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E. Bruce Harrison, author of "Going Green," is a former corporate PR officer and the first executive director of the Arthur W. Page Society.

Feb. 17, 2005
RAWL IS REMEMBERED
FOR ONE MUTE MOMENT
 

By E. Bruce Harrison

What CEO, with a successful financial record running a company, wants to be remembered largely for a single mistake in stakeholder relationships?

Sadly, this was the ironic plight of Lawrence G. Rawl, chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon Corporation.

The story of Rawl's life, at least the public story (which goes into historical records and reference perpetuity), is dominated by an event that has become the evil example, the touchstone of political and environmental action commentary.

And yet, it is not only the event -- the spilling of oil from the Exxon Valdez tanker accident in Alaska in 1989, and the resulting environmental damage -- that forever clouds the public memory of this business executive.

Rawl is also linked at a personal level with a decision made within Exxon's management to hesitate before commenting on the Valdez episode.

While there was some brief delay (one or two days) in dispatching clean-up help to the area of the spill, Rawl waited for almost a week before commenting and nearly three weeks before visiting the Prince William Sound site and talking to citizens and the media.


Rawl's letter with 'corrections' by O'Dwyer's PR Services Report in 1989. Click to enlarge.

Environmental activists, editorial writers and a range of public relations gurus all found Rawl guilty of neglect, disregard and callous behavior. How could he not go see what his company was involved in? How could he not go, express personal concern and company commitment to a productive outcome?

A month after the oil leak, Rawl said, in an interview with Fortune Magazine, "I've fished in Alaska, and I've been to Valdez a number of times, so I know what it physically looks like. From a public relations standpoint, it probably would have been better had I gone up there."

Full-page ads in many newspapers carried an apology from Exxon and its CEO.

By the time government declared the cleanup complete in 1992, Exxon had spent an estimated $2 billion.

But it was that top-level hesitation - that no-comment stance, that apparent malaise in management concern - that dimmed Exxon's glow in stakeholder perception, affecting other companies in the energy business as "Valdez" became the clear, shrill cry for corporate punishment.

And it was this hesitation that entered the game book of public relations as the primary example of what not to do when disaster strikes.

Few executives repeat the mistake of mute delay in their own, continuous cycle of relationships with critical stakeholders. Every corporate and agency counselor now knows to get top management to the scene of strife as soon as possible. They know to express concern, and to commit to action.

These executives and their counselors owe a critical learning to a good man -- family man, philanthropist, a Marine who served in World War II, a skilled engineer who worked his way up the ranks of a powerful company to become its competent executive, more in the mold of the Jim Collins' Level 5 humble leader than the charismatic star -- Lawrence G. Rawl, who died this week at the age of 76, a victim of Alzheimer's disease complications.

 
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John Muir (2/17):
Rawl's attitude foreshadowed the indifference toward the environment that we see today in the Bush White House.

I recall Rawl's non-response very well and he appeared to be completely unconcerned about the damage Exxon wrought in Prince William Sound until the PR backlash days and days later.

When he finally got around to acknowledging that, yes, there might be a problem, the public and media had pilloried Rawl and Exxon. A PR textbook case in what NOT to do in a crisis.


 

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