On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon rig operated by BP and Transocean was under various

explosions and shattering. It resulted in death of 11 people and one of the major environmental
catastrophe the world had ever seen The oil spill in the Gulf Mexico.
There are several detailed analysis of the events that led to this catastrophe and there have been
many blown out recordings of the event. The case tries to not only investigate the facts, but
provide a rather wide perspective as to the root causes of the accident.
The nature of leadership displayed in the case.
Under John Brownes leadership, in 1990, the company initiated a turnaround and led to become
one of the major players in the industry. Cost cutting measures, external growth and audacious
exploratory strategies were some of the prime reasons. He was very much in favor of
explorations and productions arms exploration in unattended and challenging oil fields, risky or
not but lucrative was the major action point.
Led by the miraculous financial recovery, the companys management developed a strong sense
of overconfidence. They turned blind on the numerous signals that the firm had increased its risk
exposure in operations and was still cutting off its staff and maintenance budgets.
The nature of leadership shown in the case of toxic in nature which led the company on a path
without taking in the considerations of the stakeholders. It illusion itself in terms of risk vs
monetary benefits.

Its contingency for success/ failure on organizational and environmental factors

The failure of the organization and the disaster and its reasons are not must made on Deep Water
Horizon, but were results of the various changes brought about in its organization structure in
1980s. During that time, it had a matrix structure. Since it was having adverse effect on taking
decisions and was acting as a hurdle, Robert Hortin changed the hierarchical structured
departments into smaller teams. The abrupt change in the organization took time to be adapted
by then employees.
BPs attitude of relaxed look towards risk situations and operations ignorance to concerns led the
company to path rife with human as well as environmental tragedies. In particular,
overconfidence, excessive optimism, and framing effects, led the company to develop a
Organsational culture of excessive risk seeking. It trans dented to the operational level as to
regular acceptance of inadequate standards of process safety and high levels of risk.

The way the leadership changed (or otherwise) through the case.
After the privatization move, each CEO showed his preference towards cutting costs and ignored
the imperative aspect of safety.

After Tony Hayward succeeded to become the new CEO in mid-2007, his actions towards
transforming the culture lead to decisions regarding the operations. He wanted to divert the risk
averse. To make BP among the top companies, many mergers, acquisitions and cost cutting
measures were taking.
Merging with different companies incubated different cultures, team leaders and think tanks into
the organization. It created difference of opinions and disruption in decision-making process.

The key decisions made, and how these decisions were grounded in the leaders style.

The key decision taken were in 1908, the wealthy British entrepreneur William Knox DArcy
founded the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which later become British Petroleum, and eventually
BP.
Some of the decisions taken later shows a leadership style that was if toxic nature and led the
organization to ignore environmental factors but primary focus on growth.
BP could have prevented this environmental and economic disaster, if they would have taken the
decisions in favor of safety rather than cutting cost and saving time.
BP cannot be fully accountable for the disaster; there were other companies involved in some of
the critical decisions that were made at that point. Some of the decisions related to this disaster;
somehow link to decisions we make every day. Small decisions taken in a relaxed manner while
putting concerns on backburner has been a major reasons and same is experienced in a Toxic
leadership style.

What lessons the case has for leadership in general, and the development of leadership
skills in your group.
Following are some of the lessons for leadership and development of leadership skills can be
learned from the case:

Crises expose dysfunctional organizational cultures.

Leaders must recognize when a crisis cant be spun.
Leaders need to work together rather than scoring points or deflecting blame.
Leaders are to primarily serve their companies, people and communities.
True leadership exists beyond title and office Every elected leader should strive to
attain that not momentary gains or recognition for himself.