The ongoing and seemingly unstoppable situation in the Gulf of Mexico, courtesy of BP, has shed an unattractive light on the consequences of what happens when a company keeps their plan for profits up-to-date by the millisecond, but keeps their plan for error as outdated as Fabio. While other oil executives on Capital Hill are pointing fingers at BP asserting, "I wouldn't have done it that way," it made me wonder if another company would have indeed handled the situation differently.

Of course, everyone and every company will make mistakes occasionally. It's how these mistakes are handled and how much precaution is taken towards avoiding mistakes that's important. Whether it's gushing over 2 million gallons of crude oil daily into the Gulf since April 20th (with the end in sight being vague), serious product recalls, or alleged investment fraud, how can other companies avoid being dubbed 'The Next BP?'

I asked Najera Consulting Group's founder, Gabriel Najera, who has worked in the oil industry (Amoco Corp.) for 20 years, his opinion on what can be learned from this disaster. Here he breaks down the top 5 things to be learned from the BP disaster:

1. What does your organization value? How does your organization act when times get tough?

When times are good it's easy to for an organization to say it values people, safety, family, and so on. I quickly knew what Amoco valued when, during my first engineering project, I pointed out a situation that would require a delay in starting up a vapor recovery unit that had already attracted company and media attention. The vapor recovery unit was the first of its kind; hence, the attention. It was on the very day of start up when I noticed a missing check valve. Although I had built in redundancy in the system I did not feel comfortable that the valve was missing. I said so to the refinery manager. I remember his words clearly to this day. He said "Gabe, if you have doubts on starting this unit, let's cancel the show and get it right!" There were other similar occasions in my career with Amoco in which management always deferred to what the person closest to the situation recommended. Does your organization listen to what you say? Do they error on the side of safety or do they just want to get the show on the road?

2. Be wary of what the experts tell you!

I half jokingly define "expert" by breaking down the word phonetically:

X = the unknown quantity; Spurt = a drip under pressure.

"All the things that they told us could never happen, happened." This was the bottom line observation of Mike Williams, the chief electronics technician who was on board the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon drilling rig at the time of the explosion. Take heed of his observation and develop healthy cynicism of what the experts tell you. Who is better equipped to know the reality of the situation than the person closest to the problem/issue?

3. Today's solutions may become tomorrow's problems if you don't challenge your thinking

Albert Einstein once said, "Today's significant problems cannot be solved at the same level of thinking that created them." In fact, this quote is something we advocate strongly at Najera Consulting Group. It's important to look at your organization from a different perspective and challenge the assumptions you have of how the world works, how your business works and (this is key) what influences you to take the actions that you do. For BP, I have a strong suspicion that its influence was profit. The Senate investigations indicate that BP's management routinely dismissed warnings and documented procedures to hasten making the well productive.

4. A history of problems may be the best indicator of future problems

The existence of problems in the past may be the best indicator of future problems. It has been widely reported that in the past five years BP racked up more than 760 safety violations. By contrast, Sunoco and ConocoPhillips each had eight safety violations and ExxonMobil just one violation during the same time period. Is there a history of problems in your organization? If so, you may want to consider putting off that major initiative until you find out the root cause of these problems. Working from the inside out, and discovering and working on the root cause of problems, instead of just putting band-aids over them, will help your organization overcome serious problems in the future.

5. Avoid playing the blame game and get to the root of the problem

Early on during the BP crisis, each company involved in the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig refused to step up to the plate. As oil continued to gush out into the Gulf of Mexico at an alarming rate, the top executives of BP, Transocean and Halliburton blamed each other before Congress. Getting to the root of the problem will quickly solve where the problem lies and who is responsible for said problem. Playing the blame game will only delay solutions. And remember: when you point your finger at someone/something keep in mind that three fingers are pointing back at you!

And there you have it. You may feel that what is taking place in the Gulf of Mexico is not relevant to your business because your company is not involved in deep sea oil drilling or in operating sophisticated technical equipment. Assuming that there are not important lessons to be learned from BP's handling of the issue would be shortsighted. If your organization is a small mom-and-pop shop, an up and coming boutique, or a huge conglomerate, every organization can learn from what transpired on our Southern shores.