It doesn’t take much analysis to see that BP’s handling of the oil spill crisis is a disaster in itself. Most litigators have likely watched BP’s CEO Tony Hayward and cringed. Nearly every statement out of his mouth could be used against the company down the road in the innumerable lawsuits facing BP for years to come.
There are many steps that could have and should have been taken to avoid the PR disaster BP created. And, while most litigators are somewhat trained in how to protect their clients’ reputations during litigation, a large-scale crisis may be difficult to know how to manage.
The Importance of a Crisis Communications Plan
Nearly every situation with a potential for litigation should be considered a potential public relations crisis for the company involved. Every company wants to be portrayed as a leader in the industry, a trustworthy organization, and a concerned member of the community. Unfortunately, in BP’s handling of the oil spill, it failed in all of those. The success of any business or organization rests on its reputation and a crisis can destroy that reputation in a matter of seconds. It can cost companies millions of dollars to fix public perception and can even put them out of business.
The stakes now are higher than ever before because news stories are viral and appear within seconds across the globe. If companies don’t take immediate action, a poorly handled crisis will have lasting consequences. Just look at Enron. It was still making negative headlines in 2006 after the first reports of misconduct appeared in 2001, and those headlines live on forever on the Internet – forever to be Googled. Being prepared before disaster strikes is essential. Without a crisis communications plan, a company’s legal problems will be the least of its concerns.
In developing a crisis communications plan, companies and their counsel should do the following:
Get All of the Facts. Preparing for a PR crisis is not much different than preparing for trial. You cannot offer strategic legal or PR counsel if you don’t know the whole story, especially the most potentially damaging details. The worst information eventually finds its way out, and you certainly cannot prepare for the worst if you don’t know what it is. This is one of the most important steps in preparing for a crisis, but it’s one in which many CEOs fail right from the start. Ignoring the worst (or not understanding what the worst is) and putting your head in the sand will not make the problem go away.
Pull In the Right People. It’s imperative to involve the right people within your organization before and during a crisis. Legal counsel, internal and external PR counsel, and company management must become involved as early as possible. And in some cases, it may be necessary to brief human resources as well. It is this team that should guide every move the company makes. Often a company will make a decision based on the legal considerations without thinking through the PR ramifications and vice versa. They are both important and one should not become the driving force without the other.
Develop a Strategy. Once you have determined all of the facts and assessed the situation, it’s time to strategize. Decide if your situation warrants a press release or a media statement, or if you prefer to do interviews as they come. In today’s media environment, responding via social media may, in some cases, be more appropriate than responding through traditional channels. The Domino’s YouTube crisis and the company’s successful video response is a good example of that. As you approach these critical decisions, consider first the outcome that you want. Then play out all of the different media approaches and decide which is most likely to achieve your desired outcome.
Select and Train One Spokesperson. You must select a single spokesperson, paying specific attention to how your choice will affect your message. This is one of the most critical decisions you will make. No personnel are to speak with the media except for this person. In some cases, you are better off not putting the CEO in front of the media. Let him or her focus instead on running the company and finding solutions to the problem, not fielding media calls. Consider letting the general counsel or someone else trained in legal issues speak to the media instead. Then, if down the road you feel you need the CEO’s face and message out there, you can carefully prepare him or her so the right messages are delivered.
As with any key announcement, do not forget to prepare your spokesperson for interviews by developing key messages and a question and answer document that addresses all possible reporter questions, especially the ones you hope they never ask. A crisis situation is one of the most important times for your spokesperson to be on message and ready for anything.
Remember Internal Communications Are Just as Important. In the height of a crisis with the focus on external communications, it is often easy to forget about getting out the right messages to the people within the company. Ensure that all of your internal communications (written and verbal) include the same messaging as your external messaging. In addition, as most companies span multiple cities and often countries, it is important that you carefully time your internal and external announcements, considering all time zones. You don’t want the employees to read about it in their morning newspaper before they have been able to check their e-mail. So be prepared to make any important announcements to the media soon after it is communicated internally. And as the crisis evolves, keep your internal audience up-to-date. Consider using social media to do it. Set up a blog or separate social media site just for updates.
Stick to Your Plan. Once you have taken the time to develop an internal and external communications plan, you must stick to it throughout the crisis. Remember, to a degree, you can control the story, despite the media. Do not allow media inquiries, leaks or rumors to dictate your timing.
Managing the Message: Learning From BP’s Mistakes
Now that you have your plan developed and you are ready to implement it, it is time to focus on your messages and how the company will deliver them to the public. For companies in crises, the spokesperson must have a complete grasp of the situation and be perceived as confident, concerned and ready to take action. Because tensions are running high and everyone is likely to be exhausted, it is even more important for the spokesperson to be unflappable. Setting aside BP’s failing to be prepared for such a disaster (that is for a different article), the overwhelming failure of the company to be perceived as competent falls on the shoulders of the spokesperson. BP’s Hayward failed as a spokesperson nearly every time he spoke and the company failed him by allowing him to be the spokesperson and taking away his focus on fixing the problem.
There are a few basic guidelines for every company spokesperson during a crisis. While veteran litigators train their key witnesses in many of these same techniques for trial, when it comes to speaking with the media, they often forget that the same rules apply. Had Mr. Hayward followed any of them, the public perception of him and the entire company might be quite different.
Be informed. This is the time to learn as much as possible about as many of the details as you can. Especially if it is complicated, you must understand the situation fully and then work with your communications staff to develop a few easy-to-remember key messages so that you can explain them adequately back to the public. But be careful not to dumb it down too much or you risk sounding condescending or dismissive.
Mr. Hayward told the Guardian: ‘‘The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.’’
If you don’t know, don’t guess. Just say, ‘‘We’re still looking into that,’’ if you must. Don’t feel you need to respond to media questions that pose hypothetical situations. Don’t comment beyond the scope of a question or speculate where facts are unclear.
Mr. Hayward told the Financial Times, ‘‘Almost nothing has escaped.’’ And in an interview with Sky News, said he was not overly concerned by the amount of oil that is flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. ‘‘I think the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to be very, very modest.’’
Be caring and sincere. Particularly in cases where others have been hurt, be real. No one cares about you or the company. They want to know that the company cares about them.
Mr. Hayward’s most infamous quote is, of course: ‘‘There is no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back.’’
Don’t try to blame someone else. It is your company and ultimately you bear the responsibility for the actions of those who work for you. Offer negative information in the form of an honest apology, if the facts warrant.
In an interview with NBC, Mr. Hayward insists BP was not at fault for the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon. ‘‘Well, it wasn’t our accident. . . . The drilling rig was a Transocean drilling rig. It was their rig and their equipment that failed, run by their people and their processes.’’
The mikes are never off. Even in what seems like a closed-door meeting, during a crisis there is no such thing as off the record. What you say will ultimately find its way into print.
About a week after the spill, Mr. Hayward was quoted in the New York Times as asking his inner circle, ‘‘What the hell did we do to deserve this?’’
Choose your words carefully. It is difficult to always say what you mean in each and every interview. Take your time when you answer. Once you have said it, you can’t take it back.
BP’s chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, said: ‘‘People say that large oil companies don’t care about the small people. But we care. We care about the small people.’’
Actions speak louder than words. Ultimately, what you do personally and as a company speaks volumes more than what you say in an interview.
While Mr. Hayward’s participation in a sailboat race sent the wrong message from him personally, it is the company’s mishandling of the oil spill itself that has been the ultimate failure. Whether it is true or not, the perception that the company did not have a plan for such a disaster is what raised the ire of the public. Mr. Hayward himself told the Financial Times: ‘‘What is undoubtedly true is that we did not have the tools you would want in your tool-kit.’’
Conclusion
For some companies, a crisis can be a time to shine. It is an opportunity to show the public what they are made of. When companies respond quickly, responsibly and with demonstrable concern, they can limit the damage to their Public Reputation and even gain lifelong fans.
Regardless of whether you or the CEO is the spokesperson, as legal advisors for your clients, remember that managing the PR side of a crisis is just as important as managing the legal side. At the end of the crisis, if you have won every lawsuit for the company but its credibility and reputation are lost, the worst damage is done.