BP's Downfall: Faulty CSR or Misguided PR?

Once upon a time, BP was lionized for its CSR. The company ranked in the Corporate Knights Global 100 in 2005 and 2006, not coincidentally dropping off precipitously in 2007, the year that Lord Browne stepped down as CEO. Insiders have suggested for some time that now-CEO Tony Hayward never shared Lord Browne's passion for the environment, an assertion that has certainly become evident in the past few weeks. His quote in the NYT from two days ago--- "This is like the Normandy landing... We know we are going to win. We just don't know how quickly," dovetails with his unwillingness to pay proper tribute to the individual lives--- both human and wildlife--- ended or hurt by the events of the past few weeks.

BP's errors proved to be a vibrant topic at Good Business 2010, the third annual CSR Forum put on by New York's Better Business Bureau (for a full run-down of the event, visit Mike Hassett's coverage of the BBB conference). In fact, two rival PR firms represented at the eent--- Edelman and Ogilvy--- each were asked to offer perspectives during the conference about what BP had done wrong from a publicity perspective. Michael Holland from Edelman cited BP's failure to take responsibility and respond quickly as the company's key mistakes.

Mr. Holland's comments were echoed and embellished upon during the final chapter of the conference, which consisted of the Advertising Columnist for the New York Times interviewing the Global CEO of Ogilvy, Christopher Graves. Himself a former newsman, Mr. Graves considers BP's failure to respond swiftly as having contributed to its perceived culpability. In truth, he pointed out, it is unclear what BP would have been able to control to prevent the situation, but the company would have saved itself a lot of grief by properly acknowledging and describing BP's relationship to the situation. After all, the root causes identified so far can be attributed to BP suppliers rather than to BP itself.

Be that as it may, BP committed the ultimate PR no-no when its leadership attempted to distance itself from its supply chain. "Not my fault" is not an acceptable response to a supply chain crisis. The general public is willing to offer redemption to the penitent, but in this context, BP's distancing can (and has) been interpreted as callous disregard.

With all that said, can BP resurrect its reputation? According to Mr. Graves, any sort of come-back will require a dose of humility and tons of humanity. "The people who you trust are the people who tell you the truth", he articulated, citing the "How things work" series as an example of how to tell a story that is clear and credible. After all, no amount of empty CSR claims will make the public believe that BP is without any culpability for one of the worst oil spills in history.

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