“Le Train d’Enfer” and the Derailing of Crisis Leadership at Lac-Mégantic
This case provides an inside glimpse into the unraveling of crisis management effectiveness at the hands of an organization’s leader. At approximately 1:30 a.m. on July 6, 2013, 62 tank cars of an unmanned, runaway train jumped the track in the center of Lac-Mégantic, a small, tranquil town in Québec, Canada. More than 1.5 million gallons of petroleum crude oil spewed from ruptured tanks and caught fire. The train, owned by Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA), turned Lac-Mégantic into an inferno. Forty-seven townspeople were incinerated. The heart of the town was destroyed.
The tragedy is a dramatic platform from which to explore and evaluate leadership competence in crisis. From untangling causes and contributing factors, to facing into stakeholder impact, every organizational crisis tests the mettle of its leaders. This case captures what not to do (e.g., regarding timing, context, and communication) through verbatim transcripts and videos of press conferences held by MMA’s leader, events which were described by the Montreal Gazette as “impromptu scrum.”1 The leader’s fundamental crisis management mistakes ranged from speculation, to finger-pointing (inside and outside his own organization), and cross-cultural insensitivity
2. To evaluate how crisis management effectiveness is driven by leaders’ choices that may, at the time, seem relatively inconsequential to them.
3. To differentiate the nature and impact of a leader’s inappropriate responses (words vs. vocal expression vs. nonverbal behaviors) that antagonized public opinion of the leader and his organization.
4. To examine the impact of context on crisis management effectiveness, including timing, and respect for cross-cultural differences.