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Tone-Deaf BP CEO Says: “I Want My Life Back”
BP CEO Tony Hayward’s complaint that he “wants his life back” is the most tone-deaf comment I’ve ever heard uttered by a CEO doing crisis communications.
This is what he said to Fox News yesterday: “There’s no one who wants this thing over more than I do. You know, I’d like my life back, so there’s no one who wants this thing done more than I do. And we’re doing everything we can to contain the oil off shore, defend the shoreline and return peoples lives to normal as fast as we can.”
Crisis communications is all about staying focused on the main messages you want to convey. One of the key messages to convey in any crisis is one of empathy and concern. When people are upset, they need to know you care. That demonstration of empathy is critical for building trust and credibility.
Hayward’s comment shows an astonishing lack of awareness for the situation and what it requires.
This event began as a tragic industrial accident that claimed 11 lives, then mushroomed into the largest environmental disaster in the nation’s history. The damage to the Gulf and to those who depend upon it for their livelihoods is beyond calculation and the crisis continues with no end in sight.
Someone at BP needs to grab Hayward and tell him: “It’s not about you!”
Having the CEO act as spokesman usually lends credibility to crisis communications, so long as the CEO has some skill and comfort in communicating with the media. Is Hayward up to this?
When a Reporter Says, “Don’t Touch Me,” Then Don’t Touch Him
This confrontation between a hospital public relations person and an investigative TV reporter unfolds like a slow motion car crash.
The setting: A sleepy public meeting hosted by a Northern California hospital. A local TV news crew arrives in pursuit of a story about alleged abuse of a patient gift fund. The investigative reporter pounces for an ambush interview. The PR guy steps in and decides to throw gasoline on the fire.
The lessons here for PR are obvious enough: Don’t antagonize a reporter. Don’t escalate a tense situation. Don’t become the story. DON’T BE CRAZY!
But I also want to add a word of caution against the “siege mentality” a negative story can breed in PR , in which the press is viewed as the enemy. Negative stories happen, but the press is not your enemy. There might be people in your company who feel that way, but the PR person does not have that luxury. Your job is to fix things.
The PR person in this little passion play — who I’m not going to name. He’s having a bad enough week as it is — has an “us” against “them” mindset that makes him think it’s OK to treat this reporter with disrespect.
Another takeaway is that this was a PR “FAIL” before the PR person said his first word. The real work of PR needed to begin much earlier – tracking down answers to the reporter’s questions, coordinating the response, setting up interviews, and generally doing whatever it took to avoid having the “I-Team” show up at your public meeting.
My thanks to Mark Bernheimer of MediaWorks Resource Group for calling attention to this little gem.
Is that Charity Worth Supporting? Here’s an Easy Test.
Want to know if that charity helping Haiti, or some other cause important to you or your company, is worth supporting?
Here is a very simple formula that removes all the guesswork.
First, obtain a copy of the charity’s most recent IRS Form 990. These are freely available through Guidestar.com.
Add Line 14 (management expenses) to Line 15 (fundraising expenses). Now, take that sum as a percentage of the charity’s total revenue as reported in Line 12. So the formula is: Line 14 + Line 15 divided by Line 12 x 100.
This gives you the organization’s combined management and fundraising expenses as a percent of revenue.
If that number is higher than 30 percent, i.e., if a non-profit is spending more than 30 percent of its revenue on management and fundraising expenses (as opposed to services), that’s a problem.
Some might argue that the threshold should be a bit higher, say, 35 percent, but stick with 30 – unless the non-profit has some compelling reasons why it is higher.
The 30 percent test is used by grants’ administrators at many major corporations to evaluate requests for charitable support. These programs are often – or should be – closely tied to a company’s community and public relations efforts.
In the wake of a tragedy like the earthquake in Haiti, companies are likely hearing about and receiving solicitations from a number of organizations promoting their work in the disaster relief effort.
Give, by all means. But give wisely.
PR News Online
- For Crisis Response Web Leader, BP Spill a Marathon, Not a Sprint September 2, 2010
- Reality TV vs. Real PR Professionals September 1, 2010
- Ask the Speaker: Jason Winocour on the Next Generation of Social Media Tools August 31, 2010
- Media Beat: Journos Paint Rosier Business Picture August 30, 2010
- Apple’s iPad Gains Corporate and Consumer Fans August 30, 2010
