Julius Maggi must be a happy man albeit that he has been dead for many years. He was the founder of Maggi noodles, the first person to bring out this protein-rich legume meal way back in 1872 which merged with Nestlé in 1947 and Maggi became their flagship product. But it took a major beating about 6 months back in May, when they were banned across different states in India for allegedly high lead levels along with MSG. But Maggi is back on the shelves except in some of the states that had banned it, and according to reports has been doing very well—in fact sold out in Kolkata. That's good news for all Maggi lovers.
I remember talking about it at that time and posing the question: Did they handle it right? It seemed like everybody who used Maggi noodles was willing the company to come out and handle the situation, to get on the offensive. The consumers seemed to be on the side of Maggi, and yet, they didn't do anything. It seemed like they were just underplaying the whole issue, hoping that it would go away. In fact, Paul Bulcke, who was the global CEO, came out and met the press only about 3 weeks later, and even then, it didn't seem like they were getting on the offensive at all. It seemed like they were hoping to ride out the storm and then make a comeback. There was absolutely no visibility of Maggi stepping up and saying, "We've got this under control. We are doing everything we can and you will not be disappointed." That didn't happen.
Patrick Ropella, as I mentioned in that talk, said, "Visibility is always the key in crisis moments. You've got to be visible to colleagues, to customers, to constituents and to communities." It seemed as if Maggi was not visible at that time. The one move that they made about a month and a half or two months later, was to replace Etienne Bennet, the MD, with Suresh Narayanan, who was Chairman and CEO of Nestlé Philippines. It's interesting that the first thing that he said on coming to India was, "We're going to get our self-confidence back, work with speed and continue the element of working as a family." He told Economic Times in an interview, "I am going to step up engagement with all stakeholders, including government, getting closer to consumers and suppliers." Immediately, decisive steps! The net result is that three months later, he got Maggi back on the shelves. And I for one am glad!
However, this raises the question – how did they handle it? The Economic Times had one cryptic statement: "The product, unchanged apart from labeling, has been re-launched in 100 towns through 300 distributors." Unchanged! They didn't need to change anything, except label that MSG was being used. This is a good case study that I am sure people are going to be analyzing – the way Suresh Narayanan handled Nestlé through this crisis and how he brought about the turnaround in only three and a half months. I'm sure much will be written and examined about his tenure here.
I went back a few years, maybe ten years, and found a similar situation that HP had, when their Chairman, Patricia Dunn had to resign after her investigation into media leaks showed that she had got stuff that involved illegal access to phone records of company directors, nine journalists and many others. That was a huge crisis for HP because their Chairman was involved and it was a major scandal. HP immediately replaced her with Mark Hurd as CEO and President. His immediate statement said, "I am taking action to ensure that inappropriate investigative techniques will not be employed again. They have no place in HP." Immediate, decisive action, clearly taking charge and dealing with the situation.
Eric Johnson, professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, was asked to analyze and underscore the things that Mark Hurd did right—these were his four conclusions:
1. He acted quickly. The worst corporate scandals fester for months. Hurd cleaned house effectively and achieved closure rapidly.
2. He accepted some responsibility. Hurd himself admitted that he should have paid more attention to HP's plans to monitor board members' phone calls. Though he wasn't involved at that time, he took responsibility.
3. He rebuilt internal morale. They brought back Richard Hackborn, who was an old-school HP person. Bringing him back sent out a message that those values were important to HP.
4. He achieved closure externally. He made sure that everybody around knew that it was closed. And they did that with a $14.5 million settlement with the aggrieved parties.
Decisive actions once again, and a satisfactory negotiation of the crisis.
I don't know whether there is a crisis going on with you. And you are in charge, and these may be good words for you. But even beyond that – sometimes we have a crisis in our own lives. We might be at crossroads, maybe relationships are strained, or problems with children. Crises come in various ways and the way we handle it is always important. The one thing I have noticed about crisis, though, is that it always calls for decisive action.
As I was looking at our Scriptures, I was reminded of when Jesus was coming towards the boat and Peter was walking on the water towards him. Suddenly he began to sink because he took his eyes off the Almighty God. He called out to Jesus and said, "Please help me." immediately Jesus reached out and helped him. He didn't wait and say, "Let me give you some leadership lessons here." He reached out, helped him up, got him into the boat and then explained to him what had happened. Decisive dealing!
Crisis situations call for us to deal with them decisively. But being decisive isn't enough. Our decisive decisions must be wise ones—ones that will lead us though and out of the crisis, and for that, beyond all the resources and business acumen we may have, leaning on the wisdom of the Almighty may not be such a bad idea, for He is the fount of all wisdom. In face He epitomizes it. So my prayer for you today is that wherever you are, and whatever crisis situation you might be facing, that you would rely on divine assistance to lead you through. I pray that you will do the right thing and that you will do it in a decisive manner.
May I pray for you?
Almighty God, I don't know where each of these persons who read this are, but You do. If they are facing crisis situations, would You pour out Your wisdom upon them, that they may know how to handle it, that they would reach out to You in prayer and fasting and find that You are the one who moves in quickly in crisis situations and helps them to handle it. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
• Julius Maggi, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggi
• Cecil Clements, "Handle that Crisis Right," http://corporatecapsule.blogspot.in/2015/06/handle-that-crisis-right.html
• Patrick Ropella, "The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make and How To Avoid Them." http://www.ropella.com/index.php/toolbox/articles/crisis_leadership_the_top_ten_mistakes_leaders_make_and_how_to_avoid_them
• Shake up at Nestle. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-07-25/news/64850313_1_nestle-india-etienne-benet-narayanan
• Scott Ard, "Leak Scandal costs HP's Dunn her chairman's job." http://www.cnet.com/news/leak-scandal-costs-hps-dunn-her-chairmans-job/
• Rick Newman, "Troubleshooting Tips from HP's CEO." http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/americas-business/2006/12/08/troubleshooting-tips-from-hps-ceo
• Bible references: Matthew 14:22-33
No comments:
Post a Comment