This is not new in the context of oil spills on open waters- see Amoco Cadiz, which involved multiple parties and at least 7 jurisdictions. Each party blames the other, up and down the "supply chain." I do not find this surprising at all, even in today's "corporate responsibility" times. Actions will always speak louder than words.
What I think we should focus on is less the moral, ethical aspects of disaster prevention, but start a running tab of the real economic costs associated with the accident - including tremendous drop in BP market cap. These will make an excellent case for preventative action that is aligned not with the "low probabilities" of such an event, but rather with the immense magnitude of the resultant adverse effects. Our paradigm for disclosure and risk assessment for certain types of events needs to push back on arguments that these events won't happen and focus on scenario planning for the outcomes. This applies particularly to climate change risks.
________________________________________
From: Lionel Boxer [
lionel.boxer@rmit.edu.au]
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2010 6:56 PM
To:
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU; Koehler, Dinah
Subject: Re: Corporate Environmental Management Speakers Series?
Dinah
Please let me add to what you said, ... How about "taking responsiblity for suppliers and entering into properly thought out contracts that include thorough consideration of risk." I was astounded that the chairman of BP said, "It is my supplier's fault".
Lionel Boxer CD PhD MBA BTech(IndEng) - 0411267256
Associate of RMIT University -
lionel.boxer@rmit.edu.au
Graduate School of Business
my "Assessment of Quality Systems with Positioning Theory"
now in a googe book - see link at
http://intergon.net
>>> "Koehler, Dinah" <
Dinah.Koehler@CONFERENCE-BOARD.ORG> 28/05/10 3:15 AM >>>
It boils down to the challenge of managing low probability high consequence events and that humans (including managers!) have a hard time assessing and managing risks.
Dinah Koehler, ScD
Program Director, sustainability webcasts
The Conference Board
New York, NY
________________________________________
From: Organizations and the Natural Environment Discussion [
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Jorge Rivera [
jrivera@GWU.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2010 9:49 AM
To:
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: Corporate Environmental Management Speakers Series?
Mark,
So, do you think that we may have a budget to organize a speaker series this fall. Want to do it really nice, with lunch (or coffee-cookies), flying two speakers and one local.
Jorge
Jorge Rivera
Associate Professor
The George Washington University, School of Business
Department of Strategic Management and Public Policy
Personal website:
http://home.gwu.edu/~jrivera/
Funger Hall 615, 2201 G Street, NW Washington, DC 20052
Phone: (202) 994-0163; Fax: (202) 994-8113
On May 27, 2010, at 7:57 AM, Mark Starik wrote:
Alfie's right in pointing out the "missteps", but rather than "environmental", they appear to be more "management" failures. The environmental ones, for those of us in ONE, probably include the dependence on toxic substances to fuel our human economies, the devaluing of both human and non-human life, and the over-reliance on technologies that are capable of massive eco-catastrophies, whether chronic or acute. As one of the thousands of academics who are probably writing a case on this crisis, I'm hoping to embed both the "environmental" and the "management" issues in my own case. For me it's deja vu all over again, as I published a case very early in my career (1990) called "Mayday for Marine Life: The Wreck of the Exxon Valdez", so I'm taking suggestions for the title for the next one other than "Mayday Redux"! Let me know if you'd like a copy of that case, and I'm always happy to consider potential co-authors for the next one!
Mark Starik
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
-----Original Message-----
From: Alfred Marcus <
amarcus@UMN.EDU<mailto:
amarcus@UMN.EDU>>
Date: Thu, 27 May 2010 04:10:43
To: <
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU<mailto:
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU>>
Subject: Re: Has anyone noticed the environmental missteps by BP and the US
government in the Gulf?
warnings ignored, fights prior to the incident, failure to do test,
unclear who is in charge, typical stuff.
On Thu, May 27, 2010 at 4:07 AM, Charles Wankel <
wankelc@verizon.net<mailto:
wankelc@verizon.net>> wrote:
Has anyone noticed the environmental missteps by BP and the US government in
the Gulf? If so, post your comments. What would be especially appreciated
would be teaching or research takes on the issues and approaches that we
should be mulling over.
Best regards,
Charles Wankel
ONE-L List Director
St. John's University, New York
http://facpub.stjohns.edu/~wankelc
Add me on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/wankelc
--
Alfred A. Marcus
Professor and Spencer Chair in Strategy and Technological Leadership
University of Minnesota
Carlson School of Management
Strategic Management and Organization Department
Minneapolis, MN. 55455 USA
612 624 2812
amarcus@umn.edu<mailto:
amarcus@umn.edu>