The Character and Leadership of BP

As the disaster in the Gulf continues to play out from an engineering, environmental, regulatory and financial perspective it is time to start talking about the character of the organization and leaders that led to this situation.

Over the past three years we have witnessed the melt down of the financial service sector and the now the fouling of our environment. As those in charge sort out the root causes of these disasters from a technical perspective let's not forget to look at the character of the leaders that allowed these situations to occur.

Character is formed around core beliefs. British Petroleum's values are: Progressive, Responsible, Innovative and Performance Driven. These seem like a suitable (if not inspirational) set of values but clearly something has gone wrong in the display of these values with regard to the Deepwater Horizon.

Our response to this disaster and others that befall us cannot be limited to assigning legal and financial responsibility. Our response must include analysis and understanding of the real root cause of man-made disasters; character and leadership.