A few columns ago, I wrote about a “layered” corporate voice.  BP is a perfect example of that.  The highest executive in a company probably single-handedly communicates the corporate voice of that company more than anyone else.  That’s why if you’re in that position, you can’t let your guard down even once, especially in a crisis situation. 

 Tony Hayward,  BP CEO has been leading his company through a crisis situation for two months now and I’m afraid not thinking much about his coporate voice/layered corporate voice at all.  In his/BP’s latest public relations gaffe, Mr. Hayward went home to England for a short vacation to watch his yacht, Bob, compete in a race around England’s Isle of Wight this past Saturday.  Once the news spread on the web, there was not much neutralizing he or his company could do to make the U.S. Gulf Shore residents and many others sympathetic to his need for a vacation.    Everyone is entitled to a vacation.  That’s not what we’re talking about here.  We’re talking about the top leader at BP taking a vacation during a crisis situation that his company caused and the perception that the world sees–him relaxing, spending time with his family in luxurious fashion while thousands of residents in the troubled Gulf  area can’t even go fishing which for many of them is their livelihood.

I can’t say it enough:  your corporate voice is never on “off”.  You must think about it constantly especially if you’re in a crisis position.  You must remember who your audience is and you must always think about the media equation:  Corporate Voice + Mediatude = Public Perception.  If not, you may wind up like Mr. Hayward and BP–unable to neutralize anything, adding more negative mediatude to an already negative situation and sinking so fast you may never be able to recover.