In the midst of a major crisis the CEO is the face of an organization, and in the case of BP CEO Tony Hayward it’s not a pretty one. Hayward has done a dismal job of crisis management from the very start and has dug a hole so deep the oil icon may never climb out of it, but would his resignation actually help BP at this point? In a recent Vanity Fair article Bernstein Crisis Management President Jonathan Bernstein was asked this very question, and this is what he had to say:
Not necessarily, argues Jonathan Bernstein of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. “Nothing short of making it right to everyone affected will help B.P.,” Bernstein says. “I don’t think a resignation of any individual would make a difference to B.P.’s reputation. I truly believe that the company is going to become the Arthur Anderson of the drilling industry and get destroyed in the court of public opinion long before the court of law gets through with it.”
Public sentiment regarding BP is already at an incredible low. At this point even if they managed to clean the entire spill, which is all but impossible, the entire brand would still suffer from reputation damage for years to come.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/