Not satisfied with being the most self-centered, tone deaf, and incompetent CEO in recent memory, Tony Hayward is now vying for the title of worst former CEO.
Back in July the yachting multimillionaire revealed he remained a proud, deluded whiner, when he said, “I think BP’s response to this tragedy has been a model of good social corporate responsibility” and I “was demonised and vilified…. life isn’t fair … sometimes you step off the pavement and get hit by a bus”!
Yes, sometimes you get hit by a bus “” or at least get a $17 million pension and another high-priced job after the worst CEO performance imaginable “” and sometimes your recklessness, arrogance, and hubris causes the death of 11 people, devastates a major ecosystem, and ruins the livelihoods of thousands of people.
But rather than ever realizing that this entire disaster could have been avoided had he been a more competent CEO — or more competent at his previous job when he was head of exploration and production for BP — he now thinks what he most needed was acting lessons, as Brad Johnson reports:
BP’s former CEO, Tony Hayward, blames public scrutiny for his dismissal from the leadership of the oil company responsible for the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. In an interview with the BBC to be televised this evening, the erstwhile chief complained about an “enormous feeding frenzy” from the media. Hayward famously complained in May that he wanted his life back and promised that “the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to be very, very modest,” leading him to be pilloried by everyone from Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) to South Park. In the interview, he expressed anger about criticism for going yachting with his son, and reiterated that his only fault was his poor handling of the media:
“If I had done a degree at Rada [The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art] rather than a degree in geology, I may have done better, but I’m not certain it would’ve changed the outcome. But certainly the perception of myself may have been different.”
Uhh, Tony, if you’d have gotten a degree in acting rather than geology, you’d probably never have ended up at BP, and the only thing you would have been able ruin it is a performance of Shakespeare.
Hayward argued that the “full glare of the media” made “some extraordinary engineering” look like “fumbling and incompetence.” “We were completely overrun” by a flood of news cameras that spread over the coast and smothered BP’s reputation, he said, “and just not prepared to deal with the intensity of the media scrutiny.”
Hayward told the BBC he was was confident that if BP had stopped the gusher in early June “” after 11 men had been killed and 100 million gallons of oil had already spewed into the Gulf of Mexico and devastated the ocean “” he would still be the CEO.
Why does BP let this man talk to the media? What was the point of keeping him on staff and sending him to Russia?
Related Posts:
- BP CEO Tony Hayward: “I’d like my life back.”
- Hayward says to fellow executives: “What the hell did we do to deserve this?”
- BP CEO Hayward says he’s tough: “So far I’m unscathed”¦. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.”
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Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
It’s still all about him. Un. Believable.
Hayward has once again shown that he is a classic example of a narcissistic and emotionally retarded man, and believes that he is the center of the universe. This type is more common than not among CEO’s and the wealthy, especially in fossil fuel and timber companies, where all that bad karma stinks up their whole lives.
A woman friend once described one of their parties on a ranch outside Dallas- whole cows were barbequed on spits, and servants delivered single malt and giant prawn appetizers on fine china. Famous country music singers crooned in the background. The house made the Ewings’ place from Dallas look like a cottage. Sick!
They delight in giving the rest of us the finger. This will come back to haunt them in many ways.
Years ago I read a study (and I believe a book was later written on the subject) that the people with strong sociopathic and narcissistic tendencies gravitate towards politics and positions of power. The hypothesis was that they were good at lying, suffered no remorse or qualms of guilt, and thus could easily persuade people they were being honest…plus they enjoyed the spotlight.
Probably the more dangerous ones though are those that get into power but shun the spotlight, and manipulate things from behind the scenes. There were one or two of those in the Bush, Jr., admin it seems.
Florida receives compensation from BP
Half of the $20 million BP has pledged to give Florida during the next three years will help pay for seafood inspections. The other $10 million will go toward an advertising campaign to restore consumer confidence in seafood from the Gulf of Mexico. http://www.themunchonline.com/florida-receives-compensation-from-bp-1.1765838
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/us/09spill.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fscience%2Fearth%2Findex.jsonp
Investigator Finds No Evidence That BP Took Shortcuts to Save Money
By JOHN M. BRODER, The New York Times
Published: November 8, 2010
I find it incredible that anyone involved in this investigation would make such a statement. The article has him saying that “his purpose was to explain, not to accuse.” Fine. Then he should also refrain from absolving.
Quite rightly, Senator Markley reminded everyone of BP’s notoriously bad safety record.
Based on his career summary with Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott LLP, Fred H. Bartlit Jr. defends big corporations in cases involving patent infringement, antitrust and False Claims Act lawsuits. In one noteworthy case, he defended President Bush in litigation stemming from the 2000 election. He is a founding partner with the firm and works out of its Denver office.
http://www.bartlit-beck.com/lawyers-FredBartlitJr.html
Is it too early to conclude that the fix is in?
Why is Hayward still running around? This guy belongs into prison!
Spill panel says management culture to blame
WASHINGTON (AP) — It wasn’t just the botched technical decisions. BP and other companies’ management, communication and overconfidence in dealing with risk led to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, investigators for the presidential commission said Tuesday.
The commission’s chief engineer, Richard Sears, outlined seven managerial findings, including muddled lines of authority and a compounding cascade of small problems that ultimately caused 11 people to die and millions of gallons of oil to spill.
“This is something that built over hours if not days, weeks, months. The companies involved each had data. They were each responsible for operations, and if data had been shared differently and operations had been carried out differently, I believe this disaster could have been prevented,” Sears said. “And for whatever reason…it didn’t happen that way, and it’s sad.”
Investigators, experts and panel members said Tuesday BP too often operated on the fly in the closing days of work on its doomed Gulf oil well, adding needless risk of a blowout. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gV02gbDFNYopkYx3DhXvusQmo0gw?docId=b62c045519ba4b3b8afc4f2f6f1c0042