Ardent Leisure falls short in response to Dreamworld tragedy

Its handling of the Dreamworld crisis should be a wake-up call for any major company to have crisis plans in place.

How much of the follow-up work is being delegated by Ardent to third parties? Picture: AFP/ William West.

Ardent Leisure’s handling of the Dreamworld crisis should be a wake-up call for chief executives and chairs of any major company to have crisis plans in place.

There is no doubt that the management and board of Ardent Leisure, which owns the Dreamworld leisure park in Queensland, where four people were killed on Tuesday, are deeply shocked and saddened by the tragedy.

But from the outside they appear to have been on the back foot, surprised and shocked at the event — including the level of media ­attention — yet almost unable to believe that a fun park could have accidents, and trying to come to terms with the horrible events.

The message from the board, which was forced to appear in public on Thursday for its scheduled annual meeting, was its deep sorrow at the events. “It’s a time for grieving,” said chairman Neil Balnaves who is stepping down next week after 13 years in the job.

Balnaves said Dreamworld had been involved in running theme parks for 35 years and “this has never happened”.

But the real need is for the company to be moving heaven and earth to understand why it did happen. Ardent Leisure has been energetic about defending its own safety record. It released a ­statement by a safety expert on Wednesday and Balnaves noted “Dreamworld has a strong safety culture and this is of paramount importance to the board”.

But the fact is that something did go horribly wrong and one of the driving forces within the company’s leadership right now should be to track down every fact and decision which led up to the accident. Ardent said it would be having its own internal reviews into what went wrong, which Balnaves said would run alongside the coroner’s report and the work being done by Queensland’s workplace health and safety officials.

But unless the management and board can put their hands on their hearts and say they have found out exactly what led to the problem and what measures they are taking to make sure it never happens again they don’t deserve to be in business.

Thursday’s press conference was an embarrassing example of when chief executives and boards are not seen to be in charge of the management of their own crisis.

Chief executive Deborah Thomas said the company was reaching out to the families, using the police liaison officers. Yet, when pressed, she admitted Ardent did not have a phone number for the mother of one of the victims who was watching the press conference, which was being televised live. It was left to a Channel Ten journalist to report the fury of the mother, who texted the journalist to say she had not been contacted by anyone.

A clearly shattered Thomas was put in the awful position of having to ask a reporter on live television for the phone number of the bereaved mother.

How much of the follow-up work is being delegated by Ardent to third parties?

Ardent is a company clearly in transition. The leisure and entertainment conglomerate includes Dreamworld, WhiteWater World, SkyPoint at Surfers Paradise, AMF Bowling Centres, and its ­expanding Main Event leisure centres in the US.

It has just sold off its gym business to Quadrant private equity and is in the process of selling off its D’Albora marina business. It has made it clear that it sees the expansion of its US businesses as being a major priority, so much so that yesterday it voted to change its name to Main Event Entertainment. Balnaves is leaving and a new chair, George Vernados, is taking over. While Balnaves said he will still be available for consultation if needed, the accident occurred as the long-time chairman was planning his exit.

When Balnaves controver­sially appointed Thomas, a former editor of The Australian Women’s Weekly, to the job of chief exec­utive last year, he was clear the main reason was her marketing skills and her deep knowledge of the interests of mothers and families who make up a big proportion of Ardent’s customers.

She told The Australian this year it was not her job to know the mechanics of how a rollercoaster worked but to encourage more people to buy tickets to the rides.

Big companies, such as miners, not only have crisis management plans in place, and they are regularly tested. They also elevate safety to a serious level at the top of the company to the point where it is built into their DNA and executive pay structures.

Companies need to do more than say sorry. They need to have proper structures in place, both in their internal management systems and the financial incentives for executives which motivate them to minimise the downside for all stakeholders as well as maximise the upside for shareholders.