Story of Italian Cruise Ship Sinking a Powerful Metaphor for Business
“From what travel agents are telling me, that horrifying image (of the massive ship on its side) is going to turn the cruise industry on its side, too.”
-Mike Driscoll, editor-in-chief of Cruise Week Magazine, as quoted in USA TODAY
What a quote. It’s my favorite of the week. I’m pondering this as I read stories and see images of the Italian cruise ship that hit an obstacle and within minutes starting to fill with water and go down. How no one was prepared. How it was so unexpected. And how tragic it is because it was entirely avoidable. But most of all how the captain of the ship reacted.
Talk about a PR disaster! I can see the headline: Cruise Industry Sinking!
Not only is the cruise industry facing this but Italy also has a PR disaster because the captain of the ship walked off! Now he’s in jail. What a coward.
Contrast this to Sully who successfully landed a plane in the Hudson and carefully helped his passengers off in freezing water. We felt a surge of national pride.
What would you do if this were you, your industry or your country?
In a sense when bad news hits, it’s like an obstacle you didn’t see coming and after a point, couldn’t avoid hitting.
The story of the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia sinking (here are some great photos of the cruise ship on Google +) in fair weather with clear skies is more than a PR disaster for the cruise industry though. It’s more than the story of people dying and the person in charge running off while everyone else suffers (bringing to mind the stories of Enron, Bernard Madoff, execs from major financial institutions).
It’s a story that reminds me of what happens to industries (newspapers, music, books), people, companies (Borders, Circuit City, WordPerfect, Hollywood video) and products (dvds, text books) all of the time. I’m fascinated by what happens next after you go through the shock and clean up the damage, what emerges.
This story is sad, true and it’s a powerful metaphor for business. What did it teach you?
3 Responses to “Story of Italian Cruise Ship Sinking a Powerful Metaphor for Business”
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January 15th, 2012 at 11:14 am
For a week or two maybe… You PR types always seem to overestimate our memories.
January 15th, 2012 at 11:22 am
Actually PR people are lucky we have very short memories. The best thing that can happen when it’s really bad is another big story to hit and distract everyone’s attention. But the story of Madoff and some of the others don’t fade quickly because they hurt so many people. As soon as this hit everyone suddenly remembered the Titanic even though it happened a long time ago. For me it’s the lessons you learn from the news that fascinate me or the lessons we don’t learn….
January 17th, 2012 at 2:10 am
That if you see the captain drinking at the bar, it’s time to find a new mode of transport.