Hi,
How would you feel if seven people died as a result of using your company’s product? How would you react to the news that someone had maliciously laced your product with cyanide? How would you feel if your sales dropped by 90% in just three months as a result? This is what happened to Johnson and Johnson after their Tylenol product was contaminated in 1982.
Their response is a lesson that BP should have noted after their oil spill in 2010. Johnson and Johnson looked at their issue with human eyes instead of financial ones. Their chairman, James Burke, formed a seven-member strategy team. Burke said its aims were first, "How do we protect the people?" and second "How do we save this product?" They recalled 31 million bottles of Tylenol, and they motivated their employees to tour the USA to meet with others in the healthcare profession to rebuild the brand. They lost over $100 million, but they knew their priority was to engage with people to show they cared. The return to profit was phenomenal, and Johnson and Johnson grew stronger from that year on.
Why didn’t BP's Tony Hayward adopt the same approach that James Burke took with the media? Maybe BP didn’t possess the Credo that has guided Johnson and Johnson since 1943. See here.
http://www.jnj.com/connect/about-jnj/jnj-credo/
We shouldn’t be surprised that the United Nations awarded Johnson & Johnson the Humanitarian of the Year Award 2011 for its leading role in its Healthy Mother, Healthy Child initiative. It really is the kind of company you would want to work with or for. It is certainly a company you would feel like buying from.
Tomorrow, I will discuss how Pepsi communicated after it had its own challenge in 1993.
Take care,
Darren.
PS: 'HOW TO GIVE A BETTER SPEECH THAN OBAMA and change your world' - is available on iTunes and Amazon NOW!
Audio Version only.
Text version out January 31st.
Kellcomm, Princes Exchange, Princes Square, Leeds, LS1 4HY, United Kingdom
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