Oil Rig Deepwater Horizon and the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico (April to August 2010)
For the past 3 months, we have been hearing emotions vented about the oil leak from some 5,000 feet beneath the waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The Macondo well has now been sealed and we are witnessing the aftermath.
So, what is going to happen to BP? The company’s press releases have stated that it will be a smaller but wiser company.
This has been a very painful and expensive experience. The financial cost has been enormous, a US$ 20 billion compensation fund, setting aside monies (US$ billions) for other liabilities and major loss of reputation to the brand. On the other side, lives have been affected and the damage to the environment. What matters is what comes out of this debacle.
As this blog is about feng shui, let us look at BP from this unique perspective.
The previous BP Head Office was at 1 Finsbury Square until 2003 when they moved to 1 St James’s Square. The feng shui of the Finsbury Square building is good was discussed in a previous posting .
Between the 1960s and 1990s (40 years), there were 2 major incidents on recorded in Wikipedia
1965 – Sea Gem offshore rig disaster
1993-1995 – Hazardous substance dumping (Alaska)
This new Head Office in St James’s is at a considerable distance from the flow of energy. Therefore, very little energy gets into the building (link) and it will suffer “misfortune”. This misfortune could be interpreted as, persistent problems and problems get highly magnified. This leads to loss of business which leads to a smaller business or a merger or a takeover.
The previous owners of the building – Ericsson mobile communications downsized to smaller offices and merged their mobile phone operations with Sony to form the Sony Ericsson brand. This merger is corporate speak for “unsuccessful”.
This is the list of problems since BP moved to their new head office at St James’s Square within 7 years in Wikipedia .
2005 – Texas City Oil Refinery explosion
2006-2007 – Prudhoe Bay Oil spill
2010 – Texas City Chemical Spill
2010 – Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Secondly, when I looked that the PR campaign by the CEO – Tony Hayward, what he said was inappropriate in a highly emotionally charged time even though, with hind sight, he had spoken the truth. BP, with its might and wealth, can afford the best PR money can get, but look what it produced. It scored an own goal and a disaster on the career’s front. Tony Hayward is no longer the CEO of BP.
My prognosis:
BP will lurch from one crisis to another as long as it remains in the St James’s Square Head Office. For the company’s sake I hope I am wrong but from the evidence I have stated, a very rocky road downhill remains ahead for BP.
Dr Michael Oon
