The sad news is that the four situations listed below – could have been handled better from the very beginning. They had people who could do that for them. And some probably did have crisis management advisors. These are expensive lessons to learn for those experiencing the problems.
BP oil spill
Probably one of the largest corporate disasters of all time. The Deepwater Horizon incident left 11 people dead and spilled 206 million gallons of crude in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The share price after the BP Oil incident, plummeted in the first 30 days from $60 to $27. $100 billion of shareholder value was lost from the beginning until resolution. The bad news didn’t stop there, $20 million of company funds had to be put in an account covering cleanup and replacement costs. For over 200 days, there was ongoing news coverage about this disaster and the company seemed to spend more time trying to hide from the public then confronting the problem and presenting solutions. Had they done so, it may have still cost them the same in short term dollars, but recovery could have been much faster.
Massey Mine Explosion
