Jessie Carpenter
Professor Merrie Marks
MGMT500.2 Principles of Management
21 September 2013
Case Analysis: Micky Arison and the Costa Concordia Tragedy
The former CEO of Carnival Corp. faced one of his biggest challenges when the Costa Concordia cruise ship began to sink off the Italian coast in January 2012. His actions at the time caused a bit of hype in the public eye. People wondered why Micky Arison wasn’t taking a more public role during the incident. From across the seas Mr. Arison expressed his condolences to victims via Twitter and in company news releases. He also gave his personal assurance that Carnival would take care of the passengers, crew and the victims and ...view middle of the document...
A decline in revenues might show this, but a string of similar incidents was more likely the culprit. His rationality of managing the crisis from Miami allowed the media attention to be directed more toward immediate Costa executives and unit management rather than the parent company Carnival. The Captain Francesco Schettino even faced charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship (“Arison on Costa”). Of course the Chief Executive wouldn’t want to be directly involved with the disaster.
Economy may have been an environmental force that also influenced Arison’s decision. Europe’s then high fuel prices and struggling economy were already creating a challenge in a normally heavy booking season (Kinicky, Williams 92). Booking dropped drastically after the accident. Since Arison allowed a great deal of executive independence he may have seen Costa cruise line as one that was already in trouble. Arison did however state his confidence in Costa Crociere telling the Herald that Costa will remain a Carnival brand and he has “a lot of faith” in Costa CEO Pier Luigi Foschi and his staff (“Arison on Costa”).
Arison made an ethical decision that not everyone would agree with. His consideration for the company as a whole may have been somewhat utilitarian letting the Costa and Concordia divisions basically take the fall alone. On the other hand, moral rights such as safety were ignored in the first place. It is possible that his media avoidance was an attempt to downplay the negligence.
After the incident, Costa Crociere, the company that owns of the Costa Concordia ship is...