THE BP CEO´S LEGACY

John Kenney writes in today´s New York Times:

"Six years ago I helped create BP’s current advertising campaign, the man-in-the-street television commercials.

I can’t take credit for changing the company’s name from “British Petroleum” to “beyond petroleum” (lower case is cooler); my boss at the time came up with it (...)

I guess, looking at it now, “beyond petroleum” is just advertising.

It’s become mere marketing — perhaps it always was — instead of a genuine attempt to engage the public in the debate or a corporate rallying cry to change the paradigm.

Maybe I’m naïve.

It’s just that I believe that the handful of men who run these remarkable companies possess something more valuable than wealth, privilege and power.

They have at their disposal the truly rare possibility of creating a legacy, the ability to change things, on a huge scale.

I never actually met Lord Browne.

He announced recently that he’ll retire at the end of 2008, when he reaches BP’s mandatory retirement age of 60.

I have no doubt he is a good, decent and exceptionally bright person.

But imagine what the headlines could have read: “Lord Browne to retire; changed oil industry and the world.”

Think of it.

Going beyond petroleum.

The best and brightest, at a company that can provide practically unlimited resources, trying to find newer, smarter, cleaner ways of powering the world.

Only they didn’t go beyond petroleum.

They are petroleum.

The problem there is that “are petroleum” just isn’t a great tagline. "