Adam Stirling Comment
Jul 27, 2010
One can’t help but wonder what impact the news that BP CEO Tony Hayward will be stepping down will have on the public image of the beleaguered company.
Either rightly or wrongly, the name “BP”, which ironically is supposed to stand for "Beyond Petroleum", has become synonymous with the environmental disaster that continues to unfold in the Gulf of Mexico.
Tony Hayward has made more than his fare share of political gaffes since the explosion onboard the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig set this whole chain of events into motion back in April.
Chief among Heyward’s messaging missteps was his now infamous public comment that he was looking forward to getting his life back after the leak was stopped. That was surely cold comfort to those who lost family members in the blast, to say nothing of those whose livelihoods have been irreparably damaged do the environmental impacts of the spill.
Another public relations misstep saw Mr. Heyward decide to take a break from coordinating the cleanup efforts in the Gulf to race his yacht in June.
It’s interesting that after his company had destroyed the ability for many to fish in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, Hayward decided to unwind by racing his Yacht off the south coast of England. The optics of this are just plain awful. In fact the White House in the US went so far as to call this incident the latest in a long string of gaffs.
Hayward is now stepping down and will reportedly take a job with the company working with its operations in Russia. One of my colleagues at the radio station yesterday pointed out the symbolic nature of Hayward essentially being reposted to Siberia. While it’s technically not Siberia Hayward is being reassigned to, the analogy is likely not lost on those trying to manage the public relations image of BP.
Will this move completely repair the public’s perception of BP?
Probably not, but it might be a start.
The company’s image will only be fully repaired when it fully repairs the damage that it has caused in the Gulf and fully restores the livelihoods of those who live there.
At this point whether or not that will actually happen is anyone’s guess.
This is Adam Stirling.
