It all starts at the top.
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No matter how well rehearsed your crisis communications plan is, success in any crisis is still dependent on your “communicator in chief,” otherwise known as the CEO.
This truth is particularly evident when comparing Massey Energy’s handling of the Upper Big Branch Mine tragedy and BP’s handling of the Gulf Coast rig explosion and pending environmental disaster.
Massey is facing federal investigations and potential criminal charges in the aftermath of its crisis. During the crisis itself, virtually every media outlet brought up the company’s poor record in the past, and cited numerous safety violations in their coverage.
In the still unfolding BP crisis, while the media and some politicians are questioning BP’s handing of the explosion, the bulk of the blame seems to be with the rig owner and on lax supervision of oil companies in the past. Politico actually blamed the disaster on former Vice President Dick Cheney.
While there are key differentiators between the two crises, there are also some similarities: 29 people died in the Upper Big Branch mine when it exploded on April 5; 11 workers perished in the BP explosion and fire that occurred April 20 on the offshore oil rig platform. While there are long-term mine regulatory issues that will linger due to the Massey case, that crisis is abating with time. The BP situation is different, as oil continues leak into the Gulf and dead birds and other sea creatures are starting to wash ashore.
CEO ROLES KEY
It is clear from analyzing coverage of both disasters that the role, reputation and character of each CEO played a large part in determining how each company’s image played out in the media.
The images of the two leaders couldn’t be more different. Don Blankenship, chairman and CEO of Massey Energy, was called “burly and combative” in a Bloomberg Businessweek article soon after the mine explosion. While his attorney was quoted after the disaster as saying that at Massey, “Safety is job one,” Blankenship has been chronicled as battling against safety efforts by personally dissuading miners from organizing unions, among other tactics.
In contrast, BP group chief executive Tony Hayward is a measured Brit who took over the top spot after a BP refinery explosion in Texas City, Texas, in 2005 and a major Alaska pipeline spill in 2006. So far, Hayward has owned up to BP’s responsibilities for the accident and the clean-up effort.
These differences parallel the user experience on the companies’ respective Web sites. BP’s site features “Gulf of Mexico Response,” with easy-to-find links to reach BP representatives for questions, claims, and family hotlines.
Massey’s, on the other hand, has a link to a “president’s message on the explosion” that yields a “404 not found error.” While the site does have a message to family and loved ones on the landing page, the “accident information link” is short on compassion and long on defensiveness.
For a detailed critique of each company’s crisis response, see the tables below. PRN
CONTACT:
Katie Paine is CEO of KDPaine & Partners. She can be reached at [email protected].
| Criteria | Grade | Comments | Advice |
| Extent of coverage | F | When a U.S. coal mine explodes and it’s covered by the BBC, you know there’s no hiding this news. The number of deaths made it “the worst mining accident in 40 years,” so it remained on the front page for weeks. | In major disasters such as these, extent of coverage doesn’t matter nearly as much as the content. Make sure you analyze incoming coverage for content, messages and positioning, not just volume. |
| Effectiveness of spokespeople | F | Don Blankenship’s lead role as spokesperson did little to help Massey’s image. His long history as a “character,” his bumpy relationship with the media (he once assaulted a reporter) and his reputation for ignoring federal regulations didn’t help his credibility. | If your CEO wants to play spokesperson, make sure his record is squeaky clean and that he has personal credibility with both the media and the regulators. The worst thing in a crisis is a “command and control” personality that is perceived as arrogant. |
| Communication of key messages | C | Massey communicated the notion that it was the Mine Safety and Health Administration that was to blame, not the company itself. However, the media put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the violation-prone company. | With today’s sunshine laws and open access to data, the first thing the media will look for is prior history of violations or problems with your company. Get out in front of these issues, and whatever you do, don’t blame the regulators. They’re the ones who can put your senior management in jail once it’s over. |
| Management of negative messages | F | Every past transgression was dragged up by both the media and anti-coal bloggers, leaving readers with the impression that Massey was negligent. | Whatever messages dominate the headlines for a week or more will be remembered. Exoneration, or correction of data delivered after the satellite trucks have left, won’t be remembered. |
| Impact on stakeholders | D | Shareholders can’t be happy about the steady decline in stock price since the accident. Rumors of criminal inquiries will have a long-term negative impact on shareholders. | Shareholders don’t like to see words like “criminal charges,” “investigation” and “death” associated with any stock they own, so expect many of them to flee if those words show up in your press coverage. |
| Overall score | F | While no crisis involving 29 deaths can be expected to go well, this one was seriously hampered by Blankenship, his reputation and his communications style. | If your CEO thinks that he can control everything in a crisis, you might want to dust up your resume. This is not a communications battle you can win. |
| Extent of coverage | F | The oil rig explosion was just the beginning of a very long crisis that shows no signs of dissipating anytime soon. While media outlets often lose interest in a crisis after a week or two, the ongoing environmental news will keep this story front and center. In addition, the blogosphere is having a field day with this story, with no signs of a let-up in coverage. | While the majority of crises are relatively short-lived affairs, some have a tendency to linger on, fueled either, as in this case, by the disaster itself, or by the ongoing interests of citizen journalists. Either way, corporations need to plan for crises that simply won’t go away. |
| Effectiveness of spokespeople | A | BP group chief executive Tony Hayward has been present, available and, so far, effective in conveying BP’s compassion, concern and commitment to clean up the spill. His physical presence in Louisiana, coupled with his tendency to speak in plain English rather than corporate-speak has won over members of the press, at least initially. However, as costs mount and time goes on, the honeymoon with the press is bound to end. | The problem with long-term crises is that as time goes on, the volume of statements mounts, and it becomes harder to maintain a single company line. CEOs tend to be blamed for “sending mixed messages” when in fact they are responding to developments that may shift over time. It is best to maintain as much transparency (or at translucency) as possible to encourage trust in your statements. |
| Communication of key messages | C | At least in the beginning, BP’s concern and commitment were consistently communicated. The company effectively managed to convey its commitment to bear responsibility for the costs, while deflecting the blame to the owners of the rig, Transocean. However, as the environmental disaster grew, those messages were drowned out by the voices of the fishermen and business owners that will be harmed by the disaster. It doesn’t help that the company is a U.K. firm, and that it is a U.S. election year. | There are two factors to bear in mind: 1) The voices of “real people,” those harmed by the disaster, will always have more credibility and visibility than any corporate messages; and 2) Politicians and others with an agenda may be more adept than corporations at advocating for that agenda. In an election year, be prepared for more than the usual volume of advocacy. |
| Management of negative messages | B | BP has very effectively managed to deflect the blame onto the owners of the rig, but BP’s past history of spills is consistently brought up in coverage. | You can’t escape the past, and as good as your crisis communications may be, the longer a crisis goes on, the more likely it is that your messages will be drowned out and past transgressions will be highlighted. |
| Impact on stakeholders | D | Since the accident, BP’s stock market value has declined by roughly $25 billion, so clearly the crisis is impacting the stakeholders. | Even the best communications can’t avoid the perception of risk. And, in the end, if shareholders see risk on the horizon, they run for the hills. |
| Overall score | C | Under the circumstances, BP’s corporate culture, its plain-spoken CEO and its fast action to meet with the media, have helped salvage BP’s image and, thus far, mitigate the damage that environmental disaster will have on its reputation. | The long-term impact of a crisis is determined as much by the company’s CEO and corporate culture. Ultimately, those factors impact how a crisis is managed, and how the media perceives your role in that crisis. |
| Editor’s Note: The PR News Media Relations Next Practices Forum is set for June 17 at the National Press Club in Washington, D,C. There you’ll have an opportunity to discuss with expert panelists hot-button topics such as identifying key influencers, staying on message, reaching journalists online and offline, dedicating the right resources to media campaigns and much more. For more information, go to www.prnewsonline.com. | |||