WHAT TO DO WHEN IT ALL GOES WRONG

WHAT TO DO WHEN IT ALL GOES WRONG

Amanda Miller

March 6, 2008

Crisis management is an important element of being an effective public relations practitioner. In today's age of corporate scandal, over paid CEOs, poorly made products and health conscious consumers it is especially essential that public relations practitioners be quick on their feet and be able to represent their clients to their highest abilities despite their client's negligence or mistake. There is no better example of what to do in a crisis situation than the Johnson and Johnson Tylenol Case Study. 

Johnson and Johnson had an unfortunate incident of one individual lacing their drug products with cyanide. Seven people died as a result, and a widespread panic ensued about how widespread the contamination might be. Johnson & Johnson acted quickly. They ordered that Tylenol should be recalled from every store and place of sales in the country. Johnson and Johnson did not want their product sold until complete reassurance that their product was completely safe. As a result, Johnson and Johnson developed the tamperproof packaging that would make it much more difficult for similar incident to occur in future. 

Johnson and Johnson case study is know as a text book example of how to respond to a crisis situation. Johnson and Johnson were so successful because they acted quickly and took full responsibility to the situation. They removed their source of concern from the shelves to ensure safety to their consumers. They took measures to ensure that a situation like this would not happen again. Finally, they suffered the short-term blow to in order to regain their international status as a truth worthy company. 

Since we live in a world where news travels at the speed of light. It is important to have crisis management plan. Companies must be able to quickly answer questions and allegations about looming crisis. There are more examples or organizations getting crisis management wrong than doing it right. When crisis strikes, most companies are unprepared and poorly handle the situation. The Exxon Mobile oil spill is a classic example of what NOT to do in a crisis situation. Organizations would have better results if they admit to their mistakes, realize that this event will pass and try their hardest to make the situation right. I think if new public relations practitioners know how to handle themselves in a crisis then we expect great results from the new generation in the public relations field. 

Graphics: http://www.evannewman.com/photography/other/tylenol.jpg