BP

With reports that the oil gusher in the Gulf is nearly kaput, BP's new CEO announced Friday that the company would scale back its cleanup efforts in areas where there is no more oil. Makes sense. Still bad for the brand, though.

There are two problems with which BP must contend, one situational and the other conceptual:

This BP mess is definitely an ecological disaster as well as a brand disaster of the century and it will take us decades to see the real impact. BP has lost half of its market value and there are even considerations for shareholder lawsuits on behalf of BP investors who have lost money because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The ongoing tragedy of BP’s well disaster makes me both sad and mad at the same time, and I’ve been trying to think if there is anything useful to learn from this difficult situation. As I’ve been reading about the tragedy, I think there are at least three things that leaders who are performing large scale innovations can learn from.

The Gulf Coast oil disaster is has already achieved horrors of epic dimensions -- 11 people are dead and a slick the size of Puerto Rico threatens to devastate ecologies and economies from Louisiana to Florida -- so talking about marketing right now seems somewhat irrelevant. But BP's branding plays a central role in both the run-up and aftermath of the crisis, so there's much to be learned from it.

by: Ilya Vedrashko

by: Michael Hoexter

This week I finally got around to renting “Syriana” on DVD. “Syriana”, multiply nominated for the Oscars last year, is the latest movie by Stephen Gaghan, the writer/director of “Traffic” which was also recognized with numerous awards.

by: Michael Hoexter