So Tony is finally getting the old heave-ho. While he is still CEO of BP, it is in name only. I doubt I have seen a CEO screw up so badly in a long time. The problem with Tony is that he just can’t help himself. He is an elitist snob who has no compassion or understanding for what his firm has done. His congressional testimony last week, explaining that he was not in on the decision making, was a joke– a perfect example of a CEO lawyered up and not listening to communications professionals.
But the real issue is the culture that has dominated BP for years. They penny-pinch around safety in order to make profits and have one of the worst safety records in the industry. Yet people are surprised when the explosion at Deepwater Horizon happened in the Gulf? It was an accident waiting to happen, and it did. Their communications response will go into the communications textbooks as example #1 of how not to handle a crisis. They should be ashamed.