John Napier
Chairman of RSA Group
London, England
Dear John:
Please forgive this open letter, but your letter to President Obama comes across as somewhat prejudicial and personal. Actually, the personal part may be appropriate but the prejudicial part is non-productive. Let me explain.
We agree that President Obama failed to deal forcefully and personally with the collection of Wall Street executives whose incompetence and dereliction of duties contributed to the global financial crisis. We also agree that Iraq and Afghanistan were ineptly handled by our former President, and that President Obama has continued the tragic error of trying to fix Afghanistan. These management mistakes have cost both our countries dearly.
But those mistakes don’t mean that President Obama is required to make similar ones in dealing with BP and the oil spill. They don’t excuse Tony Hayward’s failure to properly govern BP. He was brought in to improve the culture of safety in BP (after the tragic failures of his predecessor) and has demonstrably failed to do that after 3 years at the helm. He has not helped himself in his public pronouncements which suggest a detachment from reality and a degree of narcissism. Both he and his 13 fellow board members (especially the 4 who report to him) should be held personally accountable for dereliction of duty. Of course they won’t fall on their swords, they’ll hide behind the corporate shield and hang on to their jobs.
The explosion and spill were clearly avoidable, a management failure, not a technical accident. This has been painfully spelled out by 5 of the survivors and a host of documents. Profit incentives induced safety shortcuts, the same issues that caused the downfall of Tony’s predecessor. Furthermore, BP obviously had no contingency plans or capabilities for controlling a blowout or for cleaning up after one. In this regard the rest of the industry and our government share some responsibility. To suggest, as you have, that BP has been totally cooperative, competent, truthful or transparent in their ad-hoc responses to the tragedy is to whitewash a less pristine reality and requires a prejudiced eye.
Our criticisms of corporate or political failings should always be personal because it is people who make decisions, not corporations. Flaccid boards and mediocre executives need to be called out and held personally accountable, as do inept politicians. The fact that BP is British run, rather than run by equally incompetent Texans, probably makes calling a spade a spade politically easier but no less appropriate.
We like the special relationship we have with Britain and hope it will continue. We Americans can help by electing more competent politicians and by holding our own executives personally accountable, and you can help by impartially facing the tragedy that top executives and the board of BP have foisted on both our nations and then working to install more competent replacements.
Yours sincerely,
Edwin Lee
Retired CEO
Edwin Lee and Barack Obama conveniently overlook the facts that this blow out was caused by a failure of American technology operated by Americans employed by an American company.
Unless Obama is history, I, for one, want no further part of any ‘special relationship’. It always did suck and I don’t believe it will get any better.
Yanks ripped us off during WW2 and it never got better.
Bye, bye.
Ever heard that people in glass houses should never throw bricks!
John Napier is not in a position to criticise anyone.
The board of RSA pay themselves extraordinary amount to preside over a “once”
outstanding company that can’t even cope with mundane insurance matters.
I may agree with some of his comments, but would suggest he concentrates on doing what HE IS PAID TO DO and sort out his own back yard.