The Untimely Process of BP’s Crisis Management

As we have all learned, crisis management and the planning for and carrying out of such a plan is vital to how the organization is viewed by the public.  BP has a lot to learn about how to communicate during a crisis.

On May 7th, David M. Kinchen, Huntingtonnews.net Editor, interviewed Rene Henry regarding the handling of crisis management by BP.  Henry wrote a book on crisis management, “Communicating in a Crisis: A Guide for Management” and gave his opinion of how BP has handled the situation so far.  “… BP, in my opinion, has done everything by the book. They accepted responsibility and said it was their fault. BP said they would make full restitution and were responsible for all costs, whatever the cost. The company apologized. And the executives showed remorse for the victims. ”  While this may have been true to a degree at the time of this interview, I believe the situation got worse as time passed by.

In early June, ,Kent Jarrell, senior vice president and director of litigation communications for Washington consulting firm APCO Worldwide was asked how BP was handling their crisis management.  He said there are two phases companies should go through when there is a crisis this big.  The first, is “getting your communications in order in the midst of an unfolding crisis where you don’t know what’s going to happen next.”  He said that BP did a bad job of this, as they would report one thing, and yet the media found out something entirely different was happening.  I agree with his assessment.  Media reports were all over the place.

The second phase, according to Jarrell, is to have “a second communications group that is not working on the day-to-day crisis.”  This would allow another set of people to be working on the crisis management.  Since the media is always looking for the next big break, the second group can be focusing on the bigger picture and can prepare better communications to the media.  This would have helped BP during their crisis management.  (For more on the interview with Jarrell, click this link:  http://www.thestreet.com/story/10773867/bps-crisis-management-terrible-expert-says.html.)

A lot can happen in a month.  I believe the crisis management and communication by BP changed several times even over the course of a month.  Since we live in a society where we want everything now, and when the media is there hanging on every last word spoken and action taken, it is imperative that companies make sure they have a solid communication plan in place. 

BP could have handled things much better.  Let’s hope they have learned lessons now and have taken notes!