In 1982, and specifically on the thirtieth day of September, Johnson & Johnson was on a date with a crisis that nearly wracked the company. A woman died as a result of taking Tylenol, which was one of the best-selling pain relievers in the United States that acted without a prescription, The packages were easy to open and a poisonous substance was added by an active act. The story made headlines and all the stations for six continuous weeks and the people hit a state of hysteria .. It was terrifying and sufficient to eliminate the company.
Everyone was aware of the impossibility of having a way to save the company from collapse, but the genius of managing the crises that James Burke experienced, the company’s CEO, led to restoring confidence in the product and in the company. One of the crisis turns into a billion dollar business.
James Burke made a decision to withdraw the drug from the market, in violation of all the advice that he asked him not to do. He demanded that people immediately stop using any form of Tylenol and began withdrawing the drug. All commercials and examined production and distribution facilities for any toxic or contaminated materials. Within two months, the product was presented in triple reimbursement packages and resistant to tampering and then put up in the form of capsules of gel to make it impossible to disassemble, it was difficult and the crisis was severe and almost ravaged the future The company and the future of its CEO ”
Crisis Management
Crises are events that affect the future of companies, whether positively or negatively..Though crises represent a violent jolt, they are a real test of the companies ’readiness, the coherence of their internal structure, the efficiency of their systems and laws, and the methods of management therein, and the winner is always the one who improves crisis management.
And crises cannot be avoided, as they differ and vary in more than one field and differ in severity depending on the size of the company. Simply, just ordinary problems in a large company. These same problems may become grinding crises in a small company.
Crises can be divided into:
1- Economic:
As the world is now a small village, any economic events that affect the market will extend its impact to your company. The collapse of stock exchanges, the increase in the unemployment rate and the change in exchange rates represent major crises. Perhaps the clearest examples are the recent American mortgage crises, which sparks spill over to large parts of the world and led to a number Major bankruptcies, the most recent of which is the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest investment bank in the United States.
2- Informatics:
Leaking or destroying information to competitors causes problems and crises, especially if the product is a patent and the company is preparing to put it on the market as the failure of the computer network is considered an information crisis