The way he handled the tragedy became a textbook case for crisis management: Reveal all you know fast and do everything necessary to take care of your customers.
How Johnson & Johnson saved Tylenol, and its corporate reputation, is a story that's widely regarded as the gold s tankard of crisis management. It was simple in conception- do the right thing, transparently- and complex in execution, involving a recall costing more than $100 million, the introduction of tamper-resistent packaging, and a gamble by the company's CEO, James E. Burke, to go before the television cameras on 60 Minutes.
Burke's management of the matter had its roots in a crucial decision he had made years earlier to apply the company's credo to all situations. That credo read that a leaders first responsibility was to those who use J&J's products and services. Period.