Contrast VW and MH370 with Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) handling of the Tylenol Crisis in 2002. An extortionist laced headache pills with Cyanide and seven people died. J&J went public quickly to prevent further deaths and immediately pulled the entire product line until the crisis was resolved. This is regarded a textbook case of crisis management, helped by good corporate culture. Johnson & Johnson remain trusted as a company and the Tylenol brand survives today. So crisis is also an opportunity to shine and make a real difference in a difficult situation.
The learning point is that CEOs and senior executives have to be ready to take personal control in a crisis. You need to ensure that preparation is done beforehand and that you, as well as your teams, are personally trained, prepared and rehearsed. Crisis management preparation and training is now simply a case of being fit for senior corporate office.
Use this white paper and checklist to test your personal and corporate readiness.
Be prepared. Be transparent. Be quick.
Please contact me for an initial free consultation on Managing Crisis
It's a CEO and Senior Executive Issue
A crisis is always a surprise and is often unique. If you’d seen it coming, you’d have avoided it. However, crisis response has many common demands, whether the situation be natural disaster, engineering failure, media fiasco or accident. To be explicit, they can, for the most part, be managed with a standard process.
You will assess the situation, make it safe, communicate, mobilize teams, make rapid decisions, solve problems, record information and make announcements. The stakes are high and you are under time pressure and public scrutiny. The price of failure is high. So even though you are surprised, you cannot extemporize. The first most important principle of Crisis Management is to have a Crisis Plan. If you are reading this because you have a crisis and no plan, you are behind the curve; it’s time to call for expert help.
Technology. Programmes. Leadership.
WHITE PAPER
Managing Crisis
We can be confident the CEO of BP thinks crisis management is a board issue requiring personal preparation. He recently referred to the Deepwater Horizon incident as a Near Death Experience for the company. But for some, it is not clear until too late. A mismanaged crisis will expose senior management and lead to public humiliation. It damages reputations, shareholder value and can trigger losses at CEO and Board level.
Malaysian Airlines (MH) were heavily criticized after the loss of MH370 when, as is common, the CEO was expected to take public control and give news briefings under intense public scrutiny. Unlike Volkswagen (VW) whose global CEO went in days when the diesel scandal broke, the MH CEO survived to learn lessons the hard way. Sadly, MH were tested again when MH17 was shot down over the Ukraine only 4 months later. The loss of MH17 so soon after MH370 was heartbreaking, but better managed. Nonetheless the management of MH370 is what is remembered and the CEO stepped down 9 months later.
Stuart Bladen