Wow ! … You should have signed your name. This was an excellent explanation as to why it IS important to protect your companies good name.

The J&J reaction to poisoned Tylenol bottles is a classic example of a tactically painful but strategically superb response. Shipments of Tylenol really were stopped and products recalled at significant expense.

So true…

I remember taking one of the required college classes in business ethics. Why it was required for me to take this as a computer scientist is beyond me, but it was an eye-opening experience to say the least. But anyway, the teacher had broken us up into groups previously, and informed us that each group was the PR department of a major drug company, and as such we had to deal with various ethical issues cropping up in the company. I had already heard of the Tylenol case, but apparently no one else in the class had (not reading “Risks”, I guess.)

Anyway, the teacher posed the class a problem, similar to the actual case in the fact that someone had been tampering with the medicine we were selling, and we were to decide as a company how we should handle it (and how we’d deal with the consequences.) I managed to persuade my group to do the right thing (which wasn’t really all that difficult, as they were all really thinking the same way.)

After discussing the issue, we came up with the solution that we’d recall all of the bottles on the shelf, redesign them (in our case, glass bottles were far more tamper resistant than plastic,) and then suffer the consequences, potentially being fired for wasting so much money.

This was rare in the class, though, as most of the students came up with elaborate plans to discredit the news sources, cover up the situation, and continue on with their lives. When it came time to give our orals on our process, we were actually ridiculed (in a business ethics class,) for doing the right thing. I sat in disgust listening to the elaborate cover-up plans, and considered dropping out of the class (the teacher was the most vocal on the ridicule.) I really didn’t care, as my values were intact, and I really didn’t care to do the wrong thing just to make my fellow businessmen like me (my skills and my actions make me, not what some other person may think about me.)

When we talked to the teacher after the class, she said she ridiculed us because as she saw it, we’d be ridiculed by our fellow businessmen for making the same decisions in real life, but ultimately the customer would appreciate our efforts.

I stuck through with the class, and had many an argument with the teacher, however, I received an “A” on the assignment (as did the rest of my group,) and passed the class with an “A” as well. None of the other teams received “A’s” for this assignment, so I guess it does pay off in the long run to be honest with your customers.

But I wonder how many business majors take this class and think that the wrong way is the better way after being ridiculed for doing the right thing.