On June 28th I said that it was silly to believe that Tony Hayward wouldn’t be pushed out as CEO or BP. And now that event is all but upon us. Go here.
Why should this be a surprise? It is not because I am clairvoyant. It is because I have been the agent of many such firings over my 33 year career in Silicon Valley. That’s a role that us HR dweebs often play. Let’s set the scene so we can pull the trigger. HR goes into a hush mode (read: Cone of Silence!). So right now whomever is BP’s agent in this matter has legal and HR running around like jackals in heat. Whatever it looks like, it’s not pretty except that Tone (I hope you mind if I use the familiar) has to pay the price for the stupidity of his company and the idiocy of his statements to the press. Tone didn’t look like he cared and if I am guessing right, he didn’t. It’s hard to fake that sort of thing.
One thing will be nice though. His severance package. Oh, and the numb nut wording of the press release. They’re all the same. While they praise the outgoing man for his many years of service they also talk of how they wish Tone (or whomever) best of luck in his future endeavors. I may not have it all correct but I believe I will be in the ball park.
Unfortunately it won’t end the game as we know it. The board will look for the next BS guy (and if you don’t know what BS stands for I can help you). But as long as profits stabilize and there are no more big gushers in the middle of some large body of water, whomever succeeds Tone will be OK for a while.
