Jan
16
With Tylenol recall 2010, a corporate icon stumbles
Christian Science Monitor - Laurent BelsieTags: Scandals, Transparency
Filed Under Articles
Johnson & Johnson has long been lauded as a champion of corporate social responsibility. Their handing of the 1982 Tylenol recall has been used as a case study for the proper management of a company in crisis. (Just google “Johnson & Johnson Tylenol case study” – a good example of which is located here.) This time, the company appears to have handled the situation differently. Read the article here.
Excerpt:
In a moment of startling corporate clarity, Johnson & Johnson recalled all its Tylenol from US store shelves in 1982 after capsules tampered with in Chicago were linked to six fatalities.The move cost the company $100 million and threatened to decimate its leading share of the market. Instead, consumers applauded the company’s openness and sales rebounded within a year. Three decades later, the move is still regarded as a shining example of corporate social responsibility.
The time it took the company’s CEO to make that gutsy call? Six days.
On Friday, a unit of Johnson & Johnson expanded a recall of Tylenol products to other over-the-counter medicines, including Benadryl, Motrin, and Rolaids, because of reports of nausea and other symptoms. The time from those initial reports to Friday’s action? Twenty months – and only after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had finished an investigation that found multiple problems at the Johnson & Johnson factory.
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The New York Times has another article about Johnson & Johnson’s problems here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/business/18drug.html