From "I'd like my life back" to "I don't know" ^ 65 to "rare private time" on his yacht in clean European waters, BP's Tony Hayward has put on the most self-damaging and institution-harming performance by a supposedly savvy bigshot since, well.... I can't think of anything comparable.
- John Edwards destroyed himself with flat-out lies, but until he was caught out he didn't act as tone-deaf as this.
- The pre-philanthropic Bill Gates was harmfully haughty during the 1990s-era Microsoft antitrust trial, but that was a long time ago.
- Mark Zuckerberg did not make Facebook any friends with his flop-sweat performance at a recent conference, but that was a small insider group.
- Zhang Qingli, a Chinese Communist official, called the Dalai Lama "a jackal clad in Buddhist monk's robes," but he was mainly playing to a supportive domestic Chinese audience.
All in all, I can't think of any CEO who has been as consistently and unbelievably self-destructive as Hayward, especially in this past month. I can remember when this guy was thought of as a sparkling young hotshot! That was only four years ago. If anyone has a nominee for a worse public performance than Hayward's, please let me know. Will report any suggestions that cross the "worse than Hayward" threshold.
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Tony Hayward - BP - Mark Zuckerberg - John Edwards - Facebook
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- John Edwards destroyed himself with flat-out lies, but until he was caught out he didn't act as tone-deaf as this.
- The pre-philanthropic Bill Gates was harmfully haughty during the 1990s-era Microsoft antitrust trial, but that was a long time ago.
- Mark Zuckerberg did not make Facebook any friends with his flop-sweat performance at a recent conference, but that was a small insider group.
- Zhang Qingli, a Chinese Communist official, called the Dalai Lama "a jackal clad in Buddhist monk's robes," but he was mainly playing to a supportive domestic Chinese audience.
All in all, I can't think of any CEO who has been as consistently and unbelievably self-destructive as Hayward, especially in this past month. I can remember when this guy was thought of as a sparkling young hotshot! That was only four years ago. If anyone has a nominee for a worse public performance than Hayward's, please let me know. Will report any suggestions that cross the "worse than Hayward" threshold.
