Gulf Oil Crisis - Where's That Great Leader?

The longer you're in business it's only a matter of time before you are faced with a crisis. The question is: Are you prepared? Your ability to effectively handle a crisis deeply impacts your company's long-term viability. Every business has a series of worst-case scenarios, and business as usual cannot prevail in these instances. Instead, your company's leadership must quickly shift its methods and modes of operation when disaster strikes.

In terms of leadership, the handling by BP(BP) of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been a colossal failure. Offshore drilling is nothing new, and neither is the crisis associated with a spill. The first offshore well was drilled in 1887 from a wharf off the coast of California. Platform drilling began in the 1940s. The first recorded spill was in 1942 when German U-boats attacked tankers off the East Coast of the United States, and in the past 30 years alone, the U.S. has experienced over 20 spills. Given the extensive history with offshore drilling and spill management, the U.S. and oil companies should be experts at responding, containing and cleaning an oil crisis. So what's gone wrong in the Gulf?

First, solid, clear-thinking leadership is required during a crisis. With the BP oil spill, it's impossible to determine who is even in charge! There is no clear leadership or coordinated plan. Everyone, and no one, seems to be handling the situation -- BP, the White House, the Coast Guard, governors. In a crisis, there shouldn't be any doubt who is in charge.

Second, this is not the time for finger-pointing, litigation or the "rolling of heads." That time will come. Immediately following the initial crisis, speed, precision, effectiveness and safety become top priority for resolving and curbing all collateral damage. The leader must have answers, courage and a plan for the future.

Third, crises, particularly of this magnitude, demand overreaction and attention, not excuses, blame-shifting, protracted analysis, abdication and delayed response. BP should have overwhelmed the problem by commissioning more boats and cleanup workers, providing multiple backup technology and equipment required to drill relief wells, doubling tankers on standby to transport reclaimed oil and requesting emergency production and delivery from boom manufactures. Additionally, BP could have assembled a team of cross-discipline experts to triage and recommend alternative, entrepreneurial solutions.