BP opens up. Not.

Image by ixtlan via Flickr

Way back in 2004 my first post here on Typepad was entitled Big Oil Companies Open up.  It's about Shell reaching out to stakeholders and the launch of it's 'conversation' platform called Tell Shell. 

It starts with;

It’s not often that a company publishes accusations of murder on its website, especially when the accusations are directed against the company. 

At that time it was a functional online forum although heavily moderated.  Now this is what you get;

Thank you for taking the time to send us your comments. Your message will be sent to our Customer Service Centre. A Shell representative will contact you soon.

It obviously didn't work out and was very quickly replaced with a citizen's alternative tellshell.org which documents how pointless and futile it is to attempt open, transparent conversations with oil companies.  

BP's recent oil spill disaster reminded me of the Jean Francois Noubel's statement about the survival of companies;

The future of a company is less about the nature of its issues, and more about its capacity to invent social structures able to solve them.  In other words, an ability to create and nurture networks.

Someone, somewhere on this planet has a solution to BP's oil spill disaster.  But because BP like every other large multinational is organised in command and control structures, it stands no chance of harnessing the wisdom crowds.  What do companies need to survive?

This form of organisation is unsustainable, and we all know it.  BP, where are your super connectors?