Mistake 1. It happened. The leak. The sinkhole. The radioactive water. Sometimes nothing can be done about those things. Sometimes they can. Regardless, at this point, it happened.
Good Point 1. The company responsible, fertilizer producer Mosaic, reported it to the EPA.
Mistake 2. Mosaic did not report it to the public. The news explanation is that Mosaic, said it, “detected no risk to the public” so it didn’t report it for three weeks.
My experience has been that when events like this happen, the company should not only admit it, they should be PROACTIVE in communicating it to the public.
The Logic. This event will become public information in a matter of hours/days anyway. If so, the company would be better served to be on the offensive rather than the defensive side of this issue, which is where they seem to be now.
There may still be time to make it right, e.g., build trust, restore credibility, etc., but time runs out quickly.
For solutions, click here because there is a way out of this.