Segway Crisis

Jim Heselden, British businessman and owner of the Segway company, died after riding one of the scooters off a cliff and into a river at his home. It was reported that he was riding a rugged country version of the two-wheeled vehicle when he lost control and fell thirty feet.  Heselden bought the company from U.S. inventor Dean Kamen in December 2009. 

Segway now has a problem.  If the owner of the company cannot safely operate one of their vehicles, how is the general public supposed to?  I predict that sales will go down and people will sell their shares of the stock.  Media coverage will probably be harsh as well.  I have already seen news reports out about Segway safety, and this accident only happened two days ago. 

I think Segway probably had a crisis plan in the event that a customer was in an accident while operating a Segway, but not if the owner did.  I would never think to create a crisis plan for that situation.  So far, a spokesman for the company has confirmed the accident and not said anything else.  This crisis is still in an early stage since the accident happened two days ago.  Within a few days we should be able to see how Segway handles this. 

Read the full article here.

BP Crisis Take Two

Over the weekend BP completely sealed its ruptured well, beginning the end of the company's oil spill crisis.  In the very last stage of a crisis, a company or individual should be in a learning process.  They should be evaluating how the crisis was handled, if changes need to be made to the crisis plan, and what they can do to make sure that this crisis never happens to them again.  I think that is what BP is doing now, along with cleaning up the Gulf.

Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon and Royal Dutch Shell have joined forces with BP in a $1 billion effort to contain future oil spills.  As part of the effort, BP is making its oil containment equipment available to the other companies operating in the Gulf to help them develop a new rapid response containment system. 

In my opinion, with BP helping other oil companies prepare for spills it is showing that they have really learned from their crisis.  They now know what type of equipment is needed to clean up a huge spill and are taking another step in learning by helping fund research for even better equipment.  I do believe that if BP ever has another crisis like this it will not take them as long as to stop the flow and they will be able to clean it up quicker.  I think this is good for BP because it will help with their public image as well. 

Read the full article here.

Venezuela Plane Crash

Yesterday, a plane carrying 51 passengers and crew members went down in a steel mill yard in Puerto Ordaz.  When it crashed, the plane burst into flames.  Fifteen people were killed and 36 were pulled out alive by employees at the steel yard.

The plane was built by a French company and owned by Conviasa, which is a state-owned airline.  This is a serious crisis for both companies.  A crash like this, with loss of life, can greatly damage both companies reputation if it is not handled well.  Since this is just the beginning of the crisis and experts are not going to know why the plane went down yet, the best thing the companies can do is issue and apology and a holding statement.

I think the company that built the plane is not going about things the right way.  In the article, it mentions that they will be coming later in the week to investigate the crash.  That is good, but they did not issue an apology.  Fifteen people died on one of their planes.  In my opinion they need to come forward and at least say they are sorry for the loss and are working hard to find answers. 

The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, did issue an apology statement.  I think the people of Venezuela will respond to that.

Read the full story here.

Colorado Wildfire

A fire broke out Monday morning near Boulder, Colorado and quickly spread over 3,500 acres.  Authorities have reported that 1,000 homes and around 3,500 people have been evacuated from the area.  So far, authorities do not know how many homes have been lost.  They also do not know what caused the fire.  An investigation will take place after the fire has been put out.

There are five stages of a crisis:
     -Detection
     -Prevention/Preparation
     -Containment
     -Recovery
     -Learning

Right now the wildfire crisis is in the containment stage.  Firefighters are hard at work to get the flames to stop spreading and then put out completely.  Officials have been hard at work evacuating people.  The Red Cross set up and evacuation center at the University of Colorado and a shelter for livestock was set up at the Boulder County Fairgrounds.  Details like these seems that Boulder officials had a crisis plan.

However, one detail makes me believe that Boulder officials did not practice their crisis plan often.  For two hours their alert system malfunctioned and officials were not able to send automatic calls to residents to tell them to evacuate.  One resident reported that if they had waited for the call, they would be dead.  Hopefully, when Boulder County enters stage five of the crisis they learn that they need to practice their alert system more often and look for kinks. 

No deaths from the fire have been reported.

Read the full story here.