The Gulf deep water well disaster has focused attention on BP's management and their unfortunate PR and media gaffes. Tony Hayward and Swedish Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg elicit no sympathy, and do cause people to wonder about their management capabilities. Others, perhaps BP apologists or those with a no deep sea well drilling agenda, seem to suggest that this was bound to happen and BP just happened to be the unlucky company to which this disaster befell.
But Stanley Reed, who has been covering the company for over 10 years, knows otherwise. His reporting over 10 years shows that there is a very good reason that it was a BP well that burst, and not Exxon or Shell. And the blame likely lays squarely on the shoulders of former CEO John Browne, who was forced to resign after salacious details of his private life emerged in 2007. Browne was beloved by investors for his growth strategy that saw BP's stock rise and reward investors. However, the acquisitions came at a price, with an explosion that killed 15 workers in 2005 and spillage from corroded pipes in 2006. However, the media and public didn't seem to focus attention on these incidents. Perhaps BP's "Beyond Petroleum" strategy was working better than anyone realized.
The reality is that Browne built a company focused on risk-taking and cost cutting - cultural assets in some areas that ended up being cultural poison in the area of deepwater drilling. The story of how the Gulf disaster happened, and the behind the scenes management of the company, is a fascinating object lesson that we will be learning from for decades.
