Thoughtless communication brings negative attention
Remember the big oil spill last year in the Gulf of Mexico?
I’m guessing your answer is yes. And, because our collective answer to that question is yes, Transocean Ltd. created a PR problem for itself when it claimed in an SEC filing last week that 2010 was the “best year in safety performance in our company’s history” and disclosed that it has awarded big safety bonuses to its top executives.
For example, Transocean President and CEO Steven L. Newman got a $374,062 bonus plus a $200,000 raise.
Transocean owned the Deepwater Horizon, the offshore rig that blew up in the Gulf of Mexico last April, killing 11 workers and triggering the biggest oil spill in history.
This quote, from Jerry Brown’s Monday Morning Media Minute, highlights a mistake by Transocean that goes against every lesson it should have learned from its largely failed crisis management campaign following the spill. Still displaying a large dose of arrogance and self-importance, Transocean’s execs are likely well on their way toward another disaster.
If a year in which 11 workers were killed and unmeasurable damage was done to the ecosystem of an entire region is one to celebrate because it was the safest in company history, then what does that really say about the organization, and shouldn’t it be rushing to fix things?
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/