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Crisis Management

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What is the definition of a crisis? According to dictionary.com a crisis would be a sequence of events at which the trend of all future events, especially for better or for worse, is determined; turning point (crisis, n.d.). A crisis can hit a company anytime and it does not discriminate because of size or notoriety. The best thing a company should have is a plan of action prepared in an advance, a crisis management plan. The Triad Group apparently did not have a crisis management plan in place as the problems started to sneak up, the company felt pressured and fell apart. According to Rick Amme, who heads the crisis and media relations firm Amme & Associates, Inc., there are five stages of scandal. The Triad Group went through all five stages until the United States Marshals, arrived at the door to seize the products and shut them down (Amme, 2004). Could have The Triad Group avoided such a big scandal? Maybe not as the problems had started awhile back but what if the company had followed protocols. The first stage was no comment. Throughout the recalls and seizing of the products the Triad executives and spokesperson would decline to comment on the situation. Although the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) commented that the seizing of the products was to prevent the company from distributing any more products, Triad did not come forward. The best thing that the company could have done was to communicate throughout the crisis. Johnson and Johnson is such company after it was discovered that its Tylenol capsules had been laced with cyanide. Johnson and Johnson reacted in such an effective way that the case is now well-documented as an example of successful crisis management. Time usually plays a crucial part in the investigations but not during the crisis. Even though there are things that can’t be said or that are pending, communicate what you do know and as it becomes available. This will eliminate some of the speculation that will already be coming in by others who do not know the complete story. The Triad Group should have designated a spokesperson so that one person would be communicating the message for the company. This would help the company get the facts to the stakeholders and communicate a consistent message to all involved. The second stage was to act as nothing was happening. I believe that this was the Triad group biggest mistake. There were many citations since 2009, the management looked the other way instead of being proactive and fixing the problems. In taking the extra steps to follow procedures this crisis could have been prevented. Any situation that is threatening or could threaten to harm people or property, seriously interrupt business, or damage reputation should not be disregarded. Again it would be easier to forgive if the company would accept the wrong doing instead of choosing to look the other way. The third stage was pretending that maybe it happened, but we didn't know about it. The Triad Group, I believe, was hoping that if it said nothing the problem would go away. Instead of focusing on what do we do now to save ourselves, the focus should have been on taking care of victims that were talking to the media. The company should have acknowledged that some of its product were contaminated and pulled the products off the shelves. The communication to reassure the customers that everything would be handled properly and that the other products would be safe to use. Stage four was to have an investigating committee to see what the company already knew. At this point who cares what the company already knows. The public only wants to know what was done after the company found out that there was a problem. I believe that the public will forgive mistakes but will not forgive if the company does nothing about the mistake. What did the Triad Group do to fix the problem? Why did the Food and Drug Administration have to request that the United State Marshals Service seize the products? The week prior to the seizure the Food and Drug Administration had asked that there be a voluntary stop of production. It was not until the following Monday when the U.S. Marshals Service arrived that a company spokesperson confirmed that production had been shut down voluntarily on that day.
Stage five the company decides to play hard ball and communicate that nothing can be done until the reports come back. The majority of the times the crisis can’t be avoided but by reacting and communicating to the public may reduce the negative impact on the company. The Triad Group had plenty of time to put something together as some advance warnings were given by the Food and Drug Administration before the situation had caused any actual damage.
Times have changed and all companies big or small need some type of a plan when in times of trouble. As has been the case with other companies, the Triad Group has learned from the mistakes and is working closely with the Food and Drug Administration. Since December 2010, the group has issued several voluntary recalls because of contamination of the products. The company has also hired a third party consultant to review the operations. President Eric Haertle had the following to say "We are fully committed to addressing FDA's concerns and rebuilding the confidence of the customers we have served for so many years" (Engle, 2011, pg. 2, para3). It was too bad that it took such a series of events for the Triad Group to address the issues.

Reference Page Amme, R. (2004, March 1). Don't let fear of litigation guide you to make matters worse [Editorial]. The Business Journal. Retrieved June 15, 2011, from http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/stories/2004/03/01/editorial2.html
Crisis. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved June 15, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Crisis
Engel, J. (2011, June 13). FDA takes action against Hartland company. In The Business Journal. Retrieved June 16, 2011, from http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2011/06/13/fda-takes-action-against-hartland.html?page=2
Pincus, A. (2007, September 24). How to handle a crisis. In Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved June 15, 2011, from http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/sep2007/ca20070924_876870.htm

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