Our Turn: A titanic failure of leadership
Published: 12/24/2020 6:00:47 AM
‘I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.” (Edward Smith, captain of the Titanic)
Epic failures, like the sinking of the Titanic, are the result of negligence on the part of the leaders, not the sentinels. That was the case in the sinking of the Titanic on April 14, 1912, and it is just as true in 2020 with the coronavirus pandemic.
Captain Edward Smith had plenty of warnings about icebergs prior to the fateful collision. Those warnings came from reliable reports from other ships in the area and finally from his own alert lookouts. Failure to heed those warnings cost the life of Captain Smith as well as most of the passengers on board the Titanic.