolution for protecting against such terror tactics.  Then, and only then, did Johnson & Johnson focus on the recovery of the brand.  The brand did recover, famously.

Johnson & Johnson used remediation and rectification as strategies in the crisis.  Remediation took the form of compensation to help victims of the crisis.  Rectification involved taking action to prevent a recurrence of the crisis in the future.

With this case study in mind, here is what I would have advised BP to do upon learning of the sinking of the rig in the Gulf:

• Establish a communications command center – assign a highly visible spokesperson – hold frequent press conferences to share successes and failures.  Manage public expectations.
• Take care of the families of those killed in the accident – make sure that they are not forgotten.
• Set up a $100 million fund to deal with business/financial disruptions of individuals.  Make it clear that the fund will be added to as the situation assessment becomes clearer.
• Establish immediate communication between the White House and BP CEO – set up regular one-on-one meetings/calls to discuss remediation progress
• Contact all of the governors of potentially affected states – assign a senior BP official to organize and participate in regular crisis meetings – listen empathically and provide requested resources without debate
• Create a generous fund to deal with long-term environmental effects of the spill – endow academic positions to study the resultant environmental issues.
• Coordinate employees and volunteers (encourage, but not require) to work on clean-up – offer to make a donation for each volunteer hour worked to the above-mentioned environmental impact fund
• Bring together world-class experts to discuss resolving the immediate problem and to innovate new processes and technologies to prevent future, such, incidents.  Publish all results in the public domain – do NOT make solutions proprietary
• Do NOT portray estimates as fact