Management Analysis of The 1982 Tylenol Crisis

Johnson & Johnson is a medical supply company that owns the brand Tylenol. According to their website the Johnson & Johnson corporation have been in business since 1886. On September 1982 they faced one of the most well-known crises in history. There crisis management techniques used could still be implemented and educate issue management when crises arrive. Today’s climate may be different, however the way the Johns & Johns company utilized public relations in this particular circumstance laid the foundation for corporate responsibility and left an influential precedent for many companies.

According to CNN 7 victims in total died during this catastrophe. James Burke was elected to formed a crisis management team on behave of Johnson & Johnson. He was the sole spokes persons for the company. He was a strong leader that led the crisis management campaign. One of the many tasks he accomplished was setting up a call center to receive calls day and night from the public. The entire system of communication was professional and completed their tasks efficiently.

One example was they were effective in communicating with stakeholders. Every step they were updated and informed about. In addition, the Johnson & Johnson company offered a 10,000-dollar reward to anyone with information about the killer. Even though he was never caught, the gesture helped remind the public that the Tylenol was not the cause of the deaths. As well as providing finical assistance and causing to the families of the victim. The company also placed half a million dollars in ads that warned the public of the dangers that were currently present. Finally, they offered to exchange all bottles of Tylenol that were already purchased.

The crisis arose when an extortionist planted cyanide tablets into Tylenol products. After the death reports reached corporate headquarters when a reporter called for a statement, they made the executive decision to recall all Tylenol from every store in every state. They made the utilitarian decision based off their company’s mission statement. This was an attempt to live up to their policy by putting people first. The public perception was excepting of this action. The company could have recalled only the states that were affected by this tragedy. However, the act of keeping people’s safety first, no matter the cost, was meaningful and had a positive impacted the Johnson & Johnsons publics.

The conciliation to the families lost as well as their new campaign to improve area tight seals on their products help fully vindicate the company. This set a president for all medical supply companies to start introducing compatible safety measures.

The crisis the Johnson & Johnson company faced was handled incredibly well with the tools and facilities they had available during the time period. They would have needed a much larger work forced to handle the allegations by News platforms on the internet. In today’s climate news is updated and released on social media twenty-four hours a day. The Johnson & Johnson company can still teach us a valuable lesson about the basics of effective communication in crisis management techniques that still carry over into our time period.