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THE RESPONSE: Exxon Mobil quickly came under fire for deflecting the blame and being aloof. The company wound up paying $3.4 billion in cleanup costs, fines and compensation to victims. An Anchorage jury determined in 1994 that Exxon should pay $5 billion in punitive damages, but Exxon spent more than a decade fighting that decision. It argued it shouldn't be liable for the actions of the tanker's captain, Joseph Hazelwood. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court reduced Exxon's punitive damages to $507.5 million. THE LESSON: Perseverance can pay for the company. Exxon Mobil is stronger financially than when the spill happened and reigns as the most valuable U.S. company. Levick, the public relations expert, thinks Exxon Mobil has managed to recast itself as environmentally sensitive because of the work it did to restore Prince William Sound. (Some environmental researchers see it differently, arguing it will be decades before all the oil is gone.) Exxon Mobil may not have emerged in such good shape had its spill not occurred in one of the least populous states, Goldsmith said. He also thinks Alaska's economic dependence on the oil industry made things easier for Exxon Mobil. BP's spill is far larger and is damaging a much more densely populated area. This calamity also threatens to defile beach communities more interested in money from tourists than oil companies. Math flaw discovered in Intel's Pentium chip in 1994 THE CRISIS: A college mathematician disclosed that personal computers relying on Intel's Pentium chip spit out the wrong answer to some obscure division problems. THE RESPONSE: Intel initially brushed off the flaw as too inconsequential for most computer users to care. But consumers began to fret about the Pentium's reliability, especially after the problem attracted media coverage and became a cultural touchstone for ineptitude. IBM, then a leading maker of PCs, also didn't like the idea of putting faulty chips in its products. The backlash culminated when a mortified Intel CEO Andy Grove agreed to replace all Pentium chips. The company set aside a $420 million reserve to cover the costs. THE LESSON: The customer is always right and corporate arrogance is always wrong. JetBlue's operational meltdown in February 2007 THE CRISIS: When a severe ice storm paralyzed the Northeast, JetBlue kept some passengers on planes stuck on tarmacs for more than 10 hours on Valentine's Day. Things didn't get any better in the next few days. JetBlue canceled more than 1,000 flights over the busy President's Day holiday weekend. THE RESPONSE: JetBlue's then-CEO, David Neeleman, quickly went on national TV to apologize and the airline also expressed its regret in full-page newspaper ads. Passenger complaints prompted JetBlue to adopt a "Customer Bill of Rights" that promised full reimbursements for some flight cancellations and credits for delays within the airline's control. The contrition and concessions won praise from public relations experts, but JetBlue's board still wasn't satisfied. Neeleman, the airline's founder, was forced out as CEO less than three months after the Valentine's Day mess. THE LESSON: Making financial concessions after a crisis isn't always enough. Sometimes a CEO's head must roll, too.
[Associated
Press;
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